Just some opinions from a Torb main on the new Torb… Good and bad things here.
Let’s start with the turret. Even when self-destructed, it has a 10 second cooldown. I know if it gets destroyed during construction it’s a little less, but 10 seconds is WAY too long for the turret to be on cooldown after it’s death. It’d make more sense for it to be around 6 seconds if Torbjorn salvages it, and 8 seconds if it get’s destroyed, offering an incentive for picking your battles aside from possible extra damage to those within melee range (in a shooting game). It would also be nice if turret got +50 armor (or HP) during the Overload spell since that ability has such a long recharge and such a short duration while helping Torbjorn feel somewhat connected to his turret again. The relationship between Torbjorn and his turret is strange now, because he feels too disconnected from it. His only ability that he can use to effect it is one that destroys it and puts it on a 10 second cooldown…? That’s it? No upgrades of any kind, no progression, just chuck it and hope someone doesn’t kill it… If someone does, blow it up and wait I guess? It just feels like it took a huge hit to Torb’s character…
Let me explain more about the relationship between Torb and his turret: The turret cooldown used to start once he dropped a turret on the ground (and it was around 6 seconds if I remember right). This meant you could hop around in combat, dropping level 1 turrets to absorb blows (along with armor packs) during a spar against opponents. (This would work particularly well against Doomfist). You could also give time to upgrade your turret which made it feel more rewarding. You had abilities that effected the turret–When you got angry and more powerful, so did the turret–You could use your ult to save your turret, which is an option Torb doesn’t have anymore. (blow it up and wait, remember?) You could tank blows while repairing your turret with increased hammer speed or just go all out and blast people away with your upgraded rate of fire. His whole kit revolved around his relationship to his turret, which some say made him reliant, to which I disagree. My only gripes about old Torb was that his firing rate was too slow to deal with characters like Hanzo and Symmetra. If he had just this upgrade, he would have done solid.
Right now he feels so disconnected from the turret that it’s strange to even have it in his kit.
Speaking of that, I love the changes to Torb’s firing rate, he feels more aggressive and stands a better chance against most heroes in the roster. However, due to his long cooldowns he feels too much like “cook it and book it” hero. Pop all of your abilities and then hide for 10-12 seconds until you can stand a chance against anyone again. Torbjorn felt somewhat more sustainable before because of armor packs almost always being available to him along with the ability to use level 1 turrets as sponges while now it feels like you’re an mini Roadhog for 5 seconds and then you’re a wanna-be Hanzo for 12.
New Molten Core is wicked powerful and Santaclad still says “Merry Molten Core…!” so I like it.
Basically my gripes with new Torbjorn revolve around the incredibly long cooldowns and the disconnect between him and his turret. As stated earlier, it feels like the turret is an oddball in his new kit.
I honestly think that if you took the old Torb, increased his rate of fire, swapped out his E for a mini “molten spill” and gave him +50 armor (250) at the start he would be perfect.
Again, just my opinions. New Torb is by no means bad, I just feel like he’s not sure what he wants to be… Thanks for listening. 