Overwatch: Flankers cant be nerfed without being garbage. We got here Through tank and support changes
If you nerf either of these hero’s, they become honestly useless. Tracer is very strong but I don’t think we should nerf her directly more that we should buff heroes with CC abilities like McCree and Ana. People don’t seem to realize this but Ana losing her ability to duel flankers is a HUGE reason why Dive meta is so strong right now. Zen can wreck flankers but not in the way that Ana could with hit scan or her sleep dart kill combo.
As it stands now the only reliable CC ability, and by that, I mean one that is around 50% successful, is roadhogs hook but since he is garbage now, that is gone plus the fact that D.VA can just easily negate that with Defense Matrix, he was dropping in usefulness even before his nerfs.
Tracer was considered ok, not great but ok, during triple tank because it was hard for her to get in and put pressure on the other teams Ana for a few reasons:
1. D.Va was there to protect Ana
2.There was almost always a roadhog and he had his 6 second hook
3. Ana could two shot her making it a risky endeavor to try and jump on an Ana alone, especially if sleep dart was up
Often, tracer’s job was to blink in, deal some damage to the Ana, force her to waster her nade on herself, possibly miss her sleep dart, and then recall out to kill her or even if she lost, the other teams Ana’s healing and utility was significantly diminished because she didn’t have her very powerful kit available.
If you nerf tracer’s damage let’s say, then it becomes significantly harder for her to do her job and probably become frustrating to play. If you nerf her movement, then she is going to die a ton. The only thing I would like to see nerfed is her pulse bomb charge rate because players have gotten very good at getting value out of that and it is up often enough that it almost feels like a cooldown at times. This is a big reason why rein fell off so hard since she can just go for him with that pulse bomb and a huge strength of death ball is gone.
Genji again is tricky because he does have a sky-high skill ceiling (one that I myself struggle with because of how slow his shuriken are) and great Genji’s are more about managing cooldowns and then long range spamming but the good ones destroy you by landing their left and right clicks. What I still find frustrating about him is that a lot of times, he is still used as an ult bot. His dash is another thing that can cause problems because outside of a Zarya bubble it is an unblockable source of damage. Other sources like this include Melee attacks, Winston landing on you, D.VA bumping you, Winston’s tesla cannon, and Rein’s hammer. Winston and Genji jumping on someone, especially if that Winston gets the melee cancel in first is 125 damage instantly and is a big part of why dive is so strong when you get jumped. Unless you have an escape ability you are dead.
If you nerf genji’s neutral play (no ult) then he will probably become a bigger ult bot because his ultimate is still so good. They already took away a huge part of his mobility when they nerfed triple jump and I don’t think nerfing the high skill hero’s is really the way to go.
What really happened and what really lead to dive being THE meta was balance changes by the developers. Ana getting nerfed, like I previously mentioned, removed a big backline threat to the flankers (and Pharah) and her being down more often meant less burst healing up front to sustain a Rein and Zarya. Plus, mercy being everywhere meant that Ana didn’t have a Lucio to help with her weaknesses in the mobility department
Then with Orisa, came the buff to Winston’s barrier meaning that it is up significantly more than it used to be AND he got a head hit box reduction that is very wonky now. Where before it was easy to stand, and fight a Winston as McCree because he didn’t have a barrier AND his hit box was large you could win that fight. Now his hitbox is wonky, his barrier is probably up, and you are going to die.
Then they “fixed” Defense matrix so that it could eat damage at the muzzle of whatever it was blocking which lead to D.VA countering everything projectile and hit scan. She is too strong right now and defense matrix might be the strongest ability in this game currently.
Then they buffed Zenyatta, another dive staple, by removing the cooldown on his charged shot and buffing his accuracy by removing a bloom that was apparently there. His charged shot being more useful leads to even more quick burst damage and instant gib’s.
Then they nerfed roadhog, one of the only reliable ways to get D.VA out of mech. Now she really has nothing to worry about and the reaper buffs did basically nothing because Defense matrix is still there.
Basically, we are where we are meta wise because of changes to Tanks and Supports. Aside from Soldier, the flankers and other DPS heroes are the same as they have been for months (Sombra has a few buffs and is very strong but requires too much communication compared to what the average ladder game can provide). Winston, D.VA, and Zen buffs along with Ana, Roadhog nerfs got us to where we are.
I personally suggest changing D.VA by buffing some of her kit but nerfing defense matrix, removing the Winston Barrier buff because he was strong even without it, giving Ana her damage back, and reverting the most recent roadhog changes. I thought that season 4 had a decent meta game going with 2–2–2 death ball, 2–2–2 dive, triple DPS, and triple tank all being viable. Dive is always going to be strong but now it just has no counters because they have all been nerfed.
