Would you be receptive to some heroes having small (situational or not) passive nerfs or buffs?

General Discussion
1

There are multiple ways to do damage in Overwatch as all of us know. So what if a some heroes got something like a 10% or 20% increase in damage taken by a specific type of damage?

Or some other type of trade-off? Conversely, some could get 10% or 20% damage resistance

Edit: Changed title and post for more clarity.
Edit 2: This is not about the usual overall nerfs or buffs we are used to, to expand a bit:

As someone who has played Team Fortress 2 for a very long time, these sort of trade-offs are extremely common for balance. It creates a lot of small and interesting intricacies that give depth to gameplay.

These passives don’t have to be permanently active, they can be situational. Junkrat for example already has one of sorts, being completely vulnerable during the entire duration of his Ult, while other heroes Ults happen instantaneously. Albeit, in this case, it’s a mechanical design choice that makes him vulnerable.

So these passive nerfs or buffs can be used in creative ways and subtlety help balance without outright changing directly heroes to counter other heroes.

For example, instead of Hero A getting more damage overall because he is meant to counter Hero B and can’t do it as well now, maybe Hero B takes a tiny bit more damage from Hero A’s type of damage. This way all other heroes don’t have to deal with Hero A’s damage buff overall, perhaps slowing the never ending power creep.

Another quick example and the last one. A lot of people don’t like Moira’s Ult in casual and lower levels, so maybe she could lose the ability to be healed while performing her Ult (not meant to be an actual suggestion, just an example). You know, there’s a lot of creative ways to tweak the game besides the usual more or less damage overall to Hero “X”. Maybe a more surgical approach to some characters could work better in certain instances.

2

I am sick and tired of this attitude that nerfing everything is balance. No, balance is balance. We need to buff stuff too, and not negligible buffs that do absolutely nothing.

I digress, I like your idea and would hope shield health gets nerfed via energy weapons or whatever.

2 Likes
3

It’s not a bad idea, but currently overwatch doesn’t have a system like that and it would require massive balance changes to make it fit.

4

No.

But I would be receptive to something where all BarrierTanks are 50% resistant to all CC.

And all BruiserTanks receive 10% extra healing from heals that aren’t self heals

5

I’d much rather see tanks moved away from needing so much healing. Its why Reinhardt is so tire some, you take 200-300 damage whenever you want to do something but have got no self sustain. It makes me feel like I’m wearing IV tubes.

4 Likes
6

why nerf shield hp? it seems less powerful than armor imo.

7

Because I do not like it and think the heroes that use it are relatively overtuned in one way or another. In other words… nerf Zarya.

8

really? to me she seems like one of the best balanced heroes. if anything of hers needs nerfing, it’s probably her max damage.

9

I do not disagree, but this thread was largely about different debuffs and whatnot, so it just made sense to target shield health.

10

Why say no and then proceed to give example that fall in line with the original suggestion?

1 Like
11

Because you said nerfs, and these are buffs.

12

I absolutely agree, but as you stated, trade offs are what make this work. Just nerfing everything ad infinitum will not balance the game. No idea why I even went on that rant to be completely honest. This idea in particular is one I really quite enjoy.

13

In the title, you didn’t read the post itself. But doesn’t matter now, I edited to title in case more people respond to it directly.

14

Oh, I guess I didn’t read it properly, my bad.

15

You’re right. If you continually nerf everything then everything ends up feeling basically the same: bad. I like the variety in overwatch even if it’s difficult to balance.

1 Like
16

Sounds like OP wants to make certain matchups better without disrupting overall power levels

But it sounds like a solution looking for a problem—does one consider that the disadvantage matches are supposed to be bad for the disadvantaged hero, or that the advantaged matchups have sufficient advantage?

17

dmg type and dmg resistance will make balancing a bigger nightmare, and make counters dumbed down.

sorry I don’t think such an idea would work, especially in OW

18

It’s not a be all end all suggestion. Another example, Phara and Echo could take 10% more projectile damage while in flight but not on the ground, or lose the ability to be buffed by Mercy while in flight, only being able to be healed. Or maybe the other way around, they could be buffed but not healed.

Or maybe Mercy gets more damage from everything when above X unit from the ground (like pocketing Phara at top height but not in balconies type of height). Changes can be this specific and sound bonkers but they could genuinely make balance changes if done right.

I’m not trying to give actual suggestions to improve the game right now, just trying to expand on the type of changes that can be made. The possibilities are numerous and varied.

I’m particularly intrigued with shields taking less or more damage from particular types of fire. And perhaps only Rein gets this passive, or maybe only Zarya, or Brigitta, who knows.

Edit: Take Moira and her alt-fire. She has a slender hitbox, decent mobility and can jump and crouch to make it even more difficult to hit her while she makes you bleed health from a very generous range without needing to aim. I’d say it would be fair for her to take additional damage while using her alt-fire and over-extending, rewarding the player being attacked for his aim and giving her overly aggressive play a high risk vs high reward kind of thing.

It’s a way of giving a play style (that many people still rage about) a caveat, or an subtle way to make a player reluctant for that kind of play, without directly nerfing damage or range. After all, she could just throw orbs to regain health restore, so it’s fair to make a direct attack more risky in a support character.

All in all, her stats stay the same, but the circumstances of her doing A or B are now different, perhaps making her do what she is more designed for. I think this could genuinely be a novel and better way to intervene in a heroes balance without directly going for stat changes.

19

UGh, no way would I want to encourage Pharah to fly less or be even MORE vulnerable in the air than she already is