What's wrong with TP countering Grav?

In threads where its suggested that TP have a faster deploy time, larger interact radius, and consistent spawn location specifically to serve as a counter to Graviton surge, there are always people who say “no no no, grav is an ult, it shouldn’t be countered by a normal ability.”

Well, here are my counter arguments.

Grav already has a bit of counterplay via normal abilities.
Defense matrix, deflect, ice wall to an extent. Moira, Orisa, Reaper and Mei can save themselves.

Most ults are easily shut down by normal abilities.
See: any CC vs a channeling ult, any barrier vs Tac Visor / High noon / shatter etc.

Zarya is arguably too strong at high ranks, and might be in an even stronger position due to armor changes
Giving her more counters would be a good thing, IMO.

Sym literally counters nothing, and could use a "calling."
Your team will never say “hey let’s get a Sym” outside of maybe trying niche taxi strats with an also-niche Bastion. It’d be nice to give her a nice purpose.

New TP was advertised at being able to save teammates from a grav, but in practice this doesn’t happen.
In the time it takes you to react, set up a TP, then try and have people use it one-by-one (ASSUMING it deployed correctly and not off to the side as it often does,) your team is already dead. If not, they weren’t going to die anyway.

29 Likes

I am still laughing today at Geoffs comment,
“In play test we have seen it being used to save from grav”

Probably what happened.
Geoff: I am going to drop a TP. Intern shoot a Grav.
Intern: Yes Boss
Geoff: If you shoot me intern while I am dropping TP you are fired. Understood?
Intern: yes Boss
Geoff: Oh my god TP saved the team! Got to tell the community this is a great idea.
Intern: Sir. But what if the enemy team shot you?
Geoff: Easy, Sym simply asks in General chat not to shoot while she deploys TP. We got a great community! I am sure the enemy team will understand!

:rofl::joy:

61 Likes

Lord at this point I wouldn’t even necessarily be surprised if it was mega staged like this.

1 Like

Here’s a fun fact.

Zarya’s ultimate is the only projectile ultimate that can’t be canceled by a CC. It doesn’t has a cast animation.

3 Likes

Here is another fun fact.
It is the only Ultimate that can be countered by a Basketball.

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--q_nVLTm2--/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/won9iplwakednc7ks5zx.mp4

3 Likes

Here you go:

9 Likes

Zarya is my main from the tank category and I’d gladly accept another counter to Grav if that counter was Symmetra and she actually got to see more play or even slightly meta status as a viable counterpick to something.

15 Likes

I’ve used it to get myself out of grav a few times, but it’s hard to consistently click on it when you deploy it in a grav because you are moving so much, and it’s even harder to get other people to click it on the spot when there are multiple people in the grav. It’s dicey to use mechanics wise and usually people only use the teleporter if they are grouped up with you and know to use it.

In theory cool idea, in practice not reliable at present.

2 Likes

lets make sure the tp spawns out of everyones range too so they all can report the sym, just for good measure haha!

4 Likes

Well, Zarya tends to get treated similarly as Zen does on the Support side. Aka, it’s a crime to call her or Grav anything other than perfectly balanced and she’s absolutely blameless and doesn’t certainly enable anything oppressive. Meanwhile her peers…

Not that I want Zarya (or anyone) directly nerfed, but really, more counter-play to Grav would only be healthy. In hindsight, I honestly think having it disable movement abilties was a mistake.

5 Likes

Nah; if it weren’t able to disable movement abilities it would be a joke; it was a joke. Heroes with any mobility ignored it outright.

3 Likes

to be fair I think at least Doomfist’s Meteor Strike should be able to escape it.

4 Likes

Mercy used to counter Grav! :upside_down_face:

3 Likes

if she wasn’t caught on it, which happened about 80% of the time.

True I used to get solo gravd all the time… :disappointed:

Usualy the only healers not caught on grav are Ana and Zenyatta because of how far they can heal (Moira does get caught but can fade, her range is also quite short)

If only Sym had her old lock on so we could bring basketballs into the field…

8 Likes

At the time I agreed but now I’m not so sure that was actually true.

In my experience, Gravition was never considered bad (quite the contrary), it’s simply wasn’t enough given the current meta and buffing Grav did nothing to change that.

For one, it was entirely possible to get around mobility by comboing it with EMP and depending on the hero and placement of the Grav mobility wasn’t always a 100% sure escape. Not to mention, just the initial pull was often enough time to set up the kills anyway.

We’ve also since lost two other forms of counter-play in mass Resurrect and ultimate Teleporter, though the latter’s effectiveness could certainly be argued. And I’d add, I don’t find disabling mobility has even been all that effective against the dive heroes (especially as it meant nerfing the radius) as they’re less likely to be as closely grouped. If anything, it feels more oppressive towards heroes with less consistent mobility.

1 Like

This is solely because of the lack of consistent counterplay Grav has. If heroes were able to escape Grav by using their mobility, there’s just no point to using it. It would only be strong against heroes without mobility. The fact that Genji can’t just dash out of it is what makes grav one of the few counters to nanoblade.

Even when you could combo it with EMP, it wasn’t enough. Sombra wasn’t played enough for that to be viable. Grav needs to stop mobility. It just needs more reliable counterplay

and sym can’t even pick them up anymore :,(
remember lazer death ball strat man that was fun, in effective but fun.

1 Like