Why is soldier not viable in the meta anymore, and what buffs would make him viable again without being too overpowered?

Kind of a different focus of changes than other people... Helix Rockets. A lot of people seem to be convinced that S76 will see his primary fire return to what it once was.

Deep breath...

GET THE FUCK OVER IT. IT WILL NEVER GO BACK TO THE WAY IT WAS ORIGINALLY.


Anyway, my proposal for Helix Rockets some give with a little take:

  1. Reduce the cooldown
    Potentially as much as a 25% reduction, down to 6s from 8s.
  2. Increase the speed of the projectile
    Maybe as much as +50% or even a +100% increase, from 40m/s to 60m/s or 80m/s. For context, 80m/s would be about 20% faster than Zenyatta's primary/secondary fire.
  3. Change the damage ratio
    Currently, Helix Rockets deal a potential 120 damage on a direct hit. But that is split by 40 damage on the impact and 80 damage from splash. If you don't hit directly, you don't get that 40 damage from the direct hit.
    I would suggest making it 60 direct/60 splash or even 80 direct/40 splash. With the significant increase in speed of the projectile, landing direct hits would be much easier. But at the same time, giving him the reduced cooldown with 80 splash would be obscene, allowing for stupid amounts of spam. So the easy solution is to make it deal more direct damage and less splash. The explosion radius would remain unchanged but the splash damage would be lower accordingly.

The changes above would be a net upgrade to skilled S76 players that can land direct hits with the Helix Rockets but remain a relatively benign "sidegrade" for lower skill players. They can fire more often and the rockets are easier to hit because of their increase in speed but poor aim is penalized for the increased opportunity to spam.


Changing the core gimmick of his gameplay is never going to happen. He's sustained damage. But the rockets are supposed to be his finisher and giving him more opportunity to fire them would be a big deal. Additionally, a 6s cooldown on Helix Rockets would mean that there's almost always a chance to use them during Tactical Visor, which has a 6s duration.

/r/Competitiveoverwatch Thread