I like the changes. 6 seconds of freezing instead of 10 seconds.
Maybe Mei’s will have to be smarter with their freezing instead of holding down m1 to mass chain freeze people sometimes.
she can fire 2 more icicles per clip in exchange for losing the ability to keep a tank or other fully immobilized for 7.5 seconds, this is a good change
She’s already sitting with meh stats. A nerf that targetted pro play more than ladder would have been more appropriate, such as disabling multifreeze.
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This is subjective, isn’t it?
You clearly think it isn’t nerfed enough, but I think it is. The decreased healthpool and the hitbox changes not only affect her role as tank counter but also her survivability. Not to mention that the visual cracks encourage shooting it now.
I think it’s fine in its current state.
- Body blocking isn’t possible anymore because it can pierce through enemies.
- Most heroes have the tools to deal or evade Mei in case a barrier is suddenly removed. This can be mobility, invulnerability, hard CC or raw damage. Group freezing in chokes isn’t really as common as you think, because not only does it require enemies in a straight line, but it also require more time needed if the enemy’s are scattered and needs to helpless during the freeze time.
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This is exactly my point. Removing multifreeze or reducing its effectiveness would have been a much healthier change for both pro play and ladder. Totally agree with you
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Wouldn’t say its subjective when this has been an agreed consensus for months among the highest level of play. Theres a reason people have been complaining about a lack of mei bans in both comp and owl.
As for multifreeze, its very commonly aimed for in chokes at higher levels of play because surprise surprise these players play as a team. Especially on brawly maps with defendable chokes (e.g. often found on KOTH maps) Mei is a must pick, if your team breaks the rein shield first your mei can go for a group freeze for free. If she gets a wall behind the enemy team, even better.
If a mei finds themselves playing against a split team comp, then sure her multifreeze becomes negligible and more emphasis is placed on her wall placements. But that doesnt detract from the fact that multifreeze is an issue
Yeah. I feel like the multifreeze was more of a band-aid solution to her low pick rates. Before that change, I had figured out how to mitigate body blocking of the freeze ray, and she was still very fun to play. Multi-freeze is easily one of the best things they can remove, along with re-introducing damage falloff on her icicle, and maybe even nerfing the walls a bit more to be more of an “in-the-moment” type ability instead of being capable of leaving them up for such long periods. Her wall is really good for locking in enemies, displacing Bastion / Symmetra teleporter, and picking one specific target to cage in when you’re ulting, but right now it feels like it’s a bit too OP. If they don’t want to further nerf the health of the wall pillars, they could elongate their shapes so that once you actually break through, you get more space to work with.
This is a great take on it all. Multifreeze was one of those buffs introduced to encourage mei back into the meta. Sadly it was a misjudged buff and is now a glaring issue with her kit
I think her rmb not having dmg fall off is fine. Its a projectile so its consistent in that regard.
And yeh her wall is just straight up broken, the recent nerfs were certainly nice but a hero that can literally change the maps geometry on a whim is nuts
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They just did that. Right now, and you are complaining about it.
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I’m not complaining about that? I’m complaining that they haven’t addressed her key issues, being multifreeze and her wall
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They’re increasing the skill ceiling of Mei by shifting her gameplay dynamic. She’s now more like Torbjörn and less like a ground-based crowd controller. It’s not just “increasing the skill ceiling”, it’s fundamentally changing how she’s going to be played - that is, more focus on damage, less focus on crowd control.
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She wasn’t a must pick for 90% of the time in OWL and isn’t now, and she has never been a must pick on the ladder.
So, like, she isn’t the problem you think she is, AND they have just changed her skill floor and ceiling in a good way.
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Yes, and I am SUPER ok with that.
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Then they might as well remove her entirely. Her identity is being lost with this shift.
Good Mei mains are happy.
Still subjective though.
I mean, a lot of humans thought that the earth was flat in the past until it was proven wrong. I don’t see any stats or facts proving that Meis wall hasn’t been nerfed enough, but I do see strong opinions from players, but this doesn’t automatically makes it right.
The reason players complain about Mei and her freeze is mostly because of the unfun aspect.
I’m sorry, but I can’t help getting the feeling that you, well, aren’t active in high play. At all.
Other than OWL is Mei pretty meh in terms of viability. Let me put it this way. She is statistically as viable as Sigma. Heck, even Torbjorn is more viable in high play in ladder.
One of the biggest counterplay Mei always has is dealing with multiple enemies. So even if multi freeze on chokes was common, it would be in the disadvantage of Mei.
It would not be free freeze either, because a freeze require 30 ticks. This is 1.5 seconds or more depending on how many ticks hit. In a group fight are the enemies shattered, which require Mei to rapidly move the freeze to target all of them. This means it takes longer to freeze them. Enemies aren’t standing idle either. They have to the tools to fight back or flee.
The reason why Mei mostly work in OWL is simply because of her wall and not her multi-freeze.
So no, multi-freeze is not a glaring issue Mei has.
Her identity isn’t trying to freeze crowds, because that was never a good plan. If you can freeze all of them, they can all shoot at you.
It is a good way to die as a Mei.
if you are trying to freeze one target, not much changes.
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For anyone thinking that this will dumpster Mei, her true strength has always been Ice Wall. Her dps also technically increased a little bit because she can/needs to play sniper a lot more now. I think Mei will still be a strong pick unless Ice Wall gets absolutely dumpstered, or her counters gets buffed. And I don’t want the snipers to get buffed. I’ll be fine with Junkrat buff though.
I’m a flex dps player with a 4.4k peak, I’ve been ‘fortunate’ enough to have been given the role of the mei player in scrims and pugs and also teams that ive been a ringer for, for months now. I’m by no means owl level and don’t pretend to be but given that I regularly scrim T3 and the ocassional T2 team which largely follow the metas set by the T1 scene, this would give me the impression that; mei is still way too good. And the prime reasons for this are 1. Her wall and 2. Her ability to multifreeze
Edit: So to clarify, I don’t think these changes are what were needed. However I don’t think they’re bad changes and its encouraging that blizzard are clearly looking into tuning the strength of her primary fire.
Also I’m now realising I still likely haven’t given sufficient evidence to emphasize my point on multifreeze so here is.
Rein has a 5 second cooldown on his shield when its broken. You said freeze takes 1.5 seconds or more. Thats more than enough time for a mei to freeze multiple people just by shooting down the choke into the enemy comp.
Not to mention her freeze slows which makes it harder for them to speed away. Coupled with (the hope) that the mei has a wall to place behind the team …that is a solid 5 second window for the mei to freeze multiple people with the support of her entire team (rein shield, dva matrix, her supports safe in the backline to heal her) to guarantee she doesn’t get picked.
The most realistic example I can give would be how the best teamfights tend to go in my games, I get a wall off on someone who pushed through the choke too eagerly, often a rein. My team collapses on him and we kill him giving us a 6v5 advantage and the enemy has no rein at this point.
I drop the wall and immediately start a multifreeze, whilst my lucio also amps speed.
Now we simply walk on them, both teams are likely amping speed, yet because I can slow multiple enemies at the same time my team can easily catch these stragglers and gain ult charge from the kills we get. In terms of the multifreeze all i have to do is shoot in their general direction as my lucio amps speed and my team holds W. The enemy team have no chance of escaping or outplaying unless they have a zarya to bubble or their mei gets a clutch wall blocking off their disengage
You also claimed the biggest counterplay to mei is dealing with multiple enemies. This is an ironic take for you to have considering Mei’s strength (with her ice wall) is that it allows her to cut off individuals from the group, literally denying the presence of multiple enemies
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Then I take my statement back about you not being active in high ranks.
However, this does not automatically mean this
Is the hard truth, because
- Mei ladder stats says otherwise.
- It’s still a subjective opinion.
*sigh*
I guess we both just have a different view of her viability and her issues, and the we both just have a different player feedback.
It was an interesting discussion, but it’s getting quite late, so I will leave it at that
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