Bastion has a strange place in the Overwatch roster. Despite looking like a literal walking tank, the heavy damage-dealing character remains in the DPS class. A lengthy Reddit post has made a very convincing case to change that, and some other things. Although they don't think Bastion should fly.
Many players don't like Bastion. When the character joins a game, he ends up becoming the center of attention. When played correctly, he can turn a match around, but he requires a lot of support and can force an entire team into a single strategy.
Reddit user ironangel2k3, who has played nearly 350 hours with Bastion, thinks they have found a solution that will make the character more viable in competitive play. In a post, the Redditor details why Blizzard should shift Bastion into the tanking class. They provide a few ideas that would both buff and nerf Bastion, making him more tank-capable but not turning him into an unstoppable powerhouse. Most interestingly, ironangel2k3 discusses the changes in a context that takes the rest of the current meta into consideration.
First, ironangel2k3 says that Blizzard should tone down Bastion's damage but tune up his health from 300 to 400. This would allow other characters to shift their focus off of Bastion because it would allow him to take more hits without going down. A lot of folks think that Overwatch has a problem wherein too many tanks rely on barriers and that breaking through those barriers has become a huge chunk of what folks do in the game. Giving Bastion the tank slot would take a barrier tank out of the equation. It creates a natural balance that makes Bastion just as vulnerable even with the higher health.
Next, Bastion should get a new ability that allows him to put up a quick shield, for less than a second, that, if timed right, can block big oncoming projectiles that would do big damage to him. The Redditor jokes that the shield would help justify a design choice from Bastion's history. The shield would need to have a lengthy cool down. According to ironangel2k3, who calls the move Flash Shutter, this would also allow other teammates to back off of Bastion, because he would have more means to defend himself. However, because of the quick flash and the long cooldown timer, it wouldn't allow Bastion to just block everything all of the time. Players would need to be strategic.
Finally, Bastion's guns should have a ramping up quality, which ironangel2k3 compares to the chain gun in Doom 2016. Bastion's gun would take a few seconds to ramp up to its full potential. This would make the character less immediately deadly and force him to take a strategic approach to reloads.
The post goes into a lot more detail and most of the community has responded positively. The post currently has 4,470 points, with 96% of those representing upvotes. Hopefully Blizzard can see how much fans feel the character could use some adjusting.
Overwatch is available now on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
Source: ironangel2k3 -Â Reddit
