Earlier this week, Overwatch Director Jeff Kaplan hosted a Reddit AMA with fans to answer a variety of questions about the game and a few personal ones at that. He responded to questions relating to his favorite hero, what his personal competitive ranking is, probing questions pertaining to early ideas and theories of Overwatch, and so on. If you’re at all curious and prefer not to look through all 2,841 comments – Kaplan doesn’t have a favorite, he is a platinum level player, and initial concepts included Tracer having lasers for eyes instead of guns. The Ask Me Anything was very entertaining and informative! One of the topics he touched on was in regards to Overwatch’s Lúcio. Major changes are being developed and tested in PTR, including a visual song radius, decreased song proximity, increased wall riding speed, and decreased radius on sound barrier.

Courtesy of a Redditor by the name of SirPeterLivingstonIV, check out what the visual song radius looks like below:

https://gfycat.com/PresentNiftyHookersealion

Any and all modifications are subject to change in the public test region, including the designs and effects currently in use. Kaplan noted that even though he is a “‘must-have’ in team comps” the mechanics don’t “feel super impactful to play.” In order to approach the adjustments as objectively as possible, there is a balance of listening to community commentary and making sure characters remain playable and viable. For example, Kaplan mentions that there have been significant complaints about Ana, but the team are “also not out to see her never get played either”.

Right now we’re trying some stuff with Lúcio. We feel like a lot of players feel like he is a “must have” in comps but he also doesn’t feel super impactful to play. We’re trying some ideas to make him more engaging to play while making him a little less obvious/must pick. We’ll see if those changes make it to the PTR.”

According to the developer comments in the PTR blog post, the hero is most dependent upon his passives that caused other aspects of his skills to seem “weakened” as the game goes on. By focusing on the “auras” more, it should allow his gameplay and role within a game to be more dynamic and active. Currently, this is what players are seeing from from Overwatch’s Lúcio:

• Sonic Amplifier
  • Projectile speed increased from 40 to 50
  • Alternate fire now considers vertical orientation when knocking targets back
• Crossfade
  • Song’s area-of-effect radius decreased from 30 meters to 10 meters
    • A temporary in-game visual has been added to illustrate this radius (it is only visible to Lúcio and his teammates)
  • Heal Song
    • Healing-per-second has been increased by 50% (also applies to Lúcio’s Amp It Up ability)
• Sound Barrier
  • Radius decreased from 30 meters to 20 meters
• Wall Ride
  • Movement speed increased by 30% when wall riding
  • Lúcio now receives a burst of speed when leaping off a wall

What do you think of the changes being made to Overwatch’s Lúcio? Are you in favor of them or are you feeling quite the opposite? Feel free to let us know in the comments section below or begin your own conversation on Don’t Feed the Gamers Disqus channel! To stay up to date on the latest news in the gaming world, follow us on Facebook and Twitter!