The grapple hook change sounds mostly inconsequential other than helping setups and making wall jumping less necessary
But the adaptive shield changes sound… odd? Ball’s biggest issues are: 1) that his backline is left completely exposed due to his heavy flank playstyle and requires independent play from the entire team that simply doesn’t exist
and 2) The fact that a single CC hero hard focusing him shuts him down entirely because he has no defense against it.
The adaptive shield changes don’t solve either issue.
His backline will NOT benefit from the adaptive shield change if it has a range limit, since he needs to go in deep to even accrue a sufficient amount of shields without leaving himself with 0 overhealth post-share. (A death sentence for ball). The divers that go in with him already have escape options, so giving them even more health could lead to other balance issues. So any target they could already kill will die anyway, and his backline will die anyway. So nothing changes.
Ball still has 0 counterplay to CC of any kind, and him having to give up 300 overhealth to help his dives never sounds like a good trade. Ever. He already explodes even when he gets 500 or more overhealth! So I don’t see any situation where you would willingly neuter your health against a Cassidy or Ana or Zen or Sombra, etc. just for your Tracer and Sombra (who could already escape easily) can live a second longer.
These might not be all the changes, but so far, I’m not impressed.
EDIT: Re-reading the developer blog again… yeah, it specifies that the shields only apply to “nearby allies”. Um ok, thanks blizz.
Swapping to a sombra is a complete hard counter to ball.
You are right, it makes him an all or nothing hero. But simply swapping to his counter and holding mouse 2 when he is about to dive seems too easy to counter to me.
I expected them to give him a temporary (like 1 or even half a second?) invulnerability to cc when he pops shields like a parry to help him actually make space for the rest of his team to follow up and bait cooldowns without dying… or something! Idk
Ball is one of the biggest symptom of the current problem with tanks–that you basically end up playing revolving door because you’re so dang easy to counter.
It feels… really tone deaf that the developers basically said, “Well, players are overreacting about that issue, it’s not something we’re worried about.”
The annoying thing is fighting against hack, orisa javelin throw, and ana sleep.
This might be ridiculously OP, but what if as soon as you activate adaptive shield you gain a small window of cc immunity / escape? You could still CC ball but if he pops shield with skilled timing he can prepare for those situations. Might just make them wait until he shields to apply CC, but idk
I, and some others have already suggested a change like this, but the devs are allergic to actually making the changes needed to make this character work for the current format of 5v5.
Sadly, Ball as well as every other tank NEEDS to be OP to work in 5v5. That’s the cold hard truth the dev team needs to understand.
Look, I believe this overhealth buff is going to be problematic
There are a lot of people who think that ball will return to the team to share this extra life… until they are attacked by tracer with 250hp, Genji 325hp, Sombra 325hp, venture 325hp…
I can’t talk about something I didn’t play, but who remembers the old brig? or JQ at launch? generating extra hp for the team is not a good mechanic
Which is why the devs should’ve reworked Adaptive Shields into an Enfeeble Pulse ability that reduces the damage output of enemies. This way, his back-line would receive immediate benefit because he wouldn’t have to roll back to his team for it to help them.
As a Ball main I think that we must deal with CCs, that’s the only thing that can stop us if we don’t make mistakes. We are annoying enough, let them have the possibility to do the same to us.
Javelin and sleep are fine imho, the only CC I can’t stand is hack, but that’s a problem for everyone, not only Ball.
Disagree, I think they are trying to fix dumb DPS players not actually engaging with him when he dives now they’re heavily incentivised to.
The only major change ball and other tanks need is for Anas sleep dart to be turned into enfeeble dart because her being able to keep hard CC when all other non tank hard CC got removed is beyond stupid and shows Ana is a special pedestal princess who gets to ignore the rules they made when going into 5v5.
That’s my biggest problem with it. You know he’s going to get hard nerfed soon after this trash launches, because the overpowered DPS are the ones actually benefiting from this. Ball will still feel like trash to play even with these “buffs” because his interaction with the game is still the same its always been: get cc’d and die instantly while his supports die.
Meanwhile the dps will be having all the fun while the Ball player wishes he had actual counterplay to Sombra/Bastion/Orisa comps while sitting in spawn as his two carries win the game for him. This is such a counterintuitive change, i just want to play the game…
This is only one playstyle, you can certainly play closer to your team.
This just shows that you aren’t a serious ball player. There is no hero that shuts ball down entirely. Annoying, sure, but after hero changes they’re all soft counters. Sombra and Mei only require adjustments not a hero switch.
Swinging into the enemy, hitting adaptive shields then giving them to your team for an engage is like a mini rally on a 15 second cooldown. It’s actually insane.
I’m a tank main. I plan to dive with a tracer, give that tracer overhealth so that my 250hp tracer can delete the other team. It will be awful to play against
Well, that’s the life of any tank that isn’t the tank of the month. People think that counter pick is just tank versus tank, but when DPS and supp learn that it’s not… the tank’s life becomes hell
Against high damage I’m in favor, since the ball has a lot of health and mobility so there are ways to get around it.
but CC is a problem when added to high damage, but CC is a problem for ball, Ball immune to CC is a problem for everyone
I’m against the idea of Immunity with Adaptive Shield that many recommend, and although I’m in favor of tanks needing more strength against CC, I don’t approve of immunity, and even reducing CC on the ball wouldn’t work as it would still break the momentum
Even though I don’t approve, I believe that Ball may have temporary immunity to CC
an idea
when Ball is powered-up (on fire) he has immunity to cc, however when hit in any way by CC he loses this immunity for 5s (an example) he also loses this immunity after 1s (example) after leaving this form
With this he would not be punished much in a CC chain and would give Ball the opportunity to create plays, however there would still be a form of counter play, after all this immunity can be removed by stopping the momentum or using more than one CC
Yes she can. But she doesn’t even have to. Just has to deny every engagement or leave you defenseless for her team to melt you.
10000 hours (hyperbole its more like 8000 because i know someone is gonna comment) one tricking on this rat and peaked gm in OW1, you brick. This hero can and WILL get shut down by the enemy team, and is completely reliant on his team to counterswap back. Not. Fun.
I think with this change it’s meant to make him play closer to his team and force another playstyle out of him. He seems very niche, so I think I understand what Blizz is trying to do. Doesn’t seem like enough though.
Hack makes Ball swap faster than any other tank role. Sombra is the biggest problem in the game and she didn’t even get addressed this patch. Without her i felt like Ball could really be OP.
I personally use Lucios boops to annoy him and push him out of position. And I’d like a Junk buff that gives him more traps specifically to counter ball a little more.
Sadge, I was hoping the share range would be much MUCH bigger so he could support the common passive backlines that are meta and require the most assistance without you having to disengage entirely or have to play in range of every CC
Having Ball play closer to his team by giving him an incentive DOESNT equal it actually being a good playstyle. Because if you play closer you still have mo defense against the high burst and cc nor can you compete against other tanks head on with your damage or cc (because of tank passive)
