Den
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Post by Den on Aug 22, 2016 16:25:31 GMT -5
Sure. The effect of losing momentum with consecutive wallrunning rather than maintaining the whole of it is glaringly stand-out. If everyone can focus on identifying exactly what the issue is, then it is more likely to see change.
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Den
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Post by Den on Aug 22, 2016 14:48:20 GMT -5
Yes, pretty much the only difference is that wallrun speed is capped to 30KPH versus the first game allowing you to keep the 40KPH speed after touching another wall. You'll keep fluctuating between 30 and 40. Noticeably jarring when you're going along some of the straightaways on Boomtown.
If they're really listening to feedback (they had already reduced the Build meter for Hardpoint on the last day of this weekend's Tech Test), I would want 3 things.
1. AI in ALL game modes. Get those Grunts in there to serve as the subtly informative battlefield flavor and walking item pickups they deserve to be. Nobody cares about Pilot v Pilot. 2. Titan Meter is changed back to the Build Timer. Let the Amp Boost stay on the "killstreak" meter but don't go crippling lesser players' access to Titans. 3. Wallrun Speed isn't capped to 30KPH, let the pilot keep their full 40KPH momentum when they start chaining together wallruns.
Besides those, I'm content with everything else.
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Den
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Post by Den on Aug 22, 2016 14:12:09 GMT -5
Yes, Titans in Bounty Hunt is easy because you have Grunts to kill, other ways to build up your Titanfall meter than fighting pilots. In Hardpoint however, you must score kills to build any Titan meter at all. It's not like the first where simply doing damage would help cut down the time. I wonder if they'll respond to the feedback by making it a Build Timer again rather than a killstreak meter. --- Having reinstalled Origin and Titanfall 1 last night, and now playing the two side-by-side (Tech Test still letting me get into the Training map)... they're the same. Run speed is identical. If anything, T2 is slightly faster as a result of all weapons in T2 being 100% speed, no longer are the big guns slowing you down. Basically T2's base move speed is about 1.05x that of T1. The Training room speedometer runs in line with the data from the first game. Important thing to note: Titanfall 1 (at least on PC) has a Field of View of 70 (can be bumped to 90). Titanfall 2 (at least on console) has an FOV of 60 or so. Because of that difference of perspective, a higher FOV makes it appear as though you move faster when you really aren't. T2 appears slower, but you are moving at exactly the same speed. The wall running has the same physics, with a smooth arcing path that is affected by inertia to some degree (ie falling down before hitting a wall will slide you down it before accelerating laterally). It's nothing like BO3's hard attachment to a wall and then a straight line run. Here is the one difference between T1 and T2 is: T1: Maximum wallrun speed was about 2x that of your sprint speed, which would often take at least two consecutive wallruns to reach. The acceleration to get to that took a moment, and you would inherit the speed that you built up on the wall. If you didn't build up the speed on the wall, you weren't going to go at full speed. T2: The first wallrun will immediately push you to about 1.5x your sprint speed assuming you hit the wall at a proper angle, and the jump-off would give you that 2x speed. Hitting the wall again will set you back to 1.5x. That is to say, half of your speed is gained on hitting the wall and the other half when you jump. Given the near immediate speed boosts, you only need be on the wall for a moment and then jump off again to hit 42KPH. Ultimately, the game has changed wallrunning so that it is faster when you're just starting wallruns and there isn't such a heavy reliance on consecutive wallruns since you can almost immediately get to the 2x speed. --- It would be nice if they were to toss the entire list of the first game's maps into this one. Don't let all of those great maps go to waste like some other shooter series that drop the last game's maps only to remake a few. T1's maps could easily be transplanted right into T2 with no facelift needed. Since I have Titanfall installed again, may as well play some rounds.
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Den
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Post by Den on Aug 21, 2016 18:41:12 GMT -5
Source and Quake III (idTech3) are both based off of idTech2. At their core, they are extremely similar despite so much of it being rewritten. Source is an up-to-date engine, and the way it works is familiar enough to the devs that they could begin working immediately (after ripping its guts out to put in their own tech) instead of needing to learn a different system.
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Post by Den on Aug 21, 2016 16:57:55 GMT -5
Now that I've had a lot more time with this Tech Test, even if it's only the PS4 version, I'm really looking forward to it. Going to have to finally upgrade my four year old video card.
Despite first appearances, compared to the first game, I find it extremely easy to be able to maintain a single Titan from beginning to end of a round in Titanfall 2. The Battery system lets me sap the enemy, perform upkeep on my guy and most importantly do the same for my allies. I can heal 100% of my Titan's health compared to only regenerating ~30% in the form of shields. My latest few matches, I spent the majority of the time Grapple Hooking all of the titans, snatching and recharging. In (Enhanced Chip) Auto-Titan mode, my iron giant was kicking ass alongside me, not being so whimsical as to do spins to avoid projectiles like they used to in the first.
Now that I've had a lot of time with both Ion and Scorch, I'm positive towards their fixed loadouts. Both are really good and their themes effectively allow for more variety in tools. Conceivably closer to fighting game characters than say a class of soldier. With them fixed, there are clear strengths and weaknesses, but neither of the two feel gimped in any way. If they weren't fixed, you can easily see how some equipment would go unused over others.
Trying my best to Foxtrot around on Boomtown and not get shot, I've been able to keep off the ground across the whole map (sometimes with help from the trusty Grapple). It's challenging to reach higher speeds on these particular maps, but I was going pretty fast.
My only gripe is the change from Titan Timer that goes down with almost any action (especially simply dealing damage even if you don't get a kill), to a meter that only builds up with kills or dealing damage to Titans.
Just give me Attrition & CTF with grunts actually navigating the map relative to player presence and I'm all in.
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Den
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Post by Den on Aug 19, 2016 18:38:01 GMT -5
Well, this Tech Test sure is a thing.
Overall, the game does feel a lot slower, both in general base movement and in top speed. And it's not just because I'm playing the console version. Top speed seems to be capped to about 50~ KPH, so probably no more idTech circle strafe speed boosts letting you leap across the map in a single jump. Bunny hopping still appears to be effective to keep some of your speed if you touch the ground.
Pulse Blade is a fun and effective replacement for the debilitating vision of Pulse Radar. However, the Grapple is so absurdly advantageous that I can't see not using it.
Why the heck was Wallhanging made into an equippable skill? Who would ever take that over the other two in the Tech Test, let alone whatever else may be in the full game? Not only is it dumb, but T2 has far stronger natural wall control with the ability to almost instantly change directions, allowing you to basically stick to a wall with a bit of manual back and forth.
The returning weapons all feel nearly identical to the previous game. I've yet to reach a high enough level to unlock any of the sequel's new weapons, however pickups from grunts let me try out the Alternator and Mastiff for a while. Alternator's a hell of a little gun. What is up with this game and double barrel weapons? There's three guns that have two barrels, yet they're among the slower firing weapons. Mastiff is amazing, it's like someone took Doom 1's flat-spread shotgun and put it in here. Cuts people in half.
So far nearly all of my matches have been a real pain when it comes to teams. I always see something like 4v2 or 5v3, matches seem to start with fewer than the maximum number of players, and then one team loses somebody and that smaller team is pretty much screwed in PilotvPilot or Hardpoint. Even a difference of just one person is staggering. As such, I've kept to Bounty Hunt where things aren't centralized and I can play a more sneakily to carry an outnumbered team.
It's a shame that you only get AI in Bounty Hunt, and their presence is just to be drop pod canon fodder as opposed to the subtle environmental force multiplier of the first game that spawned and moved relative to the positions of enemy pilots. Perhaps other game modes will have more open grunt warfare like the first game.
Now, why ever did they change from the Three Weapon loadout to this Two Weapon System? Secondary lumped together the sidearms and the Anti-Titan weapons. That is to say, the secondary slot is the Anti-Titan Weapon slot. Speaking of AT Weapons, it's somewhat interesting that they give primary guns infinite reserve ammo, but AT weapons, even the Charge Rifle, have a limited number of shots (resupplied on entering a Titan as usual?). Titan v Pilot balance is definitely much different than it was in the first game.
Not a fan of the locked Titan loadouts, even if both Ion and Scorch are pretty good. Their fixed gear is clearly for the purpose of allowing more interesting synergies between pieces of equipment that wouldn't work any other way. Still, this kind of thing will usually mean that folks will flock to one or two top tier giant robots that simply outperform the others. Some may go nearly unused. The lack of an overshield on your Titan makes being a Titan more challenging, but the same sort of challenge is put on to Pilots.
Rodeo is more difficult to pull off from ground level, and almost 100% impossible to do so if the titan is facing you (Grapple trivializes it however). AT Weapons do not appear to be as powerful as they were in the first game. In lieu of the overshield, the Battery system is really neat, a nice way to give better synergy between your titan and allied pilots. Steal "health" from the enemy robots and plug it into your robots.
Most of all, being a not-console-shooter player, my god is the aim assist in this game "generous". It's almost singleplayer levels of aim assist - point in their general direction, raise sights and you're locked on to an enemy pilot for a few solid seconds even if they're soaring at 50KPH in the sky. Quickly understanding the mechanic, my past several matches have had my score measure several times greater than anyone else both on my team and the enemy team.
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Den
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Post by Den on Aug 17, 2016 20:46:48 GMT -5
They reverted the hitbox changes on the PTR again. Blizzard, whatre you even doing? That's good. As they said, the big hitboxes were a design choice for balance. The change caused very obvious, negative effects. They shouldn't have kowtowed to the crying about it, or perhaps they did so to show everyone just how much some characters get screwed over compared to others when the boxes are cropped to the models of dramatically varying size.
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Den
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Post by Den on Aug 14, 2016 21:01:23 GMT -5
Look up in the Sky, it's No Man!
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Post by Den on Aug 11, 2016 13:34:22 GMT -5
These gosh dang Omnics ruining muh balance.
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Den
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Post by Den on Aug 5, 2016 15:48:12 GMT -5
More like casinope.
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Post by Den on Aug 2, 2016 21:16:34 GMT -5
THE RECKONING WILL COME BLIZZARD HAS STARTED WORLD WAR 3 WITH THEIR TRANSGRESSIONS THEY HAVE WRONGED THE CHEATERS WHO HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO RUIN THE GAME FOR EVERYONE ELSE
Also, Mercy is totally out. It's all Lucio/Zenyatta now. McCree is still in. Pharah is still grounded. This is so far the worst the balance has been when it comes to looking at pro-level match statistics. So many characters with almost 0% usage. This time it's not just the Defense heroes (and they seem to have gotten worse), but half of the Offense.
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Post by Den on Jul 30, 2016 13:09:31 GMT -5
First of, thanks for this detailed analysis, it's why I come here :) When you say McCree is going to make Roadhog & co obsolete, do you mean because he counters them...? On your second point, you seem to be saying that the ideal team will be Mcree, 2xTank, Lucio, Zen, Ana. This really surprises me since I'm not seeing pros play Ana at all. Are you making a blanket prediction post-the-next-patch? Thanks for the clarifications. Loving this game and I'm loving reading the discourse here on the game as well. I'm glad I left Halo V for this. McCree and Roadhog fulfill nearly the same role, picking off high value targets by means of a stun combo to get an almost guaranteed kill against 150-200 health heroes. When McCree was nerfed before, losing his mid-long range effectiveness and Flash+Fan being rendered useless, Roadhog soared in use because he was then the "better McCree". Now that McCree's range has been changed once more, and Flash + Fan has been improved as well, McCree dominates again both within and beyond Hog's range. It's an unfortunate effect, but the two overlap so much that one will take the stage and the other will be benched. The latest reports of pro player usage is before McCree's reactionary range nerf (and flash buff), so McCree may end up taken down a peg. While McCree still grounds Pharah, 76 probably gained back some of his edge at mid range. With help from Zenyatta's Harmony, Genji has become quite common. The 123 split is more of an extreme prediction depending on how the pro teams adapt to Ana and just how McCree's change influences things. In the PTR, Ana wasn't looked at favorably because Zen and McCree took the spotlight. In the next week or two, Ana's place will be more solidified, could be in or out, just like how there's a split between teams sticking with Mercy and those jumping to Zenyatta. Given Ana's not nearly as effective close range effectiveness as Zenyatta, she will likely be map-situational, for the few long sightlines on the Attack side. However, if pros do take to Ana given these latest changes in Live, I'd expect it would be because Ana and McCree AND Zenyatta would make for a devastating trio. Throw on Lucio and you have two massive damage dealers (Cree and Zen), two heroes with the ability to stun (Cree and Ana), all moving around at the speed of sound and stacking on healing from everywhere. Toss in Zarya and you have the stalemate breaker and another damage dealer. Finish the team off with Genji or D.va backed by Harmony and they will flank and harass with extreme prejudice. Swap in/out Reaper, 76, Winston, Reinhardt, a few others when applicable. That is an "ideal" in which the players involved are landing all of their shots, including Ana's all or nothing projectile sleep dart that would likely easily miss often. That sort of risk really won't hold out over reliable tactics, so the 123 will be a niche situational thing that we really won't see a lot of. The standard will still be a 222 or 312 for better raw damage output in most situations.
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Den
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Post by Den on Jul 28, 2016 21:57:29 GMT -5
Hopefully their "working on new game modes" is what can give the roster's damage-focused meta a kick in the pants. Although with each new game mode, they'll have to screw with the balance to make each new mode's nuances work in a balanced way.
Also nerf Lucio already, gosh darn golly gee whiz it. He's not even "overpowered" but he is so critical to a team that he's an almost mandatory pick anyway. That kind of necessity is not good. If one team has Speed and the other does not, the other is comparatively severely crippled.
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Den
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Post by Den on Jul 28, 2016 21:25:42 GMT -5
McCree's range nerf is nothing compared to the improvement to Flash and Fan. He's going to continue to make Roadhog, 76, Pharah, the entire Defense list (already useless) completely obsolete. Roadhog will plummet to low-use again, his niche taken once more and his second-squishiest tank status not enough to give him an edge, especially with his crap Ultimate.
Ana's buff may make her a McCree-lite with long range damage, extreme healing power and a stun that the entire team can take advantage of. A cowboy, a Buddhist and a granny walk in to a bar.
Meanwhile, for the same reason I mentioned before, Mercy is going to drop down to nothing. With Pharah permanently grounded by McCree and Zenyatta, Mercy has no anchor to fly to. While Ana can combo her abilities together in quick succession, Mercy is the weakest, most limited, one-at-a-time hero. Mercy's Guardian Angel and gliding are far from fast or effective. The former is dependent on chance, ideal placement of allies letting her fall back to a safe spot (rare). For Mercy to compete with now three versatile Healers, she needs an equal degree of versatility... that 50% damage boost in PTR really would have helped. Alternatively, I'd really like to see Mercy able to heal and shoot at the same time. Or make Caduceus Staff a one-beam stick. Healing and Damage Boost in one. That could give her a more unique role, focusing on being a pocket booster for one hero during a charge. Or make Guardian Angel a free ability that boosts her straight forward rather than an ally-targeting one. OR give Mercy an actual E Ability. OR give her persistent healing like Mousey thought Mercy had. Or increase her short as hell healing range to compete with the others with 30+ meter ranges. Or change her pistol into one that can also heal allies, whatever, something.
I think this week has Foxtroted the meta picking up the most. For the previous month it was a mostly balanced distribution of Offense (except McCree), Tank and Lucio/Mercy. Usually a 2:2:2 between roles. Now almost the entire Offense and all of the Defense roster are benched. It's McCree (again), Tanks and Lucio/Zenyatta with possible Ana making it a 1 Offense, 2 Tank, 3 Support split, and the occasional Reaper showing up in CQC scenarios.
As for the Defense heroes, they're all done for. Snipers (and even many other heroes who were already suffering from low usage) especially are worthless thanks to the hitbox change. They'd all have to get dramatic changes to compete with the select few heroes who are optimal for the game's "all about damage" meta.
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Den
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Post by Den on Jul 26, 2016 20:15:25 GMT -5
Persistent? Mercy's health is really just 200 Shields. It has the same 3 second delay with 20HP/sec healing just like Zenyatta or Zarya or Symmetra or whomever else has some blue health. Mercy's just appears all white.
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Post by Den on Jul 26, 2016 18:23:57 GMT -5
Given that her core role is to heal, it makes sense that that the team can take a bit of a hit to total healing output in favor of a now more capable damage dealing, versatile Zenyatta. Mercy is now effectively the most squishy of the Support heroes, if not all heroes by means of ability, and least effective by means of not being able to do more than one thing at a time.
Lucio has persistent self-healing out to 30m, high mobility, speed advantage, powerful knockback and ranged attack, almost all of which can be used simultaneously. Zenyatta is now strong enough to hold out in a fight while also healing an ally, debuffing an enemy out to 30m and benefiting from the same rate of self-healing as Mercy (20/sec after 3 seconds) for his shields. Ana with the infinite range, heal grenade, a sort-of infinite range Flashbang that everyone on the team can prepare to take advantage of and an Ult with extreme effectiveness.
Meanwhile Mercy has Healing out to 10m OR Damage Boost out to 10m OR Blaster. She can only do one of those at a time, and among the Supports, she's not / no longer the best at any of them.
I feared that Zenyatta was encroaching on Mercy's role since he lost his Beta style, which is why he was obsolete before this patch. All it took was a bit of number tweaking and he's now better than her at two of the things she does, damage boosting and dealing damage. Not only can he do both better, he can do both at the same time. In being able to do all three things at once, his slightly weaker healing is of no consequence. The team can sacrifice a mere 20hp/sec healing for an additional potential 200 damage per second.
While it should always be obvious, the weekly reports of pro team usage are evidence that raw "damage in, damage out" value beats any other tactic. Offense heroes top the charts alongside the strongest healers and Tanks, while ancillary Support and Defense heroes are almost nonexistent.
Mercy's butt may be top tier, however her effectiveness in combat is more important. She's not versatile enough, focusing on being a pure healer doesn't fly.
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Den
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Post by Den on Jul 19, 2016 15:09:46 GMT -5
Seems everybody jumped on that update right away, my patch download has stalled.
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Post by Den on Jul 14, 2016 14:03:31 GMT -5
The 200 health buff alone doesn't feel much different from the 150 health version. Slightly greater survivability, only barely alters the outcome of most fights in regards to whether or not Zenyatta lives in the end of an encounter.
However extremely unlikely it will happen in an actual match - In a 1v1, he'll rival or just barely outperform a scant few other heroes that he previously would have a guaranteed loss in an ideal scenario: All shots land. Discord is on. Opponent uses whatever Abilities they have. Faster, mobile, harder hitting heroes are still going to have the advantage over Zenyatta's lack of mobility, projectile leading and no on-hand safety measures even if he can now mathematically deal more damage versus certain tiers of health.
Basically, an encounter versus most other 200 HP heroes see changes since Zenyatta can get just over 200 damage with three shots in 0.8 seconds, so they're now required to match the damage output to beat him. Soldier 76 for example can get 170 damage in a full second with the rifle alone... but then add in the 120 from a Helix Rocket and Biotic Field effectively giving him another 40HP/sec, 76 is not going to lose any more often. It'll be closer and more likely force Zenyatta's opponent to use an ability or two to survive.
But with all of that said, up front combat isn't really Zen's forte, his peeking long range potshots with a few select pokes to deter defending heroes perched up somewhere is his deal. The 4x faster Orb projectile speed is the better buff, however minor it may seem. I don't think he'll rise up that much in terms of usage, but he'll at least be a blip on the radar to more readily counter a few entrenched enemies (that extra 50 health helps towards that as well since it's all shields).
Unfortunately I think a thing to consider is that his changes are not isolated, the biggest detriment to Zenyatta's desired rise in popularity in the series of PTR changes is that the sort of buff to his role is immediately obsoleted by McCree's range buff. McCree has become the fast firing counter-sniper. Zenyatta sort of would have become such a counter-sniper with the ability to apply Discord much more quickly and land Destruction orbs in immediate succession, but his three projectiles per second are not going to match two hitscans per second, even if his Discord boost makes it 202 damage versus 140 damage (not including headshots). A Mercy+McCree damage boost (whether it's 30% or 50%) rounding a corner and shooting anyone will best Zenyatta usually being the only one to benefit from his Discord and taking a couple shots at the one enemy he tags.
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Den
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Post by Den on Jul 12, 2016 17:55:32 GMT -5
Self-Healing charging Ultimates is a double edged sword. It boosts up a select few heroes' Ultimates, but also diminishes an element of teamwork. Before, I would stall my Breather as Roadhog and instead look for our team's healer to fix me up, giving them some needed Ultimate meter. Now, I'm being encouraged to heal myself and ignore the needs of a healer looking for stuff to do and build their own Ultimate. It makes sense that they're aiming to diminish the frequency of Resurrection and OH LET'S BREAK IT DOWN, but this change is definitely going to skew the rates of Ultimate usage across the cast.
Buffed D.va sounds like she's going to go from obsolete lesser-than-Winston to a much more effective Rein/Winston/Zarya hybrid. The new Defense Matrix mechanics are going to be one of the best anti-Ultimate tools in the game now that it will be more readily available at any moment.
Still don't think they're doing the right thing for Zenyatta. He had his own niche in beta and now he's still stuck in a non-unique role, an alternative Mercy with worse heals and not really that much better damage compared to her Blaster and Damage Boost (which surprise was buffed back up to 50% again).
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Post by Den on Jul 6, 2016 21:38:27 GMT -5
The "Competitive" option in the menu now is just the gathering hole for: 1. Groups of four to six stomping other teams. 2. A whooooooooole lot of uppity self-assured shit-talking loner heroes who don't work together with their finger on the Push To Talk more often than the trigger.
Meanwhile, Quick Play is more comfy than ever.
Also while Support-Only Brawl sounds interesting, it's really aggravating. Just imagine Double Lucio being nigh impossible to kill because nobody has big damage output. Double Symmetra with twelve lasers on the point and surprise! The best damage dealer of the lot (except that Lucio can outrun her). Zenyatta just playing ball. Mercy trying not to die while using her pistol more than her Staff.
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Post by Den on Jul 6, 2016 18:57:21 GMT -5
At least that tweet was in response to console "four Torbjorn at once is OP what're we supposed to do". Hopefully hopefully hopefully when they see this issue coming up at the high tier of play (and this "meta" begins to take over the random comp matches, creating a great skew in their analytics), they'll at least do something about it for competitive mode.
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Post by Den on Jul 6, 2016 18:03:50 GMT -5
What happens when the organized tournament holders go by Blizzard's rules. Insane hero stacking. Compositions of 2/2/2 of the same heroes and then 5 Tracers in KOTH just constantly tapping the point to keep Overtime going until they can break the enemy off of it with Pulse bombs. Horrendously long KOTH matches because of the 3/5 rounds and the overtime extension. Hanamura, Anubis and Volskaya being avoided like the plague because of their cruddy design... but now comp teams having to pick and choose which plague they want to avoid, 2CP or KOTH.
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Post by Den on Jul 5, 2016 14:26:15 GMT -5
Torb is underrated on PC, but he's still highly situational and dependent on having a competent team that can hold a frontline so that his turret isn't being immediately destroyed. As such, he's more often than not just a liability because his team is not really on the same page unless it's one of a few chokepoints where it just naturally happens.
Most underrated are his Armor Packs. Go scavenging after a skirmish and Torb can have up to 450 points of extra health in the form of Armor distributed to himself and his allies. Such a boost in total team health is like having an extra tank on the team covering everyone. Or playing aggressively with 200 scrap, Torbjorn has 300 Armor ready to drop for himself in an instant in the middle of a fight, healing himself bit by bit by throwing a pack down at his feet to renew the 75 points of Armor (or throwing packs out in the middle of the contested point where allies are like to run over them during battle, making Torb behave like a healer of sorts).
It's a real shame that something I thought was very helpful for Toblerone was patched out - Torbjorn's corpse used to pick up his own Scrap on death, essentially a free +25 on spawn as compensation. I think it would be great if he started with full Scrap during Setup time, allowing him to give 2/3 of his team the +75 Armor buff. It's pretty gosh darn golly gee whiz risky for him to go out into no man's land where all the scrap is and all the deaths take place just to make use of one of his core abilities.
The coin flip Sudden Death is the dumbest of dumb things. Why would they not just base it on Par Time? whoever captured faster wins. Or keep the Sudden Death in. Whoever gets the coin flip to attack the first point sets the par time and the second team has to beat it.
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Post by Den on Jun 30, 2016 10:58:25 GMT -5
People are using Lucio on defense in 80% of games on PC in competitive, and literally never using Zenyatta? Pharah is the 6th most used character overall but is used 0% of the time in King of the Hill? Mei and Bastion are basically never used as well? The top six defense characters are Mercy, Lucio, Soldier, Reaper, Reinhardt, and Roadhog - are there not health packs on PC? Do these numbers look correct to you guys? Yes, that's about right. Lucio AND Mercy are mandatory for nearly every map. Mercy's healing & Resurrection combined with Lucio's speed & BREAK IT DOWN means maximum ability to contest a point and for the others on the team to fight a lot more aggressively. With few exceptions, they are always in a team at all times. Zenyatta is a nobody. His ability to stick an enemy with Discord and deal "a lot" of damage is a non-benefit because the would-be victim is just going to take a step back for a second. His healing is tertiary to his design, not nearly as good as either Mercy nor Lucio NOR Soldier 76. His projectiles are weak, his orbs take a moment to reach their target, so he has downtime on both healing and Discord as well as issues targeting the one he actually wishes to affect because of the lockon system for his abilities. Also Discord is hard to see since it only gives the HUD element to Zenyatta and not the rest of his team. As he is, Zen is a waste of a slot and the team is better off with another natural damage dealer. Pharah has the advantage of attacking from a distance, denying an area with suppressing fire, flanking and using cover in Assault and Escort maps. Not so in Control maps which are almost always open spaces where everyone is going to constantly crash the control point and fight in the area immediately around it. Rather than superficial splash damage, you're better off with more guaranteed damage characters like 76 and Reaper, Lucio who can get himself and allies to the point quick, and tanks who can contest the point for as long as possible. Mei and Bastion are basically less effective versions of other heroes in an organized team. Too specialized, too weak in many areas. Mei's area denial focus with walls and slowing enemies is way better performed by any Tank, Pharah and Junkrat. In the thick of things, she's not going to survive long enough to freeze one enemy before the rest come down on her. While she's ice-cubed, she's not helping. While her wall's up, she's blocking both the enemy and her allies, really just means the enemy has a couple seconds to group up. Bastion's Turret mode requires support, specifically a Reinhardt to shield him (that's why there's that tiny bit of use in Control maps). Without any cover, anywhere he can possibly set up is easily dealt with. If he sets up in a safe spot, said safe spot means that he's waiting for the enemy to push further forward, so he's doing nothing and the rest of his team is fighting 5v6. When they do get to his corner, it just takes some pecking at him from around the corner by a Pharah, 76 or even a damn Mercy. On the move, Bastion is a dramatically weaker 76. Crappier gun, can only heal himself, no sprint. After McCree and Widow's nerf, it is easy to see how Mercy, Lucio, Reaper, 76, Rein and Roadhog are the top picks. Mercy and Lucio are obvious. Heals and speed as mentioned before. Reaper and 76 are the powerhouses in different fields. Reaper a flanker who can vaporize hundreds of health with a single shot, 76 a frontline fighter with high damage potential and secondary medic. Rein for cover and disruptions, plus the very useful HAMMER DOWN. Roadhog (taking Widow and McCree's place) for singling out important targets with a hook and being one of the best point-contesting heroes. Competitive is all about surefire, guaranteed strategies with the most reliable tactics. Aiming is paramount, which is why it falls on to the hitscan/melee/shotgun characters over those who need to lead projectile. Experimentation and unusual strategies is done in less serious scrimmages or when one side is dominating so hard that the winners screw around and the losers are scrambling to find some unconventional victory plan.
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Den
He's That Guy
Posts: 4,294,967,295
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Post by Den on Jun 28, 2016 8:51:16 GMT -5
McCree hasn't really changed. His recent nerf hasn't done anything to him (besides no longer being an Everything-Killer, now only a 3/4 of everything Killer) except make people realize that Roadhog is effectively ten times better at everything McCree does except pinpoint long range damage. Where McCree's Flash works out to about meters meters, Roadhog's reaches twenty. Where McCree can deal a lot of damage at point blank with Fan over the course of a second, Roadhog can do so with his right click in one shot. Where McCree is nothing special when it comes to survivability with 200 HP and a paltry Roll, Roadhog has three times the health, plus a powerful self-heal plus his Abilities cool down much faster. And because every map and game mode is small spaces, chokepoints and fighting over a single location, Roadhog is almost always going to be in range to hook enemies.
Despite all that, McCree is still good thanks to still being one of the best long range sharpshooters. What he lacks in power per shot, he makes up for with hitscans and a fairly rapid rate of fire.
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Den
He's That Guy
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Post by Den on Jun 26, 2016 6:29:58 GMT -5
Perhaps there's more they'll do to it. I'd imagine a targeting delay would be ideal. From what I can see in the Training Range, Toblerone's Tourette reacts instantly as soon as even a sliver of a character model hits its line of sight (to the point that if you're able to see the bare side of it, it will start shooting you with its particle effect going through the wall), the only delay being in the time it takes for it to rotate to face a target. Its turn speed lets it do a 180° in 0.2 seconds at the most (and Level 2 may even turn a bit faster). If it's facing your direction when you turn that corner, it's instant damage.
Perhaps they could go the TF2 Sentry route and have that alarming beep and a half/one second/however long firing delay.
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Den
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Posts: 4,294,967,295
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Post by Den on Jun 26, 2016 2:44:20 GMT -5
Pfffff silly consoles. So his turret's going down to 10 damage per shot. Roughly adding on 2-6 seconds to how long one of them can kill a player depending on Lv1 or Lv2 and the player's max health.
Bastion's transform can't possibly go any faster than its current 0.5 seconds. That's already close enough to instantaneous. Bastion can go Turret > Recon > Turret in the same amount of time it takes to reload the turret. 2.0 seconds. 1.5 to prepare the minigun, 0.5 to be able to run again.
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Den
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Posts: 4,294,967,295
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Post by Den on Jun 25, 2016 17:16:13 GMT -5
Damn right. Given the style of this game, even just two or three people working well together can roll over a team of six randoms who really just do their own thing according to their role, the only thing that could stop them being a very skilled Offense hero beating them in direct combat. Whenever I'm going it alone, I can usually tell when I'm going up against a team that has a group in it - it's when my side gets steamrolled.
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Den
He's That Guy
Posts: 4,294,967,295
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Post by Den on Jun 23, 2016 7:19:31 GMT -5
Zen n' Dwarf buffs when
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Den
He's That Guy
Posts: 4,294,967,295
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Post by Den on Jun 21, 2016 19:03:38 GMT -5
ARD WARK PEYS ALF
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