Sometimes it’s better to have a specialist than a generalist. If you need someone to kill their healers than a flanker would get the job done better.
because soldier is trash now unless your long and mid-range tracking is good enough to punish every mistake a player makes and visor is so lame. like oh look, i just activated my aimbot and now i can shoot pharah but where did everyone else go?
plus it is so weak that it does not feel like an ultimate. people will come up and assassinate you while you’re shooting pharah and even if it doesn’t get countered by a matrix or transcendence it feels like there are 50 other shields in the game that no one shoots at and overall he just feels like a hot pile of garbage
edit: also i am not going to discount the possibility that OWL has effected how players view Soldier, but as someone who used to be a Soldier main I have not played him since Orisa was released because of the annoying low skill cheese comps she made viable. Reinhardt and Winston were already enough to have to deal with. There are too many shields in this game.
Additionally,
Tracer
- skill floor is much lower than people suggest
- skill ceiling is higher than most heroes, rewarding to master
- very efficient at generating a positive value
- perfect for a player who doesn’t want to rely on their team too much
Genji
- can change games with Dragonblade even if he can’t aim shuriken
- fast paced, high burst and design that requires commitment is fun
- half the people who play couldn’t hit him until Moira and Junkrat buff
- high skill ceiling, high reward
7 Likes
I’ve been leaening tracer lately and she is most definitely op. Im not rly good at her yet but I’ve seen glimpses of how dangerous and untouchable she can be.
That being said, 76 is my go to dps. I rly cant understand why people dont like him but it benefits me as I love the hero.
I don’t think alot of people actually understand his kit. On the surface, he seems like a jack of trades but master of none but I think 76 is kind of a blank canvas. He has the potential to excel at whatever he needs to. His dmg is ok but really consistent. Good mobility(great if you can rocket jump). Healing station is right up there with the best if timed well. Burst dmg with rockets.
My only issue with him is when they kept nerfing his dmg. They gave him nothing in return. They should have decreased his reload time along with his dmg.
1 Like
I used to play a lot of soldier 76 in the first 3-4 seasons. but I do believe he is a bit underpowered right now. his damage is not that good and he can be countered by so many heroes. it is hard to ult effectively since so many shields and counters that he has.
2 Likes
Soldier is just incredibly boring to play, almost as much as widow.
1 Like
Exactly. S76 is an underdog compared to all other dps heroes and most tanks. He has to rely on the healing pod and helix in every 1on1 or he’s toast. If they are on CD when having to go against a genji or tracer you’re screwed. He is becoming a second Hanzo getting kills only with the burst dmg of the helix. I mean, it is pretty ridiculous that you have to sink in 11 body shots for a 200hp hero and any healer can outheal S76 dmg even if you’ve already gotten 1/2 of the target health and have a good crit hit percentage.
He is a good source of constant dmg but needs the team to help finish the targets. His solo kill power is weak and in higher tiers you have to quickly finish the target before they get healed (positioning and healers are a lot better) so S76 might not be picked because of that.
I’ve now seen S76 picked in OWL matches since the Mercy meta changed but it’s a bit a different thing when focusing is on a separate level compared to normal games. I agree with TRICAD that he has potential and I really like playing him but now that there are flying healing orbs and whatnot going around his damage should be buffed back to 20 or another minor buff could benefit him. The ultimate is unreliable and easy to avoid if not nanoed but pretty useful as a single target quick kill for example when the point needs to be cleared fast or an ulting mercy is in a bad position in the open.
4 Likes
soldier doesnt see very much time because he is just boring to play. Also burst damage is poor compaired to tracer/ genji. If they enemy is at a choke soldier really cant kill anyone just do trash damage unless he gets a rocket off and the enemy stands in front of it, but its pretty easy to read when that rocket is coming. Your ult usually is just a dva or a monkey in your face or everyone runs away. Against quad tank tho he and junk good counters. Soldier sits high ground and spams long range damage in pretty much uncontested and junk does the aoe damage to the tanks.
Soldier nerf made him take an extra bullet to kill someone which made him get a lot less kills hence he isn’t as useful most of the time as mcree/widow/tracer/genji
As a Soldier main, I don’t agree that he’s boring to play, but on your second point, that burst is poor, you’re spot on.
Soldier was good before Orisa. He was still OK after Orisa, but noticeably weaker. I had good plays, reliable platinum wins. Moira made his spot in the squad questionable. All those sprayed/spammed heals made extremely hard to get kills with Soldier. While his damage is still good, it only boosts enemy Moira’s ult and it is useless without actual kills.
He’s still fun in QP where he can get kills against unsophisticated (erm, bad) players, who can’t dodge the rockets, but on Platinum and above soldier had no place last season. I had to switch to get wins.
I’ve been on PTR and my educated guess is that Brigitte will make him obsolete on ranked in it’s current form. She brings a barrier AND spam heal in one character. Burst damage will get even more emphasized and soldier will go the way of the dodo.
1 Like
Maybe I should have prefaced my op by saying I play on console. To me taking advantage of aim assist on hitscan heroes makes soldier and even McCree very reliable. I understand that mastering tracer or genji will get you much more value. I know because I play a ton of tracer. But when I’m having a game where tracer isn’t working and I need more reliable dps, I switch to the trusty soldier 76 because he is very easy to deal consistent damage. Some games I play tank/support if someone else already has dps. And sometimes I notice the genji/tracer doing very poorly and will switch to another very difficult hero and still do bad. I just wonder why they don’t play soldier for easy dps? Is it an obsessions with what’s “meta” or is it pride? Or maybe they just don’t like soldier and refuse to play him.
From what i can see, the typical random team expects Soldier to solo Pharah/Mercy and take down the shields.
The game needs another hit scan hero, imo.
Enough of this random orb and luck crap.
2 Likes
Because I can play soldier in almost every other fps game.