So, those Lucio changes...

[WindKnight]

Surprised no-ones been talking about the lucio changes going through on the overwatch PTR.

Short version, he's overall getting more mobile, more aggressive, and stronger healing... but at he cost of his healing and speed aura's having their range cut by two thirds, and his ult by third. Overall, its sounding like good stuff... but..

Ok, I don't mean to diss lucio, he's got a lot of good, genuine strengths, and I've had fun playing as him. But I feel at least SOME of his appeal to teams is that it lets the rest of the team be very lazy in regards to getting heals and the speed boost - for the most part, just being in LOS is enough to get healed, and they've gotten away without paying attention to where Lucio is, and what's happening to him so they can just do their own thing.

Now they actually have to pay attention to keep getting their heals, I cant help imagining there's a lot of rage in the future.

 

[American Tanker]

One thing I've heard on other sites is that Lucio's ult now out-ranges his passive heal aura. If this is true, it's going to be much harder for Lucio players to judge who's within range of Sound Barrier and who isn't.

 

[meiam]

Urkkkk more changes that will make solo pay worse.

 

[Neverhoodian]

I'm torn. On the one hand I should be able to survive more encounters where my team tunnel visions and allows a Tracer or Gengi to single me out. On the flip side, I feel like it's going to diminish Lucio's unique play style of slow heals over a wider area. If you have to stay close to your teammates now then you may as well just play Mercy.

Still, scuttlebutt from pro Lucio players is that it's a huge buff, to the point where some of them are saying the character's broken. I guess I won't know for sure until I get a chance to try it out.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

I am sad more people here talk about Overwatch and not World of Warcraft

I feel so alone...

 

[shrekfan246]

On the one hand, I've got no issue with his healing strength and mobility being improved.

On the other, 10 meters is just far too bloody short. Especially with the increased wall-riding speed, you're going to have Lucio riding around constantly outranging anyone who actually needs healing because his aura is just too short for him to stay in range of them.

Like, yeah, it means that playing Lucio is going to require more skill, but I think that the aura is prohibitively small.

 

[American Tanker]

On the one hand, I've got no issue with his healing strength and mobility being improved.

On the other, 10 meters is just far too bloody short. Especially with the increased wall-riding speed, you're going to have Lucio riding around constantly outranging anyone who actually needs healing because his aura is just too short for him to stay in range of them.

Like, yeah, it means that playing Lucio is going to require more skill, but I think that the aura is prohibitively small.

His heal range is shorter than Mercy's now, isn't it?

And why do they still refuse to do much about Ana? She's still a top pick, right? Why hasn't her gear been split into healing and damaging variations, with one of those new variations kept by Ana, and the other given to a new hero?

 

[Bilious Green_v1legacy]

Range on the heal seems a bit short, but he's going to be even more annoying when he's bouncing all over the payload or in a deathball. He's also going to be a lot less useful for dive comps. Overall, I'd say he himself is better (more speed, more healing, faster shots, etc.), but his usefulness to his team is reduced. The new playstyle will really suit DSPStanky, but will make him significantly harder to use for the vast majority of players.

 

[sanquin]

It's Blizzard's signature "nerf into the ground or buff up to heaven, then make smaller adjustments in the future." going from 30 to 10 meters on the passive seems too much indeed. 15~20 sounds like it would be better. The buff to his healing was definitely needed though. Sure, his healing is easy as you don't need to do much for it apart from amp it up every now and then. But the healing was so low that in between amp it up it was pretty much pointless unless you used it for healing in between fights. Now I think it will be a bit more useful for during fights as well.

What I'm worried about though, is that Mercy will be left behind even further by this change. Lucio and Ana were the top healer picks already. Next buff should go to Mercy. Or rather, she should get an overhaul just like Symmetra. As she is now, she doesn't bring anything to the table that other classes can't do better. Apart from her AoE res of course.

 

[DaCosta]

but at he cost of his healing and speed aura's having their range cut by two thirds

Actually, remembering that his aura is a sphere around him it's more like a 90% decrease.

 

[Elijin]

So there will be a more distinct line between high skill strong game sense lucio players, and just sort of exist lucio players? Okay.

On top of that, the division between a team orientated healing lucio and an aggressive speedy wall riding offensive lucio? Sounds great to me.

 

[lionsprey]

On the one hand, I've got no issue with his healing strength and mobility being improved.

On the other, 10 meters is just far too bloody short. Especially with the increased wall-riding speed, you're going to have Lucio riding around constantly outranging anyone who actually needs healing because his aura is just too short for him to stay in range of them.

Like, yeah, it means that playing Lucio is going to require more skill, but I think that the aura is prohibitively small.

His heal range is shorter than Mercy's now, isn't it?

And why do they still refuse to do much about Ana? She's still a top pick, right? Why hasn't her gear been split into healing and damaging variations, with one of those new variations kept by Ana, and the other given to a new hero?

im starting to suspect someone at blizzard really loves ana. she's been responsible for 2 metas (the don't do anything until nanoboost and 3 tank only worked because of her healing) but blizzard still refuses to nerf her. sure she's had the damage of her shoot nerfed at least on the PTR but she can still do way to much for 1 character.

as for the lucio changes i'l wait and see. it seems like he's going to be a lot more active now and therefore more fun to play but also a lot harder to play.

 

[bjj hero]

My friend is a lucio main and cannot wait for the changes believing it will make him OP.

I can see this making good Lucio mains game changers and the bad ones who now just loiter and heal will be dead weight to the team.

 

[McElroy]

I am sad more people here talk about Overwatch and not World of Warcraft

I feel so alone...

That game is ancient. Move on, will ya? The cool kids play HotS and Overwatch.

 

[IceForce]

They're still tweaking the numbers. The most recent change was buffing his damage quite significantly, to the point where one Lucio projectile does about the same amount of damage as a Genji shuriken.

I just... wut?

The devs nerfed Ana's damage because they didn't like the way a healer could reliably win duels with other DPS's (especially against flankers), and now they're buffing Lucio to the point where he can easily win a duel with a Tracer - who's supposed to be his direct counter - AND outrun her as well with his new personal speed boost.

What the hell are Blizzard thinking, seriously.

 

[IceForce]

Anyways, as for the other Lucio changes, it's pretty obvious why the devs are doing this.

Lucio was always a low risk / high reward hero. Having one on your team is always beneficial, regardless of the situation or map or game mode, and the Lucio player doesn't have to do anything amazing or difficult to get value out of the hero. The aura radius was so massive that positioning largely didn't matter (which is certainly not the case with all the other supports), and Lucio himself has a pretty good level of self-sustain due to his self healing.

For these reasons it wasn't uncommon for teams to put their weakest player on 'Lucio duty', in competitive this is usually the lowest ranked player on the team (like a plat player on a team with 5 diamonds, etc).

So, it seems the devs want Lucio to be more powerful and fun to play individually, but have much less 'accidental' impact and value for the team.