Blizzard has been talking about making changes to their smash team-based shooter Overwatch recently, and although I’m new to the world of competitive team games (and I only play on consoles) I’ve been pretty taken with it. As such, I’ve decided to keep an eye on the game as it evolves, but I have to admit I’m a little bit puzzled by some of the things they’ve highlighted.
Starting off with Western gunfighter McCree, he’s received a nerf to the damage output for his rapid-fire ability ‘Fan The Hammer’. Apparently the logic is that he’s doing too much damage to tank characters, but the way I see it, he seems just fine. Maybe things are different in how he plays out on PC, but on PS4 he’s a super-squishy character who gets taken out with one good shot. He may kill a character or two with his Flashbang/Fan The Hammer combo, but I rarely see him doing much damage outside of that, and whenever I see him pop up, I’m not very worried. Sure, it’s annoying to get suckered by him here and there, but that’s basically his only trick. After he gets powered down, I probably won’t ever use him.
There’s also been talk about buffing D.Va, although as of the last time I checked, the developers hadn’t decided if they were going to make her tankier, increase her weapon damage, or do something else altogether. As of right now, I’d be happy with either — preferably both. Despite the fact that she’s really cool and flying around in her mechsuit is fun to do, she gets taken out by basically anybody because she’s such a large, easy-to-hit target. She also can’t take as much damage as it seems like she out to be able to, and although her guns can dish some okay hurt at (very) close range, I find that she’s usually the one to lose in a standoff no matter who else is involved. I like her a lot, but she doesn’t get the job done for me except when I use her to fly around and pick off smaller characters, similar to the way that I use Winston — although in that case, I’d probably just go with Winston.
Finally, the devs also announced that they’re going to reduce the damage done by Torbjorn’s turrets by about 30% — but only on console. The rationale given is that mouse and keyboard is far superior to controller, so apparently console players aren’t able to shoot as accurately, and therefore get killed by the turrets too easily. While I totally agree that he needs to be powered down, it’s not for the reasons that Blizzard seems to think… I have no trouble shooting accurately with controller (whether m/k is superior is honestly beside the point here) but my problem with Torbjorn is that his turrets have absurd range — they’re basically sniper turrets.
I can’t even begin to count the number of times I’ve switched to Widowmaker to remove a far-away turret, only to get killed by my target from across the freaking map before I could even get my scope up. Add in the fact that the turrets snap to target instantly (and never miss) on top of the hefty damage that they do, and this guy is long overdue for a power-down. One turret is manageable but when you start seeing teams of two or more Torbjorns, it’s just so imbalanced that you might as well quit out.
…It’s got nothing to do with my aiming ability, though.
Transformers fan. MOTU stan. Black Lives Matter, pro-LGBTQIA. Anti-fascist.
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If D.Va just didn’t have a huge window on her front that acts as a critical hit spot, she would be so much better. As it is, automatic weapons still have a tough time with her but anyone that can do damage over 10 per shot just shreds her unless you turn around and run. That is not a heroic winning strategy. People always underestimate her pilot form though! I think Torb stacks are the only thing in the game that absolutely requires that you have 5 friends in chat playing with you to defeat. You really need a coordinated… Read more »
Agreed on all counts, James. Agreeeeeed.
The problem with McCree is that people were using him as a suicide bomb against tanks. He’d chuck a flashbang, fan the hammer, and poof! There goes Reinhart. If Reinhart survived instead of immediately melting, a quick roll to reload and fan again. He was never supposed to be able to annihilate tanks at that speed, which is why the nerf made sense – tanks would still survive, squishier characters would still likely evaporate. Also, he’s already been nerfed from the ludicrous damage he was dealing before. I’m not sure if I’m reading this right, but the article seems to… Read more »
Just to clarify, the PC gets (already got?) the McCree nerf before consoles will, so I’m just referring to that original de-powering. I haven’t heard anything about bumping him down again, sorry if that was poorly worded. ^_^