I see again threads asking why Sombra disables Lucio’s aura completely since you don’t press any button to use it.
While I understand the logic of this argument I think some heroes just need to be countered that way. But I think Lucio should not be the only one.
I mean yes there are heroes who lose their passives that also don’t require any button (Doomfist, Bastion) but that’s just and indirect effect of the hack.
So let’s discuss here which ADDITIONAL effects Sombra’ hack should have apart from the current ones.
Lucio’s aura is disabled because it’s an ability, not a passive.
And I might be wrong here, but I believe the only passives that do get disabled are mobility passives such as Genji’s double-jump or Lucio’s wallride.
There isn’t much a Lucio can do against hack, the best you can do is expect to get hacked a lot and try and quickly boop Sombra. It isn’t easy though, because hack has double the range.
Lucio’s aura is disabled because they programmed him in a clumsy way, that even though he spawns with his aura on, AND can go a whole game with it up without touching a single button, it is somehow an “ability”.
The solution is not to extend the misery to others, it is to fix the obvious screwup that causes Lucio to be the only healer in the game that can have their primary function shut down completely for 6 seconds at a time.
Cross-fade is listed as an ability, not a passive. We only consider it a passive because one aura or another is always active, but that’s just the nature of the ability to be on-going. It’s still bound to a key so it makes sense to be deactivated while hacked. And to be fair here, I think that’s fine since there’s literally no other way to deactivate or mess up Lucio’s auras, even with stuns that would normally stop a healer from doing what they’re doing, or in Moira and Ana’s case, any regular barrier.
No, I am suggesting that crossfade is not his auras, that his auras are passive and crossfade, the ability to swap auras is active.
If one can go a whole game without ever activating anything or pressing a button and always have an aura up, then it is not active, it is by nature, passive.
But they’re not passive because there’s always at least one aura that is not active at any time, and can only be activated by using cross-fade.
Lucio’s aura ability is merely unique, because it’s (by my knowledge), the only ability that is active at all times and is activated at the start of every round without the need of pressing a button.
So no, the fact that it cant be stopped is why it is so weak, that is already calculated into the equation, and was already the case when only the swapping of auras was disabled before the recent hack upgrade that took wallriding.
If you are seriously insinuating that 6 seconds of zero group heals is a “fair price” to pay for losing at most one second of heals on Mercy, you have lost me, in your esoteric perspective. Just the numbers alone show you to be orders of magnitude off. Lucio loses 1200% more healing potential with a hack than Mercy does with a stun, and that is without even considering amp it up, which would make it 3600%.
I’m not saying they’re equal in value, which is impossible to measure in the many situations Overwatch presents. I’m just saying that Lucio has a benefit that is only lost when one specific hero is in play and specifically chooses to come after him. Lucio is a good character and he has a unique support capability that is otherwise impossible to prevent. Meanwhile, Sombra is a weaker-end hero with niche uses, so it’s not really that wild that she can have a niche advantage by having a strong counter ability to a hero that once saw a near 100% pickrate.
This is like, Lucio’s only real counter. I think Sombra can have this. It didn’t feel right that hacking a hero effectively took nothing away from them other than the ability to switch songs, especially when that hero is so slippery and hard to focus down conventionally. It’s just better counterplay, it’s healthier for the game, no different than how a support-hungry Winston will probably force an Ana to swap off eventually, or at least expect her team to adapt for her.
Right, my and my argument is that crossfade is not activating either, but is switching between the two. It is most likely coded as an ability which is why it got caught up in the mess of the wallriding change.
What we can agree on is that it is unique to Lucio. My position is that if it is coded as an active ability, then make a stinking exception to it, because it is uniquely punishing Lucio among supports, and it shouldnt.
Lucio’s Aura is hackable because its not a passiv is an ability.
Thats a fact not an opinion thats just how it works ingame. It does not matter if it gets activated when he spawns as long its his ability its Hackable. If Bliz want to change this they would need to change how the Aura works (make it a weapon passiv or a normal passiv) But that would nerf Sombra (one of the weakest Heros in the Game right now) pretty hard it completle removes a counter of her.
And BTW.
Lets say your half-right.
Doomfist and Bastion do not loose there passive:
Bastion gets thrown out of Sentry but not out of Tank(ult) his passive is active in both of them so when you’re in Tank mode the passive does not get hacked
Doomfists Passive also stays when he gets hacked it’s just that his abilities get blocked with which he creates his shield if you hack him at the right time (shortly before impact) he still gets his shield even after being hacked.
But in general, I don’t think any more heroes should be affected harder by hacking it’s a strong ability.
I believe Crossfade is both activating them and switching between them. They’re not mutually exclusive. First press activates speed aura and disables healing aura, second press vice versa.
However, Crossfade is unique in that you begin the round with it already activated. The game presses it for you, making it seem “passive”. The reason it does this is because logistically it makes sense.
I disagree that it should be made an exception because that just leaves inconsistencies, and Blizzard has shown that they are very finicky about abilities/passives/interactions being consistent. Anything that is inconsistent is highly likely to be a bug.
Not to mention that perhaps if the enemy is running a Sombra and your team isn’t dealing with her effectively, it’s in your best interest to switch because counters exist for a reason.
Nonsense, Lucio has plenty of counters, and your narrative is missing a crucial component, and is a classic false dilemma.
Just because before the change hacking him was a joke, and afterwards it is a death sentence doesnt mean either that the current state is good (it isnt) or that the aura component of the change was the difference maker.
It was wallriding that made hack a joke. Every time I was hacked, I took the nearest wall to safety, waited it out and was done with it. The aura component is and was a secondary effect which has made hack WAY too strong against Lucio. Taking wallriding was enough to turn it from a joke to a credible threat, and it completely negates your “slippery” argument, because his slipperiness is based entirely on wallriding and changing speeds. Taking his aura is just over the top, even with your clearly altruistic “but he’s GOT to have a counter, think of the children”. This is particularly true when your concept of countering Lucio is not whether you force him to flee, preventing him from performing his function (the actual definition of a counter), you have this compelling and unhealthy obsession with making sure he doesnt survive at all. You consider him not dying a loss, so if he escapes your grasp you somehow failed. That is an unhealthy way to play.
He has no choice on whether his auras are up or not. Crossfade switches between the two, neither are activated with a button press. Shutting down wallride and his ability to switch is a death sentence for Lucio anyway so there’s no reason to cancel out his aura entirely.
The fact that he has no choice is what makes the ability unique.
However, they’re not passive because they’re not always active, like all other passives are (Except mobility passives which are activated by a button press)
Sombra was not designed to be Lucio’s hard counter, ever. It didnt occur until after the wallriding change, which also took his aura that made it the case.
Insofar as inconsistencies go, there is nothing less consistent than only one support completely losing his heals from a hack, predicated on the inconsistency of making what should be an innate into an active because it was easier to program that way.