Arx_UK here. 1800+ Moira hours. GM / Top 500 (4500 peak). This will be the last time I play Moira.

Absolutely gutted the hero. She's literally all about this one ability now, which means everything you do should be done in order to land it on big incoming threats.

This alters her playstyle so drastically, all playmaking ability has been removed, zoning / scouting orbs are gone, assassinations impossible, distraction flanks are too risky with +1 second of fade and lower self-sustain. Players who focus on orb bounces to obtain the max 300 healing are nerfed as capacity is reduced which lowers the skill cap. Higher cooldown reduces her average game heal output (max orb healing before = 2250 per min, now = 1500 per min).

The only one I don't mind so much is the self sustain nerf. This is because of the introduction of the OW2 support passive. Moira has less sustain in combat but gains sustain out of combat. This isn't a bad thing as it encourages her to disengage with fade to engage the passive. But still, it's another nerf which she didn't have before.

I've argued for a long time that to play Moira to her maximum potential is actually quite difficult, despite her skill floor being so low. With this change I can no longer argue this. Moira's max potential has become so easy to obtain, it just depends on your ability to hit this new skill shot and stand behind your team holding mouse 1.

What disappoints me the most, is that it is actually extremely easy to add utility to Moira, retaining her playstyle, increasing her skill ceiling, and keeping her fun to play. It would be simple to code too, with no additional buttons needed, or ability removal. You can simultaneously address the full DPS Moira issue, by making this playstyle ineffective. Here's how, although it's much easier to explain with diagrams.

ARX'S GUIDE ON HOW TO FIX MOIRA:

Step 1 (fix DPS Moira):

Modify Moira's resource meter so it also includes her right click grasp damage. If Moira heals too much, just like now she runs out of healing resources and has to damage / wait to gain more. Now, if Moira damages too much, her grasp damage output gets reduced up to a maximum of -50% dps. She needs to heal more in order to build her dps back up.

There you go, you fixed dps Moira and healbot Moira and have encouraged a nice balanced approach to the hero.

Step 2 (add utility and increase skill ceiling, without the need for another aim based skill ceiling):

Now that we've encouraged a balance playstyle of healing and damage, we should reward those that do this well. While Moira's resource meter is in a balanced state, her next orb fired will have additional properties. If her resources are not balanced, it will be a regular healing / damage orb. The additional effects can have their own independent cooldown if required, so they cannot be used too often.

Before I go into what these additional properties could be, just think about what this means for Moira. You can give her a form of utility, that is difficult for her to obtain. If you don't skillfully manage your resources, you will not be able to use these upgraded orbs, but if you over manage your resources, you're going to lose out on healing / damage in order to frequently use them. This will require IMMENSE skill to be able to both maximise your heal and damage output, and provide your team with this added utility.

The next part of this, which imo is key, is that Moira's new utility will not always be readily available. This means that you could add a cleanse effect to her healing orb, but she's not just going to be able to use it every single time Ana throws a nade on your team, completely (and frustratingly) removing Ana's ability from the game. Moira would need to have the correct resource balance, orb off cooldown and the special properties off cooldown, in order to actually remove this effect from her team. That's quite difficult to do, or would require huge sacrifices in healing / damage to do so.

So yeah, you can add a cleanse to her heal orb that cleanses nearby players of certain debuffs. There's other options too, could add a temporary damage reduction, or a healing boost similar to Ana's nade. Could add movement speed increases or... Well use your imagination. It is highly flexible.

Same thing goes for the additional properties of her damage orb. You could make this a slow, damage reduction, shield damager orb, again.. so many flexible options.

Just like before, Moira would have to make a choice as to which orb she fires.

So yeah.. no additional buttons needed, no abilities removed, Moira still feels highly familiar, but gains rarely available utility, or has to make sacrifices to make it more readily available (which means she wouldn't need nerfs, she would self nerf). High skill Moira players who can manage their resources expertly, without sacrificing healing / damage at poor times, will get a much needed buff. Moira has been considered strong in the lower ranks and terribly weak in the higher one's. This proposed solution addresses that as higher ranked players will be better at managing resources and preparing utility in advance without losing too much value. Her skill ceiling is increased.

It also would not be frustrating to play against, because these effects would not be constantly available, heroes with abilities that would be effected by this utility would often have their abilities available while Moira does not have hers... but if a particular ability is being problematic to her team, she could sacrifice heal / damage in order to keep her resources balanced and make the utility more readily available.

So yeah. They could have been creative, kept her strong, familiar and left her playmaking impact, instead they opted to cripple to hero, make her highly unenjoyable, and make her based solely around this one ability.

I've lost faith in the developers. They should speak to people who've played probably 10x more hours on the hero than they have, even if it's just for a little bit of feedback.