Re: Wattson ideas
Tactical :
- Reduce the number of pylons to 6.
- Increase the number of maximum pylons Wattson can carry to 6.
- Allow Wattson to toggle her fences on/off using H key. This is the same key that Mirage can use to change his mirror's behavior.
Reason:
In most of the situations, Wattson "nests" can also be easily spotted by enemy players because of how bright her fences are. Normally a Wattson has to place a fence somewhere where it either slows a player's advance, prevents a player from getting too close during fights, or take enemies by surprise. and there's also a problem that this playstyle brings: most of the time a good player doesn't engage Wattsons team inside a Wattson nest, they seek a better position within the ring and force Wattson's team to come out of their spot to be killed off. It seems that the devs don't want this camping behavior to flourish or be rewarded. so Wattson in her current state is doomed to be kept at sidelines.
Wattson in her current state is a little bit of a mess. On one hand it seems that the Devs are afraid that her kit can be exploited by pro-Wattson players to the point of breaking the game, but on the other hand Wattson's very static (pun) and extremely defensive kit is throwing new and even intermediate players off. This is Apex Legends, and Apex Legends is supposed to be fast-paced. Wattson doesn't need 12 Pylons to create her perfect electro-castle that will then be abandoned after the ring moves in 95% of the situations.
by reducing her total pylons to 6, Wattson will no longer be allowed to create a large electro-labyrinth. but she wouldnt need to do so anyway as with this suggestion she can quickly create the trap setup she needs for her team to exploit. in this more offensie-minded setup, Wattson can quickly set up fences and disable them to prepare the area for a possible ambush, or choose to protect certain chokepoints and prevent enemies from passing through them. she will only have 6 pylons active at a time, but she can also carry 6, so setting up shop in a new location will be much easier and faster.
Toggling fences on and off can serve as a great method of catching enemy teams offguard and dividing/distracting them during teamfights. Currently the only way this can be done is to have a teammate either be close to a fence and toggle it on when they move away, or have Wattson place a pylon as soon an enemy crosses a chokepoint and both of which are not feasible. so to be able to manually toggle your fences on/off will give Wattson a great quality of life improvement as well as unlocking a more dynamic playstyle for her.
Moving on to her passive :
Spark of Genius :
- after 6 seconds of not taking damage, This passive will generate 2 shields per second for Wattson AND her teammates who are in the vicinity of her. does NOT stack with her ultimate's shield generation ability.
Reason:
The 1 shield per 2 second is more like a spit in the face. I don't even understand the point of it and why devs even bothered adding it. if something is added to the game it needs to be added wholeheartedly. Wattson sees her teammates as her family, so it makes sense for her abilities to be tailored to benefit both her AND her teammates. With this passive Wattson can give her teammates some small support in a passive way. not too OP to break the game and cause a huge difference in fights, but still decent enough to have. Which brings us to her ULTIMATE.
Ultimate : Interception Pylon ---> Generator Pylon :
- Remove the ultimate's projectile interception ability
- Instead buff the ability's shield generation.
- Will now generate 5 shield per second passively for all allies that are in it's vicinity. does NOT stack with Wattson's passive.
Reason:
This helps Wattson have a more defined role in the game as opposed to just tacking her ultimate with a whole bunch of random effects that are too confusing to use. Projectile interception, while very useful, is also very niche. However, the usefulness of her ult also prevents the devs from buffing the shield generating effect of her ult. So instead of tacking a niche ability into her ult and not working on something as generally useful as shield generation, why not remove the niche ability altogether from the ult?
Removing the anti-projectile capability of the shield frees up Wattson's kit to lean more towards supporting her teammates via shield generation. By buffing the shield generation aspect of Wattson's entire kit we can give a more supportive role to Wattson, meanwhile by reducing the number of her pylons AND allowing her to carry more pylons and toggling her pylons on and off we can promote a more active and engaging Wattson playstyle.
NEW SURVIVAL SLOT: Projectile Interceptor
Instead this aspect of Wattson's ultimate can be moved to a survival slot. by adding a new survival equipment to the loot table the devs can allow non-Wattson players to be able to negate incoming artillery/grenade barrages by planting an interceptor system on the ground. the range of which will be shorter than Wattson's ultimate. Still it becomes handy in fights where ultimates or grenades are expected to fly down from the sky.
Lastly, this part might be the boldest and least likeable part of this suggestion: Move Wattson to support class instead of tank. even though her Pylons still give her a decent zone control, but Through this change Wattson can mostly shine as a support/backline legend.