My Opinion on the Preview (OB55) - Much content, such wow; is Jenos a prank?

First and foremost, I'd like to thank to mods for issuing a rule change on the subject of Post-Preview posts regarding the patch. I've argued with them quite abit on this subject, and although I'm sometimes very critical of their performance, I'm happy to say that this change is not only good, but promotes good content and prevents the bad. Some of the mods on this sub work very hard to ensure quality content, and they deserve credit.

So shoutout to the mod team for making a needed change, and I hope this positive trend continues.

So lets talk about the new skins.

No actually, lets not.

Okay fine. When I saw that they were adding Mastery Skins for Torvald (and ying) I was actually fit to burst from laughter, just because I imagined a scenario where they'd only add a Mastery skin for Torvald, and all the "mains" on this subreddit would lose their shit. It'd probably be worse than the Essence rage with all the spam regarding this issue. Fair enough, hope everyone's satisfied. although I personally never understood this infatuation with a single character to the point where you rage about not having skins to buy, but to each his own.

Damba's Defiler is a glorified recolor, and Willo's new skin is cool. Not much else to say.

Moving on.

Ah, Jenos. This long awaited (and supposedly hyped?) support was something everyone was looking forward to, especially on our Discord. Imagine our surprise when HiRez introduced "Viktor with a Heal".

I mean that's basically what he is right?

It really depends on how the meta shapes up, but his damage, also assuming he can land headshots, is IMMENSE for a support. I mean, sure, we already have Pip that can be played as a Flank or 2nd position support-damage hybrid, but this guy is just straight up... well, Viktor with a heal. I don't see any reason why you wouldn't pick him in a game, even as a secondary clutch-healer whilst you go for a more aggressive composition. Imagine his buff combined with Seris heals or giving your tank a babysitter while Jenos heals the other 2.

That's not to say he's not high-skill. I'm actually extremely happy that HiRez chose to go back to the more aim-oriented champion Design (Lian is sort-of also this, but considering the amount of auto-aim she has, she's also sort-of not). It seems like Jenos really rewards good aim and awareness, balancing out your damage with your healing.

The way the healing mechanic works allows Jenos to also be a semi-damage hero, which is nice. That being said, I can already see people picking "Damage Jenos" or just not doing their job (or doing it badly, as the case may be).

His CC ability is ACTUALLY insane, something innovative that's akin to Statis in other games, but also very similar to Rubik's Lift from Dota 2. It's a very interesting mechanic, and it's much more than just a root (assuming you're using the cripple legendary) - see a Lex sliding away? BOOP NO YOU DON'T! See a Dodge Rolling Cassie creating havoc? BOOP NO YOU DON'T. The potential is great, and this, again, comes back to the whole "awareness" thing. Good Jenos(s) will be able to abuse enemy heroes and make their life harder, as well as defend themselves. There's counterplay in saving movement abilities, but this means you have to engage using other means, and "break" the hold using a movement ability.

I'm having a hard time imagining a scenario where you DON'T want his buff active, seems like it's basically a passive ability for how good it is, which you can just disable when you're done moving. Honestly, this is an ability I'm very unhappy with. His Kit seems to have no real down side other than no "instant" movement ability, so I feel like he should've, at least, been slow or punished some other way. This just feels like it breaks the hero.

His Ultimate is ridiculous. I'm really struggling to understand how this is a support ultimate at all. 2.4k Damage, pierces through walls, hits the entire map. I don't really feel like this needs an explanation.

It feels like Jenos is a prank, honestly. He's utterly broken, there's no way to even think that he's balanced, and he's essentially more offensive than some DAMAGE heroes. Combine that with his heal, insane mobility (more than Tyra), AMAZING CC and his wall-piercing, team wiping, 1 hit killing AoE, and you get something that's absolutely ridiculous.

I'm predicting he either gets nerfed in PTS, or in OB56.

Anyway, moving on.

No more ulting in spawn rooms, no more taking damage in spawn rooms! These changes are great QoL changes, and also allow the spawn room to actually be a safe spot when enemy damaged is concerned. The whole emote-locking thing is abit weird to me (I mean, why?), but I don't really use emotes so I can't really comment on the issue.

Splistone Quarry looks really cool, Grotto v2 was one of my favorite maps, and I'm glad it made it to release. The design and aesthetic look really cool and unique to what we've had up until now. It'll be interesting to see how the various High-Ground locations and small rooms shape up, but I image it'll be played similar to the way Stone Keep gets played, as the point design and high-points, as well as the corners to push through, seem very similar. The Ruckus redesign also looks pretty cool.

The addition of a free rotation is a HUGE DEAL, and I'm glad that, with the increasing of the size of the champion roster, HiRez is taking active steps to allow people to experience new champions even without paying. This plays in to my complaints a few weeks ago about how Champion Cost increasing is a big issue for new players. Now you can at least experience roughly 33% of the champion roster without paying any gold or money.

More bug fixes, a lot them graphical and visual, some text fixes, but there's more. Evie being able to Blink when Rooted was something that I noticed often when playing Grover, and it never made sense. I'm glad that's fixed, as it was clearly NOT the way the ability was meant to function. I'm also happy that the players that didn't get the level 30 rewards will now get them.

Now lets talk Balance.

Buck's Net Shot cooldown reduction seems to be about HiRez pushing a certain playstyle which is currently unviable, which is net-centric. It'll be interesting to see if this has a positive effect.

Cassie and Barik fixes are good and needed, Drogoz got a change which is mainly QoL, but is a positive one.

Fernando's nerf might've been to reduce his effectiveness as a Flank, but the problem is that it REALLY hurts him as a front-line, compare that to Makoa GETTING BUFFED AGAIN, and he just keeps falling off. I seriously have no idea why Makoa keeps getting buffed when he's been the best front-line for like, 10 patches, and will keep being the best until other front-lines are brought to his level.

Grohk can no longer hit stealthed targets, which is cool. Grover got nerfed which is surprising, but might leave room to rework his healing to actually be more consistent and meta-viable.

Sha-Lin's CHANGE IS AWESOME AND I LOVE IT. The main problem with Impaler was that it was just NOT consistent. If it really works as intended now, this makes the ability feel so much better, and makes impaler-based builds work better.

Skye buffs are interesting, but I still don't think she's quite up to the level of other flanks. it'll be cool to see if HiRez really does experiment with other forms of mobility for her (wall-run?), but this is a step in the right direction. Losing abit of damage for much more consistent DPS over range is not that big of a deal in comparison to the benefits it provides.

Viktor gets buffed, and it's honestly a good change. He's very underused and for good reason, increasing his grenade's clutch-utility and giving him a bit more Ammo allows him to be more consistent. The fix to Zhin's counter is a good one.

Anyway, as you can probably tell, I'm very positive about this patch and I think most changes are good ones. That being said, I really hope Jenos is a prank, or that he'll get nerfed on PTS. He seems so insane, I just hope I'm wrong.

Peace out guys, see you in OB55.

Also, shoutout to HiRezKrett for doing the preview this time, it was a breath of fresh air.