The common reasoning seems to be that any buffs would just be too powerful for the “lower ranks” (not that many care about lower ranks when their favoured hero is popular outside of GM). Bastion isn’t even all that good in the absolute lowest ranks as Bastion is in the bottom-5 heroes even in Bronze.
One thing that would help non-bunker play is to revert self-repair back to 75HPS but have it begin healing instantly, it currently has a 0.5sec delay before healing begins. This rewards intermittent use in 1 vs 1 duels rather than stacking with pocket heals to survive for 3 seconds until another barrier can be put up when using bunker tactics.
Ironclad could be reduced to only 15% damage reduction but ironclad could be made to be active even in Recon mode. Which makes sense for a passive to apply normally rather than only when another ability is activated and it would help enable everyone move around more when playing Bastion rather than hunker down in one position.
If anything needs a major rework it’s the Tank Mode ultimate, I’d make it a very cheap ultimate (as low cost as Tracer’s ult) but pare backs its power:
Duration reduced to 6 seconds from 8 seconds
Attack interval increased to 1.5sec delay between each shot
Velocity decreased to 35m/s (as slow as Pharah rockets)
You couldn’t then blast jump and shoot down when at maximum altitude as even with the highest blast jump you’ll have returned to the ground after 1.5sec. The overall damage rate would be about the same as pharah’s primary fire but it would be practical to self-heal a significant amount between each shot.
This would enable the ultimate to be used far more as a utility to blast jump to high ground.
If I could rework Bastion, it would work like this:
Ironclad now grants armor instead of a simple number.
Tank configuration is a standard configuration just like Sentry with lower damage shells and a reload similar to blinks or Doomfist’s arm cannon.
New ultimate makes all modes more deadly.
It’s simple… but would make Bastion actually fun to play, and useful… even in multiple ranks, and even without a team dedicated to him.
I didn’t mention adding in a barrier because most people shy away from it even if it would function… though honestly it would be a natural step forward.
(I would give it a resource which can only regenerate outside of Sentry Mode, and make it pop up automatically when in Sentry Mode.)
Honestly, I really think he should be reworked to be more self sufficient. Part of the reason people hate having him on a team is because he requires the team to be built around him to do anything. For example, if your shield tank or main healer doesn’t like the position Bastion sets up at, then their options are basically: Ignore the Bastion, who will probably die; or protect the Bastion at the expense of themselves or the rest of the team.
So Ironclad specifically only buffs sentry (and tank) mode?
Sentry is fine, it’s the rest of the kit. The reason people stay in Sentry mode too much is recon is too vulnerable.
And I fiddled with the numbers on trying to replace ironclad with more armour and as I ran through every hero I found there were too many discrepancies, it was too effective against heroes with low damage per hit (Reaper/tracer) and too little against high damage per hit heroes like Junkrat and McCree.
If damage reduction was just reduced to 15% then Pharah, Junkrat, Widow, Hanzo, Torb, McCree will frag sentry in the exact same number of hits but pocket healing would be much less effective.
I think the 205 damage is a really distinct flavour of Tank mode, I’d rather nerf it by dialling back every other aspect (attack rate, velocity, gravity), the one-hit-kill on 200HP heroes is just so iconic. Crossing below that threshold would lose the “special sauce”.
I think removing the delay on self-repair would help most with that, it’s great to use reactively as an escape/disengagement ability.
That and ironclad being a bit weaker but apply universally also help transforming out of sentry and 0.5sec after transforming you’re self healing.
If the tank ult was a weaker, briefer low-cost ultimate it could be used to rocket jump to high ground to be more self sufficient.
So… you didn’t want real feedback and unique ideas, that don’t fit with your own views and ideas.
Got it.
You seem to forget that with my version of Bastion, this would still be possible during the ultimate. The ultimate would make all modes more powerful, meaning Tank would be just like it is now, during the ultimate.
Step 1: Make Tank Mode give him either 25 or 50 temporarily armor. Old 100 armor and 35% iron clad Tank Bastion are both approximately at the same amount of resilience. Current Tank Mode is far squishier than either.
Step 2:
Option 1: Buff Self Repair to increase Iron Clad by 20%.
Option 2: New E that shifts Bastion into a smaller version of Tank Form that gives him +50% movement speed but no gun for 5 seconds with like a 15s CD. Essentially his “OMG I need to MOVE” form.
Either buff is aimed at making Bastion less dependent on his team for survival by giving him a chance of either running away when things start going south or in the case of +20% IC on heal… hunker down and let the really scary thing wash over him without killing him.
Just from my personal preference from the rare occasions that i do play him, i would like to see a rework that buffs his recon form, and makes his turret form more like a side-gig.
For example (just really rough):
More accurate gun in recon, maybe slightly bigger ammo
Turret form is not infinite duration, but instead an actual ability. you press the button, bastion transforms real quick, you can fire for like… maybe 3 seconds? something thats enough to burn through any shield. and then transform back. then it goes on cooldown.
lower his walking volume a little bit, so not everybody can hear him from literally across the map and know where to camp him.
this may not be enough, of course, but its the direction i personally think would be the most fun.
If you think of it as more of a burst damage ability (like helix rockets or something) in the kit of a midrange damage dealer… would it really? idk just asking. i think there are a lot of different directions bastion can go.
You don’t use it when Tracer is after you… you use it against long range not particularly mobile threats. Like say, when your Reinhardt just charged in right after the Enemy Ashe’s dynamite set you on fire and she’s lighting you up. Or… enemy Hanzo just chucked Dragon Strike at you. Or, the Enemy Pharah just started raining Justice on your head.
To be honest it’d be real weird if Bastion could ever get away from Tracer.
Bastion’s problems don’t come from his inability to wreck havoc. Sentry is plenty good enough at that. His problems come from a complete and total lack of ability to keep himself safe if throwing “MOAR DAMAGE” at the problem doesn’t work. That’s why I think my changes would help him a lot more than a “use at any time” tank mode.
