Characters with bigger hitbox should have more health

They differ quite a bit.

I think HP can solve these things, but they would have to be extremely careful about it and mind damage thresholds and things like that.

Also, people like to exaggerate numbers because they are inexperienced with balancing asymmetrical games.

I've seen people advocating for Gibraltar to have 175 hp and for armor to work better for him (ie blue armor giving 100 hp etc). That's ridiculous.

A logical starting point would be around 110hp, for example. It doesn't break the melee threshold (still 4 punches needed), which is good. But it does break certain thresholds, which is also good. For example, a full fitted wingman doesn't kill that character with two headshots (202dmg). This is just one example of how these things should be approached. The game is very much a fps at its core, so any ow-like approach is very dangerous to have.

Lastly, I'll give an example from SFV, not the same genre in the slightest lol, but just to emphasize the notion of how how iffy HP balancing can be. In SF, average health is about 1000. So, anywhere between 900 and 1100 or so.

Now, if you have a 1000 hp character and nerf his health to 950, that's considered a significant nerf. If you take a 900hp character and give him 25 additional heatlh (that's 25 on a 900), that's also a fairly decent buff. If you buff a 900 hp character to 975 health, that's almost never done as it's considered kinda ridiculous thing to do in a single step.

And all that is true without any thresholds - ie, there aren't damage thresholds which make a 900hp character killable to certain established sequences and a character with 950hp jumps out of that range. It's just a raw percentage addition.

So, it's not like OW in that regard (ie, tracer has 150hp and she can't have 140 because that's one shot for mccree etc - there aren't these notions in sf).

So, I think overall, hp balancing might do the trick, but one has to be extremely careful about it.

what about cascuss?

Yep I think the answer is to improve the skills of the legends rather than tweak with their health. Gibraltar's skills are fairly weak, mostly situational.

@makaramus 
Caustic is fine for most part - he is a denial legend and all he needs is simple tweaks to his hitbox (so it reflex his body, not his clothes) and make Nox Gas a "poison" - once you get affected it lingers on you. And his gas to not slow allies, let's say he provides teammates with small breathing device when he is nearby. Gas should also slow a bit more - it's too easy for some to just slide through it (seems slow doesn't affect the sliding speed).

Even though I do agree they need some sort of defense they shouldn't have more HP. That would make it unfun, imagine playing against a character that has all the same weapons and damage output as you but they have double the health so can sit their and soak up bullets.

Something must be done to balance the hitbox issue. I do not agree though that the solution should be by changing abilities.

It seems that the hit boxes were reported as bleow:

1. Wraith - 33 square cm
2. Lifeline - 37 square cm - 12% increase
3. Bloodhound - 37 square cm - 12% increase
4. Mirage - 44 square cm - 33% increase
5. Bangalore - 44 square cm - 33% increase
6. Pathfinder - 63 square cm - 90% increase
7. Caustic - 68 square cm - 105% increase
8. Gibraltar - 79 square cm - 140% increase

They should 1st balance the characters without any abilities but with the standard weapon + hit box. This to me is the basics of FPS. Just considering the peacekeeper, shooting at close range, it is MUCH MUCH easier to hit Gibraltar then any other character.

If they want to keep these hit boxes, then you need to balance out the ease to hit him with extra health. not considering any shield and abilities.

It is the building foundation of the characters. Next you start adding layers and balance that layer between all characters before adding more to it. Its a step by step process.

Armor > Passive > Active > ultimate.

Just as an example, if you want Gibraltar to be a tank, then he needs to be a big target which is good and have the ability to take that extra hit. This could maybe be done by giving him a 25% boost in HP since his hit box is much bigger, or you could approach it by giving him a 15% hp boost but not possible to head shot him. I personally think adding the HP would be better so that if a skilled player can head shot then that player is rewarded for his skill shots.

HP would be balanced according for other healers too, Caustic could get a smaller HP % boost.

Next would be armour, for tanks you could maybe simply add an extra slot, what i mean is that gray armor would give 3 slots and not 2 slots. That will make him able to get more hits in but will require more time to get his armor back to full with the meds.

After that you when start balancing passives and so on....

For sure, before any ranking games this really needs to be sorted. 

Could we get more news about this from some devs or community managers? If I will be investing more time and start actually investing money into this game, I believe this is a VERY important balancing factor.

As much as how fun the game is (which it is imo) It can only be a distraction with an issues such as this.

You also can give bigger legends slightly better abilities. Like Gib's Ulti is better than bangalores or pathfinder's zipline is (imho) better than wraith's portal.