Your perfect OW

General Discussion
12

I promised a monologue…

Bastion =

  • Complete rework. Read through one of the many player-created megathreads (by PharHantoi and Terranguard, amongst others), and try out some of the ideas internally, then go forward with the best option.

Bastion is in my least played heroes, and I have no idea what he personally needs. However, I know he does need changes to have any chance of being viable. If you don’t know what to do, it’s always best to delegate that job to people that do know.

Hanzo =

  • Storm Arrow fire rate changed to 0.5s per arrow (from 0.3s)
  • Storm Arrow ammo reduced to 5 (from 6).

The problem with Hanzo isn’t so much how much damage he can output, but how quickly he can, there’s little to no time to react. This changes that.

McCree =

  • Combat Roll now has a double charge, both at 8 seconds.

Every hero but Orisa has at least one form of mobility or self-sustain. This uniform gain across the cast means McCree’s low range, high cooldown mobility, with no self-sustain to go with it, stands out as being poor. Adding an extra charge gives him the Tracer/Junkrat treatment, and prevents him being outshone.

Mei =

  • Endothermic Blaster reverted to Single-target freeze
  • Damage from Endothermic Blaster increased to 50DPS (from 45)
  • Freeze duration increased to 1.5 seconds (from 1 second)
  • Auto-reload in Cryofreeze
  • Blizzard cast time reduced to 1 second (from 1.5 seconds), and once Snowball has left Mei’s hand, killing her will not cancel the ultimate, only using DM or Deflect on it.

The first of my major changes, Mei is a difficult one. If anyone’s paid attention to my posts over the last month, they’ll know I’m rather outspoken about Mei’s multi-target freeze being something that needs addressing. But at the same time, she’s still got a very low damage output, even lower than Sombra who has an infamously low damage output compared to the rest of the Damage roster. These changes return Mei to her old 1v1 specialist role, whilst subtly buffing her ability to do that successfully, and her overall impact on a team fight.

Note: There is one other change directly linked to Mei, but that change is not to her, so it will be addressed when we get there.

Reaper =

  • Damage increased to 14-5hp per pellet (from 7-2)
  • Number of pellets per shot reduced to 10 (from 20)
  • Weapon spread reduced to 8.5 (from 20.1)
  • Shadow Step either reworked or replaced completely.

Reaper is supposed to be a Tank buster, but he currently only does 50% damage v Armor. Change 1 moves his shotgun fire into the -5hp armor rule instead, which with a direct hit of all pellets on the body ups a single shot from 70hp damage to 90hp.
The change to Reaper’s (and one other’s) spread is a very much needed one. Currently the 2 of them have the widest spread (as expected of shotgun fire), but it’s nearly 5 times wider than the next widest (D.Va and Torb alt fire, at 4.15). This change still leaves Reaper with the widest spread, but at only just over double the size of D.Va and Torb’s, a far fairer situation.
And finally, there’s Shadow Step. It’s utter garbage, but I’m honestly not sure how they could rework it to make it a good ability. It might be easier to just replace it completely.

Sombra =

  • Hack reverted to 0.8 second cast time
  • LoS check reinstated, at 0.05 seconds (was 0.1 seconds)
  • 15hp damage threshold introduced to Hack
  • Ult charge from healing reinstated at rate of 1 charge per 2hp (was 1hp)
  • Sugar Skull above hacked enemies
  • 15% personal damage buff on hacked enemies
  • Crossfade is no longer affected by Hack, only locked to the song Lucio is on at that time
  • Completely revert most recent Stealth/Translocator changes
  • Ult charge required increased to 1600 (from 1250)

My poor Sombra, what have they done to you in the last 6 months? Credit to the initial buff in February, it was close, but not perfect. It’s just none of the changes since then have helped her, or made her any more fun to play against, leading to a blood feud between those that love Sombra, and those that hate Hack.
Every change since they started nerfing her except for the 2 second penalty cooldown on Hack gets removed in this build. That change remains though, because I can see the reasoning behind it, and I’m introducing the damage threshold. Hack is reverted to the old speed as a result of how bad the buff made things for Tanks, which is the nerf that should have happened in March, instead of the LoS debacle that actually happened.
The changes to both Sombra’s healthpack healing and how Hack affects Crossfade are to amend 2 inconsistencies with the rest of the roster. Currently, Sombra is the only hero who doesn’t gain ult charge from their healing output. Similarly, Lucio is the only Support who cannot heal at all whilst hacked.
I mentioned in the Mei section about Sombra having low damage output, and the damage increase on hacked enemies is intended as a nice little carrot to improve that damage output without taking away from her utility intensive playstyle. Meanwhile the introduction of a Sugar Skull is something we’ve been asking for for 2 years at this point, something similar to the Discord icons Zen has to motivate focus fire even in teams with nobody in VC (all too common).
Finally, the ult charge nerf is intended to avoid a return to the EMP-bot playstyle. This is especially important with the reintroduction of healthpack healing, with it reducing the % earned from a mega pack from exactly 20% pre-buff, to just under 8% in this build (the reduction in ult charge gained also contributes greatly to avoiding this).

Symmetra =

  • Rework (again!), but this time listen to the feedback of Sym players.

If there’s one thing I noticed about the recent Sym rework, it’s how much the Sym mains hated it. Additionally, it doesn’t appear to have made her viable. Like with Bastion, I can’t speak for what needs fixing, but surely it’s wise to ask those that play her what the key problems are, and addressing them?

Torbjorn =

  • Reduce the critbox
  • …

Yeah, again Torb is another hero that I’m not sure how to buff to make him viable, other than the obvious. Unlike with the 2 prior cases though, it isn’t from lack of play time. In fact Torb is my 2nd most played hero, only behind Zen, and for a good 4 or 5 seasons he was my strongest hero. But the thing is, I’m at a low ELO. What’s more I quit a couple of weeks back until they either fix the game or make Comp Mystery Heroes, so I’m not exactly going to be climbing out of low ELO any time soon.
And because Torb’s viability varies so much from the top to the bottom of the ladder, I frankly don’t have the experience to be able to tell you what he needs to be viable. If you just give him a standard buff to be viable in GM, he becomes an overpowered beast at my level. It will be very tricky to balance him well, and he could honestly do with a megathread to brainstorm in.

D.va =

  • Defence Matrix max duration increased to 3 seconds (from 2)
  • Micro Missiles and Defence Matrix are mutually exclusive, with MM taking precedent

A very minor nerf to D.Va here, but ultimately it defines her role. The current issue is that she’s a mobile off tank that doesn’t have to choose between Tanking and fat-DPSing. Only somebody that hates her would try and remove her mobility, so it’s a question of making her choose between defence and attack. By increasing the DM possible duration, she can Tank damage far better, but that now would come with the sacrifice of not being able to burst enemies down whilst Tanking.

Roadhog =

  • Spread reduced to 8.5 (from 20.1)
  • Hook hitbox vastly improved

Roadhog is the other hero in Reaper’s position spread-wise. Give him the same buff, and his viability greatly improves. His hook is very unreliable too, perhaps unsurprising considering it’s what current Hack is modelled on, and no doubt improving it will help.

Wrecking Ball =

  • Damage increased to 5.5-3hp (from 5-2.5)
  • Roll speed increased to 12m/s (from 10)

Only very minor buffs to Hammond, who it appears is very slightly underpowered. The first is just to make him a little stronger in combat. As you may have guessed from how little I’ve increased it, I’m very wary that a small buff could still send him too far the other way, because of his high fire rate (25 bullets a second).
The other change is one I alluded to when talking about Mei. Because Wrecking Ball’s movement is momentum based, he can be Freeze-locked by Mei. By upping his Roll speed a little, and altering the momentum increase accordingly, he’ll now be able to get away after being frozen once.

Ana =

  • 1.5x crit introduced to Biotic Rifle (damage only, scoped only)
  • Biotic Rifle now pierces shields (healing only, scoped only)
  • Biotic Grenade now “cookable” by holding the button down, for only healing in AoE of Ana, 6 second cooldown, no projectile created

Ana has a lot of weaknesses. These changes address multiple of them, whilst still leaving a few untouched.
By introducing a 1.5x crit (which is still only 105hp, less than a Widow body shot), she finally stops being the only non-melee, non-explosive, non-beam hero without the potential to crit. By making healing bullets pierce shields, she joins Mercy, and previously Moira, in being able to heal through shields (more on that later). And by making both scoped only, it keeps it as a mechanical skill reward for the mechanical skill healer, as well as giving an in-game reason for her to be a sniper, without giving her mobility.
The change to Biotic Grenade is for similar reasons as McCree’s Combat Roll change. It’s her only form of mobility or self-sustain, it doesn’t heal for much (only 100hp burst), and it’s on a long cooldown.
However unlike with McCree, simply lowering the cooldown or giving another charge would be OPAF, because the healing comes with an enemy anti-heal. The anti-heal part has to stay on the 10 second cooldown.
By making the Nade “cookable”, it provides a way for Ana to heal herself without using the anti-heal part. This allows a shorter cooldown, which for the moment I’m suggesting as 6 seconds. The additional bonus of it remaining in her hand is that D.Va can’t swallow it with DM, and Genji can’t Deflect, as no projectile is created.
Ana would still have the weaknesses of no mobility, unreliable healing in most hands, and being very vulnerable to Dive, but she’d be much more viable.

Lucio =

  • Aura increased to 15m range (from 12m)

Pretty simple really, his aura isn’t currently wide enough for him to both utilise his high mobility from Wall Ride, and heal at the same time, which conpromises his playstyle. Increasing it too much would be OP, but a few more metres should be fine.

Mercy (here we go…) =

  • Shamelessly steal Titanium, Brawl and Silawatsi’s, amongst others, combined build as seen below:

It’s just a very well thought out design. Healing still at 60HPS, the new ability suggested, Pacify, is cool and fits Mercy well, Rez is no longer dragging her to Nerfville by being OPAF as an ability, and it provides more counterplay than any version of Rez so far.

Moira =

  • Reinstate healing through barriers
  • Reinstate Fade being usable without stopping contesting

Those 2 changes last month killed her on ladder. I still don’t understand why they did that to Fade, but it only makes sense that if we’re giving Ana healing through barriers, Moira should get it back.

Zenyatta =

  • Discord reduced to 25% multiplier (from 30%)
  • Orbs increased to 48hp damage (from 46)
  • Orb Volley reduced to max 4 orbs (from 5)
  • Melee cancelling an Orb Volley no longer costs you ammo

A minor nerf to Discord here, though Zen’s 1v1 potential remains virtually untouched. To clarify things, here are a few comparisons between current and proposed Zen:

Single orb v Discorded enemy -
old = 59.8hp (46hp + 30% of 46hp)
new = 60hp (48hp + 25% of 48hp)

Still close enough for there to be no difference for Zen himself. But when you consider the focus fire Discord creates from Zen’s teammates…

Single Peacemaker bullet + single orb v Discorded enemy -
old = 91hp + 59.8hp = 150.8hp
new = 87.5hp + 60hp = 147.5hp

That’s the difference between Tracer living and dying, for example. It’s a very minor nerf, but one that keeps him out of the mustpick region he’d had in pro play.
Then the melee cancel change is just because it’s REALLY annoying to cancel an orb volley to send out an emergency Harmony orb, but then still need to reload.

MONOLOGUE OVER

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