What is Torbs hero fantasy?
I think part of it got lost with his rework back in OW1 and the rest was lost with OW2. His turret dramatically lacks complexity and is just SUPER boring imo. Right now his turret is just an annoyance to the enemy team rather than anything impactful or interesting gameplay wise.
My suggestion:
What if Torb gets all the PVE turrets? (Flame thrower, Ice thrower, Boop, and his current sniper turret) I would like to see his kit move slightly back to the builder or setup idea (not sitting there for 5 mins building a T2 turret just to be clear)
How would it work?:
Option A:
Torb throws out a turret pack. It has no “head” attached yet. When he walks up he can interact and select a blueprint through a circle wheel. It takes two/three hits with the hammer to build up the turret. This would give his hammer an actual usecase.
Option B:
He presses shift, circle wheel pops up, you select the desired turret and then throw it out.
This is ultimately a simpler version and would work better in OW2. This version would also allow for placing turrets on walls that you cant reach normally.
All turrets have between 150 and 250hp and get 100hp overhealth for his E duration.
What does this do?:
It adds more depth to an otherwise really lacking kit. Just imagine a boop turret sitting behind the wall at the bridge in Liyang gardens. Or a flamethrower turret in combination with Mauga (oh god).
Also a side note: His gun does not feel great to shoot atm. Idk if its the sound or the animation or both, it just feels unsatisfying.
Edit: I am talking specifically about his hero fantasy as an engineer builder, not balance and not symmetra. Torb has no hero fantasy and dramatically lacks complexity specifically with the turret. If you hate the idea of Builders !IN A HERO SHOOTER!, maybe you should give apex a try.
14 Likes
Sorry, I don’t like deployables where ai does the damage for me, so I wouldn’t want this at all. I really dislike torb, but since the hero fantasy is something they need to uphold, I accept that they won’t remove deployables. But I wouldn’t want them to add more.
7 Likes
For no reason?
Or because you get mad when “no skill” heroes kill you? Like moira or something?
Torb was never good until they nerfed his turret and made him into a Hanzo + shotgun spamming snorefest with an optional ticklebot turret.
13 Likes
As a Torb lover here’s my 2 cents.
First of all, I miss the builder fantasy he lost in OW1. I wish they’d keep his old ultimate which upgraded his turret to a level 3, and I’d love to see it be reverted.
I really like his gun, primary fire and secondary fire feel great, it’s highly skill intensive and feels rewarding.
I like your idea though and would love to see something like this implemented.
10 Likes
I don’t get mad at it, it does irritate more when a turret kills me, over any other hero. Aside from venture…
But yeah, I’m gold. I don’t think the turret is op, it’s range is a little excessive but hey ho. I just don’t like these types of characters.
3 Likes
We don’t need more builders.
If we’re buffing a builder it also needs to be Sym, as she’s actually difficult enough to deserve a buff. Torb isn’t.
3 Likes
I honestly think Torb is in a good spot right now. He’s meant to be a brawler with some utility, and he’s exactly that.
Once you learn how his primary fire works, and can anticipate the drop, travel time and lethality of it, you become a powerhouse on the field. If someone pressures him, he’s got his Overload to rely on, and his devastating right click and hammer swings to really put the pain on someone.
His turret is more of a “Hey, look at me! I’m the real threat!” distraction quality to it, and if left alone can certainly rack up a considerable amount of damage. Not to mention, his turrets fires on whatever he happens to be shooting. You may not have the best aim as a Torb, but so long as you can land at least one left click, the turrets is locked onto that target.
Even Symmetra doesn’t enjoy that feature, and is far less hearty than Torb.
No, I think Torb is just fine. In the right hands, he absolutely wrecks.
Torbjorn’s hero fantasy is Engineer/Builder who denies areas using a construct (turret) which he backs up with his own firepower.
He’s basically the Engineer from Team Fortress - a staple of the class-based FPS genre from the 90s and the genre-defining counter for hypermobility.
Don’t like being shot by an AI turret? Don’t keep running into its line of fire, dummy. The turret is a dumb AI that locks onto the first thing it sees - don’t let that be you.
3 Likes
If you’re not using your primary fire and hitting your target, that statement is correct. If you’re landing your shots however, the turrets will lock onto your target specifically. This makes him scary good.
That is a fair point, but it still requires you to walk into range of the turret and to have ignored it for long enough for Torbjorn to change its focus to you. If you don’t want to get shot by it, don’t do those things.
Best to kill it straight away, it’s especially dangerous to squishy heroes. Especially effective against Tracers, and a good EWS for flankers.
2 Likes
This will never happen, do you want to know why? The people who play OW hate OW and want all thought and complexity to be nonexistent in this game. They want structure but want the support role to be brainless. They want 5v5 over 6v6 for no reason other than placebo effect queue time issues. 6v6 required more thinking, and 5v5 is just deathmatch on the point of every single map(aka boring).
Having a hero where you have to figure out and decide what turret to make or use goes against the philosophy of the handholding designs of today.
3 Likes
Definitely this, I don’t play torb or sym at all but even my gold blind butt can see that sym is a little underfed lately XD
3 Likes
The fantasy is being a fat little dwarf who talks about meatballs and chickens while shooting at you. The hell else do you need?
In general they have tried to reduced the “automated” feel of him
Why his turret does less and his direct fire does more (along with the ability to dictate where the turret fires)……and why his ult is no longer a stronger turret
Balance completely aside, I LOVE the sound of the turret variants so much aaaaahhhh it sounds so fun to work with 
It would be so much less predictable
Automated is kind of his fantasy though no?
It’s a strange thing to do.
I mean it’s still there…just not the bulk of his kit anymore
Scifi dwarf
He is very clearly am engineer type as when OW came out the engineer was a class is several games. You see this all the time in shooters with builders that make utility builders or stationary gun turrets. Torbjorn’s fantasy follows that trope.
In the lore he created much of the defense mechanisms that held a lot of the strongholds during the Omnic crisis together. In fact he actually built some of the death machines that were utilized by the enemy so his knowledge was invaluable. From a single cannon fire sound he could tell what round, caliber, and weapon that was shot. He was the gunsmith. The brains behind the brawn.
Sadly over the years his lore just kinda faded away. He’s not just a pretty face and a trope to be used rather than an asset. Even today he has no rare skins that were hard to obtain and many players agree that Torb probably has the worst skin collection out of all the heros in roster barring the newer heros who of course have much less skins.
Again just a weird thing to do since that’s his fantasy.