Currently, Zarya has one of the lowest pickrates in GM for a couple of seasons because of her kit being heavily map dependent and can be countered by dive 90% of the time. One of the changes that I’ve been thinking about for a while and kind of tested in Quake Live is the idea of giving her a speed boost while she bubbles herself and she can give a speed boost to an ally she bubbles. This buff will give Zarya the mobility that will make her more relevant and a real threat as she can utilize this speed boost for herself and teamplay. This can also make Zarya a more viable pick on certain maps with a lot of highground such as numbani as she can navigate low ground more efficiently and become a real tide turner of battle by being able to disengage to peel for supports and then engaging with brute force.
I’m really looking forward to a Zarya buff like this to try in the PTR and I’d be ok with it not making it to live if it’s too crazy and needs more testing, as long as we can give good feedback on her viability and make her into a better pick, it’ll be alright.
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I would not want a speed boost personally. Because all that does is screw up my aim. I would like if she auto reloaded when she fires her ult.
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I just want her to decay slower…
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Well… aim is a personal thing and I’m basing this buff off someone who was a top 5 zarya a couple seasons ago, me. However, the idea of an auto reload after using graviton is a great suggestion!
I just thought of this like last night and I’m not sure about her giving it to teammates but to herself would be fine I think.
Imagine you bubble while Lucio is speed boosting.
Don’t forget the part where the speed boost makes dive stronger…
No. Zarya is well-balanced, and has been well-balanced for months. She naturally fell out of favor since Dive was so overwhelmingly prevalent.
Her energy decay is at an ok rate already and if she manages her bubbles correctly she can maintain that high energy. Having an enemy Zarya that still has high energy after one team wipe does not sound ok to play against as it makes snowballing way more common and annoying to shut down.
The speed boost sounds like a great suggestion!
This is off topic, but felt like it would be nice to get your opinion while you’re here as a previously top 5 zarya player. I find her to be one of the more enjoyable tanks, though I don’t play her much in comp (rarely a chance to). What are your thoughts about her relative strength when she is paired with a Brigitte?
The reason I ask is because she can in theory help against dive, and in addition gives armor which should help make Zarya incredibly tanky with her shields.
I’m not convinced that Zarya actually needs a buff. In the right hands, she’s still a powerhouse that can carry a team. It’s just the the other heroes are just better picks. Zarya doesn’t work well in dive, the reigning shield tank is Orisa, Roadhog pumps out damage and self-sustain. D.Va just got a fairly significant nerf, give it a bit of time and see if Zarya comes back naturally.
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I also think that is is a pretty fair stance and thing to consider. Winston is being hit hard pretty indirectly this patch and D.Va just got nerfed.
In scrims, the Brigitte and Zarya combo looks like it might shut down dive due to all the peeling potential both heroes have that it almost seems impossible for dive to do anything against and this combo is what might bring reaper into the meta again because of his better dps and outplay potential. Personally, I think Brigitte was a great addition to the support roster, but some other top 500 players I’ve scrimmed against say she needs a bigger counter or a nerf on her shield bash, other than that she’s fine.
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