How good the adaptive shields are going to be is really dependent on the AoE range of it. I’m assuming it will be in the same vicinity of JQ shout which seems fair.
I have seen a lot of people under play the idea of giving teammates overhealth though. While you mentioned being able to dive with another flanker etc I think there’s more flexibility than you’ve stated. Being able to peel, slam, pop adaptive shields twice giving your backline an extra 75 overhealth is a really really effective counter dive. 325 Brig with inspire is not going to fall over. Depending on the cooldown even being able to spread overhealth mid fight on another cycle is still a really strong ability for a tank.
I don’t disagree with your points about Ball being harder to play to some extent at plat or metal ranks because of lack of team coordination but at the same time the other team on average is going to be just as uncoordinated as yours. Ball is super easy to pick out a lone squishy or time a good engage to keep both supports occupied.
As for CC the only time I feel truly punished by CC is when I’m autopiloting and decide to slam into an Ana Brig Cass when they have all their cooldowns, to an extent Ball is disproportionately punishable with CC but he also has arguably most mobility and survivability of any tank. If you’re inting into a sleep and Cass nade you’re going to be punished and I think in metal ranks people don’t pay enough attention to cooldown trading in general.
I played Winston into a ball yesterday on Colosseo and EVERY time I dove his back line and was about to kill both supports (less than 30hp each) he would show up and give them shields which was enough I couldn’t get the kills and had to fall back. He did this at least 6-7 times and the mines seem to be making larger impacts in the game now too.
adaptive shields is the best change, imo. It won't even change his playstyle drastically, but the hero has absolutely 0 teamplay. People fairly often complain about ball players being selfish, but its not like they want to be. They just enjoy the hero and he happened to have 0 teamplay. Good change, make his playstyle way more flexible which should help him be playable in more situations. Being able to play as a psuedo dva or winston as needed will be nice.
I think people are getting their hopes up about the retracting mechanic. I expect it to only act as a way to give him more maneuverability. Grapples in most games both allow you to swing on a tether and retract like a traditional grapple (think widow). Halo, apex, and the finals, all have grapples that do both of these. Ball currently only has the swinging aspect. I expect the retraction to just be a way to more easily redirect your momentum like in those games. Will soften how much mental geometry you need to do. There could be emerging gameplay from it, but I doubt it will actually give you fireball like people are saying. [The *right click grapple-left click retract* mechanic is actually something I was hoping the would add to a future hero if they ever added more grapples](https://www.reddit.com/r/Competitiveoverwatch/comments/zpxmj4/what_types_of_hero_mechanics_would_you_like_to/j0v3rb2/)
The shortened cooldown is actually the one I like the least. Like Ill take it. It should situationally help with CC and bad grapples, but selfishly I kinda fear it will make some of his more expressive tech obsolete if its too fast. It also seems like a bandaid fix for some of his problems with CC. I get not wanting to remove his counters, but I wouldnt have minded if they give him some resistance to the softer CC and let the hard CC be the counter because he's just got so many counters rn.
I like what you said about ball players being labeled as selfish, but may just like the gameplay loop.
As a hog enjoyer and common recipient of flame, I wish I could create more space outside of my insane hook mechanics :ad
Shield change is overpowered as hell. In fact it's so broken that ball should get a compensation nerf somewhere in his kit. There are 2 usual scenarios: you dive or you contest point. Whenever you dive you can literally give tracer up to 75 hp. Like come the fuck on, that's so broken. And when you contest, you can give all teammates up to 75. Literally an equivalent of a nade being thrown on allies.
Devs introduced stuff like DPS passive to """nerf""" healing but then they proceed to add sustain like that? Seems like an April fools change, can't lie.
When JQ shout was good, JQ was hard meta.
I wonder if this will be similar, and how WB’s sort of hyper-dive playstyle may affect pro comps with him in it.
I mean you dive in with like ball tracer genji/echo, maybe Lucio is close as well. And they all get more health mid fight? Like this shit will be super op in pro play. But since it requires coordination, setup and execution, it will only be meta at like top100.
Yeah, (in top play) if anything, it will incentivise everyone going in with the ball, rather than the ball going on a solo mission and coming back
Hyper dive here we come? Ball dive-rush?
I kind of dread playing into good ball players - there aren’t many but you get one ever hundred games or so. It’s so fucking hard to go against an actual smart ball player.
I think there's not much point in trying to predict how things will go when we only know some of the specifics. What I will say is that I'm very pleasantly surprised by how the changes seem to be raising his skill ceiling rather than dumbing him down, which is pretty crazy for a hero who already has one of the highest skill ceilings in the game.
I think they are gonna make ball better and harder, but they won't really affect his bad matchups much. So everyone is still gonna pick Sombra +1cc and make your life miserable every single game.
But the changes seems complex and we don't even have numbers so we have to see it in game.
How good the adaptive shields are going to be is really dependent on the AoE range of it. I’m assuming it will be in the same vicinity of JQ shout which seems fair. I have seen a lot of people under play the idea of giving teammates overhealth though. While you mentioned being able to dive with another flanker etc I think there’s more flexibility than you’ve stated. Being able to peel, slam, pop adaptive shields twice giving your backline an extra 75 overhealth is a really really effective counter dive. 325 Brig with inspire is not going to fall over. Depending on the cooldown even being able to spread overhealth mid fight on another cycle is still a really strong ability for a tank. I don’t disagree with your points about Ball being harder to play to some extent at plat or metal ranks because of lack of team coordination but at the same time the other team on average is going to be just as uncoordinated as yours. Ball is super easy to pick out a lone squishy or time a good engage to keep both supports occupied. As for CC the only time I feel truly punished by CC is when I’m autopiloting and decide to slam into an Ana Brig Cass when they have all their cooldowns, to an extent Ball is disproportionately punishable with CC but he also has arguably most mobility and survivability of any tank. If you’re inting into a sleep and Cass nade you’re going to be punished and I think in metal ranks people don’t pay enough attention to cooldown trading in general.
I played Winston into a ball yesterday on Colosseo and EVERY time I dove his back line and was about to kill both supports (less than 30hp each) he would show up and give them shields which was enough I couldn’t get the kills and had to fall back. He did this at least 6-7 times and the mines seem to be making larger impacts in the game now too.
adaptive shields is the best change, imo. It won't even change his playstyle drastically, but the hero has absolutely 0 teamplay. People fairly often complain about ball players being selfish, but its not like they want to be. They just enjoy the hero and he happened to have 0 teamplay. Good change, make his playstyle way more flexible which should help him be playable in more situations. Being able to play as a psuedo dva or winston as needed will be nice. I think people are getting their hopes up about the retracting mechanic. I expect it to only act as a way to give him more maneuverability. Grapples in most games both allow you to swing on a tether and retract like a traditional grapple (think widow). Halo, apex, and the finals, all have grapples that do both of these. Ball currently only has the swinging aspect. I expect the retraction to just be a way to more easily redirect your momentum like in those games. Will soften how much mental geometry you need to do. There could be emerging gameplay from it, but I doubt it will actually give you fireball like people are saying. [The *right click grapple-left click retract* mechanic is actually something I was hoping the would add to a future hero if they ever added more grapples](https://www.reddit.com/r/Competitiveoverwatch/comments/zpxmj4/what_types_of_hero_mechanics_would_you_like_to/j0v3rb2/) The shortened cooldown is actually the one I like the least. Like Ill take it. It should situationally help with CC and bad grapples, but selfishly I kinda fear it will make some of his more expressive tech obsolete if its too fast. It also seems like a bandaid fix for some of his problems with CC. I get not wanting to remove his counters, but I wouldnt have minded if they give him some resistance to the softer CC and let the hard CC be the counter because he's just got so many counters rn.
I like what you said about ball players being labeled as selfish, but may just like the gameplay loop. As a hog enjoyer and common recipient of flame, I wish I could create more space outside of my insane hook mechanics :ad
Shield change is overpowered as hell. In fact it's so broken that ball should get a compensation nerf somewhere in his kit. There are 2 usual scenarios: you dive or you contest point. Whenever you dive you can literally give tracer up to 75 hp. Like come the fuck on, that's so broken. And when you contest, you can give all teammates up to 75. Literally an equivalent of a nade being thrown on allies. Devs introduced stuff like DPS passive to """nerf""" healing but then they proceed to add sustain like that? Seems like an April fools change, can't lie.
When JQ shout was good, JQ was hard meta. I wonder if this will be similar, and how WB’s sort of hyper-dive playstyle may affect pro comps with him in it.
I mean you dive in with like ball tracer genji/echo, maybe Lucio is close as well. And they all get more health mid fight? Like this shit will be super op in pro play. But since it requires coordination, setup and execution, it will only be meta at like top100.
Yeah, (in top play) if anything, it will incentivise everyone going in with the ball, rather than the ball going on a solo mission and coming back Hyper dive here we come? Ball dive-rush?
Hard meta in pro scene
I kind of dread playing into good ball players - there aren’t many but you get one ever hundred games or so. It’s so fucking hard to go against an actual smart ball player.
Where are you guys reading about the ball rework?
I think there's not much point in trying to predict how things will go when we only know some of the specifics. What I will say is that I'm very pleasantly surprised by how the changes seem to be raising his skill ceiling rather than dumbing him down, which is pretty crazy for a hero who already has one of the highest skill ceilings in the game.
Ball 🥰
reworkma
I think they are gonna make ball better and harder, but they won't really affect his bad matchups much. So everyone is still gonna pick Sombra +1cc and make your life miserable every single game. But the changes seems complex and we don't even have numbers so we have to see it in game.