According to an official forum post made by Blizzard's Bill Warnecke, the Overwatch 1.8 PTR update will come to a close later today.
This is what Bill Warnecke wrote on the official forums:
After the PTR update is closed, the live servers will be receiving a number of additional content such as: Capture the Flag as a default mode in Arcade, the long-awaited server browser for custom games, an additional nerf to Roadhog’s hook, and the most controversial change, the buffs/changes to Bastion which is as follows:
Bastion
- Configuration: Sentry
- Deploy time decreased from 1.5 seconds to 1.0 second
- Bullet spread increased by 50 percent
- Bullet spread is always at maximum (it no longer increases as the weapon is fired)
- Magazine size increased from 200 to 300
- Headshot damage multiplier has been removed
- No longer deals critical damage
- Configuration: Recon
- Bullet spread decreased by 25 percent
- Magazine size increased from 20 to 25
- Self-Repair
- Can now be used while moving
- Now bound to secondary fire (formerly Ability 2)
- No longer interrupted by taking damage
- A new resource meter has been added that deplete while Self-Repair is active and recharges when not in use
- Configuration: Tank
- No longer grants bonus armor
- Bastion has a new passive: Ironclad
- Bastion takes 35% less damage while in Sentry or Tank configuration
Players in the Overwatch community have been split on the buffs introduced in the current PTR. Some players have said that Bastion did need some sort of buff to give him more viability in the game, but many other players disagree posting photos showing Bastion surviving most ultimates in the game.
We reached out to a few community members, to see what they thought of everyone's 'favorite' robot.
Sam "The Buffalo" Diamond, the current coach of "Doot Doot" has a more positive look at the Bastion buffs but does think that the buffs may be too much.
“Bastion has always been the redheaded stepchild of Overwatch ever since closed beta. People either hate him or like him […] Right now, where he is without the new patch, he is really one dimensional. Sit and tank damage and die. His repair is useful, but not great. I honestly hope that they keep the ideas of his self-healing while moving and recon mode being more useful with the bullet spread being decreased, but overall I think that the path Blizzard has gone with is good."
Other players have concluded that the current buffs given to him are too much and should be reduced. One of those players is Albert "yeHHH" Yeh, a current Top 500 player with competitive experience.
“[…] After playing with him in pugs it just became who had the better Bastion and was completely un-fun so we ended up banning Bastion in most pugs just to make it enjoyable[…] A nano boosted Bastion is basically unkillable, pulse bomb doesn't do anything to him in sentry mode […] people were even running mercy to damage boost Bastion, it'll be an incredibly dumb meta if the Bastion buffs go through as they are. I think the only thing that worked against Bastion were well placed D.VA bombs.”
Thanks to the ability changes and constant healing, a good Bastion becomes virtually invincible in most 1v1 situations. Along with Mccree's ultimate, Bastion can survive Torbjorn's turret, Reaper's Death Blossom, and an entire clip from Symmetra with the damage buff. Even if Bastion cannot counter attack while healing, this ability makes Bastion a tank with no counter without team support.
What do you guys think? Are the buffs given to Bastion entirely too much or are players overreacting?
For more competitive Overwatch news and tournaments, follow us @GosuOverwatch.
