Bastion, once feared for his massive damage output before players figured out how to counter him, has been one of the most neglected heroes in Overwatch.
Fortunately, for players who main Bastion and the entire Overwatch community, changes for the robot hero are now being planned to make him an interesting character to use once again.
Plea For Help With Bastion
A player who goes by the handle Rarithlynx started a thread on the official Overwatch forums last week, stating that Bastion is the only hero that has been ignored ever since the multiplayer shooter launched in May 2016.
In the thread's opening post, Rarithlynx assessed how Bastion, which is countered by the most number of other heroes in Overwatch, is "in a pretty bad spot." Bastion is large in size and practically immobile, with no abilities to help him escape or defend himself, forcing his teammates to try to protect him so that he would be effective in a match.
Rarithlynx claimed that developers have already taken a look and improved a long list of other heroes, but no word has come regarding Bastion.
Overwatch Developer Reveals Bastion Overhaul
In the same thread, Overwatch principal designer Geoff Goodman revealed that the development team has actually been working on several changes for Bastion, which should be ready to be tested in the next release of the game's Public Test Region.
For Recon Mode, which is when Bastion is on two legs, the hero will be receiving a lowered spread and an increased magazine size, so that the mode will be boosted in its viability.
For Sentry Mode, which is when Bastion transforms into a stationary gatling gun, Goodman said that the development team is looking to make the mode more of a "tank-buster and barrier-buster" mode. The team is also looking to improve the survivability of Bastion while in Sentry Mode, which might be done by decreasing the damage while Bastion is in this mode but with increased spread and the removal of headshots.
The Self-Repair skill of Bastion is the one that will be seeing the biggest changes. The development team has been trying out allowing Self-Repair while moving, with the healing to continue even when Bastion takes damage. To balance this out, the team has moved the skill into a resource system similar to the defense matrix of D.Va. With these changes, Goodman said that the skill has been upgraded from a rarely used one to a more powerful survivability tool.
According to Goodman, the development team is still testing and tweaking the planned changes for Bastion. However, the reworked Bastion should be coming to a PTR build fairly soon so that gamers will get the chance to try out the new and hopefully much improved character.
Bastion Buff Reactions
Replies to Goodman's post have been overwhelmingly positive, as the stated changes are seen as the kind that would make Bastion relevant again in Overwatch.
The potential of Bastion being a "tank-buster" is particularly interesting, especially given the triple-tank teams currently dominating competitive matches Overwatch.
