What's the consensus on these Ball changes in experimental?

General Discussion
1

To me it seems dumb. I think they probably should’ve just done the knockback nerf a while ago and not the shield at all and these changes are way too much. It seems like they’re trying to nerf him at higher ranks with how his shield will give ult charge, but making him slightly stronger at lower ranks where the 15% size reduction will matter more considering everyone’s aim is worse.

If that was all they were doing then maybe it wouldn’t be such a big deal, or at least I don’t think it would kill Ball entirely, but then they’re possibly nerfing his primary and grapple too?

It’s hard to know exactly how the 15% size decrease factors out in his benefit, but he’s receiving a 12% decrease in his ammo, a 40% increase in the CD on tether, and will feed significantly more ult off his shields. Assuming you get at least 2 CD pops on shield every game minute that get at least 3 people in range each then you’ll be feeing about 2500 extra ult worth of damage on the average round. That doesn’t necessarily mean one person gets one full extra ult either. It likely means multiple people are often able to fill out ults they wouldn’t otherwise or will at least do so earlier that they can then bring to bear against a team who potentially doesn’t have that problem.

I also think being smaller is probably a disadvantage to your ability to aim, but that’s hard to say for sure and whatever the case I think if these changes go through they’ll be catastrophic for Ball and I can’t imagine why Blizzard would do this other than knowingly wanting to finally kill the character. Thoughts?

2

Theyre not going through.

3 Likes
3

Is there anywhere where they directly say they definitely won’t?

4

Well yeah.

Tbh, I think Ball probably does need nerfs. Eventually.

But I’m also assuming Ball will be getting a lot of indirect buffs, by nerfing AntiDive.

They need to get back to a point where Winston and D.va are relevant on ladder.

5

Yes

Ahh 20 characters

6

The grapple change would just straight up neuter him. An extra two seconds is an eternity in Overwatch, particularly for a dive tank’s mobility skill.

I wouldn’t worry though, there’s no way these changes are going through. Read this:

1 Like
7

The only one I like is the smaller size tbh, just because it’s sort of a mixed bag that makes his hitbox smaller but also his boop size smaller. Honestly it’s an interesting change that I want to see in game.

Barrier ult charge is overkill after his last nerfs. If barrier charge was the only nerf Ball got recently I’d be okay with that, and it would be fair, but after boop and shield amount changes it’s just slaughtering him.

8

Isn’t the change in his hitbox size a nerf? Yeah he’s harder to shoot, but isn’t that also what he uses for CC? If he bowls through a mob isnt a smaller hit box bad for him?