Well, Reaper did get a buff with reapening and readjusting the pattern of his spread was arguably a buff. It’s a comparatively short and simple buff like bastion’s inverse spread… a 50% buff in healing is arguably as impactful as a (sometimes) 50% reduction in spread.
They both got attention, it’s just the attention didn’t work for reaper but had large relative changes for bastion (though small absolute changes).
Torb and Symm arguably need attention to be saved from their own reworks!
I don’t think reaper necessarily needs “big patch notes” the right tweak in the right place can have huge impacts on viability. Look at doomfist, up and down and all over the place from “small patch notes”.
EDIT: example of a really simple tweak that isn’t a “big patch notes” is
Wraith Form
Cooldown now begins as soon as ability is activated
This little change would have a huge impact.
It wouldn’t allow the ability to be used any sooner for things like activating it just for a moment to reload or bait out a flashbang, but you could wraith in for 3 seconds, shoot for 5 seconds, then wraith out.
The problem with an 8 second cooldown after wraith form ends is you cannot use wraith (or any ability) to both engage and disengage, you’re spending a whole 8 seconds deep in the middle of a position you’re trying to perform a quick assassination. Doomfist could do that, he could use seismic slam to get in and rocket punch tap to get out.
And you don’t need “big patch notes” to fix Shadow Step, just say “shadow step animations now 50% shorter duration”. That’s not a big patch note.
Buffing Shadowstep won’t do crap. It’s a bad ability that is overshadowed by newer abilities. Fade should have been Reaper’s ability as it makes way more sense for him then Moira and works more for his kit. It’s a bad ability because it’s very visible, loud announcement and slow.
Reaper has two abilities, both for mobility yet still is one of the worst mobile characters.
One suggestion was make it so Reaper is a pool on the ground and moves similar to DF Ult target. Instead of being gone from game players could shoot the shadow for reduced damage. Not bad but kind of just gives him two Wraith.
Wraith and Shadowstep should be combined and move like Valkyrie in 3 dimensions. Then he should be give a new ability that focuses on his damage potential rather than mobility.
Even completely removing SS from the equation, Reaper’s damage sucks. He has terrible range, terrible spread and the damage is crap so even IF he manages to get face first at the enemy and not CC’d into the ground, he can’t go for headshots as because of his terrible spread vs small hitboxes, aiming high would cause half the shot to miss. The most Reaper will ever do is 140 per shot and needs to be within 2-3m. There is a reason Hog can’t do crap without his Hook beyond being an ult battery. Reaper is a worse Hog.
6 Likes
Yeah, Reap cannot survive without mobility or range. And he lacks both severely
3 Likes
reaper is in a better position then you think he is in, the meta just heavily is against him and his stats show it. they just need to buff his ult a LITTLE and replace shadow step with something a bit more practical. because right now he does SHRED tanks, and if you buff him to the point to where he can KILL 3 TANKS that are being healed by 3 supports, what will happen to tanks when it is only 2 of them being healed by 2 supports? they will be deleted as if you used a junkrat Tire on them WHICH IS AN ULTIMATE. he is meant to be a tank buster and he is, just right now the tanks (looking mainly at Dva) have the damage of DPS and thus can fight him if all the tanks focus him. and that is the problem, the damage mitigation AND their damage combined lets them be able to in a goats setup, kill reaper easily.
The problem is, Reaper is slightly OP for the low ranks, potentially OP in the mid ranks (where the VAST majority of players are), and not viable in the high ranks.
Any buffs to him would be completely overpowered in the mid- to low- ranks.
Just accept that he isn’t viable in the higher ranks. Honestly, no one star difficulty hero should be viable there. Perhaps there should be different builds available only in higher tiers of play for all heroes?
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That’s why a rework is needed not a normal buff
2 Likes
Every re-work has been a disaster.
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Brig makes reaper unviable just by existing.
5 Likes
Except for D.va’s semi-rework
2 Likes
But for every new hero the introduce, the more dominoes fall.
Reaper just needs to live where Torb lives now.
Torb lives in his hobbit hole on the side of a hill, semi underground but not really.
Reaper lives 6 feet under.
3 Likes
Ha, wow, if you think Reaper has it worse off than Torb does (and has) then you’re the one living six feet under.
Torb has 4x Reaper’s pickrate in GM and a higher winrate across all ranks.
Giving you benefit of the doubt because we all come from experiences. Console Reaper is WAY better than PC Reaper
4 Likes
another reason why console and pc overwatch should be updated differently
4 Likes
He has large dps. Which is a if.
He can be good if he is hitting onesidedly. If enemies dont shoot or block with DM. If if.
By giving him some powerful skill would actually make that if happen making him a super Mcree maybe.
But then he would get his gun weaker and use his skill more.
I just suspect a new hero would be like that like Ashe being a different version of widowmaker.
I Just lol’d reading some comments, no offense guys but …
Mate ,he is in the worst spot and … really? Please enlighten us : What buff could literally make him go from Z tier to S tier? I mean realistically, don’t make up something like a laser beam heat seeking missile that kills you in 1 touch etc.
Really? Whats the point of having a hero that would absolutely be NEVER a choice for anything ? 
Reaper is a niche hero and the main issue is that they dont want him to make him a “generalist”. The problem with that lies basically on the design part : It is, literally, a designers perspective on not wanting to rework him and make him “something else”.
We all know what reaper needs : A viable Shadow Step (like Swift Strike, 2x range, 3x less speed, visible while doing it, 50% less damage when materialising) and an ALT fire that drains life, ignores armour and uses orbs (like Zen projectiles but thicker, 40 damage each for example) .
Reaper is OUTCLASSED in EVERY range by at least 2 other heroes on ANYTHING he can do. That can happen.
PS: Sym gets a rework and even her TP is better than Reaper’s 
2 Likes
As long as Soldier is #2 on that list 
The abilities in his kit surely need help but his damage is not atrocious.
I think they may need to take a look at his counters first while reworking his kit instead of touching his shotguns. He is not the only dps who has problems with armor at this point.
Logged in after a few months to upvote and bump this thread
4 Likes
i dont know why everybody want to buff a hero to make him /her ez .or nerf him/her cuz its doesnt require “skill”
me for ex im a sym main and everybody is asking for a major buff for but i dont think thats good cuz we need some difference between for ex a GM reaper and a dimond reaper if you get what im saying
i mean every body should master their hero to get gud a it not wait for buffs and i think pick rate doesnt matter it will not tell me anything if im good at my hero anyways that was a nice post (i spent a long time reading its though but its a good one )
Thank You