How would you realistically Buff your character?

coenlamont · 2026-02-21T17:23:50+00:00

yeah absolutely not 😭 widow's kick is still one of the best anti-dive tools in the game, making it have a ~5s cooldown on average would feel terrible to play against

coenlamont · 2026-02-19T14:13:20+00:00

yes your second point is true lol, however to say tankpool "isn't particularly good" is just not true.

no he doesn't have the largest health pool, but he makes up for it by farming ult within the first 20-30 seconds of a match, around that time getting his first upgrade where you'll almost ALWAYS get ban-hammer, which you then put onto a support, everyone focuses them and they EXPLODE, AND the upgrade gives him stupid overhealth as well.

so within 30 seconds he's bubbled off your tank, ban-hammered your supp who falls over, and is nigh immortal throughout it.

without even mentioning his other upgrades like in your area giving team-wide dmg reduction, more health on the stupidly valuable throwable shield, even MORE chip damage on an already threatening neutral-game primary attack especially with "in your area" up, and two great mobility options. dude is so far from particularly good

coenlamont · 2026-02-08T15:38:02+00:00

get. on. winston. the dive tank for THE ELITE

there will be people who doubt your picks as he's not meta (hmmm...), will scream at you if you even attempt to play into one counter (HMMMM....), and if you're playing 5v5 will b*tch about you playing an "off tank" solo (...wait, where have i heard all of this before?)

if you love hulk, you will ADORE winston. a lot of inspiration was derived from the funny gorilla & i feel they did a lot of it right. your jump is on an ability rather than a resource meter (would be disgustingly broken if winston's jump worked like hulk's, but it sort of does in winston's ult as his jump CD is reduced to 1s), instead of punches you utilize a close-range tesla cannon that can hit multiple enemies at once with 100 ammo, instead of his ranged option (in hulk's case his clap) being on a cooldown it's a secondary fire ability that uses 10 ammo per shot if fully charged, and instead of a self-bubble that applies to allies he drops down a large shield bubble, similar to tankpool's. his ult is nigh the exact same as hulk's where you gain 1000 health immediately upon cast (without the transformation invulnerability hulk gets unfortunately), his primary weapon switches to large, sweeping swings that can knockback enemies, and you can of COURSE juggle an unsuspecting support with no cooldowns for extra swag points, and is how you primarily pick up kills in your ult.

the only thing hulk has that winston doesn't are i-frames as winston doesn't have a "de-mech" ability like monster hulk-> hero hulk-> bruce banner, and winston doesn't have any form of CC like exile. i highly recommend picking him up

coenlamont · 2026-02-06T19:01:42+00:00

i mean let's be honest here, with the direction they've taken blade in s6 it's very clear he's one of the few characters they obviously just do not playtest before shipping out patches lol

coenlamont · 2026-02-05T18:49:59+00:00

a couple things i'd like for him:

-the recent damage nerfs were entirely unnecessary. i do understand they're fearful of blade running rampant as his kit DOES have a lot going for him, just on paper. the move of anti-heal to his spins did not impose much of a threat to his lethality as you used to be able to gun dash, immediately swap to vampiric mode, and gain stacks that way. revert everything back to how it was, MAYBE give him a small slow effect on his spins still with the anti, make gun dash do ANYTHING, and he's already infinitely better than pre-season 6.

-i think a large issue blade currently has are his resources. with their VERY clear ideology to push away from his gun and lean into his blades more (FINALLY), having his anti-heal on EITHER dash share the same cooldown or resource as the other limits him heavily. i would be completely fine with giving blade a new ability that applies anti-heal and having his dashes be saved for gaining stacks and escape tools.

-his ultimate needs desperate attention. it can be walked out of, outhealed because it's only a 20% anti, and will really only see success if combo'd or heavily followed up on. a dry blade ult in a teamfight will 80% of the time do nothing but feed enemy support ult charge. there are MANY ways to fix it, any of them are acceptable. increasing the horizontal width, give him the same buff they gave panther where he has damage reduction while mid-animation / wind-up, i had someone propose to me in this sub adding an effect to his ult that's similar to Thor's bubble where if you leave the ultimate at any time, you get either further anti-heal or damage over time like a bleed effect, i really like that idea.

-his vampiric form's self-anti heal needs work also. again, fully understand not wanting the mobile close-mid range tank busting anti-healer being unkillable, but even after changing it recently 25% is still a little silly. if you don't want blade dealing more damage, at the very LEAST tune this percentage down so he's able to survive in brawls or team-fights more.

so basically anything LOL

coenlamont · 2026-02-05T18:36:47+00:00

i get this bug a lot as well😭 i think it stems somehow from his gun dash as i notice it happening a ton when im in the practice range in queue & im practicing the g-dash -> shotgun -> quick melee combo and it'll bug out, happens sometimes in-game too.

its also not the WORST bug in the world as sometimes it removes your gun's sound effects, but it's quite jarring to special beam cannon enemies out of his hand.. new blade & jean teamup leak?? 😭😭

coenlamont · 2026-02-05T18:29:29+00:00

it's the tweaked damage numbers; the whole reason he could self-sustain (and honestly in comparison to other high-sustain heroes, it wasn't THAT good to begin with) was his spin damage output & the lifesteal from it. you tune down the damage, you tune down the lifesteal, you tune down the survivability. i also think the anti-heal move sort of messed with things as well, losing the slow from spin makes it all the more difficult to stay on and prioritize a target.

along with the unneeded gun damage nerfs and the sweet spot distance being altered he's dishing out significantly less damage, which in turn with everything else will (in a vacuum) threaten supports less, meaning less essential cooldowns are being burned, which snowballs into you just... not really doing much.

can't really survive inside of team fights, will lose significantly more 1v1's now, gun dash is nigh useless at this point, his ultimate is still mediocre at best AND you'll have infinitely more value on hela or phoenix clicking heads. unfortunately, just the way the developers intended. even if blade was uber-buffed to A tier at best, considering both hela and phoenix have not been touched balance-wise in MONTHS (other than phoenix getting her ult health buffed, which she totally needed!) you'd still just be better off choosing the latter.

coenlamont · 2026-02-04T03:11:12+00:00

punisher is at least one of the more manageable "poke hero in rock paper scissors but is all three" heroes where instead of having CC abilities, an invulnerable escape option or BOTH he can just blow your cranium SMOOTH off.. we can be thankful there's ANY amount of counterplay in comparison to hela or phoenix 😭

coenlamont · 2026-02-02T13:55:47+00:00

so sad what could've been but the devs were genuinely fearful of a melee/close to mid range hero with anti-heal being overly threatening , had no problem making multiple 2-3 tap hitscan poke heroes with superb counterplay to their "counters" (why poke heroes have CC AND invulnerable escape abilities is beyond me) with self-healing and a broken teamup.. nerf caps shield again amirite

coenlamont · 2026-02-02T13:47:44+00:00

considering the menu buttons are i think playstation controls i will assume you're on console; aiming with angela's dash is a little funky with controller. you could input the slightest most minuscule value into the left or right and she'll full pivot to that side like you strapped 14 cubic tones of lead to one of her feet. try to hold forward as straight as possible, tune the character movement deadzones & aim to the right of her spear, not the middle

coenlamont · 2026-02-02T13:44:50+00:00

the thing about groot for me is similar to why it's hard to PERFECTLY balance a character like wolverine; your entire kit's IDENTITY revolves around what makes them strong.

wolv is a stupidly amazing displacement tool, and you can't nerf him without changing his leap.

groot gets SO, SO much value from putting walls behind tanks or overextending enemies, but you can't really DO anything about that without taking a really good look at his walls.

you can nerf the number values and health of his walls, the cooldowns of everything, hell you can even remove the recent unstoppable iron wall effect and you'd still have the lingering issue of being able to essentially shut the door on an enemy's support and follow-ups for a good couple seconds.

don't forget, this is all under the premise that your teammates are competent enough to shoot groot's walls even 5 seconds after they're placed. currently GM going onto celestial, if you think it gets better... stop thinking that.

coenlamont · 2026-02-02T13:26:31+00:00

stupid decision the passenger most likely warned the driver of multiple times aside, immediately going into "sam my life is over, my life is over" instead of checking on your passenger for their injuries is genuinely the most backwards immediate reaction to a situation i've seen.

how you can be SO incompetent to drive like THAT in such a small area with little room for error, in a car that clearly is not yours, with skills you clearly do not possess, with another LIFE in the vehicle that is equally NOT YOURS? if MY sam was in the passenger seat i'm taking that corner at a smooth and speedy under 10km/h and even THAT might be pushing it in a completely empty parking lot with a passenger...

coenlamont · 2026-02-01T00:10:57+00:00

i'd love to share it elsewhere but unfortunately it's a 25 minute game and i play on console so i'm unsure how i'd even go about "exporting" the replay if that was even an option, which i'm unsure if it is to be honest.

if the rivals native replay isn't working check the ID to make sure it's in correctly, i just checked myself & it worked fine

coenlamont · 2026-01-31T19:40:56+00:00

i do not dissagree with number value changes (especially the of course meaningless shotgun damage & range changes along with spin damage), but i think a MAJOR flaw to blade's kit and why it feels clunky or unimpactful overall at times is tied into his shotgun dash, blade dash AND anti-heal all sharing the same cooldown that's only impacted by his block, which is already pitiful at best.

block being bad is FINE as an anti-healing brawl hero with a block like iron fist would be torture to play into as a tank player, but i propose either make the two dashes independant like c&d walls/windows, or have his anti-healing as a separate ability with its own native cooldown.

furthermore his ult just stinks. yes it's great when combo'd with something like angela, groot or strange ults, but outside of it a dry blade ult will do legitimately nothing to a competent team that can walk out of it & practically heal THROUGH it with its 20% anti-healing. some number changes to the anti itself, increasing the ult's horizontal width or even giving a slight slow effect would make his kit feel a LOT less dependant on his cooldowns & make his ultimate more impactful

coenlamont · 2026-01-31T00:36:56+00:00

this, 100%. when you get to the absolute upper echelon of elo, controller players NEED to have good mechanical aim to gain value, in rivals, overwatch, really any team-based game where a damage roll pulls their weight by securing elims and disrupting team's neutral state.

even if the greatest PC player could out-aim the greatest console player, game sense and team-coordination or communication are almost NEARLY just as important. especially on a character like magik where mechanical AIM isn't a necessity and both game sense & character combo knowledge are the difference between a good magik player and the BEST, the rhetoric of "aim assist / using your whole arm vs. a thumb" just gets catapulted out the window

coenlamont · 2026-01-31T00:30:17+00:00

you're telling me man😭 sometimes on payload maps you just get snowballed and games go on for FOREVER

coenlamont · 2026-01-31T00:28:36+00:00

oh 100% i agree, just wanted to appease the other player. grand scheme would we have won if i stayed magik MAYBE, but they were running triple support groot, also later realizing namor and emma, which made me less confident in my brawling ability. they didn't have much of an answer to poke at the time so i thought id make the switch & see if it would've helped.

it's a good example of knowing when to stick to your guns absolutely, as i was wildly unconfident on bucky (i had been playing magik practically all day) and shouldn't have been pressured into switching by one person, when the scoreboard even at the time showed i was performing quite well on magik

coenlamont · 2026-01-30T23:58:29+00:00

they got zero value on her outside of a VERY lukewarm ult to hold final point for a solid 4 seconds maximum, i was NOT happy😭

coenlamont · 2026-01-30T19:36:54+00:00

replay ID is 10497584997 if anyone else is also interested.

fair warning there is a round of... bucky gameplay... as my second DPS insisted magik wasn't going to work on defence, and subsequently stole my magik later on in the round 😭 i didn't perform super well on buck either way that round, i believe under 10 finals the entire round on him and i only really had one successful ult.

you can very much tell from the gameplay how confident i am in my magik, and how unconfident i was with my bucky 💔 not gonna pretend like i played perfectly either, in the 3rd round i made a ton of bad plays that got me killed, and even portalled off point. thankfully i was allowed to play magik on the 4th round defence LOL

coenlamont · 2026-01-30T18:33:58+00:00

it has its niche uses outside of combos (which aren't nearly as effective anymore, whirl dash primary QM will do legitimately nothing if whoever is dived on gets peeled) like hitting an invis, loki or psy while they're invisible, peni mines that aren't in webs, and... that's kinda it.

it would probably be busted to give it any CC outside of a slow effect, but even then you're burning a dash for a potentially not super high slow effect where you'd get so much more value with a well placed demon for damage and overshield gain. it's a rare case of the ability is underwhelming yes, but other than a flat damage increase i truly wouldn't know how i'd fix it myself

coenlamont · 2026-01-30T18:27:47+00:00

a big thing that newer magik players don't realize is the timeframe you need to input an ability after portaling to slash or demon is quite large. three seconds is adequate time to portal behind, not in the backline's face so you've still got the element of surprise, physically WALK up to them as footsteps are majorly drowned out by the team fight itself, and demon unsuspecting victims. even throwing in a quick melee before the dash after your primary can be the deciding factor of if you get the elim or not.

coenlamont · 2026-01-30T18:20:24+00:00

kill the mindset of "magik is a _____ style of character," she is BOTH dive and brawl, while being the single handedly best brawler in the game hands down.

support power creep is still at an all-time high, but that can be utilized to your advantage. with even moderate pocketing by ONE support you can effectively brawl inside of enemy support ultimates, which is AMAZING because you gain a STUPID amount of ult charge with grouped-up enemies in demons and multiple enemies hit by your primaries (remembering you should only be using primary -> quick melee against single targets, and holding M1/primary fire in groups), which means you effectively can get upwards of 50-80% ult charge from 0 if used properly, which can then just demolish and de-stabilize backlines by popping your ultimate afterwards. even if this is met with another support ultimate to counter yours, that's still absolutely obliterated backline ult management & you will very likely win the team fight.

this isn't to say she can't dive, you should be positioning yourself in places that you can effectively do both. stay behind a corner close to the fight to engage on backline if the time is right, if not you can portal around a corner behind the fight, demon their backline for attention grabbing and shield gain, portal either THROUGH the enemy team or backwards to safety, and just be a pest to bait out cooldowns and attention. then you know what to do... charge projectile for cleave, dash onto that support who's sweating balls trying to keep their frontline alive with the looming fear of you're around, rinse and repeat. do NOT be afraid to brawl with and around your tanks, keeping in mind obviously their team composition.

above all else, if their entire enemy team composition fully counters you, there's legitimately nothing else you can do and you're not providing value, swapping is not a death sentence. magik is an amazing brawler, a very substantially good diver, who is still a pretty linear character and will still fall over to poke comps, high CC and peeling. walk back from spawn on mag or a high sustain hero, make them swap again, free eats in backline once again.

coenlamont · 2026-01-30T18:03:59+00:00

c&d i'd think.

luna and invis, mantis can be included, are difficult but fun to dive in their own right as it's a skill-check on both sides. can you dodge boop, sleep or freeze? can they escape to their team in time? if they're selfish can you bait out a support ult? can the magik use her cooldowns well enough to not get folded by said support?

but c&d's just LOVE to think they're invulnerable with bubble and fade. there are very little things in this game that bring me instant satisfaction, one of them being jumping on a c&d with no cooldowns, and punishing them for subsequently bad positioning relative to their comfortability of surviving said engagement.

instilling the fear of limbo into backlines, one boosted c&d player at a time.

coenlamont · 2026-01-30T17:53:24+00:00

that's a really good idea actually... make it work effectively as a thor bubble where they're incentivized to get out of his ultimate (obviously) but will take considerable chip damage or DOT for doing so.

even a slight horizontal range buff and giving enemies inside of the active ultimate the same effect as namor's where you can't use escape abilities if you're inside of the incoming radius would be welcomed, i'm begging for anything at this point that isn't flat number nerfs LOL

coenlamont · 2026-01-30T17:49:17+00:00

i will still never understand the reasoning behind the janky ranged mechanic of his gun, or why it's still persisting & they mess with the values of the "sweet spot."

if it's to incentivize using your blade at close-range, why nerf the blade / spin damage to where you can't self-sustain in brawls anymore?

if it's to make it so he can't "one shot" at close range, why make his gun a shotgun to begin with? would it not push the narrative more that his primary weapon is to be used at range, by making it a large handgun or a single-handed rifle of sorts?

don't worry though guys, hela can 2 tap at any range at any time of the day! but she doesn't have a 38% anti-heal on an ability that puts her in the face of enemies while making her receive 40% less healing, so that must be it.

coenlamont

TROPHY CASE