Blizzard is "Exploring Some Options" to Improve Overwatch's Zenyatta

[ffronw]

Blizzard is "Exploring Some Options" to Improve Overwatch's Zenyatta

//cdn.themis-media.com/media/global/images/library/deriv/1333/1333274.jpgBlizzard's already been making changes to Overwatch characters, and now they've got their eye on Zenyatta.

Unless you've been living under a rock, you pretty much know about Overwatch. Blizzard's shooter has taken the gaming world by storm, and they've been working on not only console patch that dialed back Torbjorn [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/167826-Overwatch-Competitive-Mode-PC-Launch], and now Blizzard is turning it eye on one of the game's less-played heroes: zen robot Zenyatta.

Game Director Jeff Kaplan has been extremely responsive to user inquiries in the forums, and yesterday, he popped in to answer a user's question about Zenyatta. Kaplan confirmed that the team was looking at how to handle the hero. He wrote [http://us.battle.net/forums/en/overwatch/topic/20745755226#post-4],

"We've been talking about him. We wanted to see how the Widowmaker and McCree balance changes played out before making any changes. We're exploring some options right now. Nothing more to report at this time."

It's not surprising to anyone who's been playing the recently-launched competitive mode that Zenyatta could be in line for some changes, because you almost never see anyone playing him. There's no word on what changes might be forthcoming to improve the character, but it's nice to know that Blizzard is aware that changes are needed.

Got an idea how they could make Zenyatta more appealing? Tell us what it is in the forums!



Permalink

 

[SirSullymore]

Ya know how when you discord an enemy and the game puts a symbol over their head? I think I would be cool if the entire team could see that.

 

[Erttheking]

Ya know how when you discord an enemy and the game puts a symbol over their head? I think I would be cool if the entire team could see that.

No kidding. He alone can do major damage when that happens, a team that could see it would make him much more valuable.

 

[Sonmi]

An extra 25 health so that he can survive a bodyshot from Widow, as well as an immunity from Junkrat's floor traps (considering he floats and all) and that would be enough in my opinion.

 

[hermes]

Yes, please.

I love his design, but he is such a hard and niche character to play effectively, that I barely ever use it (and, apparently, I am not alone)

 

[Rednog]

There's several problems with Zenyatta, primarily is that he is completely outclassed in healing compared to Lucio and Mercy. Which makes me wonder why he doesn't have a niche for healing. Lucio is the aoe healer, Mercy is the single target healer...so why did they make Zenyatta a really weak single target heal?

Personally I'd target Orb of Harmony. Since discord makes an enemy take more damage why not make Harmony give the target reduction to taking damage while still having the weak heal? Or make him the hybrid of Lucio and Mercy where his orb primarily heals the target but also gives minor healing to those around the orb.

Or if they really want him to be the attack based healer, I'd dump his charge attack. It's utter garbage and nine times out of ten spamming primary attack on a discorded target will be a faster kill. I'd make his alternate attack increase the effectiveness of whatever orb he's targeting. Alt on harmony it rapidly increases healing for a short burst, target discord it slows the affected enemy down. Just make it consume whatever number of orbs and make it have a cooldown like Lucio's alt fire.

If for some ungodly reason they want to keep the charge attack, have the orbs form a small energy shield in front of him while charging to at least give it some viability as an offensive option.

 

[teh_Canape]

how about a garvity well type of skill that flings all your teammates next to you when you activate invincibility so that you can actually make a push instead of using voice commands to tell them to get close and you don't end up wasting the damn thing because you're in the middle of a pack of morons
I am canape, I main Zenyatta, and I'm mad salty

 

[voidraz]

There's several problems with Zenyatta, primarily is that he is completely outclassed in healing compared to Lucio and Mercy. Which makes me wonder why he doesn't have a niche for healing. Lucio is the aoe healer, Mercy is the single target healer...so why did they make Zenyatta a really weak single target heal?

Personally I'd target Orb of Harmony. Since discord makes an enemy take more damage why not make Harmony give the target reduction to taking damage while still having the weak heal? Or make him the hybrid of Lucio and Mercy where his orb primarily heals the target but also gives minor healing to those around the orb.

Or if they really want him to be the attack based healer, I'd dump his charge attack. It's utter garbage and nine times out of ten spamming primary attack on a discorded target will be a faster kill. I'd make his alternate attack increase the effectiveness of whatever orb he's targeting. Alt on harmony it rapidly increases healing for a short burst, target discord it slows the affected enemy down. Just make it consume whatever number of orbs and make it have a cooldown like Lucio's alt fire.

If for some ungodly reason they want to keep the charge attack, have the orbs form a small energy shield in front of him while charging to at least give it some viability as an offensive option.

Honestly, one or two small improvements to almost anything of his would make a huge difference. The charge attack is fine to keep around, it's a great option for eating tanks who wander in your path. Would be nice if you could add almost anything to that attack to make it more practical though. Be able to discord mid charge, lose less movement speed while charging, add a small shield. Or even just increasing his hp to greater than that of "tissue paper."

He's really not a bad hero, he just needs some tweaks to stop getting outclassed all the time.

 

[teh_Canape]

There's several problems with Zenyatta, primarily is that he is completely outclassed in healing compared to Lucio and Mercy. Which makes me wonder why he doesn't have a niche for healing. Lucio is the aoe healer, Mercy is the single target healer...so why did they make Zenyatta a really weak single target heal?

this gets me because zenyatta's heal is pretty good by the fact that it heals the target as it moves, instead of having to be nearby like lucio and mercy
but the fact that it's line of sight ruins it
they should alter orb of harmony to make it fire and forget so that the target can be healed and you can go on somewhere else
put it on a timer or something, idk, don't have one of the frailest characters out there being put on risk like that
and it would be neat if you could fire like 3 orbs of harmony
that would be grand, it would be nice

 

[IamLEAM1983]

Being a filthy console peasant, I've found that Zenyatta is really best-suited for players who want to contribute, but as far away from the front lines as possible. I play him pretty often, and I rarely, if ever go on offense on my lonesome - it's just too risky. Kill assists are Zen's bread and butter, as opposed to standard eliminations for Lucio.

That said, I'd love it if his Orb of Discord could penetrate a rival Reinhardt's shield. I mean, it's not a projectile so much as an added effect, and applying a debuff doesn't mean you're guaranteed a kill or an assist.

 

[Lufia Erim]

Gotta change his alt fire. It's terrible. Either make it charge faster or give him a new one. Also, allow him to heal himself with his orb. Maybe give him half the healing of the person the orb is on.

 

[RedDeadFred]

An extra 25 health so that he can survive a bodyshot from Widow, as well as an immunity from Junkrat's floor traps (considering he floats and all) and that would be enough in my opinion.

After the Widow nerf, he can actually survive her body shots. She only does 120 now. I think his major issue comes down to a lack of mobility. If you look at Tracer, the only other character with 150 health, she makes up for her low health by being incredibly mobile. I'd remove Zen's alternate fire in favour of a mobility ability or maybe a survival ability.

 

[Catface Meowmers]

I don't know why everyone's complaining about his charge attack/alt fire. You can one-shot snipers without using the Orb of Discord, which puts them into scramble mode immediately. You can put most non-tanks into retreat mode by eating 80-90% of their health in one shot.

I love Zenyatta, but he definitely requires good teamwork to be fully effective.

 

[That Guy Ya Know]

An extra 25 health so that he can survive a bodyshot from Widow, as well as an immunity from Junkrat's floor traps (considering he floats and all) and that would be enough in my opinion.

After the Widow nerf, he can actually survive her body shots. She only does 120 now. I think his major issue comes down to a lack of mobility. If you look at Tracer, the only other character with 150 health, she makes up for her low health by being incredibly mobile. I'd remove Zen's alternate fire in favour of a mobility ability or maybe a survival ability.

Plus she gets an in combat heal. The lack of an in combat heal is definitely part of the problem, both the other healers have 50 more health plus they constantly regen in combat making their effective health even higher to anything but a near instant kill.

Personally I think they definitely need to make his alt fire let him reassign orbs at the same time, it feels like they want you to hide behind cover and peek out to unleash the alt fire in order to make up for his terrible health but the inability to reassign orbs as needed while doing that makes the alt fire really suck. Not sure if that would be enough but it would definitely help.

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

I don't know why everyone's complaining about his charge attack/alt fire. You can one-shot snipers without using the Orb of Discord, which puts them into scramble mode immediately. You can put most non-tanks into retreat mode by eating 80-90% of their health in one shot.

I love Zenyatta, but he definitely requires good teamwork to be fully effective.

This so hard.

Zenyatta is a beast character when played correctly. He lets teams bring down tanks in seconds, can kill most things himself extremely quickly and his ult has finished more objectives than I can count.

Global indicator for the Discord Orb would be neat tho.

 

[Aeshi]

I haven't played Zenyatta much, but he is definitely too much risk for too little reward. As is you may as well just code it so that he insta-dies the moment the enemy team contains a Reaper, Genji or hell even Winston. And for what? Orb of Discord is nice, but against non-tanks you could just be going Hanzo or Widowmaker just cut out the middle-man by just plain killing them instead, and those two have more HP & mobility (and in Widow's case, range) to boot.

As is he's situationally useful against Tank-heavy teams and basically useless anywhere else. And it's a real pity because he's quite fun to play.

 

[Wylade]

Changing his alt-fire to unload the shots all at once with less accuracy would give him at least a CHANCE to deal with close range targets, provided he predicts them and charges in time. Or maybe making it discharge all of his remaining ammo into an AOE ring around himself.

If they just wanna touch numbers or something small, allowing him to assign orbs while charging would go a long way to making him feel less restrictive, or giving his Harmony Orb a small instant heal could help him in clutch situations.

Currently, he's really REALLY good at poking targets at medium range from behind an allies shield, and absolutely nothing else. I think maybe giving him more power if he anticipates flanks would be the way to go if I had to make the call.

 

[elvor0]

I don't know why everyone's complaining about his charge attack/alt fire. You can one-shot snipers without using the Orb of Discord, which puts them into scramble mode immediately. You can put most non-tanks into retreat mode by eating 80-90% of their health in one shot.

I love Zenyatta, but he definitely requires good teamwork to be fully effective.

This so hard.

Zenyatta is a beast character when played correctly. He lets teams bring down tanks in seconds, can kill most things himself extremely quickly and his ult has finished more objectives than I can count.

Global indicator for the Discord Orb would be neat tho.

While it's true that a good Zenyatta can be great, the point is that he still can't be as great as the other healers, he actually came out of the recent Alienware monthly tourney with 0 picks. 0 out of 900. His use has actually /fallen/ in general since the Widowmaker nerf, he might be useful in QM against uncoordinated teams, but when the best players in the world are just flat out ignoring him, it clearly highlights that he is in desperate need of a buff, because this is an area where "when played correctly" just doesn't cut it.

 

[omega 616]

Well in my humble and uneducated opinion ('cos I am no expert of game balancing or development or even being a good player) I think he needs more health, his health orb is more like Mercy in terms of heal rate and orb of discord should be visible to your whole team, maybe kind of like Widow Makers ult 'cos as far as I am aware the discord orb comes back after a set time and knowing where one enemy team member is isn't super OP, is it?

I think he already hits quite hard, I've been surprised a few times by him ... both in terms of how quickly I killed and got killed. Though I never use them charge up thing, I just ***** slap them at the enemy.

So more healthy, heal quicker and orb of discord highlights the one enemy player.

 

[RJ 17]

Soooooo what about that D.Va buff to make her a better initiator? Just kinda gonna leave that one alone?