The REAL Reason Sojourn is BROKEN I

General Discussion
1

We all know Power Slide makes Sojourn undiveable. Disruptor Shot has already been appropriately nerfed. Many complain about Railgun’s secondary fire. Yet it does help keep Barriers in check, while simultaneously requiring relative mechanical skill to land. And in a game where Sustain numbers are still way too high for 5v5, the ability to one-shot is essential.

So while Power Slide is still an issue and likely needs a slight increase in it’s CD, an 8 second mobility CD isn’t breaking her kit. Nor is her secondary fire, which I would argue is healthy for the state of the current game.

The real culprit in Sojourn’s power lies in her Primary Fire.

Let’s discuss some numbers:

Railgun Damage: 10 per projectile

Railgun Firerate: 14 per second

Railgun Ammunition: 45

Projectile Speed: 160 MPS

Alt Fire Cast: 0.6 seconds

Reload Speed: 1.2 seconds

Damage Falloff: ZERO

Projectile Spread: N/A only available number is the last nerf so let’s assume 28°.

So what numbers in the above are criminalizing Sojourn’s primary fire?

At 10dmg per projectile, at 14pps with 45 projectiles at her disposal, Sojourn can dish out 450 damage in approximately 3.3 seconds. This makes the assumption she lands every shot.

However in landing every shot, Sojourn would have the capability of firing her Alt Fire at 100 charge twice, dealing an additional 130 damage on each occasion. Doing this twice adds an additional 1.2 seconds to her DPS uptime.

So in total IN A 4.5 SECOND WINDOW Sojourn has the potential to deal 710 damage, if every shot is landed…ON JUST THE BODY.

None of this has accounted for her crit damage, although it is making an accuracy assumption. And while we all know not every Sojourn is going to land every projectile and every shot, it does show the potential ceiling the hero holds in regards to damage just around the hero’s primary and Alt Fire.

Imagine adding damage amplifiers like Mercy DB or Discord, and you can see how whacked out her DPS potential would become.

In regards to the two numbers I’d like to see immediately addressed:

Weapon Spread

Charge Rate

So I went to the practice range.

And while in the practice range something became disgustingly apparent to myself.

Sojourn seemingly has 0 weapon spread.

I’d encourage you all to try the following test:

From the right side door of spawn to the bot by the railing is slightly over 50m (probably around 53-55m). Crouching on the stairs gave me the maximum possible distance while maintaining LOS.

From this position, I managed to fully charge Sojourn’s rail gun with exactly 20 body shots without missing a single projectile.

I know what you’re thinking!

“But Papi! Bot bodies are huge!”

You’re right. So I tested it again with headshots.

In doing so, I managed to land every single one of my first 10 projectiles on the face of the bot at +50m.

But I know what you’re thinking!

“But Papi! Bot heads are huge!”

So what I did next was hit up a friend to join me.

They stood next to the bot and watched where all of the projectiles landed.

My aiming pointing was the light on the face of the bot.

Every single projectile hit the light.

I wanted to see it for myself, so we swapped positions.

Sure enough Sojourn’s alleged “weapon spread” is virtually non-existent.

And any naysayers out there are more than welcome to try this test.

It’s actually disgusting.

As for Sojourn’s Charge Rate, 10 critical hits will send a player to 100, or 20 body shots. And when the weapon has virtually ZERO spread it’s rather easy to just beam up to 100 Charge.

710 DPS, all body shots, virtually 0 falloff, zero multipliers in under 5 seconds

So what do I believe Sojourn needs for balance?

Moreso than anything else, she needs weapon spread.

This will effectively do 2 things to her playstyle and kit:

#1. Sojourn will have to play closer

With virtually ZERO damage falloff and a laser of a weapon, Sojourn can sit way beyond reach and just poke everything out. The counter-play options are severely limited when a hero has seemingly infinite range. Roughly 1/3 of the roster instantly becomes unplayable for the majority of the playerbase.

#2. Sojourn will have less uptime

Why bother repositioning for better angles/more damage if you can just laser everything from anywhere?

The less time spent repositioning is more time spent dealing damage. Forcing Sojourn’s to play closer will force more frequent repositioning and positioning battles in general.

Otherwise she’ll just continue to hold eternal sightlines and make lanes unplayable.

Sojourn needs to be forced into closer engagements.

Increase her weapon spread by 37°.

Reduce ammunition from 45 to 40.

Increase Railgun Charge from 20/10 to 25/10

Does this dumpster her?

Maybe.

But it’s sure as hell better than what we’re dealing with now.

2 Likes
2

Imo she’s just too easy to land shots with, gives the illusion to the players that they’re actually good at the game when really they just set the game to easy mode. When blizzard can finally accept that weak players don’t matter, this game might start getting better.

1 Like
3

That’s a good summary of what I said with less words! :+1:

But mine explains why and how it’s a problem in detail… extensive details! :rofl:

4

Her primary fire spread makes landing every shot impossible regardless now anyways at her effective distance, it isn’t the problem. And believe it or not—her mobility is half of why she is broken. You can’t dive her. She will slide away. And having a oneshot with no mobility punishment is precisely the entire problem with her kit. Not sure where you’re pulling the problems you’re thinking of from, but every high level player will tell you exactly what I’m saying.

5

It’s clear you read absolutely 0 of the OP as it discusses literally everything you’ve claimed, in addition to testing Sojourn’s spread.

You scrolled to the bottom, read the last paragraph, and then proceeded to make braindead assumptions by parroting what you’ve heard.

Try again!

6

she will be nerfed eventually i presume and its only been two seasons. im willing to bet they will dumpster her eventually since she isnt premier as she use to be

remember that they REALLY wanted her to be premiered in the owl for some reason. she was like the overwatch advertisement or something. that has fallen over a little to the next season but its only a matter of time before this will be history and everyone will be like… hey remember when sojourn was op

we will have a new OP hero in the future probably a new hero

7

She will get nerfed after the next DPS drops.

8

This sounds really scary, but it’s not especially out of the ordinary.

In that same 4.5 seconds, Mccree can deal 761 damage (bodyshots only). In only 3.3 seconds, Soldier can deal 660 damage (bodyshots only).

Sojourn’s definitely extremely powerful right now, but her raw dps isn’t significantly better than anybody else’s. It’s the combination of burst, mobility, and range that makes her really good, IMO.

1 Like
9

I dont have problems playing against Soj when im Tank or DPS. I just go eliminate him like any other player

10

Yes, but there’s several major differences between them and SJ.

I actually almost went ahead and did the same with every hero she competes with (Ashe, S76, Cass, Widow) but I chose not to for 1 simple reason:

She’s a projectile hero.

So she effectively has ZERO damage falloff versus all of the aforementioned!

And even charged shots from Railgun sport a 40-60m falloff.

Cass can easily be avoided at the right range.

S76 does virtually zip at long ranged.

They’re not entirely comparable when you consider 0 falloff.

Consider that her Alt-Fire also sports Crit potential, vs the alternate utility and fire of her competition.

Which is also why I am so strongly in favor of gutting her virtually non-existent weapon spread.

11

“If only the n00bs stopped playing, we l33t could have funz0rs.”

12

She has no spread for the first 8 or so bullets, then her spread gets really large and you can hardly hit shots at range.

13

And yet you didn’t account for the fact that targets move and that her primary is projectile. The fact that it’s projectile alone makes your testing meaningless

14

I feel like increasing her primary spread might actually make her better at lower levels of play for dealing with heroes that are more mobile, where it will only slightly hurt the mid fight on high skill tiers.

When I see people playing against Sojourn, if she’s pocketed and can hit shots, she just pokes and deletes the backline at the start of the fight. It can happen so fast you usually don’t get time to push into the enemy if you’re trying to deathball, or if you do you only just have enough time to start your attack before she’s already using her mobility to get into a flanking position. The most effective thing I see to shut her down is to try and rush the rest of the team first (ignoring her like a pharah) or full dive her. She’s really hard to dive too because of her damage output and mobility. If an enemy team knows what’s good, they’ll peel for her for days.

High Mobility 1 shot hero with a DOT ability and a slim hitbox. The devs basically nerfed this playstyle on Widow already. Nerfs to both her scoped 1 shot and mobility had to be added in. Ashe had a similar problem at one point and they nerfed the 1 shot. They need to focus on where Sojourn’s strong.

15

It goes deeper than that. Blizzard wants weaker players because they are more likely to buy things from them. They’re basically insulting you and taking your money at the same time.