In a conversation with a former pro gamer, the Lead Hero Designer of Overwatch discussed potential changes to several heroes. Specifically, certain attacks are supposed to deal more damage against armor.
Geoff Goodman, Lead Hero Designer of Overwatch, spoke in a stream with streamer and former Overwatch pro André “iddqd” Dahlström. During the discussion, it was noted that Winston’s attacks are too weak against armor. This observation extended to several heroes.
“Beam” attacks are too weak against armor
Which heroes are in question? Geoff Goodman mentioned in the interview “beam” attacks or “channelled” attacks. This type of attack currently applies to four heroes:
- Winston
- Zarya
- Symmetra
- Moira
All four heroes deal pulsating damage to their target in quick succession, rather than delivering a larger amount of damage in one go. In theory, this shouldn’t change the damage per second but has a significant downside.
If a hero has armor, each pulse is mitigated by the armor, which means significantly less damage over a certain time compared to heroes that hit harder. The team intends to address this issue.
What is the problem with armor? Armor reduces the strength of an attack by a certain value. Since the patch on January 24, 2019, this is 3 points of damage per attack (previously 5).
Armor blocks each attack individually. Therefore, if a major attack with 50 damage points hits, it only deals 47 hit points of damage. However, if there are five attacks with ten damage points each, only 35 points get through.
This makes armor significantly more effective against rapid attacks than against heroes who can hit harder. For heroes like Winston, this is a problem according to Goodman that needs to be addressed.
This is supposed to change: According to Goodman, there is a “new technology” that allows the team to balance the damage of channelled attacks and the reduction by armor. However, the specifics have not yet been disclosed.
However, it was stated that the solution does not involve making the attacks of the affected heroes slower and therefore stronger. Goodman wrote in the official forum that it does not feel “good” when the attacks are slower. It is better as it is now. Also, the attacks did not receive a buff per se; the damage against armor is simply to be adjusted.
An exact timeline for the patch is not yet known. However, Goodman mentioned that the changes could be possible “starting with the next patch.” This means that Zarya, Winston, Moira, and Symmetra could be better against armor starting with the next PTR patch.
The entire interview can be watched in iddqd’s videos.
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