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Bastion Is “a Little Too Powerful Right Now,” Nerfs Coming Soon to Overwatch PTR

This AI is too OP.

Overwatch defense character Bastion got some substantial buffs on the PTR recently, and despite some players claiming his tweaks have made him an overly powerful character, those changes made it past public testing and onto the game.

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In response to a community post in the Overwatch forums, Game Director Jeff Kaplan discussed how character changes to Bastion can feel unfair but might make him a more viable character, but agrees he is “a bit too powerful right now”.

In regard to characters like Bastion or Symmetra that were once getting played noticeably less than others, he states that, “we cannot just magically make Bastion get picked more so the stats look pretty and not make changes to make him more viable at the same time”.

Bastion’s biggest changes included a new passive ability Ironclad, granting 35% less damage while in Sentry or Tank configuration, as well as the ability to self-heal while moving whereas before he had to remain stationary and receiving fire interrupted the ability. Other smaller buffs included the time taken to transform to Sentry mode being deceased from 1.5 to 1 second, and an increased magazine size from 200 to 300 while in Sentry and 20 to 25 while in Recon.

These changes allowed Bastion to survive in stuitations where he normally wouldn’t. Overwatch community member Squidblimp investigated and came up with a list of all the ults and abilities Bastion can survive while self-healing in Sentry including Reaper’s, Tracer’s, and Genji’s ultimates, and more.

Kaplan states the new changes will be put up on the PTR in the morning, with no specific details as those changes are still underway.

What do you think of the new Bastion buffs? Is he too OP, or is he a fun new challenge that might mix-up the current Tank meta? Let us know down below.

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About the author

Haley MacLean

Video games are a true unification of art and technology, and I'm amped to be able to write about them. Lover of all things Nintendo, obsessed with narrative driven games, and hopes the couch co-op genre makes a return soon. BA/BJ/MJ from University of King's College, NS, Canada.

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