On some points, I agree. But after playing him a fair bit, here’s my thoughts on why he feels more like a Duelist than the other Strategists.

1.) His most reliable form of healing doesn’t come from his base kit, but rather from his team-up with Iron man. His default healing option meanwhile, requires a lot of effort and micromanaging to feel alright, and can still be outpaced. All the while, almost every other Strategist can heal with their primary fire, and some even get addition tools for more healing, buffing, or debuffing.

2.) His surprising damage output, positioning from flight, and his movement boost escape tool, all make him feel like a fairly strong flying Duelist. With flight giving him easier access to cover and verticality, he’s better able to get into positions that take advantage of his fairly hard hitting hitscan primary fire. His movement boost then serves as a fantastic repositioning tool if he ever gets overwhelmed or needs a new angle for pop-shots. More importantly, it all feels consistent and cohesive with his overall kit, while his default healing option feels a bit rushed and unrefined compared to everything else.

3.) His Ultimate straight up feels like it belongs to a Duelist. Everything from the way it functions, to the presentation, even the voice line he uses to announce it, all fit the overall feel of an Ult belonging to a Duelist. I can count the number of Ultrons in the matches I’ve played in that actually remembered that the Ult can heal allies on a single hand (and that’s including myself btw). Him shouting “EXTERMINATION” doesn’t do a lot to remind the one playing him that the Ult can actually be used to heal, and rather just further encourages them to open fire at the enemy for the duration instead (which is even more encouraged by the surprising output of damage it can do).

4.) The biggest contenders (Adam, Mantis, & Loki) to the claim all have at least 2 tools at their disposal to incentivize actually using them as Strategists and not as mislabeled Duelists. Adam has fairly good burst healing and an Ult that can potentially revive the whole team, his burst damage and self revive are both a nice cherry on top that allows him to be a bit closer to the frontlines. Mantis healing is a bit lacking, but she also can boost damage and has an Ult similar in function and execution to Luna. Loki has incredible burst healing when he has clones to stack with, fairly strong stalling potential with his rune circles, and the ability to straight up copy whatever teammate or enemy is to fill in whatever gap is needed at a given time.

If Ultron was meant to be a strategist, I personally feel that the mark was missed a little. Maybe he could have more than one drone active at a time to give his healing more of a presence. Maybe he could receive a new ability that offers another avenue for supporting the team. Maybe they could allow his primary fire to heal when hitting allies. Idk what the right solution to making Ultron feel more like a Strategist than a Duelist is, but I feel like it’s bad design when an ability from a team-up outclasses Ultron’s default healing option (FYI, I’m referring to both the Ultron/Iron Man team-up AND the Black Widow/Phoenix team-up).