Bastion recently received a number of big changes in the game’s most recent patch, making him more popular than before. Naturally, game director Jeff Kaplan saw the discussion the game’s community was having and wanted to share his thoughts about Bastion’s buffs.
First of all, Kaplan confirmed that an update will be made to Bastion in the next PTR patch. This patch is now live, along with new hero Orisa.
However, Kaplan added that the metagame people see does not always align with reality. He provided Mercy as an example, who many believed was not being picked by enough players, creating this perception she is underutilized, when in reality she is among the Top 5 played characters.
However, Kaplan noted that he does not believe an equal pick rate for every hero in the game is not realistic. And it definitely may not even make the game better.
“Balance changes can be very difficult to make when emotions run so high in the community,” Kpalan pointed out. “There is outrage if a hero does not get played a lot (like with Bastion or Symmetra). We make changes to make those heroes more viable which means they will get played more.
“The result is, people need to adjust to playing against Symmetra and Bastion more… and they are more powerful. 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.”
As far as what Kaplan personally thinks about Bastion, he says this.“Over the past few nights I’ve played with, as and against Bastion. My perception is that he is a little too powerful right now,” he said.
“In particular, in one match I was playing Bastion and the enemy Tracer was trying to hunt me down. The Tracer player was clearly a better player than I am – a very skilled individual. I relied heavily on my self-heal and the Tracer could not finish me off. But I was able to kill Tracer in recon mode almost through attrition.This part felt wrong to me. But a lot of the feedback I read feels wildly blown out of proportion.”
