The devs have said explicitly that they want clumping up to be more of a detriment, that standing too close together should make the team vulnerable to getting cleaved down, and they’ve been addressing that with buffs to heroes like Pharah, Junkrat, and Ashe, but GOATs is still a problem due to barriers. Brigitte is the linchpin, keeping the whole team topped off and providing crucial peel for Zenyatta, who can amp the damage of all the tanks. Brigitte depends on her barrier to stay alive. Reinhardt can block all damage the team would take while they’re rushing the point.
People are also predicting an incoming “bunker meta” due to the strength of Baptiste and his extreme synergy with Orisa and other immobile heroes.
We need a hero that can punish teams who are clumped up behind a barrier. Whether dealing with a bunker or a deathball, a hero specialized at dealing with strategies that depend on a barrier’s protection would be fantastic.
A one-shot through a barrier wouldn’t be fun to play against, and the devs tried this when they were testing Hanzo’s rework.
A toxic gas hero that can deal heavy DoT, or a fire-based hero that can ignite groups of enemies, or a hero with a rail gun that pierces through barriers and cracks them, creating a critbox on the barrier, would be great directions to start looking into.
Not to be predictable, but maybe buffing Sym 2.0’s unique things like Barrier piercing instead of pulling this super bad rework that had faulty premises and failed to give results could have been something perfect to both counter barrier stacking and give Sym stronger roles within a team comp (and not gimmicks, which is what she got).
Melee requires you to be in melee range, which is lethal against a deathball or a bunker. If you get up close to an enemy team and start hitting them with your melee-range attacks you don’t dissuade them from grouping up or gain extra value that punishes them for standing behind a barrier. You die.
I’m talking about a ranged barrier-piercing hero, that can stand far in the back and whittle down the healthbars of a deathball so they’re weakened by the time they reach the point, or force a ground-in bunker to move.
Sadly if the other team is all clumped up the Moira ball doesn’t actually pose a big threat since it has a set amount of damage that is divided up among everyone it’s hitting and Bap heals aoe style so it’s an easy counter but her ult is decent for it but it’s an ult that takes time to build up but I guess if the other team is letting a damage orb do all of it’s damage the ult will build up quickly.
There’s no point in barriers if damage just bypasses it. This actually is one reason GOATS became so difficult to counter as it basically had means to nullify most types of damage while penetrating any defensive abilities with mostly melee damage. See how that worked out?
I’m not saying ALL damage should bypass barriers, but a hero that can bypass barriers from afar would be much appreciated. That hero would have their own weaknesses that could be exploited (e.g., low health pool, low mobility) so that a smart enemy team could counter them and they wouldn’t be effective in every situation.
Barrier penetration is pretty useless without it being oneshots. All that would end up happening is the one hero, and enemy healers building ult charge. Creating a weakspot in a barrier is a neat idea, but I really don’t think it’s practical enough.
I actually remember when the Hanzo rework was a relevant topic that the devs experimented with a barrier piercing arrow of some sort, but scrapped the idea and chose the “storm arrow and lunge”- approach as it was too frustrating to play against. IMO, barriers are unrealiable enough in their current state and further discouraging DPS players to play around tanks is generally a bad idea.
