Overwatch Team Announces Plans to Rework Bastion in a Future Patch

Back when Overwatch first came out, Bastion became infamous as one of the more overpowered heroes in the roster. However, as players learned the game and got a better feel for the characters, people were soon quick to realize that Bastion is actually quite weak. He has several hard counters and is easily defeated with proper positioning and teamwork. These days, Bastion is one of the least picked hero and is often considered a poor pick in any situation.

About a week ago, principal designer Geoff Goodman took to the forums and said that they were working on changes for the hero. And now just a few hours ago, he’s returned to the forums with some details regarding the changes they want to test out in an upcoming PTR patch.

There are three main aspects that Goodman talks about tweaking with regards to Bastion: Recon mode, Sentry mode, and his Self-Repair ability.

For Recon mode, Goodman mentions decreasing the gun’s spread and increasing the clip size to make this mode more viable. More often than not, Bastion players only ever use Recon mode to move from spot to spot and reactivate Sentry Mode, with them rarely ever taking advantage of Recon mode’s sidearm.

For Sentry mode, the more popular Bastion configuration, Goodman says that they want to turn this mode into more of a “tank-buster” and “barrier-buster” mode while also making it feel less dangerous to use in the heat of battle. They plan to increase the spread and take out the ability to land headshots but at the same time decrease the amount of damage Bastion receives in this mode.

Finally, with regards to his Self-Repair ability, Goodman states that their current internal build has Self-Repair usable while moving and can no longer be interrupted by damage. To balance this, they’ve given Self-Repair a resource bar similar to D.Va’s Defense Matrix.

No word as of yet when these changes will hit the PTR, but when they do it could mean making Bastion a viable pick in the current tank focused meta. Will we see the return of the Bastion OP jokes from the days of the beta? We’ll just have to wait and see.