You've Screwed Up Balance for Years, So Here

General Discussion
1

So the latest PTR balance changes are ridiculously bad… and this is after we’ve spent 18 months seeing this game not balanced to the point people want enforced 2-2-2 since the balance team can’t manage to get the game to a state where that is optimal. Now we see changes that make McCree a murderous hellspawn that kills everything but tanks, while a tank counter (Torbjorn) is nerfed as soon as he even tastes the concept of viable for the first time ever in his existence.

Now… dear, Blizzard… here’s what you should do with your next balance patch so that the game is finally decently balanced. You’ll note the community’s requests are actually included here.

  • D.Va
    • Booster duration increased from maximum 2 seconds to 2.5 seconds. Cool down is increased from 5 seconds to 6 seconds.
    • Defense Matrix range reduced from 15 meters to 10 meters.

D.Va is an off-tank that can both put pressure on back lines and delete incoming projectiles. However, since the introduction of micro missiles, D.Va has been a key component in many sub-optimal team compositions. The changes should help solidify D.Va’s place as an off-tank while removing some of the ways she enables undesirable team strategies.

  • Orisa
    • Can now create a new Protective Barrier independent of other actions.
    • Halt Impact Range increased from 7.5 meters to 8 meters.
    • Supercharger damage boost decreased from 50% to 30%. Supercharger now grants freedom from movement-impairing abilties to Orisa and allies within range. Supercharger beam color is changed from blue to green.

These changes are aimed at giving Orisa more playmaking, high-impact potential, as well as allowing her the change to counter many tank-heavy strategies involving crowd control, which we know the community sometimes feels are neither fun to experience nor have enough options for counterplay.

  • Roadhog
    • New Trait: Rawhide
      • Attacking Roadhog now only grants 50% of the normal Ultimate Charge granted for attacking other heroes.

Roadhog is a great tank-busting off-tank selection, except that as a damage sponge he often does more harm than good by building enemy ultimates far too quickly. This change should remedy that problem.

  • Winston
    • New Secondary Fire: High Voltage
      • Causes Winston’s Primary Fire to do 5% additional damage for each target affected by the Primary Fire. For example, two targets increase the damage by 10%, six targets increase the damage by 30%. Duration: 3 seconds. Cooldown: 15 seconds.

These changes see Winston being given greater playmaking potential, especially against “deathball” or “goats” compositions.

  • Ashe
    • Bob’s Damage p/ Bullet decreased from 14 to 12.
    • Bob’s Duration increased from 10 seconds to 14 seconds.
    • Every 4 seconds, Bob can be caused to charge to a new location by reactivating the Ultimate button at a selected area.

Ashe in the live game is in a weird place where she loses to both Widowmaker as a long-range hitscan, and McCree as a short-range to mid-range hitscan. This change is meant to keep Bob around longer and give him greater utility, so that Ashe exists more as a Hunter-style hitscan that brings a more reliable backup tank to the fight. In this way, she isn’t directly battling with Widowmaker and McCree for their specific roles.

  • Bastion
    • New Trait: Recon Scan
      • While in Recon Configuration, every 6 seconds, Bastion sees a red outline snapshot of where enemies were. After 1 second those outlines disappear.

Bastion is currently a low-pick hero that can be used in a cheese style where the player sits still and sprays bullets in a general direction. By giving Bastion additional utility while in Recon Configuration, we hope to give Bastion reason to not just sit.

  • Doomfist
    • Meteor Strike now grants the maximum 150 shields to Doomfist every time.

Doomfist’s ultimate often feels quite weak. This change should allow Doomfist to stay in a fight rather than use the ultimate as an escape, which is not how the ultimate was primarily envisioned.

  • Reaper
    • New Secondary Fire: Plague Aura
      • Creates a 12 meter area in which all enemies who enter are healed at 50% the normal rate. Duration: 6 seconds. Cooldown: 18 seconds.
    • Wraith Form can now slowly float upwards if Jump is held.

Reaper can sometimes feel very simplistic. These changes help give Reaper a role in decimating certain strategies involving close-knit positioning and large amounts of healing.

  • Sombra
    • EMP now has a 1 second delay between its animation and its effect.
    • Opportunist now also reveals enemy ultimate charge percent.

These changes are both a nerf and a buff to Sombra. EMP now has a small buffer so that enemies have some chance to escape, while being able to see ultimate charge percent makes Sombra even more of the master scout she should be.

  • Symmetra
    • Photon Projector Secondary Fire now passes through shields.
    • Teleporter is now a permanent object with no duration. It can still be destroyed or replaced.
    • Using Teleporter grants 50 shields for 10 seconds.

Symmetra needs a place at the table, and that place is getting damage past shields, while simultaneously buffing allies through the teleporter. Mission accomplished.

  • Torbjorn
    • New Secondary Fire while Hammer Equipped: Armor Pack
      • Amor’s back! Provides 50 Armor for 10 seconds to allies who walk over it. Torbjorn generates 5 Armor p/ second, and can hold up to 5 Armor packs.
    • Holding Jump over Turret now launches Torbjorn upward to reach high places. Unfortunately this stuns the turret for 3 seconds.

Torbjorn just became semi viable, and the Swedish party isn’t being stopped in this balance patch. These new changes help empower low HP damage dealers, as well as give Torbjorn the option to escape to higher ground.

  • Brigitte
    • Repair Pack heal amount decreased from 150 to 100. Repair Pack cool down decreased from 6 seconds to 4 seconds.
    • Shield Bash stun duration decreased from 1 second to 0.5 seconds. Cool down decreased from 7 seconds to 6 seconds.

The main thing that keeps Brigitte from being a true support, while simultaneously making her the enabling force for zero DPS comps is how much burst healing she can give to massive health pool targets. These changes fix that, while keeping her total healing potential the same. Simultaneously, because Brigitte is only truly strong in that sub-optimal strategy, her Shield Stun has been adjusted to be available more often but with a significantly smaller effect.

  • Mercy
    • New Secondary Fire while Pistol Equipped: Cleansing Shot
      • Projectile which causes the ally hit to be immune from crowd control effects for 2 seconds. Cooldown: 15 Seconds if ally is hit, 5 Seconds if no ally is hit.

With these changes, GOATS would be something you can counter. Tanks are still very viable. CC comps have a counter. Bunker has a counter. The two key issues in the game are nerfed (Brigitte and D.VA), but they are still made better in some ways that are important. Low performers are buffed. Everybody is happy.

4 Likes
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I mean, you already lost me here because MM is what gives her peel teeth with reduced DM duration nowadays–there’s literally no reason to disallow MM while DMing.

Honestly don’t think Orisa needs buffs or teamwide CC-immunity on top of damage boost. She’s good now; this is a surefire way to make her broken.

I don’t actually care about this

Winston is one of the most balanced heroes in the game.

I think emphasizing BOB is what you don’t want to do to make Ashe more competitive, honestly–though I’d like the ability to stop him early. 14 seconds is probably too long.

I can guarantee you this will not change Bastions’ current strategy. It’s creative though

I don’t know enough about doomfist

This is broken

Probably good

This is literally broken on coordinated teams

Yes please

I’d like to be able to destroy TP early to avoid giving me away

This looks like it’d be hella exploited

pls no

lmao

no.

Whoaaaaa no
Widowmaker is already borderline oppressive; extending the duration of Infra-sight would make it worse. She does NOT need buffs.

I don’t think either of these effects are worth the cooldown change?

Stop! Trying! To! Give! Mercy! More! Utility!

D.Va’s not a key issue.
Edit: wait neither is Brig lmao have you seen her ladder stats?

4 Likes
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D.Va and Brig are the two biggest issues in balancing, compounded by the fact the are so many undertuned heroes.

1 Like
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D.Va is not; the fact that powerful projectiles like Grav and Nade only answer to DM is the balancing issue.

Brig was before she was nerfed into relative irrelevance on the ladder.
She’s the least-picked healer in most tiers, third least-picked in GM just above Baptiste and Moira.

1 Like
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Buffing Orisa? Yeah, let’s not.

4 Likes
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Glad we have devs to do this instead of random people. This stuff is honestly just broken, either for the hero, or against them. Balance has been steadily getting better over the years, people just have a skewed view of past balance. The game is so well balanced now compared to initially it isn’t even funny.

13 Likes
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“Complain about devs balance”
Suggest some even more broken balance suggestions

5 Likes
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Wait… You want to buff Widow… But you think Machine Gun McKelly is broken? How is a McCree hater fine with Widow? I thought hitscan was broken or something.

1 Like
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I like some of these, made a similar thread before this patch

personally, i dont think she needs a nerf…

im ok with this but i think the anti-cc is better reserved for another tank, Orisa is in a good spot atm

Yes

Does winston need buffs, Though? i dont think he does

This is creative, i like it, but i dont really think ashe needs much buffs atm

Yeah im fine with this, i really mostly use it for the shields so i guess

my idea was to put this more on his primary fire, but works too.

Sombra has a negative winrate even at GM.i dont think she needs nerfing

i like this, This is fine for me

i dont see whats the point of stunning the turret even?

No, Just no, This would lead to a literal perma infra sight.

I dont like these changes, For repair pack, i prefer something like this:

eh its okay not what i would have done to her but at this point i dont even know what to do to her

i tried to be as concise as possible lol

2 Likes
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Hey I like the Mercy change, just wanted to say that. I found the Reaper and Ashe suggestions way too much.

1 Like
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  • Reaper
    • New Secondary Fire: Plague Aura
      • Creates a 12 meter area in which all enemies who enter are healed at 50% the normal rate. Duration: 6 seconds. Cooldown: 18 seconds.
    • Wraith Form can now slowly float upwards if Jump is held.

Reaper can sometimes feel very simplistic. These changes help give Reaper a role in decimating certain strategies involving close-knit positioning and large amounts of healing.

He definitely needs buffs in regards to how he plays but this would just be insanely broken, he alone could shut down entire team comps with just this ability.

  • Roadhog
    • New Trait: Rawhide
      • Attacking Roadhog now only grants 50% of the normal Ultimate Charge granted for attacking other heroes.

Roadhog is a great tank-busting off-tank selection, except that as a damage sponge he often does more harm than good by building enemy ultimates far too quickly. This change should remedy that problem.

This is an insanely good idea, Roadhog really doesn’t have much going for him other than he can heal and kill people, there’s really nothing special to him, this wouldn’t do too much since he can self heal so either way they’re getting the charge back that was lost from the initial burst, but this is a good idea.

  • Brigitte
    • Repair Pack heal amount decreased from 150 to 100. Repair Pack cool down decreased from 6 seconds to 4 seconds.
    • Shield Bash stun duration decreased from 1 second to 0.5 seconds. Cool down decreased from 7 seconds to 6 seconds.

The main thing that keeps Brigitte from being a true support, while simultaneously making her the enabling force for zero DPS comps is how much burst healing she can give to massive health pool targets. These changes fix that, while keeping her total healing potential the same. Simultaneously, because Brigitte is only truly strong in that sub-optimal strategy, her Shield Stun has been adjusted to be available more often but with a significantly smaller effect.

She would be unplayable at this point, and not in a good way. There would be absolutely no reason to play her. In order for Brig to stay viable her stun needs to be where its at in order for her to shut down key targets and get the healing off on her attacks. 90% of the time your health kit wont even be used but when it is used its normally for quick saves…

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You already lost my interest. D.va has been nerfed too many times, she should be buffed or left alone.

Better idea:
Primary fire is reverted back to 2.0 version
Teleporter stays as it is now, but shield gen comes back as an alternative to it, with less range than before. Both are permanent like you suggested. The voice lines for when the enemy has a teleporter / shield generator are brought back as well.
Let sym hold 4 sentries but still only have 3 placed, or make them recharge faster.
Add a debuff to enemies that walk through photon barrier.

Now that would make Sym interesting again.

1 Like
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Sometimes I think the devs are bad at balance but when I look at these threads I realize things could be much much worse.

7 Likes
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don’t need ult-tracking as a skill when you can just play sombra.

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Eh not all, some people can have good ideas… My ideas are good, not biased at all Some ideas on this thread are good, some are really unecesary. I personally dont think Ashe needs a buff for example…

1 Like
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The point in the turret being stunned is to prevent spamming the ability. It would lead to unwanted cheese instead of a limited vertical mobility option.

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Just give it a cooldown then?

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I feel he already has too many icons at the bottom, so this might be a cleaner way to do it.

You’ll also note that many people mistake these changes for straight buffs or nerfs. For example, people will say “I don’t think Ashe needs a buff”. But often these are recalibrations to improve the flavor of the hero without moving their power level. In the example of Ashe, Bob would stay longer and get multiple charges (thus he’s a pet tank), but to compensate he does 20% less damage. This then gives Ashe an identity separate from “she’s like a mix of Widow and Mccree but not as good as either”.

1 Like
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i dont think your turret getting stunned for you jumping upwards is necesarily a cleaner way to see it

id just say give it a cooldown, Might as well,

But even then, i dont think he needs this at all…id just rather we fix the turret placement system that is incredibly awkward

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I’ve played hundreds of hours on Torb. I can tell you, one of his greatest weaknesses is that he can’t scale vertically. It prevents you from reaching high ground so that you can perch with a turret and fire down. I can think of Numbani Point A, Anubis Point A, Nepal, etc, where once I drop down into the fight, my journey back to where I need to be is a very, very long and slow walk.