Despite being a top-ranked Wrecking Ball main in Overwatch 2, Charlie ‘chazm’ Jones has voiced concerns about the tank’s revamped Adaptive Shield ability, deeming it a “waste.”
During Season 10, Wrecking Ball underwent a rework that included adjustments to his Grappling Claw, Adaptive Shields, and Minefield health, making him the newest hero to receive such changes.
The most significant modification was made to his shields, as they can now be shared with teammates, giving them an extra 75 HP of overhealth.
At first glance, the S10 change seemed to be aimed at enhancing Ball’s abilities in a dive composition, thus making adversaries like Tracer and Genji even more formidable for backline heroes. This added durability in coordinated gameplay adds to their strength as opponents.
Despite the patch being released just one day ago, the AWW YEAH tank remains unimpressed with the rework due to Wrecking Ball’s gameplay style.
During a Twitch stream, he explained that the intended strategy is to raise shields and then dive in. However, the issue arises when one person dives in, the other person uses their shields, and then the first person retreats using the shields.
Giving shields to teammates can have a detrimental impact on Wrecking Ball as it can leave him more vulnerable, particularly if his allies are unable to capitalize on the increased health.
According to chazm, his Tracer teammates have not had an opportunity to utilize the shields at any point.
He expressed the need for it to have a longer duration. The issue is, when I use my E ability and give it to my teammates, they only receive four seconds of shields. Therefore, using my E for a four-second shield would be wasteful compared to having an 8-second shield.
“The main issue, in my opinion, is that [the ability] requires line of sight and cannot penetrate enemy shields. This makes it highly dependent on specific situations.”
Despite this, the tank main still had positive feedback about other aspects of the rework, praising the new Grapple movement as “insane”and suggesting that it may even require a slight nerf.
Season 10 is just beginning and it’s too soon to predict how the meta will evolve. The introduction of the new hero, Venture, and the significant buffs given to Lifeweaver will certainly have an impact. We’ll have to wait and see.
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