Ever since Overwatch came out i was a huge Soldier 76 fan. His lore, his character, personality and everything regarding him is awesome to me. That being said i never actually started to play Soldier until last 2 seasons reason being i was more comfortable playing tanks and supports. During season 12 i decided to give my all and climb as much as i can which resulted in me doing a climb from 2500 to 3450-3500 when i stopped. I stopped because i was drained and i couldn’t press the button to play ranked. I was burned out.
So because i wasn’t able to play ranked i started playing Quick Play and Arcade to mess around with my friends and while i was playing QP and Arcade i started to play more and more of Soldier and Hanzo. The more i played those two the more i noticed just how much those 2 are different in hero kit yet so alike in their roles. It got to the point where i would ask myself: Why should i play Soldier 76 when Hanzo can do everything he can much better?
So i wanna dedicate this thread to adress the state of Soldier 76 and i will break down his character from top to bottom.
- Soldier is a veteran, modified to be perfect soldier in all of aspects yet his character in game is the definition of a rookie soldier. Soldier can only hip fire with full auto. No Semi-Auto mode or aim down sight mode. Nothing which makes a soldier better than a rookie one. Because of it i think Soldier 76 should have the option to have 2 fire modes. Semi Auto and Full Auto which he can change with a press of a button. And just like Ashe he should have the option to aim down sights if needed. Anyone who played FPS will know just how much semi auto and full auto make a difference in certain situations. Same with being able to hip fire or aim down sights. Each of these 4 modes has his ups and down that change depending on the situation you are in and as such enabling this to Soldier 76 would open so much more possibilities to him.
- Soldier 76 is 50% being able to aim and 50% being able to position properly. As such Blizzard gave him the ability tosprint to position better. But that ability lacks so so much on certain maps where Soldier has to sprint ridicolusamounts of distance to reach his desired spot from which he can fire on enemies. By doing so he makes himself openfor enemy fire and he is also loosing valuable time. Now compare this to Hanzo, Widowmaker and Ashe who all havetools to position better that are much better than Soldiers. That being said i really believe Soldier 76 should have theability to climb low to medium size walls and obstacles without him needing to use Rocket Jump which is insane to me.Why should Soldier use an ability that has 8 seconds cooldown and which isn’t even created to make him positionbetter? Can you imagine if you used Storm Arrows to position better as Hanzo? And when you rockets to position youalso take damage and now you have 8 seconds cooldown on an ability that might be of use to you.
- When it comes to Helix Rockets it is a high risk high reward ability. It is often used on tanks to remove armor and thenattack them to avoid reduced damage buff armor provides. It is rarely used on squishy targets because it is often hardto hit them and because of it most Soldier players target the ground. I personally think that when it comes to HelixRockets they should be reworked to be more like Junkrat Bombs. Soldier 76 can stack 3 rockets which refill after acertain amount of time and can be used at any time he wishes to use them. That being said they would do reduceddamage in order to prevent Soldier 76 to be pre nerf Storm Arrow Hanzo.
- Biotic Field for me doesn’t suit Soldier 76 at all. It is designed to be a group heal ability but when you think about itmost Soldier 76 players are on the high ground and in very few istances will they be grouped with their team. It is oftenused to self heal when dived. Problem is that if you are dived as Soldier you can fight of 1 enemy , 2 or more not somuch and you will be forced to retreat. Now what’s the point of BF there? There is non. You will throw the ground butyou will be forced to retreat. I think Soldier 76 should instead be given an ability called Adrenaline Shot where he forfew seconds gets a regen and damage reduction ( 10 to 15 % is enough ). It is much better for Soldier 76 when it comesto his playstyle.
- Visor for me should be totally reworked. It is such a low skill level ability which is often countered by Rein simplykeeping his shield up or any Support just pressing Q. The only time Visor is good is to clean up enemies and even thenit is risky since you make yourself a moving target just screaming: Yea i am using my ult. As such i would make Visor tobe more skilled based by making it so that Visor is no longer a LIDL aimbot. I would make it so that Visor instead scanstargets in the area revealing their weak points which Soldier can then shoot for extra damage. Make it more about skill.
For anyone who read all of this thanks a lot. Sorry for bad English. For those who don’t wanna read the entire thing i got you, here is TL: DR
- Soldier should have Semi Auto mode and Aim Down sights mode
- He should be able to climb low to medium high walls
- Helix Rockets should be like Junk Bombs but would deal less damage.
- BF should be made into Adrenaline Shot where Soldier gets self regen and damage reduction
- Visor should be made into a mode where he can see enemy weak spots that when hit deal extra damage.