I doubt Pharah's changes are related to the Torb rework. It'd be kind of weird for them to make changes to one character based on simultaneous untested changes to another character. More likely they'd wait to implement Torbjorn into live, make adjustments as necessary, and then make changes to other characters based on that.
I'm still having trouble imagining what kind of changes they could be making to Pharah. If it was just small number tweaks I dunno why they'd mention it ahead of time, but I guess we'll see.
It's not just buffed Torb turret (they've said that one of the changes is probably deploying a level 2 turret without having to hit it), the falloff buffs to McCree and Soldier and the nerf to Mercy's healing have made playing Pharah a lot more painful.
Yeah those make more sense for giving her some tweaks. Although a Pharmercy is still super strong, but her survivability without a dedicated Mercy is pretty rough right now. I'm not really sure what they might do to address that, though. They're not gonna make her hitbox smaller, they're not gonna give her more HP. She definitely doesn't need to do more damage. I guess they could just lower her cooldowns for better movement/escapes but I dunno how big an impact that will actually have on her success/pick rate (as someone who plays her a lot though, bring on the buffs).
Maybe they could give her a small amount of armor (in trade for some of her health)? She is wearing a full body suit of it after all. That'd give her a little more breathing room to get shots off and try to scoot back into cover.
Auto lvl 2 turrets, but down to 250 hps. That's not actually a horrible trade for pharah.
A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.
Well, at least we know in advance that Halloween is just going to be the same event in advance. Can't be disappointed when there's nothing to be excited about.
I dunno, I feel like Blizzard make a ton of money off this game, and could afford to hire more people if they really wanted to make these events feel fresh, but they just, don't. They did all that work in year 1, and now it's just a holding pattern apart from Archives.
Anyone got a breakdown of the torb changes since I can't watch that video atm? ( way too long to watch on break)
Scrap and armor is gone; Turret is only ever level 2, and you can toss it a short distance; a toned down Molten Core is now his E; his new ult (still called Molten Core because they wanted to keep the voice line) lets him fire a stream out of his left hand that leaves a high-damage puddle. Unspecified changes to his gun that'll be detailed in the patch notes.
Anyone got a breakdown of the torb changes since I can't watch that video atm? ( way too long to watch on break)
Scrap and armor is gone; Turret is only ever level 2, and you can toss it a short distance; a toned down Molten Core is now his E; his new ult (still called Molten Core because they wanted to keep the voice line) lets him fire a stream out of his left hand that leaves a high-damage puddle. Unspecified changes to his gun that'll be detailed in the patch notes.
Can you toss the new turret thru a symm portal? or does it have to be placed and active before it'll port?
PTR patch notes (only the major gameplay ones, minus Torb)!
Brigitte
- Barrier Shield
Shield health reduced from 600 to 500
McCree
- Combat Roll
Cooldown reduced from 8 to 6 seconds
Pharah
- Concussive Blast
Cooldown reduced from 12 to 9 seconds
- Rocket Launcher
Attack speed increased
Lowered recovery between shots from 0.9 to 0.75
Damage redistributed between explosion and impact
Explosion damage reduced from 80 to 65
Impact damage increased from 40 to 55
Explosion knockback reduced by 20%
Self-knockback range increased by 25%
Orisa
- Fusion Driver
Maximum spread reduced from 1.5 to 1.2
Soldier: 76
- Heavy Pulse Rifle
Number of shots until max spread increased from 6 to 9
Thoughts:
Brigitte change is exactly the nerf I expected/hoped for. McCree change isn't a bombshell but a nice quality-of-life change. Pharah changes are...interesting. Definitely like the reduced cooldown and increased boop of her concussive blast - that's going to make her a lot more mobile and thus survivable. Faster fire speed is nice, emphasis on direct shots over splash means she's more powerful at high levels, less powerful at low levels. Probably a good change, but I guess I'll have to learn how to hit direct rockets now. Orisa change doesn't seem like a huge buff, but will probably feel nice for Orisa mains. Soldier change is likely there to make sure he can still be a viable Pharah counter even with her new changes. Overall, good changes all around! Most of these will almost definitely make it to live, although Pharah has enough changes that those might see some tweaks.
it actually sucks thast torb can't make armor anymore
partly because I liked feeling like I was kind of a support, and partly because it removes the biggest thematic connection between torb and brigitte
Ya I kinda missed the old symm for same reason because of torb, there was a team combo that could just increase the hp pool of whole team dramatically.
The soldier change is bigger than it sounds like. Perfect accuracy for 9 shots before spread starts makes it much easier to quick burst down a lot of squishies, it's a meaningful boost to his lethality.
A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.
I hope I still enjoy Torb after this. His armor was fun as it felt like I was helping (specifically healers) and worked as a dueling self-heal. Dropping L2 turrets will help with dueling though.
The soldier change is bigger than it sounds like. Perfect accuracy for 9 shots before spread starts makes it much easier to quick burst down a lot of squishies, it's a meaningful boost to his lethality.
It says number of shots until MAX spread. So is that stretching out the rate at which it spreads? Or is it confirmed, more shots before the spread starts? Either way, it's good, but one is way better than the other.
The soldier change is bigger than it sounds like. Perfect accuracy for 9 shots before spread starts makes it much easier to quick burst down a lot of squishies, it's a meaningful boost to his lethality.
It says number of shots until MAX spread. So is that stretching out the rate at which it spreads? Or is it confirmed, more shots before the spread starts? Either way, it's good, but one is way better than the other.
Ok I checked it out in PTR. Looks like he gets 4 shots before spread starts (I think it was 3 before); however, the 5th one is very small increase. It's almost perfect. On the practice range, from as far away as I could get from a practice bot, I could put 6-7 headshots in before a miss or body shot. This seems like a really good buff.
Which is good, because outside of pocket strats, Soldier has been kind of weak (relatively) for a while now. If these new changes do see an uptick in Torb and Pharah use, a stronger Soldier will definitely be a good counter choice.
+1
Options
The Escape Goatincorrigible ruminantthey/themRegistered Userregular
I love playing Winston, so good riddance to armour packs.
While I did find doling out armor fun, it's probably for the best to do away with it for the entrenchment aspect. The fact that a character isn't at their best until after the first fight--even beyond ult charge--and actively punished attacking teams for failing to push onto the point is kinda wonky design. Plus just on demand giving Zarya and Zen armor with its interaction with shields throws those heroes' matchup balances way askew.
Brigitte still provides that problem, but at least it's kinda sorta tied to a notable cooldown?
A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.
+8
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BaidolI will hold him offEscape while you canRegistered Userregular
From playing for like, all of 30 minutes on PTR, my definitely definitive and 100% accurate take on NuTorb:
He feels pretty good! Specifically the flow of his gameplay feels much, much better. You get to move around and participate in team fights and just generally feel active in a way that you never really got to before. The "molten core as E" thing introduces a fun little dynamic into dueling as Torb, it makes him much more deadly and tougher, but it's only for 5 seconds so if you get baited out too early your enemy can just dodge you for a few seconds and then finish you off. Getting the left and right clicks on the same cooldowns makes a minor but really noticeable difference too, it just feels better to shoot at stuff. You can engage in a fight, chuck down a turret, then as the fight moves smoothly self-destruct the turret and reposition not long afterwards, and suddenly being able to drop a turret adds in another factor to Torb's interesting duelist game. Like most other DPS will smash you pretty quick if its just guns, but Torb's abilities can suddenly turn the tables and put the opponent into a bad spot.
More generally, Torb feels strong against tanks - esp off tanks - but weaker against other DPS, esp without his turret. He's still got a huuuge head hitbox, a fact that more than counterbalances his ability to suddenly give himself 150 armor.
I need more time to get a feel for Torb's new molten core, but it does feel like very much a "fuck goats" gun. Since I didn't play against any tank-heavy comps though, it didn't really do much other than deny space for a while.
A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.
A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.
Anyone got a breakdown of the torb changes since I can't watch that video atm? ( way too long to watch on break)
Scrap and armor is gone; Turret is only ever level 2, and you can toss it a short distance; a toned down Molten Core is now his E; his new ult (still called Molten Core because they wanted to keep the voice line) lets him fire a stream out of his left hand that leaves a high-damage puddle. Unspecified changes to his gun that'll be detailed in the patch notes.
Posts
Maybe they could give her a small amount of armor (in trade for some of her health)? She is wearing a full body suit of it after all. That'd give her a little more breathing room to get shots off and try to scoot back into cover.
I dunno, I feel like Blizzard make a ton of money off this game, and could afford to hire more people if they really wanted to make these events feel fresh, but they just, don't. They did all that work in year 1, and now it's just a holding pattern apart from Archives.
Scrap and armor is gone; Turret is only ever level 2, and you can toss it a short distance; a toned down Molten Core is now his E; his new ult (still called Molten Core because they wanted to keep the voice line) lets him fire a stream out of his left hand that leaves a high-damage puddle. Unspecified changes to his gun that'll be detailed in the patch notes.
Can you toss the new turret thru a symm portal? or does it have to be placed and active before it'll port?
PTR patch notes (only the major gameplay ones, minus Torb)!
Thoughts:
Brigitte change is exactly the nerf I expected/hoped for. McCree change isn't a bombshell but a nice quality-of-life change. Pharah changes are...interesting. Definitely like the reduced cooldown and increased boop of her concussive blast - that's going to make her a lot more mobile and thus survivable. Faster fire speed is nice, emphasis on direct shots over splash means she's more powerful at high levels, less powerful at low levels. Probably a good change, but I guess I'll have to learn how to hit direct rockets now. Orisa change doesn't seem like a huge buff, but will probably feel nice for Orisa mains. Soldier change is likely there to make sure he can still be a viable Pharah counter even with her new changes. Overall, good changes all around! Most of these will almost definitely make it to live, although Pharah has enough changes that those might see some tweaks.
partly because I liked feeling like I was kind of a support, and partly because it removes the biggest thematic connection between torb and brigitte
Ya I kinda missed the old symm for same reason because of torb, there was a team combo that could just increase the hp pool of whole team dramatically.
this isn't jarate
Steam: MightyPotatoKing
It says number of shots until MAX spread. So is that stretching out the rate at which it spreads? Or is it confirmed, more shots before the spread starts? Either way, it's good, but one is way better than the other.
Steam: MightyPotatoKing
Ok I checked it out in PTR. Looks like he gets 4 shots before spread starts (I think it was 3 before); however, the 5th one is very small increase. It's almost perfect. On the practice range, from as far away as I could get from a practice bot, I could put 6-7 headshots in before a miss or body shot. This seems like a really good buff.
While I did find doling out armor fun, it's probably for the best to do away with it for the entrenchment aspect. The fact that a character isn't at their best until after the first fight--even beyond ult charge--and actively punished attacking teams for failing to push onto the point is kinda wonky design. Plus just on demand giving Zarya and Zen armor with its interaction with shields throws those heroes' matchup balances way askew.
Brigitte still provides that problem, but at least it's kinda sorta tied to a notable cooldown?
https://www.reddit.com/r/Overwatch/comments/9hunrk/new_mei_ult_visuals_on_ptr/
I wish they'd do that for Death Blossom. I've died too many times to that because I thought I was out of range.
Steam: MightyPotatoKing
He feels pretty good! Specifically the flow of his gameplay feels much, much better. You get to move around and participate in team fights and just generally feel active in a way that you never really got to before. The "molten core as E" thing introduces a fun little dynamic into dueling as Torb, it makes him much more deadly and tougher, but it's only for 5 seconds so if you get baited out too early your enemy can just dodge you for a few seconds and then finish you off. Getting the left and right clicks on the same cooldowns makes a minor but really noticeable difference too, it just feels better to shoot at stuff. You can engage in a fight, chuck down a turret, then as the fight moves smoothly self-destruct the turret and reposition not long afterwards, and suddenly being able to drop a turret adds in another factor to Torb's interesting duelist game. Like most other DPS will smash you pretty quick if its just guns, but Torb's abilities can suddenly turn the tables and put the opponent into a bad spot.
More generally, Torb feels strong against tanks - esp off tanks - but weaker against other DPS, esp without his turret. He's still got a huuuge head hitbox, a fact that more than counterbalances his ability to suddenly give himself 150 armor.
I need more time to get a feel for Torb's new molten core, but it does feel like very much a "fuck goats" gun. Since I didn't play against any tank-heavy comps though, it didn't really do much other than deny space for a while.
Armor here!
With a bonus clipshow
kolorblind is a top 500 / #1 Bastion main who is, well, colorblind. She was streaming when the PTR colorblind patch went up:
https://clips.twitch.tv/PowerfulHardStinkbugRiPepperonis
https://clips.twitch.tv/RichNeighborlyDurianBlargNaut
I hate this
81% accuracy (88% at one point), 25 hooks landed
i then followed up this ultimate god tier performance by doing absolutely nothing on Route 66 but winning anyway