make reaper a sniper as well. lel
I miss the first days when the game came out and Reaper was a true threatā¦LONG gone are those daysā¦I loved playing with him the first season, he was just so much fun when he fit, it would be nice to see him have his days again. Such a fun hero to play.
3 Likes
Thanks a lot for the discussion guys! A couple of points I want to point out that are flawed, regardless of your opinion or whether you agree with me:
- Death blossom, as I have stated, does only 170 dps over 3 seconds, a total of 510 damage. It is simply false to say that Death Blossom is the highest damaging ult, especially compared with things like Barrage. Even under the same circumstances (i.e. facing 6 enemies), high noon, DVa bomb, and Barrage would technically be doing more damage anyways. We can also agree that Reaper only gets a 6-man barrage once in a blue moon against very very unaware teams, or if the entire team combos with Graviton and EMP, in which case most ults would team wipe anyways.
- Reaper never got a spread buff. That was for Roadhog. So far, Reaper has had buffs as follows:
-Passive change
-Wraith form reload (which btw could have easily been done by pressing R before you wraith anyways)
-Death blossom reload (same as above)
-Death blossom targeting shields
-Wraith form cancellable
And what have we gotten so far? A hero who is consistently at the bottom tier of picked dps. As Iāve said, I understand that people are afraid of Reaper getting overbuffed into the new hanzo. But judging from the ābuffsā that he has gotten over the last 2 years and the state he is in, he needs much more sweeping changes than āshadowstep reloads your guns now lol you can fire 60 shots without reloadingā
- Death Blossom does not do less damage at further range. As long as you are within its Area of Effect, he deals 170 dps. Otherwise, he deals none. Which is ironic because the shots come out from the same gunā¦
BTW for sake of further discussion I am sitting at 300 hours of Reaper, peaked at 2894. I might be biased but I would very much value a legitimate response over ālol reaper main just crying for buffs git gud lmaoā
P.S
Just also want to say thanks for these words. They are very true and I could not have phrased it better. A ālow rank destroyer, high rank feederā is hardly a niche for any hero
5 Likes
Honestly, this is one of my shower thoughts constantly, as a Reaper player with almost 150 hours between two accounts.
Iāve thought of some rather simple things, such as the end location is no longer telegraphed, faster cast time (honestly, this one would bad for the health of the game for a few weeks), and replacing the screaming about reapositioning and what-not with his Plague Doctor/Nevermore raven sfx, and removing the sound of both his boots hitting the ground out of a shadowstep (itās a sad reality not many people notice, due to terrain clipping)
Thereās two things Iāve thought of that would honestly make Reaper much more fun, and increase his skill ceiling, but not lower his floor. Both involve gutting Shadow Step (letās be honest, itās only got fringe uses).
- Replace it with Marked for Death.
Marked for Death
8 second cooldown
Downtime for Reaper involves travel.
Travel time varies based on target distance. Letās sayā¦ 1.5s for max distance, and nearly instant for point-blank range.
Cannot be used if line of sight is broken, and breaking LoS for more than 4 seconds with the marked target incurs a cooldown at half value.
Using the interact key twice in quick succession will remove the mark completely, incurring a 2s cooldown.
Reaper marks a target at a 30m range with a soul globe graphic (reusing old assets is always cool), with a reticle like Zenās discord orb or Sombraās hack . Everyone can see it similarly to discord upon use, but only Reaper can see it until the secondary activation.
Upon secondary activation, Reaper will dematerialize into smoke and move towards the marked target, appearing behind the target, with a .3ms delay between landing and taking action aside from movement, essentially the same as Wraith Formās exit delay, with a sound queue playing loudly for the marked target, and within roughly ~8m of everyone around him, but much quieter.
Upon reaching the target, Reaper gets a small decaying 30hp barrier, similar to how Doomfistās shields work.
The travel graphic would need to be distinguished from Wraith Form though, and have a clear visual.
The difference between this and Shadow-Step would be the travel time being over Reaper moving to the target, rather than having all the wait time be from casting.
Another thought I had would be a high-skill headshot type slug (Shot in the Dark is what comes to mind to stick with Reaperās edgy theme), that does mediocre damage unless it headshots, in which case it exclusively removes armor, and nothing else, on a 15s cooldown, with a straight line-hitscan bullet, with a windup like Ana. Reaper basically pulls out a magnum, quickly swaps it with his left shotgun and shoots it at a target.
But then again.
Maybe they could merely speed up the animations on both ends, fix the casting reticle, and itād be all Reaper needed.
2 Likes
Youāre absolutely right! The only people who think Reaper is OP or broken are Winstons who donāt know theyāre feeding/over extending and VERY low Elo players. Once youāre gold and up, heās a complete joke.
4 Likes
These are all very innovative ideas but at the same time I can see one or two flaws in them.
Regarding the magnum idea, I really doubt they would implement it. Reaper was originally designed with a magnum, so having cancelled that in Alpha stage, i hardly believe it would make a return in any form, much less when McCree is now a thing.
The problem with marking is that it limits Reaperās movement to where a target is, which isnāt always a good thing. Reaper needs to lie in wait occasionally and pounce, and teleporting ONLY to a target rather limits its flexibility.
1 Like
My second most loved hero is Reaper. I know this account doesnāt say much but my smurf is same SR as yours maining reaper and tracer.
Reaper is pretty strong in my rank and he can sort of go solo carry mode on some maps which are smaller and has those cool flank routes and narrow alleyways.
His consistency over all maps arent that great, main reason being its so hard to play around with so much CC and snipers picking you off.
CC has always countered short range heroes, so its not just reaper. Tracer and Sombra also get the treatment to some extent. Right now the game is full of CC heroes.
His Shadow Step is not as bad as most people say it is, if you are smart enough you can use it pretty well to flank around without people noticing. And thats how you play reaper.
He is pretty strong on what heās designed to do, but his issue is what heās designed to do does not really go well with the current state of the game having lot of CC heroes and snipers.
Reaper is a shotgun range hero, so its ok for him to be countered by snipers. But when you have multiple CC heroes, he just cant do what heās made to do even.
Maybe he needs CC immunity as a passive. That alone would make him better.
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Trying to get the Pixel Spray achievement without using blossom but is annoyingly difficult. Literally placed the whole crosshair on someoneās chest, neck and head, and did 80, 90 and 120 damage (only 1 headshot).
You have to be stupidly close and then pray the spray doesnt screw up your headshot that should literally delete any character in 5mt or less ā¦
You know its bad when you cant kill Sym turrets without getting super close and a tracer 10mts away outdamage you by a brutal amount.
#BuffReaperNow
2 Likes
Great thread, with good points
2 Likes
his ult range is same. not depends on range.
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also op dont let this thread die. your points make sense greatly.
3 Likes
Reaper is fine. He needs no buffs, and no rework.
I very much agree that CC immunity would be excellent, but I didnāt suggest that change mainly because it seemed rather unfair. Thereās no reason, both lore-wise and gameplay-wise, for Reaper to somehow be immune to stuns. Stuns can and should have their place and effectiveness, and other than Reinhardt, I donāt think any hero deserves CC immunity.
Iām all for making Reaper better but at the same time, I really donāt want to make him too powerful, or induce powercreep, or anything like that.
THOUGHT provoking. As in provoking thoughts. He isnāt saying heās feeling provoked by him.
Lore-wise would be his partial incorporeal form during ult. CC immunity would be nice even if it was not from all characters but just some of them like Ana and Brigitte.
It would still not overpower his ult, because there are loads of shields and negations, but it would give it more value because you could use it for longer than 0,5s before stunned.
That does not change the fact that he still needs a buff to his mobility, to give him a change to get into his weapon effective distance.
#Jeffshowreaperlove
So far his buffs were not ārealā buffs:
- instant reload is not a buff, because everybody was doing it before by themselvesā¦
- vampiric healing would be a rework, not a buff. It made him better agaisnt tanks, but worse against smaller enemies, before you could just kill a squishy and get insta healthpack - hellped also with ult.
- Speed increase and ability to move our of shadow is for me more of a bug fix, he should have had it from the beginningā¦
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I would say this was ātechnicallyā not a buff, but in most contexts it was pretty good. Before, Winstons could easily 1v1 a Reaper and win if you properly shield dance. With 1100 effective hp, Reaper would take too long to actually kill a Winston, whereas now, Reaper has a more than decent fighting chance.
I do still miss the handy random healthpacks from stragglers or flankers which you didnāt kill, but all in all I would still take vampiric healing over soul globes, though in all honesty you could implement both to help his survivability. Once again, itās a well-deserved change that wouldnāt put Reaper into ārelevantā zone, much less OP
Lot of good comments here and how to adjust him in his current situation, however, I think thatās the wrong direction. Personally I think he needs his own thing, not just more damage, better escape. Lemme 'splain.
Why would you pick him? Seriously? In a vacuum ya heās not bad, in DM heās great, but if you want to kill people, why pick Reaper? Hanzo and Widow are far better choices.
Widow:
- Can delete from miles away
- Has horizontal and vertical escape
- has long and short range options
- has mine to alert approaching attackers
- ult allows entire team to see through walls and set up ambushes
Hanzo:
- Can delete from miles away
- Has horizontal and vertical escape in addition to vertical mobility
- Can allow team to see through walls on a short cooldown
- Can deal massive damage to barriers
- Ult recharges fast and literally defines the current meta
Reaper:
- Devastating at close range, but requires close range
- Has a vertical escape that renders him invulnerable for the duration
- Minor self heals to survive close encounters
- Suicidal teleport
- Ult is easily countered by half the roster, or the whole roster if you include killing him
TLDR: Reaper doesnāt make sense anymore because other options exist that are just as deadly, bring team tools to the table, and can be deadly from any distance.
3 Likes
Oh and I donāt want to be the guy who complains without a solution, so here it is. Smoke Grenades. Currently no character can obfuscate sight. Itās a great sniper counter, it allows obscuring vision without an actual physical barrier, and it keeps everyone guessing where Reaper is. Itās countered by Sonic Arrow, Widow Ults, and auto targeting abilities. And would be REALLY fun to use. Personally Iād toss em and go the other way so the enemy would think im in the cloud lol
So how large would be the cloud?
Would it also blind your team? Would it blind Reaper?
How long would it stay up?
To be honest I have my doubts about it being sniper counter, due to the fact how mobile they are. They can easily change sight angle and as you say all wallhacks and auto aim still work and with Hanzo arrow I donāt think it would have an impact.
1 Like
Very good points, but I think youāre missing the difference in dps. Widow and Hanzo can only deal 250 to 300 damage on headshot around every second. Reaper can dish out 280 damage just by aiming at the body. A Reaper that can consistently headshot is no jokeāhe CAN literally shred through tanks with 560 dps. Thatās damage that surpasses even that of Bastion and is seriously not something to joke about.
The problem being Reaperās survivability doesnāt enable him to operate at the only range he is effective in. His armor-busting abilities donāt enable him to operate against the targets he is supposed to be effective in. His mobility doesnāt enable him to get into the range he needs to operate in.