Alrighty so our favorite dwarf just got the big end of the ole hammer that is a rework.
Designed to make him more player friendly and put him in line to compete with the many other dps heros in the same category.
This is not a comprehensive guide but it will focus moreso on how to play Torbjorn without so many numbers to worry about that may misconstruct any notion that he is somehow under or over powered.
This is a guide simple created to help those develop good habits and new strategies with Torbjorn as he has been a favorite and even a must pick on defense objectives.
So without further ado let’s move on to my tips and tricks on how to play the new Torbjorn.
Rivetgun
Primary weapon Rivetgun has been bolstered. Featuring a much faster projectipe speed and a more dependable reload speed. Torb’s old weapon had an infamously long reload speed and the animation was certainly blindly with that claw covering your whole screen, while ole Torb filled his gun with molten scrap. The secondary fire got the very sme treatment thus making both fire modes more reliable.
The question is “How much more reliable is this weapon?”
Answer: It’s still clunky. It should come as no surprise that projectile weapons always need to be leading the target just to get some shots in. The added speed doesn’t do much and ends up feeling line Hanzo’s prpjectile arrow speed increase. Almost nonexistent. The reload speed is nice but it still makes for a very long reload.
Overall the change was nice and really needed but the gameplay and style of shooting has barely changed at all. Things to take note of is that with the projrctile speed increase the primary fire archs a bit less because the round flies much further before the actual dropoff. So keep that in mind when utilizing this beast of weapon.
All in all Torb’s gun still has the pontetial to being a powerful weapon but still suffers from clunkiness. The changes are basically QOL.
TURRENT
The big mambajamba. The signature ability where everyone has come to either hate or love the little guy. His main companion and perhaps his biggest tool.
This one was difficult to swallow as his turrent makes up 50% of Torbjorn’s overall power. Level 1’s and level 3’s are no longer possible turrent levels. Turrents are no longer staionary deployable weapons, but throwable buildings that will bounce off walls and attached on contact with the floor.
This opens up avenues for new turrent placements and makes building more fun with the downside that this building takes twice as long to build before it becomes active and that it has lost its quicker small turrent level with it’s almighty level 3 “Don’t mess with me!” turrent level.
I am glad to announce that Torbjorn can still repair turrents with his hammer. Thus the newer dwarves won’t havr to worry much about losing their nesting strategy of hiding behind their turrent while smacking it with a hammer the whole round.
Though it does pain me to say that the loss of our beloved level 3 is very painful maling turrent usage ever more subjective and important for his kit.
Cooldowns have changed drastically for this ability and I mean it can suffer under cooldown timers of 5/8/ or 10.
Cooldown is set to 5 seconds before you can toss out a new turrent that replaces the old one. If your turrent is destroyed in combat Torbjorn suffers a 200% cooldown increase bringing it up to 10 painful seconds. The 8 second cooldown occurs when you self destruct a turrent . Take note: YOU CANNOT PLACE ANOTHER TURRENT DOWN WHILE IT IS ACTIVELY IN COMBAT. EITHER SELF DESTRUCT IT OR PROTECT IT. TO AVOID THE FULL 10 SECONDS.
Don’t ask me why or how it “makes sense” when it just doesn’t in such a fast paced and hectic game but it is really important you take note of the cooldown differences. Before Torbjorns could drop a turrent go to work and their cool down could be refreshed after a second or two of waiting because the cooldown was activated upon deployment of the first turrent.
This made changing in such a crazed environment easy. Now that the cooldown is only activated upon deployment with a much shorter cooldown but then reactivated upon destruction it hinders this type of manuver ever more. Which promotes the little dwarf to actually tend to his turrent and prevents him from nesting even more than losing out on level 3s.
The turrent when deployed takes twice as long to build. With the original level 1 taking 1.5 seconds and the newly refurbished and permanent throwable level 2 taking 3 seconds to build.
Another thing not mentioned is that the throwable turrent tales the same mechanics of tossing and armor pack. Just imagine a bigger heavier armor pack. Yup! Thats right. You can’t toss this bad boy up too far or else it’ll bounce all the way back down. Forcing 8 seconds of agnoy if you mess up a throw. Thats an 8 second self destruct or the quickiest being the 5 second noncombative rethrow which both still incur a 3 second buildtime before it becomes active. Making it require more skill just to place.
The tossing will require some getting use to as the staionary placement was much more precise and less demanding of it’s owner. No matter what happened to the old turrent it was still just 8 seconds after deployment granting an active turrent after 1.5 seconds.
Now the turrent requires you to stand by its side or suffer a hefty 10 second fine woth a 3 second build time (13 seconds). Or have a regular 8 seconds by self destructing your current turrent and still having 3 seconds worth of buildtime (11 seconds). Or if you’re lucky enough you only get 5 seconds of cooldown after a fight with 3 seconds. (8 seconds noncombative.
This changes everything as the cooldowns now doctate how useful Torbjorn can be and it hinders the basic charm of what players loved about him.
Overall hating this change. Torb’s turrent was already such a complex skillnto utilize to its full potential and while this change does make it seem lore versatile and opens up the door to new strategies it hinders the player and even punishes them for any misplacements or mismanagement regarding the turrent. This greatly hurts Torbjorn which forces new Torbs to resort mostly to their gun leaving their turrent as a “set it forget it and pray for it” type of ability.
The turrent is no longer a replaceable aspect. It now has to be treated as an important integral part of Torb to use it right.
Molten Core
Alright! Probably the weirdiest one of the bunch. The devs took Torbby’s old ultimate and place it on an ability slot. In a tradeoff for becoming a common ability the buffs from Molten core have been changed drastically.
Granting Torbby only a fraction of what Molten Core’s original armor gain and attack speed boost gave. In addition to giving Torbby a tiny movement speed boost that should just be considered adding a cane to an old man because everyone else is still faster with their abilities.
This one made me mad because it grants significant armor still but there’s much less survivability there. Then the attack speed has dropped so significantly there’s no point in using it to repair a turrent quickly.
Remember when I said the projectile speed felt almost nonexistent? The attack speed buff is quite minor that you can barely notice it. What really stands out is the fact that you need more ammo in such a small clip and the fact that the dwarf man is panicking with his self highlight of a last resort!
It’s can be used for attacking and I can see how Torbs can flank and then activate MC to get a quick kill or two if they’re lucky. Hell I use it on tanks. But that doesn’t make you invincable. It only makes you annoying. So use it wisely.
I also don’t recommend using it for the speed boost unless you are running away. It doesn’t cover much ground and you’re potentially wasting armor to incur a 10 second cooldown.
Overall it’s just a panic button. It doesn’t affect your turrent nor is it that threatening. Think of it like a Zarya bubble without the charge. Use it in times of emergency or when you need a little boost in your gun’s firepower. Just remmeber to have a full clip before activating it. Because this ability doe snot help with reloading jor does it reload your weapon for you.
Lava?
Torbby’s new ultimate. This one baffled me. His turrent provides already a lot of area denial and coverage. So why have 2 free seconds of spewing out hot lava in a game where everyone is flying climbing walls or somehow has a flash ability?!
It is a strong ability and it serverely punishes enemies who stand on the hot stuff. What it doesn’t do is give anything new to Torb’s playstyle.
He’s still stuck with a clunky primary weapon relying on his now more than ever clunky turrent with a child like molten core. Slowly building ultimate for 2…seconds…of lava.
Yes it has team clearing abilities but that requires you to aim this funky hose that arches down and hit everything not a wall hoping enemies stay in place long enough to burn and die from the effects.
I really didn’t lile using this ultimate and neither did it feel power. When it snags a kill or two I just don’t feel rewarded as I did with the original Molten Core.
When you acyivate this ultimate Torb slowly draws out his arm to further blind your screen and you get a new weapon in the form of two free seconds of a lava hose.
Sounds meh when you read it but the effects are nice at least. The area coverage is moderate. The lava isn’t so over bearing that it hinders enemies by drawing a hot red line but it covers enough of an area when used righ to make them check the floor when they’re advancing.
This ultimate needs more work.
*Additional Notes
Torbjorn’s stats, Forge Hammer, and Turrent stats lvl 2 have no changed at all.
Torbjorn’s hammer still suffers from a decrease in melee range.
Torbjorn’s head hitbox decreased by 10%. Still is one of the easier characters to headshot.
Original passive gone, of course.
Conclusion
Torbjorn has been my go to for a lot of matches. He was my first hero picked, mastered, first ti have a lehendary, provided my first set of potgs, and has been there for me for a long long time.
This rework made me quite sad because not only was he already not played enough his newer clunkier kit will only reduce his usage and may even set me to be free of hik once and for all. Old Torbby was a simple concept that even newer players could make effective with a bundle of mistales at their side this new dwarf doesn’t allow misplays to happen and punishes you for using anything in your kit wrong or just bad in performance. This hinders the fun of the character and makes not only building boring but playing as the little guy even frustrating.
Less survivability nerfs to his turrent. Barely a change at all to his gun and his current weaknesses.
They ended up making him more difficult raising him to at least another star maybe even two.
But if there’s one thing I know from maining the dwarf is that thr advance players won’t take his complex change as a chanllenge or as something more fun.
They’ll consider it just a more difficult version of a strategy that hindered gameplay as an annoyance. Which is now all but gone.
So thoughts feedback? Feel free to share. Just keep in mind this is my opinion. If you love the new mobile dwarf then love him. Make him yours he doesn’t have to become the same as my Torbby.
happens in WoW too lol. It would be nice if we could have FIRST tried buffed versions of these low tier characters rather than reworks.