Surefour talks with Devs on Upcoming Balance Changes

General Discussion
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So today S4 was chatting with on Overwatch Associate Game Designer, Joshua Noh on some upcoming balance changes. Heres a few:

Doomfist - Twitch

  • Reverted the internal change to Rocket Punch distance (when canceled with a jump). They tried reducing the extra distance by 40%, but it felt bad during internal testing.
  • Seismic Slam range reduced from 20 to 15 meters (max damage from 85 to 65).
  • Enemies affected by Rising Uppercut only lose air control of their character for 0.6 seconds (essentially just during the ‘knocked up’ portion)

Bastion - Twitch

  • Bastion’s Recon clip size increased from 25 to 35.
  • Bastion’s Sentry minigun gets a ‘reverse-spread’ effect: the longer he shoots, the more precise his shots become. This was specifically described as a change that “may or may not make it.”

McCree - Twitch

  • Fan the Hammer damage increased by 10 damage per shot.

What do you guys think? Some of the Bastion changes look interesting. Doom getting nerfed is welcome, especially with the reduced air control for his uppercut.

72 Likes
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That’s basically what I’ve been waiting to hear about him for over a year. I would welcome no loss of air control at all, but at least this removes the pseudo perma-stun.

Fan the hammer change sounds
 random.

74 Likes
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The sentry change sounds interesting. The FtH buff seems a bit odd to me though. As is he can flash and fan and pretty much delete everything at 250 health and below. I don’t disapprove of the buff honestly, it just seems unnecessary.

6 Likes
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Oh lordy leu I can’t wait to be fuming about fan the hammer BM

4 Likes
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the pros are crying about dva
 so we will see a nerf i guess.

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Why did they nerf doom. He literally just got fixed and now playable. There hasn’t been enough time to counter him. Pro scene dominates around goats comp and doom is not played in lower ranks. Terrible balance changes

12 Likes
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That’s some good changes. And probably a good compromise. People who want Doomfist deleted won’t be happy but the Doomfist mains won’t be happy either as they’ll have less of a window to eliminate a helpless enemy after an uppercut.

Have more ammo in reserve is never a bad thing. And the reverse spread will be interesting. Like, how long does it take for Bastion in Turret mode to sustain fire before it becomes like a laser again?

And McCree certainly will need buffs since Ashe will around to take his job.

10 Likes
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It takes one less bullet on both Tracer and 200 HP targets, namely Genji, which helps when stun only lasts .7 seconds. It changes a lot, it might actually be more viable to go for FTH over a headshot once you get the stun. I am super excited as a McCree main that has been waiting for a real buff instead of the soft quality of life nonsense. This is still relatively small, but it gives fan a use beyond busting barriers.

16 Likes
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I think they are worried about Ashe and the impact she might have on McCree’s role, so we may get some tweaks to McCree to stop her deleting him.

5 Likes
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Wow, I’m impressed.

And I think I remember posting that reverse spread idea. Although I probably wasn’t the first the mention it. And I stole inspiration from it from a gun in Titanfall.

Still, fun for the fantasy football version of videogame development :stuck_out_tongue:

3 Likes
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I’m not too sure I like that FTH change
 Seems like it could get out of hand very fast

Also not sure how I feel on the Bastion changes

Doom changes seem fine

1 Like
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The Bastion changes seem interesting. More ammo for recon mode is unexpected but an improvement non the less. I am interested to see, either first hand or in a video news recap, of this “reverse-spread” that sentry mode will have.

If anything, facing a Bastion means you have to focus fire on him enough to force him to move/eliminate him or risk being mowed down with the increasingly focused fire; and even then he can shoot for longer in recon as he tries to get to cover and heal.

4 Likes
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The Bastion changes are better than expected. This might encourage more camping, but we will see.

Headshots would be amazing as well.

3 Likes
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I’m so sad that the hero that has been meta since Season 2 might be getting a slight tune down.

6 Likes
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A better recon mode encourages more camping? Huh? He is literally going to be better at Soldier for prolonged fire-fights now which is pretty rad as he has helix for burst. On console, specifically, Bastion is lowkey going to be a better Pharmercy counter and that is relatively crazy if you ask me.

3 Likes
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I just think the only tweaking doomfist needed was to his shields, due to him already having 250hp his movement is fine, it’s his survivability combined with his movement that raises an issue.

I still think bastion should be left untouched due to pirate ship, and cheese being so strong given the map.

Mccree should have had his roll distance and speed increased instead of his dmg being increased.

2 Likes
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The sentry(stationary mode) spread gets smaller the longer you shoot.

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That is not going to make him more campy, that is going to make it so that he lands his shots when he is trying to fire at a ranged target. Like, yes, Bastion is a fairly stationary hero. That is also his greatest weakness. You need to constantly get up and move if you want to play the character moderately well and be less predictable. He literally needs that change to be usable and it is already better to use recon right now, with the 10 ammo buff, maybe more Bastion will get the memo.

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I am a huge supporter of Bastion buffs, and I think these will be good for him. Once you break a Rein shield you should be able to hit stuff now.

I’m just worried people will complain about Pirate ship even more now.

5 Likes
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Oh, definitely, that is why I always thought he needed a rework. He already excels at what he is good at and making him more dominate is a bit questionable without compensation nerfs. But they might decide against this buff in particular. I would just be happy with the 35 ammo, myself. He needs more than just that, but they have been ignoring homeboy to the point where anything is an improvement.

2 Likes