It’s been a week, and I’ve played a bit of every support, though I haven’t tried every perk yet. I just wanted to give my opinions on the perks. Sadly, this is as a masters player. (Games have been rough since the reset )
Ana
Groggy - At first I expected it to be pretty bad in all situations, but it seems very effective against Hammond. Unfortunately, it seems to have little to no effect against most movement abilities, just base move speed. I’d like if they changed it to cap movement speed instead, ignoring/overriding the value the movement ability was supposed to grant, while groggy is active. As it is now, it’s a good, but very niche ability. I only take it when facing Hammond
Biotic bounce - A good, if generic, increase to nades healing/damage output, in most cases. You can sometimes get a good bounce to hit stuff you wouldn’t be able to with the first impact, and the bounced impact can reapply both heal-buff and anti-heal. This is almost always my default choice, and it’s pretty good.
Head hunter - Being able to headshot enemies is nice, but I kind of wish we could headshot allies too. It’s also only a 1.5x multiplier, but that’s fine, as a 2x multiplier on Ana’s gun would blatantly OP.
Shrike - Being able to receive nano too when you use it on someone is great, and this is usually what I take. Hope you have fun diving the Ana/Zen or Ana/Brig while they’re both nano’d, it’s definitely become more fun for us. I will say, that it has reminded me, again, of wanting nano to also buff healing dealt by 50%. They probably shouldn’t add that to shrike though, as that would probably be too OP.
Baptiste
Field medicine - Partially alleviates a weakness of Immortality Field, in that whenever you used it to “save” some extremely low, they would often just die after the enemy melted the drone in half a second. Especially in the case of something like pulse bomb, which would simultaneously get the ally to 50 HP (or less) and destroy the drone. It’s usually my default choice.
Automated healing - I want to like this perk, but the 25 healing per shot, every roughly 0.83 seconds is so low. It’s pretty good if you’re able to shoot through your amp matrix the entire time, as it will double the automated healing shots, but often the fight is over or has moved to where you can no longer use the amp matrix anymore long before the matrix expires. I kind of want them to make the heal per shot stronger, at the cost of not allowing it to benefit from Amp matrix. Maybe 35-40 per shot in that case?
Assault burst - I really like this one, as you can put out a lot of extra damage and healing during it, with good aim. I don’t like that it removes most of the healing from regen burst for both yourself and allies, and the cooldown is still 14 seconds. The loss of the burst heal is acceptable, but can we at least increase the heal over time by like 20-25 HP? Or better yet, can we lower the cooldown by 2-3 seconds, since it heals for so little now? It’s still my default choice, either way.
Rocket boots - I don’t like this perk, and haven’t taken it in an actual match. It basically gives you Hanzo’s lunge on a 50% longer cooldown, and it’s slower to use because you have to charge jump at least a little first. Most of the stuff you could actually get away from with it, have lower cooldowns on their mobility or are faster and likely can easily chase you the ~10 extra meters away that you leapt. Maybe if the leap distance was a bit further and it was on a 4 second cooldown instead, I might want to take it sometimes over assault burst.
Brigitte
Barrier restoration - I haven’t taken this perk in an actual match. I don’t think it will help in most of the situations I think would likely occur. Either they can ignore/bypass the barrier entirely or it only buys you a tiny bit of time that’s unlikely to change anything, and its serves no use if shield bash is ready but your shield is on cooldown from being destroyed. Maybe if it didn’t have to hit an enemy and could be used while shield was destroyed to restore some health to it and allow it to be used again earlier after being destroyed?
Morale boost - My default choice and just a generally useful perk. An extra 3 seconds on inspire from whipshot is an extra 45 health potentially restored per ally, and it covers most of the gap if you hit a whipshot but then miss the next one. Great if you aren’t able to smack stuff very much with your regular melee, and have to rely on whipshot for all your inspire procs.
Quick fix - My default choice. Increasing the total healing of a repair pack by almost 30% on critical health allies who really need it, and it’s provided as burst healing? Yes, please.
Whiplash - I have not taken this in an actual game. The extra 50 damage is nice, as it makes you need 1 less melee to kill, potentially allowing for a fast and fairly easy to execute combo. The catch that the target has to hit a wall means you have to be close, there needs to be a wall behind them from your POV, and they have to be close enough to the wall that they will impact it. Then you have to be close enough after the impact of you want to follow up on it yourself instead of hoping someone else does. I’d really prefer a different perk altogether. Maybe increasing the knockback and making whipshot instantly hit the target if it’s range, instead of having to fully extend?
Illari
Rapid construction - My default perk. You can reposition pylon or get it back when it’s destroyed slightly faster. It already built pretty fast, so the faster construction time basically feels useless.
Summer solstice - Haven’t taken this is an actual match. Don’t really care about the small speed boost when flying. The increased duration might make it into a slightly better zoning ult if you can’t find a good time and place to shoot the ult.
Solar power - My default perk. You can really restore a lot of health before running out of the resource after banking some extra. The only issue is still the short range can make it dangerous to actually be able to heal with the beam itself. Maybe if getting a critical hit with primary fire extended the beam by 5 meters the next time you used it, in addition to what it does now? That, or they could add it to replace one of the minor perks.
Sunburn - I have not taken this perk in an actual match, but I wonder if it might be worth considering, as it hits some breakpoints to allow for easier duels if someone gets close enough. I don’t like Illari much and she still feels pretty bad, so I likely wont be testing this much anytime soon.
Juno
Familiar vitals - My default perk. Pulsars feel too slow in those situations where you just want it for the healing, so the quick lock-on is welcome. This also just wins by default, because the alternative doesn’t seem very good.
Hyper boost - I have not used this in an actual match. Being pushed about 8 meters in the direction you are traveling when passing through hyper ring, if glide boost is active doesn’t seem all that useful as a perk. Good for a slightly faster run back from spawn I guess? Otherwise, very niche situations where it might make a difference. Maybe.
Master blaster - Being able to crit enemies is good, even if it’s only a 1.5x multiplier. However, just like with Ana, I would like it better if we could also crit allies with it.
Re-boots - I have not used this in an actual match. Getting a reset on double jump when using your glide boost sounds… Not that great. I imagine it would only ever make a difference in a tiny % of situations, whereas the extra damage from master blaster crits can much more easily result in value from a pick or the added pressure.
Kiriko
Urgent care - I don’t take this very often. The increased travel speed is nice, but most of the time, it feels like the issue is the target being too far away, meaning I have to waste time trying to get close enough to heal them. Occasionally someone will die while the healing papers are mis-flight, but that’s usually them being bursted, and I’m not 100% sure this perk would’ve changed anything. Maybe if it increased the range you could target allies by a little bit, I’d be a bit more tempted to take it.
Fortune teller - My default perk. Some free extra healing when I hit enemies with kunai between Ofudas, just like I’m supposed to do? Yes, please. I might even get to throw a few more kunai thanks to the extra healing keeping my allies healthy enough that I feel safe delaying the next set of Ofudas.
Shuffling - My default perk. Just a generally useful perk. Enemy tries to run at you? Swift step away, same enemy then uses mobility to chase you to where you teleported? Do it again. Also, it sometimes gets you a faster runback by basically leapfrogging over the first teammate to reach the second one, which is a nice extra use it has. I like the extra evasiveness, I just wish it had something to discourage those flank plays that it also works well with, maybe by making the first TP require LoS as a drawback?
Foxtrot - I never take this perk. 40% bonus movement speed is nice, but for only 2 seconds, and the investment of suzu, a powerful 14 second cooldown? Yeah, that seems underwhelming and just very nichely useful, not a good combination.
Lifeweaver
Cleansing grasp - I like this perk, but I really only take it if the enemy has Ana. However, I don’t feel like it does that good of a job at countering Anti, as the cooldown on life grip is 6 seconds longer. Even if you use it instantly to cleanse anti, Ana will have a few seconds after nade is ready again to use it and still get the full duration out of the anti effect. Also, if Ana splashes anti onto more than 1 of your teammates, you can’t do anything about that, some people will have to self-cleanse or wait out anti. Then there’s also the issue of not wanting to grip the target, because they are in a good spot, even though they need to be cleansed. I’d like it to get buffed to reduce the cooldown on grip by 3-4 seconds if it cleansed a negative effect and maybe the option to cleanse the target without pulling them.
Life cycle - I love this perk and always want to take it. 10 health per second might not sound like a lot, but between it, the support passive, the shield health, and rejuvenating dash, you can really resist being poked out by enemies, letting you spend more time contributing healing and damage and without having to burn any important long cooldowns like an Ana, Bap, or Kiri might.
Lifeweaving - I never take this perk. An extra 20 healing on the next blossom after burning my 5 second cooldown dash, amounting to a maximum of 4 extra healing per second if dash is instantly used on CD every time? Pass. This needs buffs or to be replaced with something else entirely.
Superbloom - My default perk. Lifeweaver’s weapon already has good potential DPS, adding an extra 30 damage on top just lets you inflict even more pressure. I have definitely noticed an increased ability to drive off or kill enemies since being able to take life cycle and superbloom. My only complaint, is that it seems to only trigger on enemy players, not shields, turrets, or objects.
Lucio
Bass blowout - This is my default perk. Its nothing special, just a bit more knockback which might make a difference, or maybe not. While it’s not super strong, it doesn’t cost anything and it does feel like I actually see that small buff make the difference a few times per comp session. However, I kind of want to have this changed to instead increase the boop range by 20% and see how it feels.
Groovin’ - I have tried this, and maybe it has some potential. You very nearly regenerate ammo as fast as you can shoot it. Iirc, if you were wallriding and shooting constantly, you could increase your overall dps by 50%. Again though, that means constant wallriding, constant shooting, and most difficult of all, resisting the your habit of reloading after 1-2 shots. In practice, the DPS increase would be much lower. This could be more worthwhile if they changed it to an ammo regen buff that was easier to maintain.
Noise violation - I have not tried this perk in an actual match. It just feels like most of the time, everyone that needs the heals/speed is already inside the normal range or they are out of LoS anyways. Maybe if it increased the base aura size by a bit as well, I’d consider picking it up sometimes.
Accelerando - My default perk. Gives Lucio very good DPS for 3 seconds, ideally while you and your team are speeding on a target, helping to secure a pick. Kind of wish it gave a big reload speed increase too, since you can’t always control the right time to amp happening to line up with you needing to reload. (Maybe finally get rid of the primary fire lockout during the initial amp cast while you’re at it?)
Mercy
Angelic recovery - I never take this perk. The 15 health per second on its own won’t buy you much time. It could be just enough to allow you to survive, but probably not. At least it works with the health regen in Valkyrie to make you feel slightly more survivable. It is better than nothing, but I just prefer the other minor perk.
Winged reach - My default perk. Less chance that your escape option will be slightly too far away is a welcome buff. Having more movement options always feels good. Unfortunately, it won’t do anything for those teammates who refuse to walk 1 centimeter towards the ledge so you can get LoS for GA and don’t die an easily avoidable death.
Chain boost - My preferred perk. Getting free extra value when youre doing what you would normally be doing is nice. Its also nice not always having to try and count someones cooldowns/charge so you can quickly flick damage boost over to them, something I often try and do with stuff like Hanzo’s storms for example. They will just automatically receive the chained beam, and I can focus my attention elsewhere. My only real issue with it, is that sometimes there are 2 or more allies within range of your primary target, making it difficult to chain the beam to your preferred 2nd target. Maybe they could try and fix this somehow.
Flash heal - I’d usually rather be damage boosting, and flash heal also has a few drawbacks. 150 burst healing is nice, but its easy to have some of it be wasted if you aren’t using it on a tank, while still incurring the full cooldown. Using it puts rez on a 15 second cooldown, and using rez puts flash heal on a 30 second cooldown. If you aren’t using it on a tank and really need that burst heal, it’s possible for them to die during the cast because it has such a long cast time for an emergency burst heal on a long cooldown. Some possible buffs to it would be a much faster cast time and/or flash heal only being put on a 15 second cooldown when you use rez.
Moira
Vanish - My default perk. You can go up to 40 meters, if you time a jump at the very end of fade, which is great for escapes or runbacks. However, it sometimes feels like the extra duration itself is a drawback, when you only needed the fade for a fraction of a second and now you need to come out of fade to start healing, but you’re stuck in fade for another 0.7 or 0.8 seconds. It would be nice if they added the ability manually cancel fade early and maybe added a timer like the one on her ult so you could time your jumps more optimally.
Uprush - I never take this perk. It doesn’t feel like I actually get 50% higher jumps in fade, and I don’t usually find jump height to be an issue. Maybe there’s some specific shortcuts/rollouts/useful parkour you can do with uprush at specific locations on specific maps, but I don’t know of any, let alone if they would actually be enough to make uprush better than vanish. I think this perk just needs replacing.
Contamination - My default perk. The more healing the target is receiving, the better this perk gets, and enemies are often receiving a lot of healing. It definitely helps put pressure on a target, not quite as much as anti-nade, but biotic orb is available much more often, and Moira is much more survivable than Ana.
Ethical nourishment - I never take this perk. I want to like it, but unfortunately, the extra 50 isn’t some bonus healing you get from the orb, its a burst heal that draws from the orb’s available 300 healing. If it was just a bonus 50 heal, on top of the 300 in the orb, I would like it much better. If they make the 50 burst heal not drain the orbs regular healing resource, then I will probably take this at least some of the time, instead of never.
Zenyatta
Zenith kick - My default choice. The extra knockback is actually pretty good against non-tanks. Against tanks, it actually makes kick move them an appreciable amount!
Ascendance - I very rarely pick this. If you plan to play somewhere, and have a good spot to float to if you get dove, and they don’t have anyone that can just laser you out of the air while you slowly float away, then this could be a nichely useful perk! The realistic best case use I can think of for it is trying to avoid being an almost free kill to doom ult or bastion ult.
Focused destruction - My default perk. You can just chunk anyones health with a 6 orb volley and each level before that is faster to charge up to. I just really like this perk, but it also helps that the alternative doesn’t feel that great.
Duality - I rarely use this perk. I want to like it, but that nerf a while back that puts a cooldown on discording the same target hurts it a bit. Best use is probably putting both orbs on tanks and healing your tank by shooting the enemy tank, maybe you could put harmony on someone like reaper in the same situation instead and it could work alright. If it healed the harmony orb target for damage dealt from anyone to the discorded target, it would be pretty good, maybe too good. Instead, it’d be nice if it also removed or at least drastically reduced the cooldown on reapplying discord to the same target.
That’s it, if I missed something critical on some of the perks I thought were bad, let me know.
Also, with all this said, I still dislike the addition of perks to PvP and would prefer they be removed from PvP, or at least from the competitive modes.