Can someone explain in better terms why the developers made the support changes they did in the patch? I genuinely don’t get it at all.
I almost strictly play Baptiste and Ana on support, and I was almost certain Baptiste was going to get some heavy nerfs and Ana was going to have her anti-nade duration or effectiveness lowered. Why did they choose to lower the damage?
Baptiste was already very strong before this patch; he can be played on almost every map in almost any given situation. He has arguably the most play-making potential out of any support; he has consistent damage, consistent healing, an ultimate on cooldown, and passive health regeneration. Why is Baptiste’s already insanely bloated kit getting buffed?
And for Ana, no one asked for Ana’s anti-nade damage to be nerfed, and I mean no one, not a single soul. I feel like for the first time, no matter if you were an Ana main yourself or one of those weird support players that make baseless and illogical arguments that simply will never be in your favor, all could collectively agree that Ana’s anti-nade needed its anti-duration or anti-effectiveness nerfed. I don’t know how they came up with the conclusion to nerf Ana’s anti-nade damage. I just cannot put the pieces together with this one; just like with the Bap change, it just doesn’t make any sense.
He can easily find value in most comps while hard-enabling specific comps. He can also be played on a large portion of the maps.
I play the character a lot, my friend. I have almost 500 hours on him now, and I’m playing at GM2 on support. He can definitely be played in most situations on most maps.
So you play him with a dive comp? You play him when both DPS are flankers or snipers? You play him when your tank is WB or Doomfist? You play him with a Pharah?
Ana needed a nerf and they refuse to nerf her Anti whatsoever, and they already made 20 changes to sleep dart and since they HATE going back on changes, they nerfed it’s healing.
Suzu is basically Immortality but designed for a 5v5 environment, so they’re making it shorter as a band aid solution for it not being as fun to use.
Yeah, that’s my mistake either way, though what I’m saying still stands about them needing to nerf Ana’s anti-nade duration or effectiveness and not whatever they did.
Again… what game are you playing? Have you seen the top 500 leaderboards?
So what value are you getting when you cannot heal your flankers in the enemy backline? What value are you getting if someone is playing Pharah and your other support is Zen, Lucio or Brig?
He is solo support that doesn’t need to synergise with anyone to be impactful. His kit is so bloated that you may barely heal your team and just act as a third dps. You have 3 healthbars to duel people on Bap and you have easy access to highgrounds. I can play Bap with any comp.
They lowered the healing, not the damage. It still does 60 dmg, but heals less. Which is important when you fight Ana directly, now she is more squishy.
I’m not in the top 500, and contrary to what you’re seeing in your GM streamers games, there’s rarely more than 2 people in voice chat, so there’s no chance that dive comps are going to be played. Coordination is key for that, and for successful coordination, you need communication first and foremost.
Flankers in the backline?
No one plays Pharah without Mercy, and if I or my other support isn’t on Mercy, then my DPS shouldn’t be on Pharah. It’s as simple as that.
Not every game in GM is a top 500 scrim or OWL. You can just about make any comp work if you’re good enough.
No. If you play comp like Ball and flankers they don’t need much heals anyway. High mobility = much less healing demands than stationary/brawly comps which Baptiste can heal very well. You can always just follow them on highground dives and give them a quick splash heals or shift heal from time to time, they will be fine.
Pharah/Echo are the exceptions but your other support can pick that Mercy/Ana/Zen/Brig and help them instead of you. Or just don’t force Pharah if your supports don’t want to pocket you xd.
You don’t need voice chat to be coordinated. You have wallhacks on your teammates and functional brain to know where you are supposed to be. You can ping targets you are going for. It may not be ideal super clean dive, but definetely good enough to get job done. You see your monkey jump, you follow up as a Tracer. You see your Tracer sneaking behind them, you poke until she is in spot where she can follow you. It’s basic game sense, no calls necessary for that lol.
The only thing in entire game that requires voice chat to work properly is Nano boost imo. For many heroes it’s better when people just say that they want nano now rather than taking gamble that Ana will notice you and can see you. Even that can be worked around by spamming “My ultimate is ready” etc.
He’s kind of bad with any comp that heavily features flying or dive due to how he heals (grenades). He does much better in teams that want to be more grouped up or rush the enemy down in a brawl.
That isn’t to say he is bad by any means. But he definitely does not fit into several comps.
Ana needed a nerf and Baptiste didn’t need any buffs. Supports alhonesty felt in a good area overall with Ana only needing a nerf somewhere in her kit.