Overwatch players are no strangers to hero nerfs, but Blizzard has somewhat established a weird pattern here. Whenever they release a new hero, the developers ensure that the hero is immensely powerful. However, within a few days of launch, Blizzard takes a pass at the character, and nerfs it in an attempt to balance it.
The latest character to fall victim to this notorious balancing pass is Shion, a hero that was released on June 16. It’s barely been two weeks since the character is here but it’s already faced its first round of nerfs. Of all the abilities, Shion’s ability “Execution” took a hit, and while it still feels powerful, it isn’t as fun as before.
Shion Falls Victim to Overwatch’s Balance Patch
In the latest Overwatch update, Blizzard hit Shion with what looks like minor nerfs. These changes are as follows:
- Projectile size reduced from 0.17 to 0.07.
- Recovery time increased from 0s to 0.4s.
On paper, these nerfs might not look like much but they do have a major effect on how the character plays out during matches. The pass at the Shion’s projectile is a massive damage reduction which increases the overall TTK. However, the bigger problem here is the increase in recovery time.
If you’re new to Overwatch or similar hero shooters, the recovery time refers to the hidden cooldown or animation delay that happens after a weapon is fired or a skill is used. This is done to ensure that no one can spam an ability or a weapon. This also creates the gap for players to adjust for any recoil while using a weapon.
Recovery time nerfs are never good
by u/Zorah_29 in Overwatch
While players believe that the recovery adjustment was necessary, the amount added to the recovery time wasn’t called for. It’s too much, is what most players feel. Additionally, a lot of players also feel that while this nerf was necessary, an increase in cooldown time for the overall ability would’ve been better rather than this recovery nerf. Rather than changing anything, it just makes the character more clunky, and reduces its fluidity.
To top it off, players also believe that this won’t be looked at or reversed because Blizzard goes on a nerf spree without looking at the changes that were previously made to the character. One of the primary highlights of Shion was how fluid and dynamic she felt, but with these nerfs, she’s going to be janky, like a lot of other heroes in Overwatch.
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by u/Zorah_29 from discussion
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Players were discussing these nerfs in a Reddit thread where they felt like they had high ping or their game was lagging while they tried to use Shion’s Execute ability.
Blizzard’s Hero Troubles Are Present Across Multiple Games
Similar to Shion, Blizzard’s hero troubles are present in their ARPG title Diablo 4 as well. With the Lord of Hatred expansion, the title received two new classes, namely Paladin and Warlock. However, both these characters are somewhat underwhelming at launch. They don’t have enough damage or survivability, nor do they have enough build potential.
Back during the Vessel of Hatred event, Blizzard launched the Spiritborn class, which was broken during launch. And everyone who played Diablo 4 at launch can remember how disastrous the Season 1 update was. It’s extremely annoying that Blizzard keeps messing these things up because it really hurts the playability. But at least with Diablo 4, there aren’t too many classes to work on. For Overwatch, however, the number is way higher and might get difficult to balance.
That said, Shion is still new, and it’s still possible that the developers will take proper passes at it. However, the way they’ve treated Rammatra in the past does raise several concerns.
You can also read – Overwatch 2 Crossover Skins Add to Cosmetics “Absurdly” Straying Away From Diablo 4 Aesthetics
