The devs claim that it is balanced by the loss in potential Damage and Healing resources.
This could not be farther from the truth.
The utility of being able to almost instantly position a teammate (such as an otherwise immobile tank) where they normally can’t be without significant investment, or remove risk entirely from auto-targetting or large AoE ultimates far outweighs potential loss in Damage or Healing.
Overwatch is an objective-based shooter. Winning games is pretty much all about map control. If you can so easily “break the rules” and steal space with such little investment, competitive integrity is at risk.
This is why she is perma-banned. This is an inherently unfair mechanic, not to mention very poorly balanced.
HP:
JetPack Cat is one of, if not the most mobile hero in the game. As such, there is little reason that Cat should have more than 200 HP. This also has a way of encouraging too much DPS-ing in the Enemy backline to which she has easy access.
Territorial:
The Territorial perk is slated for removal in the upcoming mid-season patch, so this should not be a problem in the future.
Purr is already a very loaded ability, with both a boop and a wide AoE heal. It should have been obvious that the Territorial perk would absolutely break it, especially as it increases her survivability, while also granting her free-value additional lethality. This stacks with her HP, which is too high for a hero with her mobility.
Proposed changes:
Reduction of HP from 225 to 200.
Duration on Lifeline introduced. I would suggest 3-5 seconds.
Longer cooldown on Lifeline. I would suggest 5-8 seconds.
Removal of Territorial (slated for removal in the upcoming mid-season patch).
I hate her mobility more than anything. If you’re low, she can just go after you into your backline with little to no risk where most heroes wouldn’t have been able to reach you anymore. Nothing wrong if it came with more risk for going that deep, but her infinite flight + forgiving speed boost fuel makes it too easy for her.
Yeah my initial reaction is that some heroes are obviosly balanced around being slow and not having verticality. Now you can throw a rein in the backline, orisa on high ground, bastion can be a dive hero etc
The cat is way too quiet, which feels incredibly unfair when the cat hides off the map only to assassinate a squishy with no reasonable warning.
The permanent flight also opens up too many avenues of attack that the majority of heroes can not contest. The maps were not designed with permanent flight in mind and it really shows. This wouldn’t be as much of a problem if the cat wasn’t a stong assassin, but could still be problematic.
If you can half decent on Cass, JPC seems to never be an issue. I LOVE that there’s a support that you can play like Dva micromanaging. I rather the lifeline last for 8-10 seconds if it meant more fuel. That part of her kit is hard to utilize for the average player. It quickly becomes more trouble than it’s worth with the exception of Bob and MAYBE high noon (My attempts have failed miserably on them). The going HERE, doing something, going THERE, doing something, is just too fun and FINALLY Pharah can stop being an issue for me. Also JPC needs sound cues. Then they’re less of an issue. Made the worlds difference for hanzo
yeah I’m gonna be honest, its only really worth talking about in coordinated play and even then it falls short. see any form of pro play for an example.
people just see the ult combos that happen like once in a game and call it overpowered when its really just kinda mid
i feel like lifeline is strong but its not like something brand new, sym and lifeweaver both have been able to sort of break the normal rules of positioning for years now, jpc to me feels like a bit more of that. definitely more extreme mind you, but nevertheless. also with the tendency for every single new character to have high mobility, its hard to even find characters worth dragging around. there definitely are some notable ones ofc. but its not the kind of thing where every game theres even going to be a character that needs repositioning on your team.
i think the insane lethality this character has is a bit more problematic. i think when territorial goes we’ll see things settle down a bit
maybe im underselling everything though i could be wrong.
also i think theres validity to the ult being broken, at least on certain maps/points. i think on most points its fine but when theres a pit extremely close to the important points to hold, i think those are the times a JPC ban is most warranted.
