Overwatch Lucio Rework: Buff Or Nerf? (or neither??)

In this video I discuss the new Lucio changes and address the popular question of whether it's a net buff or a net nerf.

End Song: JJD - Adventure

[luxrus]

Sky you are better than all the other channels. I must truly say that you are a fantastic teacher. I recommend coaching teams because of your charisma and teaching style. Keep up the good work!

[alanklm]

I guess the core identity of lucio for me was "I'm suck at healing, but we have no healers and I'm the only one who cares.", and now it is destroyed :D
And I love this.

[youngcrespo]

By the way, I picked Lúcio because he has an aura.
AKA he doesn't require aim, he never dies, and if I drop to my classic 7 FPS, I still exist and heal people and won't have people realizing I shouldn't be playing this game on a laptop.

[Leodeusrex]

im the zarya from the video in the game you played, thank you so much for the game i got to play with you, i wish i would have said something second round so you could have had more lucio footage to work with, i thought you might be making a video so i tried not to freak out too much when i saw it was you, i couldnt decide if i should say something in case you were going to have live commentary or something, but im glad i got the opportunity to play with you, it was fun

[orion_nectro.x]

glad to have you back, my youtube OW content has been running dry as of late..

[Shilag]

One problem with the changes that I don't see anyone talking about is just how unintuitive his ult is going to be now. You can no longer use the player indicator in the center of your screen to judge how many people are in range of your Sound Barrier. I think that's a bit of a problem since you're going to have to eyeball it and just hope that you reach everyone. I hope they do something about that, maybe including a second counter on the ult meter once it's full.

[Rc]

It's a direct buff to the DSPStanky style of play, I think, because you no longer need amp to speed boost yourself, and can instead save it for when you're with your team. The increased healing makes up for the time that you're away from them, and your boop and projectiles being buffed gives you better tools to make plays. Blizzard looked at him and went, "Wow, THIS is what we want people doing, how do we encourage it?"

I think whether it's a buff or a nerf depends on the style of play someone had with him, but I think his skill ceiling has been raised, at the very least

[crisrody]

Expecting:
"Wow I can go anywhere super fast now"
Reallity:
1) /Stuck behind Reinhardt 90% of the time
2) /Didn't heal anyone and just was an fly buzzing on enemys ears

XD
(I'm not talking about 100% of the players, just the majority)

[chibmaniac]

Watching you try to chase down the Lucio over the wall then not knowing how to get back over and being forced to do a flanking Lucio sure was eventful

[hrthgar_]

The reduction from 30m down to 10m seems a bit harsh imo but the real issue is the difference between ult range and regular aura range you no longer can tell by the number in the middle how many people you will hit with the sound barrier since it only shows people within 10m. Also it would make sense to make the radius bigger when lucio amps it up, I mean the music gets louder so reaches further?! :C

[Mag]

I think that blizzard intended this to be a 'nerf'. It's obvious that they were troubled that his massive impact and his (relatively) low skill floor led to people assert him as a "must pick". This is what I think blizzard is telling us from each of the changes:

Projectile speed increased from 40 to 50
= Quality of life improvement (it wont make him that much better, but it WILL feel better).

Alternate fire now considers vertical orientation
= Quality of life improvement (it will situationally buff and debuff lucio, and it will raise his skill cap).

Crossfase AOE from 30 to 10 Metres
= "We know that we can't blunt lucio's sword anymore, so to speak, without making him a boring hero who will still probably be picked alot of the time. As a consquence, we're taking away his sword and giving him a dagger. Shorter range means you have to selectively choose which team mates you want to help." One side note here, retreats with lucio just got harder, as they are usually alot less organised than engagements.

Heal Song & Amp increased by 50%
= "We understand that you're only going to be buffing 3 team members on average, instead of 5. So to keep the healing numbers worth while, we're giving you a little buff."

Sound Barrier from 30 to 20
= "YES, the fact that this change isn't 10m like the crossfade Aura is essentially admitting that we think that you can't reliably affect the whole team with a 10m aura. Thats what we want."

Wallride buffs
= "YES, we know that having massive speed boosts while wall riding forms an anti-synergy with lucio's tiny auras. This was again our intention."

Summary:
"We wanted to really attack the foundation of why lucio is a must pick. Previously, alot of players played him like a buff machine that sits at the back of a team and clicks one button. What our changes have allowed us to do is make lucio's equipment individually better by reducing his scope of effectiveness. This increases his maximum potential and also increases player engagement in the game. We'll see how these changes pan out, but we really don't want to leave him at 30m, because we can't make 'knob turning' changes to a hero in that state."

[landoakechi]

you are so right about determining if this is a nerf or buff

[brokenwizards]

I think the only problem is Lucio's speed. I think stanky was saying the amp it up speed stacks with the wall ride speed and the boost when jumping off walls.

So really they just need to cap the stacking.

I also am seeing a lot of comments that people want an aura size a little bigger. I'm inclined to like the sizes blizzard chose.

I wouldn't mind his ult having the unrestrained size it had before though.

[chaosmage]

I feel like it's actually a pretty big buff, because most teams who are coordinating that sort of speed boost are doing so in tightly knit balls anyways, since reinhardt was acting as an Anchor. Reducing his range just means that he helps with that Anchor situation better, while being less effective once the brawling begins. We'll see a large impact in the lower coordination teams, but I feel like it won't be because his speed buff was taken away, but because more Lucio's will begin dying while trying to be aggressive (or emulate DSPStanky). His healing makes him competitive with the other heals now for keeping multiple people up, so we'll also see THAT more often too. The nerf to the range, while massive, shouldn't actually change his playstyle too much, especially in lower ranks (Who may not know how passive or aggressive they should be). In higher ranks, the lucio's tended to have the mechanical skills to be able to be aggressive with him.

Where exactly he stands on how powerful he is hard to say, though. I'd like to say he'll be picked less, since it'll be harder to get the use out of his kit, but he still provides the speed buff and no other hero does that. So... probably no change in actual pick rate? *shrug*

I wish i was good with Lucio :(

[kampfhamsterx]

I'm a Lucio-Main and I have to say, I love the changes. Yes it's waiting to be seen if he's better or worse now, but what I think what it definitly did, was increasing the skill ceiling.
So he isn't that good for non healers forced in picking a healer anymore, but for people like me who play him on a regular basis, he could be much more effective to the game than before.

[MasterChef]

8:35, I could practically hear Scout saying "Yo what's up"

[XPataX]

When reviewing vods, would wins or losses be better? Also should I record my own mic?

[LifeOnMarzMI]

Skyline you always manage to perfectly articulate how I'm feeling about Overwatch changes!

[Drakoni]

It's kinda funny. After these changes he will be closer to his Heroes of the Storm version. Even tho he feels super close to that already, the wallride speed and seeing your radius is exactly how to play him in HotS and he's probably my favourite support there right now.
Also, still love your content. Tho you sound pretty tired in this one

[GrooveGenies]

Lucio's hopping around on a point will be impossible to kill now.