These are not balance dependent things, just weird quirks or issues with the hero.
Wraith Bug / Ghost Nerf?
-When Season 4 came out, wraith has had a new bug that is still in the game. Basically if you want to wraith and unwraith as fast as possible it feels different now. The delay between shifting and left clicking to unshift has been increased slightly. You can get around it by tapping slower or by spam clicking the button. Not a big deal but it’s noticeable since wraith had the old delay for years before it was changed in season 4.
Wraith’s Visuals Matching Invincibility Frames
-This one is a bit odd, and still unsure if it’s a connection issue or built in and there’s 2 parts.
1- Activating wraith seems to have a small delay instead of being instant. I think this one is a bit more connection based but it’s happened to me so often over the years I do think there’s a built-in delay to the ability.
2- Deactivating wraith has a very noticable delay. Which is fine, if Reaper could go from unkillable to 1shot instantly that would be OP. But the visuals of the smoke in first person do not seem to match when Reaper can start taking damage.
The wraith delays aren’t a huge deal. But with a close-range shotgun hero, wraith being a prediction or reaction ability really does need to feel snappy and sometimes it just quite doesn’t.
Reaping Self Heal %
-Personally I think it would be useful if the hero information screen (F1) listed the % value.
Death Blossom Hitbox
-Blossom’s hitbox and visuals seem a bit… odd. Apparently blossom is a sphere with the center in Reaper’s face. Meaning you can blossom through cover, and hit things above and below. This isn’t a huge deal but Reaper does look like he’s shooting shoulder height horizontally only. This one’s really nitpicky though.
Headshot Sound
-I don’t know exactly what % of pellets need to crit to get the headshot hitmark sound. But it appears to be around 25% maybe? Just seems off that you can miss most of your pellets and it sounds like dealing high damage.
Ok now getting into more balance opinionated things.
Death Blossom
-My major critique that makes blossom feel outdated is it’s an “all-in” ability. I think the ability to cancel blossom (even if it requires wraith) would be a great step. So so so so so many things can counter or negate blossom. Pretty much any movement ability can almost instantly outrange it.
-This next part isn’t as well written but, I notice many tip guides from high level players advocating for smaller blossom uses. Like 1-2 squishies. I think cancelling would also be good so you’re not just wasting time spinning.
Shotgun Spread
-For years I’ve advocated for a skill raising rework. This was given in OW1 when Reaper’s damage was nerfed and spread lowered. Then both were nerfed for OW2. To me barrelstuffing isn’t as fun, and having tighter spread allows a more skilled Reaper to control his own spacing in comparison to other closerange heroes especially enemy tanks.
-Also the shotgun nerfs seem outdated themselves since Reaper was a menace with the speed movement passive that has since been removed, while the backline supports Reaper was rumored to dominate in OW2 Alpha have also receive many many changes. Reaper basically kept a hard nerf for a year for a change that no longer makes him too powerful.
Team Utility
-Reaper has zero team utility. He’s a selfish hero and usually gets hard pocketed when meta in high league like owl. He can’t block for his teammates like Genji or Mei can. He can’t knockback enemies like Pharah or Ashe. All he can do is shoot gun and be a body for someone like Mercy Kiriko to move to. I believe the only DPS to have no utility is Reaper Tracer Echo, everyone else has some form of defense, area denial, or cc.
-Personally I think the obvious answer is smoke grenades. But that’s just me.
Right Click
-It was commented that the right click need not be taken just because it’s there, but I think it should. Reaper’s kit desperately lacks complexity. The overly simple kit holds back what skilled players can accomplish with him compared to other DPS heroes. There’s not much to really master. No fancy combos or difficult techniques. Maybe rapid shadowstepping (pressing E+Lclick together) but that’s about it.
Lore Friendly Changes
Short list of things that have been seen in the OW Lore that could maybe benefit Reaper. Not very balanced but possible ideas as a reminder : )
-Wraith wallclimb, from Recall reaper smokes upwards
-AntiHeal Shot, from the short story and comic about Reaper Ana and Soldier in Egypt, Reaper’s shotgun blast to Soldier’s back didn’t seem to heal properly.
-Grenades. From the museum cinematic Reaper had grenade launchers in his shotguns somehow. (Maybe why he had 2 barrels in OW1 design and only 1 in OW2). These explosives seem suspiciously similar to Junkrat’s though.
-Rapid fire / 1 direction blossom. In the museum and Recall Reaper rapidfires his shotguns in a single direction at Winston.
-Wraithing small gaps. As seen in Infiltration, would be super neat if Reaper’s size got really small in wraith to fit gaps.
Yeah just wanted to dump some feedback and ideas I suppose.