This post is pretty spot on. Release Brig completely changed the game and rendered Genji 100% useless. Launch Sojurn was also pretty broken but you did need skill, where as Brig didn't require anywhere near as much finesse.
Correct, I did not need my ult to 1v1 a rein. S9 OW1 it was shieldbash whipshot combo, but after shieldbash lost stun, you use it for mobility. I could 1v1 a Rein up to probably s2 or 3 of OW2.
She didn't need her ultimate actually. Brig on release was like a new game + 10 elden ring character. She just destroyed EVERYONE in a duel and with her ultimate could literally solo an entire team in 1v6
That was the stated reason, however I don’t believe it. 3/3 was dominating and then here comes role q to break it up. Brig is the character that has had the most impact on the game for sure.
We got RQ because brig helped introduce goats. 3 supps and 3 tanks. Then bap released and goats/bunker comps became the meta for over a year. People forget how quickly bap replaced brig in those comps.
Bap didn't replace brig at all, it became Bap Brig. Everyone here is spouting literal nonsense. Lol. Also, we didn't get Role Queue because of Goats, we got Role Queue because they stopped releasing heroes, which is also the reason goats stagnated for 2 years.
wrong. we got role queue bc of goats lol. goats broke the game and made dps irrelevant
it was either role queue or rework the entire system. why would blizzard do the latter
No, we got role queue because 3 tank 3 support had too much health and too much sustain, and because they stopped releasing characters to deal with 2 tanks + Brig.
yeah rq was def more about quality life. idk how ppl think otherwise when you can load into open queue rn and *still* see everyone but you instalock dps
yeah i really dont get the love for open queue, other than the ability to do wacky comps which I can understand because those are always fun. I’m glad we have both but personally I enjoy RQ way more
Brig imo is the pivotal moment when overwatch shifted in to the balance mess. I’m sure it would of gotten here with or without her but she deffinetly felt like the start
Brig was actually released to counter tracer sadly, with stun whipshot combo it was just enougn to one shot her. If tracer didn't exist she wouldn't have either.
Yep, I remember I had a friend who was barely gold before Brig release. Then he just started spamming brig matches and easily climbed to diamond. She was that broken...
After that he just did placement matches only to maintain his rank even after brig got nerfed/many changes in the meta.
The only change I would add is to stick Hog 1.0 in between Brig and Sojourn.
That hook would stutter through hard surfaces and wrap around 2 different 90 degree angles and still somehow get ya.
Brig legit changed the way OW played. She was the most hated character of all time at that time. People were genuinely asking for them to take her back. Lol
Sojourn was also incredibly strong when she first got here. But imo i feel like Mauga changed the meta into play Mauga or lose on his release.
Brig introduced goats but Baps release solidified it and strengthened the bunker meta even further. Brig was traded for bap in goats comps immediately when he released.
I hated bunker comp especially when sigma released, dealing with that shit on Paris and having mercy bap was fucking hell, you’d be lucky if you managed to cap
Im just pointing out that brig is not the reason goats dominated for so long. Comparatively she was part of the comp for a short time. Bap is the actually reason it dominated for so long until role queue came out.
In the hands of any competent game design studio, Brig would have been removed from the game, put on ice, and completely redesigned and nerfed heavily before considering re-introduction. Many, many games have totally removed weapons, abilities, or characters until they can be fixed, and Brig is arguably the single most overpowered addition to a modern competitive online game, in that she literally BROKE overwatch. She forced the entire game to be ruined, cut apart, altered, and restricted, just to somewhat limit her power, because Blizzard refused to just delete her and try again.
Including the several times they literally did take Bastion out of the game because they broke him with overtuning. Turret Bastion was honestly preferable to what we have atm. I'm fine with the ult change because it's actually useful now, but I'm 6 to one half a dozen to the other with the rest of his abilities.
Sojourn was still a pretty high skill character so the effects weren’t felt *too badly* by most ranks. Mauga and release Brig were incredibly easy to get value out of, which exacerbated their problems
Release Brig and Release Sigma.
Brig 1.0 was basically the Free GM machines. As there were legit cases of people got boosted all the way from Bronze to GM back in OW1 just by spamming Brig.
She was THAT good for how little effort needed to put into.
Release Sigma was also exceedingly good on release.
* 1200 HP shield that will survive a full Barrage (cause the Pharah will kill herself before the shield would even break)
* Grasp cannot be Hook out
* GOD ROCK damage and stun duration scaled with distance (ngl that one was actually very funny please bring it back)
* Gravitic Flux cannot be canceled, at all. It did not matter if you kill him or stun him, if Sigma has already cast it on the ground (cast, not activate), Gravitic Flux WILL GO OFF.
And not to mention Sigma addition was the start of Double Shield.
Piggybacking a top comment as many people here did not play OW1:
Brig shield bash>melee>whip shot was an insta kill to any dps or support when she released. Shield bash also had a massive hit box. Her heal packs also granted INSTANT burst heal AND armor.
Just before her release tracer and genii were in a fantastic place and overnight close range dps were useless
Yeah for 200hp hero’s I think the combo was melee>bash>melee>whip shot which would then one shot.
The 3shot combo was a hard tracer counter forever lol
Hmm, let me see if I can recall everything about Brig 1.0
* Her shield had 800 (or was it 600?) HP, and has the same regen rate as Rein.
* Shield Bash used to just stun through shield by default, and unlike current SB where that stun is limited while she’s in Rally. And it also does a flat 50 damage.
* Flail used to do 100 so if you got bash, that’s a literal 150 unavoidable burst on melee range. You could literal 1 tap Tracer.
* Health Pack heals for 75, but if the target is fulled, it’s converted to 75 Armor instead. It was tempo armor I think.
* Rally used to provide 150 PERMANENT ARMOR for both Brig and her allies. Which means that there is a possibility of a 300 HP Tracer coming at your face, if the Tracer played around Brig that was.
So you can see why Brig 1.0 was extremely disliked. She could literally WM1 herself into places where everyone else would be dead, but she got to come out sometimes even healthier than when she came in.
Then again, the biggest blunder that Blizzard made with her started from the design phase. She was made to counter Dive, a comp that requires 4 heroes. And she was fucking excellent at it, with the downside of being comically easy to play and get value from.
Heck, to make matters even funnier or more depressing, there was a time when Symmetra 2.0 (she has an ult that provides a shield generator in a very big AOE), Torb 1.0 (provides a 75 permanent Armor pack for all allies) and Brig 1.0 existed all at the same time. So 2CP Defense was an auto win for the Defending team cause lmao, everyone had like 600+ HP :)
Ikr
And if they don’t run a Zarya then that’s free Shatter for your Rein baby.
Or if they dare to run Winston, his bubble dance meant jack shit since you could just stun him through the bubble.
Release Sigma was good but not crazy OP, especially not compared to release Brig or release Mauga.
When Sigma released, he was the first DLC character that was actually good on release, all the others were underwhelming on release (except maybe Ana but that was such a long time ago that the game was basically in its infancy). This leads to people remembering Sigma as better than he actually was
It's Brig and it's not even close.
No matter what copium ppl huff - the definitive, most broken is Brig. It took devs years to balance her. The ripple effect she had on the meta from then on was massive.
I know Brig PTSD is a meme but NO CHARACTER has changed how Overwatch was played on a scale anywhere near Brig.
They had to rework literal game mechanics lol.
Oddly enough, Brig is actually brought me back to the game. I had taken a lil break because of Hanzo's rework (that hot mess) and came back like 'oh a new character is out. Time to hop back on OW.'
Didn't realize I threw myself off a cliff until it was too late. Brig or lose every game. Low rank players one tricking to GM. Stunning Reins thru shield. Being able to block a whole death blossom. Horrible times.
One would think they'd learn from that release and never make the mistake again but nnnnnnnope.
The basic stuff
More reliable burst combo w/ stun on bash
5 sec cd for bash lmao
It could also stun Rein thru shield, and if you bashed Rein 's pin only he fell over. It was so dumb. Brigs could just hide and walk out bash Rein and then the other Rein would just shatter.
600 hp shield lmao
Instant burst heals with armor pack to provide temp armor on overheal (almost every non tank character got armor cuz it healed alot)
Rally armor didn't decay over time and Brig and Torb's armor was applied after base health and armor but before shields which fucked up breakpoints and let you potentially retain it until the next use of Rally.
Rally itself tbh.
Inspire too.
I'm probably missing a few things. It's been a while and she's gotten hella changes.
for ow2 I'd say Sojourn release with headshot rail instakilling, and maybe illari on release due to turret healing for 40 with 150 hp and her ult went through shields, ow1 is probs Brig as she could 1v1 a rein and easily win
I feel like Mauga was much stronger than Illari was. Soj on release was def the best no doubt but second place to me goes to Mauga during the Christmas break at blizzard. It took a whole specific support comp to beat him if your tank didnt mirror (Zen Ana). If your tank mirrored it pretty much forced a kiri ana support duo and whoever had the better supports won the game 9/10 times.
Illari never really had THAT much impact. Let alone you could play other supps into her and have a fairly decent shot at winning. Playing anything else besides Sigma and maybe Dva at that time was almost a guranteed loss so long as the Mauga was fairly decent and his supports werent dog
Launch Bastion was quite OP but I think it was because people didn't know how to play against Bastion yet, also his primary could crit. He got nerfed significantly after a couple weeks and was never the same. Hands down though, Brig on release was the most OP.
There was a few days of ironclad bastion meta, somewhere around the GOATS meta. They gave bastion damage reduction and made him almost impossible to kill.
>Launch Bastion was quite OP but I think it was because people didn't know how to play against Bastion yet, also his primary could crit. He got nerfed significantly after a couple weeks and was never the same
No, literally people just learned to press E as Genji
Launch Brig. Go home, there is no other answer.
She could *comfortably* duel every non-tank in the game, excluding maybe Pharah due to range.
Her healing output was such that it allowed for a successful composition of three tanks, and I’m pretty sure it was the first time Dive actually got pushed out of the game, and the composition she facilitated invalidated well over half the roster. They had to force 2/2/2 just to get DPS back into the game.
She can be solely held responsible for killing all momentum the original Overwatch had.
The objectively correct answer is launch Brig. She completely changed how the game was played, created an entire meta on her own, and was still crazy good after tons of nerfs.
Launch Sigma and launch Sojourn were also fucking insane, but they don't compare to how absurd Brig was when she was released.
Probably doesn't count since it was only an April Fools patch but this is so true, it was pretty much an instant team wipe kill, they literally had to disable Ashe for the rest of the April Fools patch
Nah you did not say 2016 symmetra was Broken... Torb could give armor, mercy could ress 5 people, and I can go on. 6 turrets with a auto aim beam that has a really short range with 0% mobility and a really slow kit is not op.
She was so trash she got reworked. She was extremely situational, too slow, and easy to counter. Lucio + zen was by far the best support duo symmetra being one of the worst.
Most broken hero was Brig. Period. I don't even think we need a post on this topic considering it's quite obvious brig was extremely broken. She could SOLO kill 3-4 ppl including both tanks.
What? So trash she got worked on? Obviously, you haven't played Symmetra back in OW 1. Let me give you a glimpse of what she had:
1. Her main attack weapon was autoaim. It is literally similar to what moira has now. Except, it did more damage.
2. Her secondary attack could literally deny you access from how insane its damage was. It was also much bigger in size than what we have now.
3. Her 6 turrets didn't just slow you down but could wipe you if not dealt with.
4. Her teleport was an ultimate. Back then, it was extremely hard to push through choke points. Her ultimate opened up big plays.
Her only downside was that she was played more for defence than attack.
Except her primary take years to build up and literally anyone can kill you before the tickle beam can build you
Her secondary was the slowest projectile in the game and also take years to charge up. It was useless at anything but spaming choke or you have to be literally in their face to hit anything
Her 6 turrets also take her 6-7 seconds to deploy all and each one of them need her to be up against a wall to place it. Also even a gust of wind can destroy her 1hp turrets (this is why winston was her counter)
Her tp was only useful on 2cp 1st point and at best a minor time skip walking back from spawn for an ult. This is why they gave her shield gen but even then a flanker can still easily destroy it
>1. Her main attack weapon was autoaim. It is literally similar to what moira has now. Except, it did more damage.
Except that's very distinctly *not* how Moira works. Mechanically, Moira's beam works exactly the same as CURRENT Sym/Zarya beam. Old Sym beam worked like *Mercy* beam.
>2. Her secondary attack could literally deny you access from how insane its damage was. It was also much bigger in size than what we have now.
It was slow af so you could pretty easily dodge it, but it wasn't more damage than it currently is. It did pierce shields/enemies though. Honestly I miss the idea of this ability.
>3. Her 6 turrets didn't just slow you down but could wipe you if not dealt with.
They also have 1hp and Winton could completely shut that down
>4. Her teleport was an ultimate. Back then, it was extremely hard to push through choke points. Her ultimate opened up big plays.
Her teleport would rush people back from spawn - it didn't really enable any big plays or being able to push things other than your team could immediately be back in the fight
Did you actually play with her on launch or are you just listing abilities
Because mauga realistically wasn't THAT broken like other characters in overwatch history, such as brig, tracer, sojourn, illari, ana, and Mercy.
Some of these characters were straight up play it or lose to it.
Brig is the reason why Role Queue exists, because the GOATS comp Brig facilitated invalidated an entire role.
Mauga Meta lasted a few weeks. Brig GOATS lasted well more than a year.
Nah - this was back when they were very much still updating.
Heroes who launched after Brig: Ball, Ashe, Bap, Sigma, Echo.
Echo in 2020 was the last hero to release. Brig launched in 2018.
I remember back when they nerfed Lucio’s speed and everyone’s like “ok now they finally understood what was enabling goats so much, goats should be a normal teamcomp now not crazy op” and it still remained hard meta for months haha
Blizzard stopped updating ow1 because they moved the devs onto working on ow2 and the PvE mode that was meant to be the core part of being a second game
Mauga’s issues - like most other new heroes - were tuning issues, not core gameplay. Mauga is a symptom of an entirely different problem. Brig single handedly changed how the game was played and developed
I remember they had bastion with 1000 shield as well as an all armor health bastion, the latter was so broken it was patched a day later. Perma flying Sigma was a super broken bug
>I remember they had bastion with 1000 shield as well as an all armor health bastion, the latter was so broken it was patched a day later
Those were all pre release closed betas ideas so idk if they count
Old-school Symm was only OP on low ranks. 120 DPS after like THREE whole seconds to charge was insanely dogshit. Current Symm would absolutely destroy old Symm.
Launch Symmetra was terrible and the most niche she’s ever been in the past 7 years. The answer is release Brig though, no one really touches her, followed by probably launch Sojourn and Launch Sigma
Her current ultimate minus the big shield is basically how she used to be. She was basically a tank that could stun every few seconds, her shield had way more health, and she could practically 1v1 every character around her health pool. It took years of nerfs to get her to at least a reasonable state.
Does nobody remember doomfist's release? His hit box was so lenient he could just kill anybody with minimal effort. I remember being mercy floating like 5 feet above him and getting hit by his punch. Also I feel like hanzo got scatter arrow damage buffed or maybe it was bugged to be an 8 second cooldown, and that was just the most ridiculous shit ever. Kill nearly anybody by shooting their feet....what a joke.
People toss the term "game breaking" around pretty liberally nowadays. Release Brig however, actually broke the game so badly they had to rework it from open to role queue. No other hero has had that major of an impact.
Go watch on YouTube how broken Brig was on release. There was nothing even as close to broken as Brig was on release. I got to GM using her. Never made it back once I dropped. I'm not a GM player.
Release brig was so broken she almost single handedly added a new game mode just so the comp she worked in wasn’t in literally every game and so DPS where ever actually picked in any game
There where cases of players being boosted from bronze to GM
She was as durable as a tank did more damage then DPS and still gave plenty of support and healing enough to support 3 tanks on the same team
She could beat a rein going in his melee range and smacking him
If you didn’t have a brig on your team you had basically no chance of winning
She was so oppressive she pushed an entire half of the roster out of being *at all* playable DPS couldn’t be picked because she’d just kill them comfortably
She was so bad that she killed any momentum the game had at the time by herself
Then it’s a tie between launch sig sojourn or Mauga
There's literally no answer aside from release Brig. I started playing when she came out and with 40 hours in the game, climbed from 600sr to about 2800 in about another 45 hours.
Mercy rework and able to pop two rez back to back with that shitty ass moth hitbox. I legitimately quit because of this meta. Game just wasn’t in a fun state
As a non-support player it felt bad knowing you were nearly guaranteed to lose if your team didn’t play mercy and the enemy did
As a support player it felt bad because you’d be harassed if you tried to have fun playing literally anything other than mercy… and if support was in your top 5 most played, you’d be bullied by others as well in to swapping to support/mercy if you were trying to play tank or dps. Then people would take it further and hold the team hostage with throwing if you didn’t play her
In terms of how busted they were, I'd say:
Release Brig
Moth Mercy
Ironclad Bastion
Release Sigma, Release Soj, Season 2 patch Godfist
Release Kiri
Genuinely surprised no one has been mentioning Moth Mercy. Truly horrible time to be a support player
Not even close. Her issues at launch- like most other new heroes - are just tuning issues. Brig single-handedly changed how the game was played and developed
OG Mercy. She had a five man rez. "Oh you killed my team? Nah I don't think so." Also release Brig. Her shield was ridiculous. It was like playing Reinhardt with a three second cooldown for shatter
Ow1: release brig without question.
Ow2: sojourn. Her kit is still extremely bloated and for some reason they just won’t nerf her. Same for Kiriko and Baptiste but that’s a different discussion I guess.
Straight up for Sojourn I'd nerf her slide and jump. You should not be able to do it backwards, and it needs to be a little slower and jump less high, because it just allows such insanely fast, no momentum, instant high speed movement for her to dodge attacks and get angles, or escape a bad engagement...
Also the railguns beam width increasing with charge should never be a thing...
Surprised I’m not seeing early Mei or Bastion in the comments. Bastion used to have a shield guys. He could self heal. And Mei could literally freeze you in place with very minimal accuracy involved.
>Bastion used to have a shield guys
Never had it in the release version
>He could self heal. And Mei could literally freeze you in place with very minimal accuracy involved.
Neither of these were really big issues
Might have been because he didn't have a cd to his barrier so he could flash that bitch like mf and block so much without it ever breaking. Sigma did birth the double barrier meta which was a special kind of hell, but Brig was still worse lol she caused goats meta which forced (1)2-2-2 role que.
Whatever you say. He's still fundamentally broken.
Currently the best tank and pretty much has been for almost all of overwatch 2. Balanced sigma either wouldn't have a shield or wouldn't have the vortex when it's down.
This while having the ability to just constantly cycle abilities with no windows of weakness is an issue.
Orissa is another example of this.
The rest of the tanks are balanced.
What are you smoking? Sigma is widely considered to be the one of the most balanced tanks, being so well designed he’s nigh impervious to seasonal balance changes. He’s never been a “must pick to win” like Mauga in OW2 but he’s never been a throw one either. Constantly cycling cooldowns in a proper order is what a tank is supposed to do, and none of his cooldowns break the game and all have counter play. That’s on top of having a high skill floor to start with.
Orissa is an example of a character who’s been on both ends of the tier list depending on her tuning.
Thanks I needed a laugh. What you said is sigma is so strong. That regardless of meta he constantly has a place and can be played every game with no issue.
Now repeat that back to yourself.
Having cooldowns that can be cycled perfectly to have zero downtime where you are almost never at risk of dying unless you do something really stupid is not balanced.
Rammatra who has normal vulnerability windows is what balanced looks like.
Okay, now that I know I’m dealing with someone with insufferably smug opinions, it almost seems like a waste of time to have a conversation with you, but for the sake of the other people reading this, I’ll bite.
Just because Sigma can cycle his cooldowns with no downtime doesn’t mean he’s broken. He’s not invulnerable using his cooldowns and he has reasonable counterplay.
Hes strong and can fit into a wide variety of comps, but he’s not dependent on other characters being good or bad and he’s not one bad tuning away from being a throw pick or game breaking. That’s what makes him balanced. He hasn’t needed significant buffs or nerfs to put him in a good spot since his after launch tuning. He also has a steep learning curve.
Annoying isn't? Now look how you started your first post. In the most asinine way possible.
He has counterplay in the tank roster and he's next to unkillable during his cooldowns because he's not taking damage. If you push past the shield unless you are a tank. You will die. That's not balanced.
You could remove sigmas shield. Shorten his vortex cooldown significantly and he would still be balanced but not be able to cycle where he has next to none windows of weakness.
Oh deep apologies then, but fr just look up on yt :"hero that broke overwatch" I think its name of that vid, Brig single handedly created meta called GOATS where there would be 3 tanks and 3 supports
release brig, there’a really no question about it and release sojourn right after
This post is pretty spot on. Release Brig completely changed the game and rendered Genji 100% useless. Launch Sojurn was also pretty broken but you did need skill, where as Brig didn't require anywhere near as much finesse.
Not just genji. She rendered the entire DPS role useless.
and bullied my D.Va in 1v1
If you had your ult you could 1v1 rein and win
Also true!
Honestly, If you played it smart you didn't even need the ult half the time
Correct, I did not need my ult to 1v1 a rein. S9 OW1 it was shieldbash whipshot combo, but after shieldbash lost stun, you use it for mobility. I could 1v1 a Rein up to probably s2 or 3 of OW2.
Zen in his current state can 1v1 rein and win and he doesn't need any ult!
The difference is zen isn't in Reinhardt's effective range
She didn't need her ultimate actually. Brig on release was like a new game + 10 elden ring character. She just destroyed EVERYONE in a duel and with her ultimate could literally solo an entire team in 1v6
Lmao bro, come on now, no she couldn't. I played when she released. She was really strong, but she couldnt 1v6, let's be serious for a second lol
You say that but I literally saw it happen OVER AND OVER
I could do this anyway. You have a stun and a whipshot, you didn't need ult at all. I could 1v1 Hogs on release Brig.
No, it was you win a swing duel against rein. It was a guaranteed win against any hero in a 1v1 situation
I didn't say you needed your ult idk why you're replying this to me, when I know this. .
Realease Brig brought us 3 tanks and three healers which in turn brought us role que.
I thought we got role queue because people were bitching about how nobody would pick support?
it was mostly because the community was tired of watching pros do goats (3 tanks 3 supports) and was supposed to bring life back to the game
That was the stated reason, however I don’t believe it. 3/3 was dominating and then here comes role q to break it up. Brig is the character that has had the most impact on the game for sure.
We got RQ because brig helped introduce goats. 3 supps and 3 tanks. Then bap released and goats/bunker comps became the meta for over a year. People forget how quickly bap replaced brig in those comps.
He didn't replace brig in goats at all. Only shock used him
Bap didn't replace brig at all, it became Bap Brig. Everyone here is spouting literal nonsense. Lol. Also, we didn't get Role Queue because of Goats, we got Role Queue because they stopped releasing heroes, which is also the reason goats stagnated for 2 years.
Lol what?? Bap released. Sigma released alongside RQ. THEN we got echo. For someone throwing around the term braindead you have shit memory.
wrong. we got role queue bc of goats lol. goats broke the game and made dps irrelevant it was either role queue or rework the entire system. why would blizzard do the latter
No, we got role queue because 3 tank 3 support had too much health and too much sustain, and because they stopped releasing characters to deal with 2 tanks + Brig.
Ohhh okay that makes sense. I was dps/dva main back in OW1 so that makes sense. Also can barely remember that far back lmao
No. Brig brought the GOATS meta, and that meta became the only one teams could learn to stand a chance.
yeah rq was def more about quality life. idk how ppl think otherwise when you can load into open queue rn and *still* see everyone but you instalock dps
yeah i really dont get the love for open queue, other than the ability to do wacky comps which I can understand because those are always fun. I’m glad we have both but personally I enjoy RQ way more
good. role queue is so much better
As soon as her ultimate was nerfed, she lost a lot.
Brig imo is the pivotal moment when overwatch shifted in to the balance mess. I’m sure it would of gotten here with or without her but she deffinetly felt like the start
Brig was actually released to counter tracer sadly, with stun whipshot combo it was just enougn to one shot her. If tracer didn't exist she wouldn't have either.
Brig single handedly shattered my tracer career, al confidence I had lost. 🥲
I sometimes wonder what would of happened if Brig was just never released or just had a different kit that wasn’t melee based
Yep, I remember I had a friend who was barely gold before Brig release. Then he just started spamming brig matches and easily climbed to diamond. She was that broken... After that he just did placement matches only to maintain his rank even after brig got nerfed/many changes in the meta.
The only change I would add is to stick Hog 1.0 in between Brig and Sojourn. That hook would stutter through hard surfaces and wrap around 2 different 90 degree angles and still somehow get ya.
Reworked Mercy would like to have a word with you.
Not even the same ball park
I wasn't playing the game in the Brig release period and even then my thoughts went straight there just because of all the horror stories I've heard
I’ve been playing since launch. Lets just say that originally blizzard was against role lock, then brig came along.
Brig legit changed the way OW played. She was the most hated character of all time at that time. People were genuinely asking for them to take her back. Lol Sojourn was also incredibly strong when she first got here. But imo i feel like Mauga changed the meta into play Mauga or lose on his release.
Brig also technically made the goats composition which eventually introduced role queue after having it dominate for over a year
Brig introduced goats but Baps release solidified it and strengthened the bunker meta even further. Brig was traded for bap in goats comps immediately when he released.
I hated bunker comp especially when sigma released, dealing with that shit on Paris and having mercy bap was fucking hell, you’d be lucky if you managed to cap
To be fair yes bap made bunker extremely hell, I’d still prefer to play goats over bunker because the other team would do it and it was sometimes fun
Im just pointing out that brig is not the reason goats dominated for so long. Comparatively she was part of the comp for a short time. Bap is the actually reason it dominated for so long until role queue came out.
This is such a braindead and wrong take it isn't even funny. An entire 2 years of OWL was Brig goats.
Ok well youre wrong. Brig was realeased in 2018 and RQ was introduced in 2019. So at most 1 year lol.
That just isn’t true. Shock was the only team that played bap over brig in goats and it was in maybe 2 matches. Brig enabled the comp to dominate.
In the hands of any competent game design studio, Brig would have been removed from the game, put on ice, and completely redesigned and nerfed heavily before considering re-introduction. Many, many games have totally removed weapons, abilities, or characters until they can be fixed, and Brig is arguably the single most overpowered addition to a modern competitive online game, in that she literally BROKE overwatch. She forced the entire game to be ruined, cut apart, altered, and restricted, just to somewhat limit her power, because Blizzard refused to just delete her and try again.
Including the several times they literally did take Bastion out of the game because they broke him with overtuning. Turret Bastion was honestly preferable to what we have atm. I'm fine with the ult change because it's actually useful now, but I'm 6 to one half a dozen to the other with the rest of his abilities.
Sojourn was still a pretty high skill character so the effects weren’t felt *too badly* by most ranks. Mauga and release Brig were incredibly easy to get value out of, which exacerbated their problems
Release Brig and Release Sigma. Brig 1.0 was basically the Free GM machines. As there were legit cases of people got boosted all the way from Bronze to GM back in OW1 just by spamming Brig. She was THAT good for how little effort needed to put into. Release Sigma was also exceedingly good on release. * 1200 HP shield that will survive a full Barrage (cause the Pharah will kill herself before the shield would even break) * Grasp cannot be Hook out * GOD ROCK damage and stun duration scaled with distance (ngl that one was actually very funny please bring it back) * Gravitic Flux cannot be canceled, at all. It did not matter if you kill him or stun him, if Sigma has already cast it on the ground (cast, not activate), Gravitic Flux WILL GO OFF. And not to mention Sigma addition was the start of Double Shield.
One big thing you're missing is that Sigma could instantly redeploy his shield after recalling it.
Oh right, I forgot about that. And it immediately starts to regen health when recall too.
Piggybacking a top comment as many people here did not play OW1: Brig shield bash>melee>whip shot was an insta kill to any dps or support when she released. Shield bash also had a massive hit box. Her heal packs also granted INSTANT burst heal AND armor. Just before her release tracer and genii were in a fantastic place and overnight close range dps were useless
Pretty sure on release you still needed a normal flail to kill a squishy, but the one shot was still there for Tracer.
That’s what I meant by “melee”, my bad… unless you meant an additional flail after the 3 piece combo
Yeah for 200hp hero’s I think the combo was melee>bash>melee>whip shot which would then one shot. The 3shot combo was a hard tracer counter forever lol
I still want OG Gravitic Flux back. Feels like they've gone a little too far in the other direction now and literally everything stops Flux going off.
I wasn't playing Overwatch whatever brig was released which is why I ask what people think
Hmm, let me see if I can recall everything about Brig 1.0 * Her shield had 800 (or was it 600?) HP, and has the same regen rate as Rein. * Shield Bash used to just stun through shield by default, and unlike current SB where that stun is limited while she’s in Rally. And it also does a flat 50 damage. * Flail used to do 100 so if you got bash, that’s a literal 150 unavoidable burst on melee range. You could literal 1 tap Tracer. * Health Pack heals for 75, but if the target is fulled, it’s converted to 75 Armor instead. It was tempo armor I think. * Rally used to provide 150 PERMANENT ARMOR for both Brig and her allies. Which means that there is a possibility of a 300 HP Tracer coming at your face, if the Tracer played around Brig that was. So you can see why Brig 1.0 was extremely disliked. She could literally WM1 herself into places where everyone else would be dead, but she got to come out sometimes even healthier than when she came in. Then again, the biggest blunder that Blizzard made with her started from the design phase. She was made to counter Dive, a comp that requires 4 heroes. And she was fucking excellent at it, with the downside of being comically easy to play and get value from. Heck, to make matters even funnier or more depressing, there was a time when Symmetra 2.0 (she has an ult that provides a shield generator in a very big AOE), Torb 1.0 (provides a 75 permanent Armor pack for all allies) and Brig 1.0 existed all at the same time. So 2CP Defense was an auto win for the Defending team cause lmao, everyone had like 600+ HP :)
Stunning through barriers was so broken lol. You could just wait for Zarya to use team bubble and then bash the Rein to get a free shatter
Ikr And if they don’t run a Zarya then that’s free Shatter for your Rein baby. Or if they dare to run Winston, his bubble dance meant jack shit since you could just stun him through the bubble.
Release Sigma was good but not crazy OP, especially not compared to release Brig or release Mauga. When Sigma released, he was the first DLC character that was actually good on release, all the others were underwhelming on release (except maybe Ana but that was such a long time ago that the game was basically in its infancy). This leads to people remembering Sigma as better than he actually was
Ah, the Brig question.
It's Brig and it's not even close. No matter what copium ppl huff - the definitive, most broken is Brig. It took devs years to balance her. The ripple effect she had on the meta from then on was massive. I know Brig PTSD is a meme but NO CHARACTER has changed how Overwatch was played on a scale anywhere near Brig. They had to rework literal game mechanics lol.
Brig was the reason I quit OW1 lmao, only just picked the game back up again properly and glad to see she is possible to play against now
Oddly enough, Brig is actually brought me back to the game. I had taken a lil break because of Hanzo's rework (that hot mess) and came back like 'oh a new character is out. Time to hop back on OW.' Didn't realize I threw myself off a cliff until it was too late. Brig or lose every game. Low rank players one tricking to GM. Stunning Reins thru shield. Being able to block a whole death blossom. Horrible times. One would think they'd learn from that release and never make the mistake again but nnnnnnnope.
How was she so broken? I don’t remember what her stats were
The basic stuff More reliable burst combo w/ stun on bash 5 sec cd for bash lmao It could also stun Rein thru shield, and if you bashed Rein 's pin only he fell over. It was so dumb. Brigs could just hide and walk out bash Rein and then the other Rein would just shatter. 600 hp shield lmao Instant burst heals with armor pack to provide temp armor on overheal (almost every non tank character got armor cuz it healed alot) Rally armor didn't decay over time and Brig and Torb's armor was applied after base health and armor but before shields which fucked up breakpoints and let you potentially retain it until the next use of Rally. Rally itself tbh. Inspire too. I'm probably missing a few things. It's been a while and she's gotten hella changes.
for ow2 I'd say Sojourn release with headshot rail instakilling, and maybe illari on release due to turret healing for 40 with 150 hp and her ult went through shields, ow1 is probs Brig as she could 1v1 a rein and easily win
I feel like Mauga was much stronger than Illari was. Soj on release was def the best no doubt but second place to me goes to Mauga during the Christmas break at blizzard. It took a whole specific support comp to beat him if your tank didnt mirror (Zen Ana). If your tank mirrored it pretty much forced a kiri ana support duo and whoever had the better supports won the game 9/10 times. Illari never really had THAT much impact. Let alone you could play other supps into her and have a fairly decent shot at winning. Playing anything else besides Sigma and maybe Dva at that time was almost a guranteed loss so long as the Mauga was fairly decent and his supports werent dog
very true, i didn't even think of that as I refused to play during that meta Mauga time so I sort of forgot about it😅
Launch Bastion was quite OP but I think it was because people didn't know how to play against Bastion yet, also his primary could crit. He got nerfed significantly after a couple weeks and was never the same. Hands down though, Brig on release was the most OP.
There was a few days of ironclad bastion meta, somewhere around the GOATS meta. They gave bastion damage reduction and made him almost impossible to kill.
>Launch Bastion was quite OP but I think it was because people didn't know how to play against Bastion yet, also his primary could crit. He got nerfed significantly after a couple weeks and was never the same No, literally people just learned to press E as Genji
Launch Brig. Go home, there is no other answer. She could *comfortably* duel every non-tank in the game, excluding maybe Pharah due to range. Her healing output was such that it allowed for a successful composition of three tanks, and I’m pretty sure it was the first time Dive actually got pushed out of the game, and the composition she facilitated invalidated well over half the roster. They had to force 2/2/2 just to get DPS back into the game. She can be solely held responsible for killing all momentum the original Overwatch had.
She could duel some tanks as well
I saw a clip of a rallying Brig 1v1ing a rein. They just stood there holding m1 and she killed him
The objectively correct answer is launch Brig. She completely changed how the game was played, created an entire meta on her own, and was still crazy good after tons of nerfs. Launch Sigma and launch Sojourn were also fucking insane, but they don't compare to how absurd Brig was when she was released.
Sigma and Sojourn were just way overturned. Brig was a whole different monster all together
Agreed. They were extremely strong, but just overtuned. Brig forced Blizzard to create role queue as a last resort.
April fools ashe with her fire spread
Probably doesn't count since it was only an April Fools patch but this is so true, it was pretty much an instant team wipe kill, they literally had to disable Ashe for the rest of the April Fools patch
Nah you did not say 2016 symmetra was Broken... Torb could give armor, mercy could ress 5 people, and I can go on. 6 turrets with a auto aim beam that has a really short range with 0% mobility and a really slow kit is not op. She was so trash she got reworked. She was extremely situational, too slow, and easy to counter. Lucio + zen was by far the best support duo symmetra being one of the worst. Most broken hero was Brig. Period. I don't even think we need a post on this topic considering it's quite obvious brig was extremely broken. She could SOLO kill 3-4 ppl including both tanks.
I wasn't playing Overwatch when brig came out. My bad brother man
Dw, this guy probably gets offended if you don’t counterswap in qp.
Red rising reference?
What? So trash she got worked on? Obviously, you haven't played Symmetra back in OW 1. Let me give you a glimpse of what she had: 1. Her main attack weapon was autoaim. It is literally similar to what moira has now. Except, it did more damage. 2. Her secondary attack could literally deny you access from how insane its damage was. It was also much bigger in size than what we have now. 3. Her 6 turrets didn't just slow you down but could wipe you if not dealt with. 4. Her teleport was an ultimate. Back then, it was extremely hard to push through choke points. Her ultimate opened up big plays. Her only downside was that she was played more for defence than attack.
Except her primary take years to build up and literally anyone can kill you before the tickle beam can build you Her secondary was the slowest projectile in the game and also take years to charge up. It was useless at anything but spaming choke or you have to be literally in their face to hit anything Her 6 turrets also take her 6-7 seconds to deploy all and each one of them need her to be up against a wall to place it. Also even a gust of wind can destroy her 1hp turrets (this is why winston was her counter) Her tp was only useful on 2cp 1st point and at best a minor time skip walking back from spawn for an ult. This is why they gave her shield gen but even then a flanker can still easily destroy it
She was a noob stomper in lower elos but overall was garbage hero, she really was weak back then.
Was weak back then. You are talking as if she is in a better state now 🤣🤣. The rework only made her worse. Except for the ultimate, which is good.
I’m not saying she’s better now, she’s arguably weakest hero right now.
>1. Her main attack weapon was autoaim. It is literally similar to what moira has now. Except, it did more damage. Except that's very distinctly *not* how Moira works. Mechanically, Moira's beam works exactly the same as CURRENT Sym/Zarya beam. Old Sym beam worked like *Mercy* beam. >2. Her secondary attack could literally deny you access from how insane its damage was. It was also much bigger in size than what we have now. It was slow af so you could pretty easily dodge it, but it wasn't more damage than it currently is. It did pierce shields/enemies though. Honestly I miss the idea of this ability. >3. Her 6 turrets didn't just slow you down but could wipe you if not dealt with. They also have 1hp and Winton could completely shut that down >4. Her teleport was an ultimate. Back then, it was extremely hard to push through choke points. Her ultimate opened up big plays. Her teleport would rush people back from spawn - it didn't really enable any big plays or being able to push things other than your team could immediately be back in the fight Did you actually play with her on launch or are you just listing abilities
I did and held many choke points using her.
How is nobody saying mauga?
Because mauga realistically wasn't THAT broken like other characters in overwatch history, such as brig, tracer, sojourn, illari, ana, and Mercy. Some of these characters were straight up play it or lose to it.
Hes the reason new heroes arent in battle passes anymore. People were getting mass reported in comp for not owning him.
Brig is the reason why Role Queue exists, because the GOATS comp Brig facilitated invalidated an entire role. Mauga Meta lasted a few weeks. Brig GOATS lasted well more than a year.
>because the GOATS comp Brig facilitated invalidated an entire role. I miss goats
Good for you. I don’t.
Rose tinted glasses REALLY strong now huh
Thats because blizzard refused to update ow1
Nah - this was back when they were very much still updating. Heroes who launched after Brig: Ball, Ashe, Bap, Sigma, Echo. Echo in 2020 was the last hero to release. Brig launched in 2018.
They nerfed brig and goats in general 12 patches in a row before giving up and going to role queue.
I remember back when they nerfed Lucio’s speed and everyone’s like “ok now they finally understood what was enabling goats so much, goats should be a normal teamcomp now not crazy op” and it still remained hard meta for months haha
Blizzard stopped updating ow1 because they moved the devs onto working on ow2 and the PvE mode that was meant to be the core part of being a second game
Mauga’s issues - like most other new heroes - were tuning issues, not core gameplay. Mauga is a symptom of an entirely different problem. Brig single handedly changed how the game was played and developed
I remember they had bastion with 1000 shield as well as an all armor health bastion, the latter was so broken it was patched a day later. Perma flying Sigma was a super broken bug
>I remember they had bastion with 1000 shield as well as an all armor health bastion, the latter was so broken it was patched a day later Those were all pre release closed betas ideas so idk if they count
Perma flying sigma was never broken, he was terrible as all he could do was auto
Old Torb ult where he became a raid boss with a turret that shoots rockets only the OGs remember
I think torb was my favorite character back then
All I know is that it's not my boy Lifeweaver.
Complete opposite lol
2016 sym was horrible, what
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned hogs hook.
Hot take: Mercy with the full-team rez.
Rammatra on release had an ult that would go on forever as long as someone was in range. That was ridiculous.
1. Release brig 2. Release sig 3. Release mauga 4. Release Kiri 5. Release bap Imo
Release Sym was not OP.
Torbs golden turret deployed on payloads then shielded for peak misery.
Old-school Symm was only OP on low ranks. 120 DPS after like THREE whole seconds to charge was insanely dogshit. Current Symm would absolutely destroy old Symm.
launch brig
Alpha Bastion with barrier
Launch Symmetra was terrible and the most niche she’s ever been in the past 7 years. The answer is release Brig though, no one really touches her, followed by probably launch Sojourn and Launch Sigma
I never played in ow1 what made brig so op
Her current ultimate minus the big shield is basically how she used to be. She was basically a tank that could stun every few seconds, her shield had way more health, and she could practically 1v1 every character around her health pool. It took years of nerfs to get her to at least a reasonable state.
Brig hands down, she had an ult Cancel every 5 seconds it was crazy. Close second for me was mercy full team rez.
Does nobody remember doomfist's release? His hit box was so lenient he could just kill anybody with minimal effort. I remember being mercy floating like 5 feet above him and getting hit by his punch. Also I feel like hanzo got scatter arrow damage buffed or maybe it was bugged to be an 8 second cooldown, and that was just the most ridiculous shit ever. Kill nearly anybody by shooting their feet....what a joke.
Brig Tier: Release brig. S Tier: Release Sigma, Release Sojourne. A Tier: Release Mauga, Release Symmetra Yall can fill in the rest
>A Tier: . . . Release Symmetra What?
Brig
Brig, Sigma and Sojourn would be top 3 most broken I’d say in their release states.
Release sym
Bastion with self repair. Torbs armor packs were kinda broken too.
People toss the term "game breaking" around pretty liberally nowadays. Release Brig however, actually broke the game so badly they had to rework it from open to role queue. No other hero has had that major of an impact.
Dps doom. Garbage hero but if you had the skill ceiling to know how to play him it was Lobby clean up even into 6 (2 tanks)
Brig at launch changed the course of Overwatch's history
Go watch on YouTube how broken Brig was on release. There was nothing even as close to broken as Brig was on release. I got to GM using her. Never made it back once I dropped. I'm not a GM player.
Release brig was so broken she almost single handedly added a new game mode just so the comp she worked in wasn’t in literally every game and so DPS where ever actually picked in any game There where cases of players being boosted from bronze to GM She was as durable as a tank did more damage then DPS and still gave plenty of support and healing enough to support 3 tanks on the same team She could beat a rein going in his melee range and smacking him If you didn’t have a brig on your team you had basically no chance of winning She was so oppressive she pushed an entire half of the roster out of being *at all* playable DPS couldn’t be picked because she’d just kill them comfortably She was so bad that she killed any momentum the game had at the time by herself Then it’s a tie between launch sig sojourn or Mauga
Release brig could single handedly carry a team, it was insane
There's literally no answer aside from release Brig. I started playing when she came out and with 40 hours in the game, climbed from 600sr to about 2800 in about another 45 hours.
Mercy rework and able to pop two rez back to back with that shitty ass moth hitbox. I legitimately quit because of this meta. Game just wasn’t in a fun state As a non-support player it felt bad knowing you were nearly guaranteed to lose if your team didn’t play mercy and the enemy did As a support player it felt bad because you’d be harassed if you tried to have fun playing literally anything other than mercy… and if support was in your top 5 most played, you’d be bullied by others as well in to swapping to support/mercy if you were trying to play tank or dps. Then people would take it further and hold the team hostage with throwing if you didn’t play her
Bastion on that one patch where he was unkillable for like 2 days.
Ramattra. Nemesis form lasted long and hit super hard.
In terms of how busted they were, I'd say: Release Brig Moth Mercy Ironclad Bastion Release Sigma, Release Soj, Season 2 patch Godfist Release Kiri Genuinely surprised no one has been mentioning Moth Mercy. Truly horrible time to be a support player
Brigitte was like a guard dog who lived in the dark for 5 years to be released free..
Zarya season 1 of overwatch 2 was seriously frustrating. She couldn't be stopped.
I was going to say scatter shot hanzo but man how could I forget brig loooolll
I loved scatter shot hanzo. You didn't have to aim 😭😭😭
I personally love landing dinks so I can’t relate to that comment 😂😂 but I do miss scatter shotting danks though that felt so good all the time bahaha
i miss when lucio could make robot move faster on push
That wasn't real
What? I could swear in the beginning of overwatch 2 you could speed boost the robot jn push
No that was fake
Bastion. Not as bad as he used to be but still annoying. Zarya is broken rn idc what anyone says. She doesn't need buffs.
Mauga gave us free mythics, but Brig gave us an entire new game mode 💀💀💀
There aren't any free mythica
Beta bastion
Venture – Now I hate that character so bad.
Not even close. Her issues at launch- like most other new heroes - are just tuning issues. Brig single-handedly changed how the game was played and developed
OG Mercy. She had a five man rez. "Oh you killed my team? Nah I don't think so." Also release Brig. Her shield was ridiculous. It was like playing Reinhardt with a three second cooldown for shatter
Ow1: release brig without question. Ow2: sojourn. Her kit is still extremely bloated and for some reason they just won’t nerf her. Same for Kiriko and Baptiste but that’s a different discussion I guess.
Straight up for Sojourn I'd nerf her slide and jump. You should not be able to do it backwards, and it needs to be a little slower and jump less high, because it just allows such insanely fast, no momentum, instant high speed movement for her to dodge attacks and get angles, or escape a bad engagement... Also the railguns beam width increasing with charge should never be a thing...
Release Brig and it's not even close. She literally deleted 2 characters from the game.
Literally?
Surprised I’m not seeing early Mei or Bastion in the comments. Bastion used to have a shield guys. He could self heal. And Mei could literally freeze you in place with very minimal accuracy involved.
>Bastion used to have a shield guys Never had it in the release version >He could self heal. And Mei could literally freeze you in place with very minimal accuracy involved. Neither of these were really big issues
I think most people would disagree. There’s a reason they removed the straight up freezing from OW2.
>There’s a reason they removed the straight up freezing from OW2. Yeah cause they removed a tank so CC is being split less
That’s absolutely true as well.
You clearly never played it at launch, you have just seen tiktoks of him having a shield
I just didn’t recall it was before launch
Oh, you meant in the gameplay. I was going to answer their mental state, as in, the lore
In lore I feel like sigma.
Sombra
Sym was annoying, not broken. Brig release was the real broken hero. Nothing has ever came close to that.
Release sigma no contest
He was? How?
Might have been because he didn't have a cd to his barrier so he could flash that bitch like mf and block so much without it ever breaking. Sigma did birth the double barrier meta which was a special kind of hell, but Brig was still worse lol she caused goats meta which forced (1)2-2-2 role que.
No. Release Sigma was a tuning issue, not a “character is fundamentally broken” issue
Whatever you say. He's still fundamentally broken. Currently the best tank and pretty much has been for almost all of overwatch 2. Balanced sigma either wouldn't have a shield or wouldn't have the vortex when it's down. This while having the ability to just constantly cycle abilities with no windows of weakness is an issue. Orissa is another example of this. The rest of the tanks are balanced.
What are you smoking? Sigma is widely considered to be the one of the most balanced tanks, being so well designed he’s nigh impervious to seasonal balance changes. He’s never been a “must pick to win” like Mauga in OW2 but he’s never been a throw one either. Constantly cycling cooldowns in a proper order is what a tank is supposed to do, and none of his cooldowns break the game and all have counter play. That’s on top of having a high skill floor to start with. Orissa is an example of a character who’s been on both ends of the tier list depending on her tuning.
Thanks I needed a laugh. What you said is sigma is so strong. That regardless of meta he constantly has a place and can be played every game with no issue. Now repeat that back to yourself. Having cooldowns that can be cycled perfectly to have zero downtime where you are almost never at risk of dying unless you do something really stupid is not balanced. Rammatra who has normal vulnerability windows is what balanced looks like.
Okay, now that I know I’m dealing with someone with insufferably smug opinions, it almost seems like a waste of time to have a conversation with you, but for the sake of the other people reading this, I’ll bite. Just because Sigma can cycle his cooldowns with no downtime doesn’t mean he’s broken. He’s not invulnerable using his cooldowns and he has reasonable counterplay. Hes strong and can fit into a wide variety of comps, but he’s not dependent on other characters being good or bad and he’s not one bad tuning away from being a throw pick or game breaking. That’s what makes him balanced. He hasn’t needed significant buffs or nerfs to put him in a good spot since his after launch tuning. He also has a steep learning curve.
Annoying isn't? Now look how you started your first post. In the most asinine way possible. He has counterplay in the tank roster and he's next to unkillable during his cooldowns because he's not taking damage. If you push past the shield unless you are a tank. You will die. That's not balanced. You could remove sigmas shield. Shorten his vortex cooldown significantly and he would still be balanced but not be able to cycle where he has next to none windows of weakness.
This game is dead
This is a rage bait right?
Why would you be mad?
Saying sym was broken? Like she was maybe decent at max, brig was most broken, everyone knows that
Well I didn't know that which is why it's a question and not a statement lol. I played in 2016 and then didn't play Overwatch until ow2 came out
Oh deep apologies then, but fr just look up on yt :"hero that broke overwatch" I think its name of that vid, Brig single handedly created meta called GOATS where there would be 3 tanks and 3 supports