Season 16 Overview

I wanted to take some time and play the game before writing about it. So, here we go.

Ranked Map Rotation:
This was a nice change, being able to jump into Storm Point, World's Edge, and keep having it cycle each day. It was refreshing.

Map Changes / Anniversary Additions:
I'm not the biggest fan of the return of Mirage's ship, but all the anniversary decorations are nice to look at. I feel like the giant balloons are a bit much, but its not the end of the world. Although the jets have been a common complaint players have, mainly because it takes the audio with it out the door.

Legend Classes / Buffs & Nerfs:
The new class system has been fun to work with. Not sure why skirmisher's class was given a carepackage type of perk. To me, part of the fun was not knowing what was in the care packages. I have no complaints for recon, control, or assault, but with support, I feel like everyone should be able to craft teammate's banners. Box camping has been a HUGE problem since the start.

In the past, we'd had to use Crypto's drone to grab the banners safely, or wait until the last second in hopes that the other team walked away. In season 16, most of the box camping had stopped, however when a team knows they killed off the support legend(s), or there isn't any support legend(s) on the team, they just set up their tents and sit on the boxes again. In most of my games, no one was playing as support, and enemy teams just box camped. I feel like 30 crafting for support legends and 60 for every other legend would be a nice change. That would mean the support class would need a different ability. The only thing I can really think of is allowing support legends to heal their teammates much like the Valentine's duo mode, (and because Lifeline's drone also exists, it should only work if the teammate has no health or shield items, and is next to the support legend who's healing them).

Assault: The choice of extra ammo is bold, but doesn't seem to be too much of a game changer. I would remove the supply bin's marker from the map. It adds too many markers to the map, and when you have a support legend on the team, you will see both the assault and support bin's markers. Players should be able to find these themselves.
Skirmisher: Seeing into carepackages just seems useless to me, as explained above.
Recon: I've played games where my team got scanned and ones where we were the ones who scanned, and from a gameplay perspective, this ability didn't feel broken and was cool to see. Although it could have a shorter usage, at least in my opinion. After a few seconds, I no longer had a use for the markers on the map.
Support: As mentioned above, I just feel like banner crafting should be a thing any legend can do, and that the supply bin markers should be taken off the map.
Control: Its nice to see the defense legends get a bit more love and have more of a use than to just defend areas. Haven't had any control legends on my team or played as one yet, but I'm sure having one take the charge in rotation combined with a recon checking the area is going to be very useful in any match.

Seer - The change from the Seer meta has been very welcomed, yet while playing as them, nothing felt different
Horizon - It was nice to not see Horizons use their tactical as a means to get shots in without taking damage
Bloodhound - The changes were interesting to say the least. The raven adds an interactive element thats nice to have, at least for me
Lifeline - Changes not really noticeable, sure the carepackage looked like it dropped quicker, it still felt the same, reduced slow on the revive has helped in fights
Mirage - Changes not noticeable, I haven't gotten revived by a Mirage yet, so I don't know about the 3 second cloaking for both players, but when shooting decoys or having decoys shot at, the shooting player doesn't seem to be pinged for as long as they should. It only briefly marks the player like its still season 15.

Wraith - It was really nice to see her ultimate get the change that it did
Pathfinder - The zipline changes just made this legend more fun to have on the team

New Weapon:
Not going to lie, I'm not a fan of the new gun. I never really liked burst weapons, although I think it would just take some getting used to before I start to like the Nemesis. It also doesn't seem too strong or weak, it feels like its at a nice balance.

Matchmaking:
It seems to be better this season, although winning matches or placing high in them still put me in lobbies where players are clearly smurphing and/or cheating. (Seeing level 20-50's running around, being the kill leader, and the moment I run into them, they snap to me and beam me into a deathbox). There's not as many of them though.

Smurphing / Cheater / DDOSing Problem:
As mentioned above, we still got a problem with smurphing and players using cheats. Last season it felt like almost everyone had a cheat, this season feels like its only a handful that do. That's nice to see, but I'm sure in the coming days they're just going to be popping back up more and more, they usually do. Servers seemed to be suffering from DDOS attacks still, not being taken down or players being kicked out, more like when a team runs up on yours, there's a sudden surge of lag that only goes away when your team dies or backs away from the fight. This could just be the servers, but I'm not fully sure.

Audio / Servers:
On one hand, the audio seems like its slightly better, but its still non-existing or quiet and raising the platforms on World's Edge should be reworked. When a player make the platform rise, it sounds like how loud the audio from the platform is set to 90%, and everything else is set to 10%. Like, you could easily raise the bridge and then preform a revive, and no one will be able to hear the revive. I've done it a few times already. Even healing is masked by the platform rising, and good luck hearing where any shots are coming from. On the other hand, I had general lag issues, (outside what felt like a DDOS), where the performance overlay says my ping is 50-60, but it was acting like it was 500+. This seems to be happening less than it did last season.

Team Death Match:
I like this mode as its quite fun and also appreciate the changes to the rounds and kill requirements. The next thing it needs is a more balanced matchmaking system as currently one team would destroy the other team, and it ends up being a 4 V 1, as players lose interest. I had left a few games myself, mainly due to the fact that the enemy team were smurphs and cheaters. (Level 1-35 beaming, and others who were clearly wall hacking and aimbotting). I also saw a bunch of bots in this mode.

Afterthoughts:
This has been shaping up to be a good season so far. We still got a long way to go and things that needs improvements or fixing, but I have hope in the game again.