Blizzard Working on "Balance Changes" for Overwatch's McCree

[Lizzy Finnegan]

Blizzard Working on "Balance Changes" for Overwatch's McCree

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Changes for D. Va are "still in exploration mode."

In a recent interview with Eurogamer [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-06-07-overwatch-blizzard-answers-the-big-questions], Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan said that Blizzard is looking into reducing the damage from McCree's fan attack - a move where he unloads his clip into the enemy. While McCree will still easily be able to challenge characters like Tracer and Genji, he will be less effective against tanks.

"The goal there is to make it so that McCree can still use his combo that we love, which is the flashbang and fan the hammer on somebody like Tracer. McCree should absolutely kill that Tracer. We want McCree to be a counter to people like Tracer, Genji and Reaper," Kaplan said. "What we're not crazy about, right now, is the way in which McCree can absolutely shred tanks. It's a little too easy, so we want to bring the fan the hammer damage down, so he's still killing the squishies and the medium strength heroes, but he's less effective against the tanks. If he times everything perfectly and gets every single shot off, he's got a shot against a tank, but it's not the instant 'I win' button that it is right now."

As for changes to D. Va, Kaplan says the team is "still in exploration mode."

"Obviously her damage has come into question from a lot of people. You have to be really close to do effective damage with D. Va and we might look at that," he said. "We might also look at her survivability. A lot of time, D. Va can get herself into situations where she's a tank and it feels like she should be there, but then she gets knocked out of that mech so quickly. We probably won't do a bunch of buffs to her damage and her survivability; we'll probably pick one direction or the other, but right now, we've been exploring both."

Some of the considerations are high-damage with lower survivability and not buffing her damage, but buffing her survivability. Either way, Kaplan believes that McCree's balance adjustments will come first because he is "causing a lot of concern in the community," whereas D. Va's "not in a horrible place."

In other Overwatch news, Eurogamer interview [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/167627-Blizzard-Games-Can-Soon-Be-Streamed-to-Facebook]).

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[FillerDmon]

Huh. In my 50+ hours of gameplay I've not been bothered -too- much by the Stun-Unload combo. His Ultimate's probably more annoying over my experience. I've observed both, though. My Reinhardt and Roadhog struggling against skilled McCree in melee. But then again, Blizzard does know what they're doing in this regard.

As for D.Va, oh my god that Mech feels like it doesn't last, like, at all. And it bugs me.

....all those nitpicks aside, I fucking love Blizzard going out of their way to keep balancing and fixing the game and giving it all this attention. That's awesome. I spent my money happily. I actually even got a family member to want in on it.

 

[chocolate pickles]

Mcree is fine as he is. Yes, he does high damage, but he's fragile, and he's only really suited for 1-on-1 combat.

Bastion, on the other hand ...

 

[XenoScifi]

What?! Nothing wrong with flash/fan combos. Sounds like players need to git gud.

May as well nerf Roadhogs hook/left click combo too.

 

[Eri]

I'm not sure why Blizzard insists on not setting a time for the patch. We all know it will happen at high noon.

 

[SlumlordThanatos]

Nothing is wrong with a flash/fan combo. I mean, that's how you deal with the likes of Tracer, Genji, and Reaper.

The problem is that a flash/fan/roll/fan combo can kill my 600 health Roadhog before I can really do anything about it. I'm dead before I can throw a hook.

I don't think a reduction in damage is needed; rather, a brief cooldown on Fan the Hammer (say, three or four seconds) should do the trick. Make it so that it is up when you need it, but not so often that you can chain two fans together.

At least Blizzard isn't making a knee-jerk reaction to all the whining about Widowmaker. She's not nearly the problem that McCree is right now.

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

Mcree is fine as he is. Yes, he does high damage, but he's fragile, and he's only really suited for 1-on-1 combat.

Bastion, on the other hand ...

McCree is good at all ranges. Something that no other character can boast. Even better than Bastion as Bastion needs a good set up point before his DPS comes into play. McCree can always be mobile.

That's what people hate about him. You try to engage at afar, he still can put a hurt on you. Try to get up and personal? Stun/Fan.

 

[Metalrocks]

d.va is indeed quickly down. when i play as a sniper and i see her, she is the easiest target to hit. thats why when i play d.va, i play only against AI because they at least dont get you that quickly down as a player would.

at least they are trying to make some changes.

 

[That Guy Ya Know]

Personally I feel like D.Va needs some defense against head shots, maybe give her reduced damage from them or some shield health which is only considered for headshots as is she basically only has 300 mech health because anyone she is facing can and will easily score almost all headshots with the misses still scoring regular hits.

At least Blizzard isn't making a knee-jerk reaction to all the whining about Widowmaker. She's not nearly the problem that McCree is right now.

Eeeh I see the point of the complaints against Widowmaker, (On pc at least, cant speak for how she plays with a controller) the skill ceiling for her is too high meaning while most Widowmakers are fine sometime you end up in a match with a really good one who just dominates the whole game and countering them is damn near impossible on some maps. Pretty much the only counter is Winston who lacks the vertical mobility to get to her on some maps.

Ideally she needs to be reigned in so having a really good Widowmaker isn't just the auto win it is now but so those who are merely good or worse are still just as effective.

 

[The Enquirer]

Mcree is fine as he is. Yes, he does high damage, but he's fragile, and he's only really suited for 1-on-1 combat.

Bastion, on the other hand ...

Actually between flash > fan > roll > fan he does over 800 damage in around 2 seconds. Each fan combo will deal 420 damage, enough to kill any non tank immediately. Using it a second time with the roll can kill any character except a full health Ultimate mode Winston, and even then it will only take 2 more shots to kill him. It's completely made Reaper irrelevant in his role of tank buster.

Nothing is wrong with a flash/fan combo. I mean, that's how you deal with the likes of Tracer, Genji, and Reaper.

The problem is that a flash/fan/roll/fan combo can kill my 600 health Roadhog before I can really do anything about it. I'm dead before I can throw a hook.

I don't think a reduction in damage is needed; rather, a brief cooldown on Fan the Hammer (say, three or four seconds) should do the trick. Make it so that it is up when you need it, but not so often that you can chain two fans together.

At least Blizzard isn't making a knee-jerk reaction to all the whining about Widowmaker. She's not nearly the problem that McCree is right now.

If you read above that's why they should probably reduce the damage on it. A CD would be nice, but remember he will be able to roll and reload. After the flashbang hits and fan hammer, it'll only take 2-3 shots to kill you depending on headshots. It'll make focusing down a roadhog extremely easy since unlike the other tanks he has no escape or shield and simply relies on a huge health pool.

With widowmaker I think part of the problem is that her ult has no counter. It is announced so quietly you can't hear it unless you're right next to her and it persists after she dies. Personally I'd have it work more like actual radar wherein it sends a blip out that will reveal everyone's last location several times.

 

[Cowabungaa]

I don't think a reduction in damage is needed; rather, a brief cooldown on Fan the Hammer (say, three or four seconds) should do the trick. Make it so that it is up when you need it, but not so often that you can chain two fans together.

Then again, that makes his reload-roll way less useful. That's the thing with certain heroes, their abilities are really made to be in tune with each other. McCree is like the example of that. But as someone who plays Roadhog and Winston a lot I definitely thinks McCree needs a nerf. But how to do it...that's a tough-y.

I still like to play McCree though. I love his anti-mobility-heroes role. But like he is he murders almost everything way too easily.

Oh and yeah I'd definitely play D.VA more often if she could actually tank.

 

[Rednog]

I'll be honest I'm a bit worried for McCree, hes has that really unique spot of being an all around good single target assassin that can instant gib important targets. It really is his whole gimmick, if tanks will be able to shrug it off and turn on him, he's just going to see a lot less play.

If I were balancing McCree and I was so worried about his ability to melt tanks I'd give tanks and inherent resistance to the flash bang. They need a direct hit to get the full stun, otherwise they get greatly reduced stun, say 1 second or just an interruption to their action.

And I'm honestly shocked the snipers are getting a passed over for nerfs. Really good snipers are obscenely devastating. The game rewards rapid firing and non charged shots way too much. You see some people just treat the bow and sniper rifle like a single fire assault rifle. It's annoying to flank a sniper shoot them in the back for half their hp for them to spin and instant kill you with a hit to the arm or leg if you're any of the 200hp or lower characters.

As for D.Va there's two ways I would even her out. I'd either give her mech a spool up time on her guns that increases accuracy the longer she fires. After a delay of one second of firing her accuracy increases to eventually give her point blank damage at medium range after say 3 or so seconds.
Or I'd give D.Va abilities herself, being outside of the Mech just feels terrible, all you do is bunny hop around in the back hoping you get enough ping shots by holding down the trigger to earn your Mech back.

 

[thewatergamer]

Great, maybe you could also consider making your fee to pay business model more reasonable for those peasants who don't have alot of money on them? No? Never mind then

 

[Yuuki]

I agree with these changes.

But I'm surprised there has been no word about addressing Widowmaker and Hanzo on PC.

Widowmaker - at this point pretty much everyone can agree her charge-up time to max damage is WAY too short. She can 1-shot characters like Mercy, Zenyatta, Tracer, etc too easily. Yes counter-heroes exist, but not to the point where you can insta-die (repeatedly) to a Widow from the other side of the map and she doesn't even have to land a headshot. Pretty much everyone can agree that her charge time needs to be longer. Other than that she's fine.

Hanzo - arrow hitboxes were obviously designed to be huge (think tree trunks) on purpose, but Blizzard have made them TOO huge to the point of stupidity. For example it was recently found out that Hanzo can actually hit characters around corners as long as his arrow closely passes them, because his arrow's "extended" hitbox goes through walls/cover. When combined with the fact that clients only receive updates at 20hz, this can result in some really fucking frustrating deaths against Hanzo.
The hitboxes also often mean you can get hit in the upper chest area and die from a "headshot" because the arrow's hitbox technically hit your neck/head as well.

Again I must clarify that I'm only suggesting this for PC version, as on console it's vastly harder to use sniper-class heroes like Widowmaker and Hanzo.
Blizzard have thankfully confirmed that PC and consoles will be balanced seperately. Finally a developer who actually takes balance seriously.

 

[Lightspeaker]

Eh...I'm sort of torn on this. Its pretty important for McCree to be able to reliably deal with any backliners. That being said the flash/fan combo can be grossly overpowering in some circumstances.

As far as D.Va goes...I don't really have a huge problem with her honestly. She's a niche tank but she's not bad. I like her as a dip-in, dip-out kind of tank like Winston. The biggest problem with her is that to really get any damage out you have to be super close but that HUGE windscreen being a headshot target means getting close makes it hard for opponents to miss.

I'd try reducing the headbox target on the Mech and tightening up the spread of its guns a little. See what that does to her effectiveness.

Great, maybe you could also consider making your fee to pay business model more reasonable for those peasants who don't have alot of money on them? No? Never mind then

They are literally only selling cosmetics. Which you get at a reasonable rate anyway just by playing.

There is literally no way to make it MORE 'reasonable' short of taking them out entirely. Which they probably won't do because its what they're relying on to keep the game going in terms of future patches and additions.

I can understand hatred of microtransactions in general, I'm not exactly a huge fan myself, but cosmetics only is about the most reasonable microtransaction model around.

 

[ron1n]

For D.Va, Just make the head hitbox smaller, and remove or lessen the slowdown when shes firing in the mech.

McCree I feel is just a really badly designed character. The stun combo is stupid simple, and just anti-fun. Even worse, they've effectively balanced other characters around the fact the stun exists. Anyway, easiest way to fix him wouldn't be to nerf the fan damage, but rather just nerf his ability to spam it twice, which means simply changing how his escape roll works (i.e not auto reloading his gun)

 

[Zydrate]

As for D.Va, oh my god that Mech feels like it doesn't last, like, at all. And it bugs me.

I have a problem with her, as well. I think her "tank"ness is supposed to come from her defensive "Kill all projectiles" ability, I forget what it's called. But without that, it does get burned very quickly.

 

[The Enquirer]

As for D.Va, oh my god that Mech feels like it doesn't last, like, at all. And it bugs me.

I have a problem with her, as well. I think her "tank"ness is supposed to come from her defensive "Kill all projectiles" ability, I forget what it's called. But without that, it does get burned very quickly.

Initially it was supposed to be her armor. Armor reduces the damage of every shot by 5, making her a very effective counter to characters like s76, tracer, and Winston. But it doesn't do quite enough.

And I believe it's Defense Matrix.

 

[step1999]

For D.Va, Just make the head hitbox smaller, and remove or lessen the slowdown when shes firing in the mech.

McCree I feel is just a really badly designed character. The stun combo is stupid simple, and just anti-fun. Even worse, they've effectively balanced other characters around the fact the stun exists. Anyway, easiest way to fix him wouldn't be to nerf the fan damage, but rather just nerf his ability to spam it twice, which means simply changing how his escape roll works (i.e not auto reloading his gun)

The problem with that is that the roll is practically useless without the reload. They'd have to severely cut down it's cooldown and increase the distance you go with it for it to still be useful, and that would probably cause more balnce problems. IMO giving the fan a cooldown like Lucio's soundwave would be the best option (this is all coming from someone who plays McCree a lot).