Why are ults countered by basic abilities

They up’d the charge time on everyone’s ult but after all that charging multiple ultimates can still be shutdown by a basic ability. It doesn’t seem fair that you would go through all that trouble just to have it snuffed.
Missile barrage: projected barrier
Nearly everything: sleep
Grav/flux: Orisa fortify thing
Shatter: shield
Trans: anti nade
The list goes on.

Now you can’t reasonably change every ability so that it doesn’t shut down an ultimate. It would be impossible to find good abilities if they weren’t allowed to have any power. SO, the real answer is to dramatically decrease the power of ultimates. Lower the impact and charge time so that they function more like standard abilities. That way shutting it down isn’t that big of a loss, it also means that not shutting it down won’t result in an instant loss. The game is too immediately decided by a single ult fest teamfight anyway.

Please consult your doctor because Additional side effects may include:
More hero swapping
More counter playing comps
More skillful synergies between heroes
Less “press Q and win” team wipes
Longer teamfights

Because “press Q to win” shouldn’t be a thing. You should need to keep track of enemy cooldowns / positioning etc. before using your ult.

27 Likes

I’m fine with ults having regular abilities with lengthy cooldowns as counters. Ults shouldn’t guarantee a team fight win.

It also makes you play smarter so that you wait until Ana uses her anti-nade and let the effect go away before using Trans, and waiting for Orisa to use Fortify before doing a Gravitic Flux/Graviton Surge, etc.

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you dont want it to be that way. thats why grav dragon was stupid. the first to press q was the winner no matter what trans couldnt through it

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Because ults are extremely OP even with that caveat.

2 Likes

Yet ults are frequently effective when used in the right situation.

This is exactly what I am against. I hate press Q to win. Rather than have to time the ult to get a team wipe, why not remove the ability to team wipe in the first place.

1 Like

Because there should be an ability to prevent “the first to ult will guarantee a team fight.”

Ultimates should be all about tracking, positioning and “looking for a perfect moment to pull it off.” If one fails, they should be punished.

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All the more reason for ults to be nerfed across the board.

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Aren’t those all consequences OF being able to shut down ultimates with basic abilities?

  • Swap to Bap to counter Grav, or Ana to counter Trans
  • Land a flick Sleep Dart on a backflipping Nanoblade, or hook a Pharah to remove her justice
  • Stun a Rein mid-shatter to prevent a total teamwipe, and keep the fight going

So remove ults?

Team wipes are done 2 ways.

  1. Your team working together
    or
  2. The enemy team just being dumb and not trying to LoS the ult(s) or grouping up and letting a JR blow them all up.

Timing is everything in this game, if you throw your ult out there and it gets sucked up by Sigma or you rocket yourself in the face, that is on you. Keeping an eye on when people use their ult stopping abilities is on you. You’re getting outplayed, not out-abilitied

It’s how you keep the “mind & chess meta game” going.

If Qs always got more value than regular abilities, then someone with a Q, facing someone without a Q, already won and there’s no game left to be played.

When you add some cooldowns that chave the possibility to get more value - not guaranteed value mind you - than a Qs, then the mind game follows.

“I can’t use my Q yet otherwise enemy A will get more value than I do”

“I need to save my E otherwise enemy B will have free Q”.

Picture Hog holding a hook against a Pharah that has Q, or Genji blade, or McCree ults, etc., Hog gets a ton of value just by holding to his cooldown, for as soon as it’s out, those Qs are going to get value for free.

Because you need counters to everything. But I will say one thing. Orisa’s ability and Road’s hook. A-Okay to pull people into well, every 8 seconds. Grav, an ultimate, nope. Nice logic Blizzard.

I remember when people were still constantly complaining about D.va eating everything when they ult.

If only there was a way to know when D.va ran out of her matrix…

I believe Ultimate abilities were created for the purpose of swinging the balance of the fight into someones favor, particularly if one team is having a really hard time taking a point then they could use an ultimate (or a few) to have a chance. Pretty much the Blue Shell of Overwatch.

That’s the thing OP said, press q to win is currently a thing and it shouldn’t be. I’ve had plenty of times where both teams are at 99% so it’s just a matter of who wins the fight. Most of the time? The winner depended on who had the most ults up so that they could just Q spam to victory.

Ultimate charge should take even longer or just place it on a set cooldown and maybe reduce their power so that a hanzo doesn’t get his ult 20 seconds after just using it because hog is free ult charge.

1 Like

Yeah I believe ults should be used at the right time, rather than, Oh look I can ult, spams ult gets kills, that being said they really should turn Reaper’s ult collision area into a cylinder not a sphere because not only does he do so much damage, he can hit you if you fly up since it’s spherical (coding wise this is not hard but I guess they have their reasons :/)

Blanket statements like “get better” or it’s your fault for getting hit are not useful and completely impractical. Assuming Someone is playing at their level it is unreasonable for anyone to dodge all ultimates.

This is the same idea. It isnt your fault that another player was smart enough to hold their cooldown. Or just happen to have it up. The amount of work put in to make that play happen is not equivalent to what someone else put in to get that ult, and that isn’t fair.

But to reiterate, those abilities aren’t an issue. There should be counter play! But maybe if ults were less powerful but more frequent (like what they did with mercy Rez) then it would feel more balanced and less “press Q to win”

Truth hurts though.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen (or used) a Junkrat ult and have a team all run the same direction together. I’ve also seen S76 ult and people just stand in the open trying to kill him or run at him. Same with Bation ult.

Just spread out or get behind something till the ult is done. Minimize or avoid the damage.

Yes there are other ults that you can’t do with with like Zarya, Rein or Sombra. Those ults won’t kill anyone (most of the time) alone and need follow ups to get a team wipe. This is where team work comes into play.