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

[karloss01]

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.

They already can, whether they act on it is an entirely different question.

As a Zenyatta main (because no one wants to be support), I don't have much of a problem with him; sticking with his team is paramount due to his fragile health.

I think his damage output is fine, Discord allows him to do some insane damage is left unchecked.

His harmony is also fine; the only issue I have with it is sometimes it's difficult to heal one character amongst a cluster of them but that's the same for most abilities like his.

Transcendence is great if the team make use of it. I did have an idea of perhaps allowing his transcendence to have both a harmony and discord affect; using the Shift and E keys to switch between the two to buff your team or debuff the enemy (though at the risk of running into their lines to debuff as many as possible).

His mobility would be the biggest flaw to him; when he dies he usually won't be back in time to help his now (possibly) unaided team members. I think if they either upped his speed a little or allow him to levitate over gaps could help him move around the map better. Perhaps hold jump (SPACE)to levitate for three - four seconds across equal level gaps (so no ability to elevate himself).

One thing I don't use is his secondary function for his orbs I find it a lot easier to just hurl singles then try and live long enough to charge up to five and then lead them hopefully to where the enemy is going to be. If they adjusted this so that the volley was instant with a cool down (and maybe a damage debuff) I'd probably use it more because even in close quarters it's pretty useless.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

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.

They already can, whether they act on it is an entirely different question.

As a Zenyatta main (because no one wants to be support), I don't have much of a problem with him; sticking with his team is paramount due to his fragile health.

I think his damage output is fine, Discord allows him to do some insane damage is left unchecked.

His harmony is also fine; the only issue I have with it is sometimes it's difficult to heal one character amongst a cluster of them but that's the same for most abilities like his.

Transcendence is great if the team make use of it. I did have an idea of perhaps allowing his transcendence to have both a harmony and discord affect; using the Shift and E keys to switch between the two to buff your team or debuff the enemy (though at the risk of running into their lines to debuff as many as possible).

His mobility would be the biggest flaw to him; when he dies he usually won't be back in time to help his now (possibly) unaided team members. I think if they either upped his speed a little or allow him to levitate over gaps could help him move around the map better. Perhaps hold jump (SPACE)to levitate for three - four seconds across equal level gaps (so no ability to elevate himself).

One thing I don't use is his secondary function for his orbs I find it a lot easier to just hurl singles then try and live long enough to charge up to five and then lead them hopefully to where the enemy is going to be. If they adjusted this so that the volley was instant with a cool down (and maybe a damage debuff) I'd probably use it more because even in close quarters it's pretty useless.

yeah I was scratching my head there, because I swore I saw it all the time and would specifically shoot for the person that was orb'd, but I don't play as zenyatta, I just play with/against him probably more than most.

OT: I think he is a bit underpowered in certain situations, but at the same time with a *decent* team that he sticks to, the fucker can be deadly as hell and that discord orb is already like a seeking missile, so with him strafing in the background he can be a monster.

I do like the idea of him getting the hold jump to levitate for a few seconds, and I wouldn't mind his ult getting the switch between buff/debuff, would give him more versatility without OP'ing him.

 

[ron1n]

He desperately needs a self heal, escape or movement ability. His ult is potato tier as well for the most part. Healing orbs are awkward as the LoS makes them near unplayable on certain maps/phases. And his alternate fire is mostly useless.

The biggest problem they have with him (and Symmetra) is that they aren't remotely healers. They're in this awkward niche place where they only fit into teams in specific instances and on specific maps.

If I were blizzard, I'd have a different section entirely. Call them support and put characters like Mercy and Lucio who ACTUALLY heal your team, into a Healer category.

This would stop randoms from being lazy and assuming they don't need to go healer because 'oh good, someone else went support i'll' go genji' And then proceed to rage you for playing zenyatta and not healing enough.

As he plays at the moment, Zenyata's primary focus is damage dealing and debuffing, healing is just a little extra thing on the side, good for topping up tanks or other healers.

 

[Sonicron]

I haven't had much time to play recently, but I can appreciate this. Zenyatta is my main, and I adore almost everything about the character. Some sort of function to improve his survival chances and an added/changed effect for his orbs would make me even happier.

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

I think Zenyatta is great, if you know what he's used for. He's a "even behind Mercy" Back row player. The other team shouldn't even see him. He should pop his head out for an orb of discord, pepper a lane with shots, and tossing orbs from a distance to keep your team leveled off.

If you want to give him anything, make it that the orb of Harmony just stays on the target, but does less healing over time. His orb heals 30 health per second now. So make it that after the first minute, it only heals 20. After the second, it only heals 10 per second and it caps off there. Once the orb is taken off, the heal obviously ramps up again.

 

[prigdishnak]

Haven't seen this suggestion yet but here goes. We have Lucio with AOE healing/speed boost/big temp shield, Mercy with direct healing/damage buff/resurrection, what if they gave Zenyatta a 'single target resurrection' perhaps in replacement of his attack charge or included somehow into his ultimate. Or take the basic theme of his skills, yin/yang as he can do a good deal of damage but also with the potential of his ultimate do an absurd amount of healing, and take it to a further extreme and give him an outright switch slightly similar to Bastions different modes.

For example, Zen would start out in normal 'Healing Mode' in which case he would have access to the single target Res, his orb would heal considerably more for a single target while in this mode, the shield portion of his health would regenerate significantly quicker than normal, and his Ultimate would produce its current effect of invulnerability and large AOE heal. But than he could switch, either on a cool down or only after accruing some manner of component such as Torbjorn needing Scrap, into 'Destruction Mode' in which he now has access to his 'damage increase orb' a far faster version of his charge shot, and while still being quite low in health his Ultimate would now instead not only cause all enemies caught within it to be affected as if by his damage increasing orb, possibly lasting a little while even while moving outside its immediate area of effect, but would also for a brief time cause all enemy projectiles to curve back around and strike him very much ensuring his demise due to his low health but possibly damning the enemy team if caught unaware and in the center of the effect. As the allied team mates could dash in right alongside him with momentary impunity since all enemy projectiles would be guaranteed to hit him.

Just a thought.

 

[Hunter.Wolf]

He desperately needs a self heal

You do realize most of HP bar is actually a shield that regenerates even faster than Mercy's self-heal when you aren't taking dmg (just like how 50% of Zarya's HP is shields) .. he doesn't need any more self-healing than this.

The biggest problem they have with him (and Symmetra) is that they aren't remotely healers.

WRONG, it's true that Symmetra isn't a healer but Zen is definitely a healer, there is little doubt or argument about that.

As he plays at the moment, Zenyata's primary focus is damage dealing and debuffing, healing is just a little extra thing on the side, good for topping up tanks or other healers.

How can it be a little thing on the side when one of his skills is healing plus his ult is also purely meant for healing .. it's not something on the side, it's 50% of what he does, just like how Mercy can switch between dmg buff and heal and Lucio can switch between speed buff and heal.

 

[ron1n]

-You do realize most of HP bar is actually a shield that regenerates even faster than Mercy's self-heal when you aren't taking dmg (just like how 50% of Zarya's HP is shields) .. he doesn't need any more self-healing than this.

-WRONG, it's true that Symmetra isn't a healer but Zen is definitely a healer, there is little doubt or argument about that.

-How can it be a little thing on the side when one of his skills is healing plus his ult is also purely meant for healing .. it's not something on the side, it's 50% of what he does, just like how Mercy can switch between dmg buff and heal and Lucio can switch between speed buff and heal.

-Yes I know his shield regenerates, but that's completely irrelevant. When I say self-heal, I mean in the context of survival. Some crappy shield regen outside of combat means nothing. Mercy: Glide + 200 health. Lucio: Self healing, speed boost, knockback, 200 health. Zen: 150 health, and his ultimate....literally his ultimate is his only way to survive. That's pathetic.


- Zen is as much a healer as Soldier is. Yes he HAS a heal. But don't be under the impression that it can effectively solo heal a team on its own. At least not against competent players. He simply cannot be relied on for that role. As a 'Supporting' character, hes ok, just not as a main healer.


- Yeah, 50% of what he does...the crap 50%. Lucio and Mercy might have speed boost and damage boost, but lets be real here, their role is to be healing a majority of the time. Zens role is the opposite, at least right now. His damage debuff is his single greatest asset. The dinky heal and incredibly niche use ultimate coupled together with his lack of survivability do not a main healer make.

 

[Cowabungaa]

I adore to play him, when my aim is right I wreck major shit with him. Honestly? His abilities as such are okay. Maybe increase the time his heal-ball stays on target when losing line of sight. Just a little bit, for healing tanks a bit more.

All I'd really request from a buff is some kind of mobility buff. Sure his shields regenerate, but he's still basically made out of wet tissue paper. And while other characters are too, they at least have some kind of mobility advantage over other classes. Zenyatta could use that too.

 

[Headsprouter]

He's incredibly powerful when you can land the orbs consistently, headshots are not always necessary to make short work of squishier targets.

Zenyatta's problem is that he has no "nope" button besides his ult. Some people mentioned a small speed boost for having both orbs up, which is nice because it encourages active play, but it underestimates how difficult it is to actually keep eye contact with a player and enemy for a good amount of time.

Perhaps if the harmony stuck to a player indefinitely until moved, and a speed boost was granted upon application of the discord to an enemy...

Maybe if sticking close to a harmony'd ally gave a small boost to you in healing and speed, as well as your ally so you can both be "in harmony", or maybe if you just keep them in sight. When they die, you move even faster for a couple of seconds.

Otherwise, making the secondary fire (charge 2-5 orbs) fire all 2-5 at once rather than slightly after one another would make it a lot more useful.

 

[Janichsan]

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.

Don't you? I think I see Zenyatta more often than Lucio and especially Symmetra. That's really an underused character.

 

[Bobular]

Saw the title and thought, does he need a buff? I play him occasionally and don't have much problem with him, he can't be up front like the other two, but he is more dangerous then Mercy and his debuff always makes me flee when I'm facing him as I know his teammates will shred me in seconds if I'm shot at with that orb around me. I've seen plenty of play of the matches from him from good players.

I'll admit he's not the easiest to play well as, but I like how there are some characters that are hard to master. The only thing I think he really needs is a mobility increase and possibly something similar to Mercy's hover when you hold jump.

 

[Merlark]

I actually rather Like Zen, he certainly isn't a front line healer bcause h is frail but his ability to heal team mates without having to be close to them is particularly nice. you don't have to walk a tank in like the other healers, just hit them up with a orb and then sneak around to damage boost targets and charge up your orb attack to destroy ranged target.

He is the only team mate that not only can become invincible but also heal every team mate around him from a fair considerable distance making him a great push class when his super ability is charged.

Wouldn't say no to a buff but to me his ability's allow me to support my team in both damage and support in ways the other healers don't and his ability to stay at range is pretty sweet along with not needing line of site to what he's healing. I've killed allot of people with him but he can be difficult to use in a fray but I think that offsets his quick self healing when not under fire and damage potential. I have been using him allot more lately myself as I hate being glued to people as a healer.

Everyone's had a match with mercy where your stuck healing beam a crapy team and your forced to whip out that pistol to deal with threats. Zen can deal with most distance threats and heal the newb tank without having to pay for his mistake of diving into the entire enemy team. if fact, it benefits Zen because than he can just pick off the players that go for the easy kills.

 

[Vrach]

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.

Actually no, Mercy does not heal in combat. It takes a few seconds of not being damaged for her to start healing.

Personally, I think Zenyatta's fine, though opinion might differ at very high (competitive level) play. The extra damage he provides (mostly through Discord orb, but also his own damage) is downright insane and very often underestimated, the extra healing is great (no, he's not a solo healer, but a great partner to Lucio) and his ult is pretty damn solid, making him invulnerable and AoE healing like a madman.

He is squishy, but I've seen him used very effectively. He's not a KOTH healer, but on payload and capture points he's perfectly fine as an offhealer. He needs to stay well back and be protected, but that's true of most healers. Lack of escape mechanics is his only weakness, but with it, I believe he would be straight up OP. A small buff might be ok, but anything really significant is easily going to push him into OP levels.

You rarely see him played because he needs to be played a certain way, a way most people don't play - staying back and supporting the team, rather than jumping in headfirst. He also requires teamwork, which is always going to make him whined at by the general population who can't do teamwork to save their own life.

 

[That Guy Ya Know]

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.

Actually no, Mercy does not heal in combat. It takes a few seconds of not being damaged for her to start healing.

My bad, I rarely play Mercy preferring Lucio. I remembered her health regenerating and thought that was permanent thing.

 

[orshk]

Make him be able to E and Shift while charging his orbs (pressing right mouse button), which will actually make his charging ability usable and give him much more power.

 

[Glongpre]

Maybe make each orb of harmony heal for a set amount(like 100), but be on a cooldown, as well as use up ammo.

Or nerf the healing and give back the original orb that doesn't care about line of sight.

Or give him an evasion/defence skill.

I feel like his mobility is his real weakness. He has no hp, so if anyone gets close to you, you fold. He does do a ton of damage, but you can't do damage if you are dead.