Bastion: Overwatch's Static Form Switcher 

Thanks for letting me help ! ♥

I think one of the funniest things about Bastion’s OW2 balance patches is the community’s reaction to seeing the nerf “Removed the Ability to land Headshots” from Configuration: Artillery, everything I saw when that Patch Notes went live was “Wait, he could headshot in Artillery?”

replacing old bastion ult is one of the biggest blunders blizzard balancing did in recent years

Imagine a Bastions old tank ult with his current grenade ability it would be interesting.

I call them stance characters due to my fighting game addiction lol, I'm surprised there isn't a character that has no ultimate but completely swaps between 2 different characters in 1

I often find myself comparing Bastion to, of all things, the Peashooter from the Plants vs Zombies Garden Warfare series, given how both of them revolve around an ability that allows them to root into the ground to gain access to a more powerful Gatling Gun primary. Comparatively, Peashooter’s Pea Gatling has the transformation tied to its (limited) ammo, and while it is on a recharge, Pea Gatling refreshes instantly if you have full ammo, and later iterations have Pea Gatling’s recharge time tied to the ammo you spend in the form, so shooting less means you get the ability back more quickly. Plus, Peashooter has plenty of power in his base form to afford not being in Gatling, but both modes still have distinct enough strengths and weaknesses to warrant switching from one to the other.

That missed pulse made me giggle too much

That blizzard world clutch at 11:15 was excellent

I mean who wouldn't enjoy pretending to be a Transformer? Just need them to remove that timer on his switch, so i can finally roll out

In my opinion literally all they have to do is revert the rework, but keep the grenade, maybe it can replace self heal when not in turret form? Also make so he can headshot in turret form again, at the cost of losing some base damage, actually rewarding good players while not just straight up buffing him for all ranks

I think the bastion's ult feels a bit choppy to use, Standing still while ulting just interrupts the flow, the overwatch 1 ult just feels more smooth to use, (and it's more fun to use, and more op :) ) The overwatch 1 ult should be put back in the game. Also, no stream today? :(

I absolutely miss tank form ult, artillery is just so much of a let down by comparison, it was so satisfying to aim and so satisfying to use its movement tech to get into high ground positions and it was made even better by the fact that back then turret mode was theoretically permanent and this combination was what led to one of the most viewed overwatch league twitch clips of all time where architect tank jumped up to the chandeliers of eichenwalde last and completely shut down the enemy team from contesting, tank could even be readded entirely unchanged thanks to the hp changes that allow every non widowmaker and tracer squishy to survive a hit from full health

I am so happy you made this video. As a Bastion myself I have nearly given up on him (been maining him for more than 6 years) after the armour patch. And nobody talks about him, ever. It sucks that many people still think he doesn’t deserve a buff.

Always so delighted when one of these analysis videos pops up in my recommended, guess that means it’s time to subscribe!

What I think is the worst thing on bastion’s kit is the fact that this game does not know what floor is, an elevation smaller than an atom is already enough for the nade to go to the other side of the map

bastion is great as a sigma main because they give me free health

Bastions turret should be a resource not a cool down that way he can still be threatening a majority of the time, having him move is very good for his overall playstyle

I had so much fun playing Bastion in season 10, but after the armor changes, I’m basically stuck on Cassidy.

Here's what I'd do. Overwatch 1 turret and tank form, just swapped around (turret ult, tank ability), and balanced according.

Loved the video! My thoughts on changes are quite extensive so I’ll just tell my thoughts on the ultimate. Bring tank back of course. Like you said it fits the current game a lot better. Make it 200-225 direct hit. During the ultimate replace grenade with self-repair, but make it heal 50% more hp/s than before with 3 seconds of resources. Makes him reliant on learning the rocket jump for maximum value as well as raising the skill ceiling, and the self healing changes makes it so that he doesn’t have to spend the entire ultimate healing himself (because he’s a target in his ult) Ps I miss the old Ultimate voice line man, ICONIC 😅

Rework idea: 1. Remove assault mode's cooldown and timer, but make reconfigure have a 3 second cooldown between uses 2. Make assault mode's gun have 150 ammo and only do 9 damage per bullet, also increase its spread to 3 degrees 3. Give assault mode's gun a 15% slow effect on hit, like a weaker version of Mei's primary fire 4. Make grenade deal no self damage 5. Swap grenade out for self repair while in assault mode 6. Make the crit hitbox in assault mode take 50% more damage (or a 3x crit multiplier instead of 2x)

i love stance switch heros in those games and mobas too

this could sound like the ramblings of a lunatic but maybe make it to where he has 3 forms that once switched to you stay that form till manually switched/emp but when switched from that form it goes on cooldown. recon: same as recon now you run in a mix of armor/health you have a grenade and can switch between the two new forms. sentry: you turn into a sentry that is immobile and gets the ironclad passive and the grenade is switched out for self-repair or he has a movement bar that allows you to move around a little before recharging when standing still, upon standing still for a few seconds he locks down into a sentry like playstyle granting him some buffs/nerfs when moving or standing still. NEW rush/assault: if anyone looks at bastions emotes do you see/remember the one where his eye turns red, and he hunkers down? his new stance would be closer to that and all of his armor gets turned into hp and the ironclad passive doesn't activate but he gains movement speed, has the shotgun from April fools/mirror watch, and he can use either grenade or a buff that gives him faster fire rate maybe movement speed and a single use bap like jump that when used ends the ability early. tank: just bring back tank ... please?

Idk what the hell they were thinking getting rid of one of the most fun ults in the game, to replace his ult with 3 of the worst feeling ults to use in the game. Who thought people would like this more than rocket jumping and airshotting flyers as a freaking tank?!?!??

If you want an example of a form switcher from Paladins, you could mention that one girl that can switch between fire & ice powers.

0:50 The tracer just shooting you after you make fun of her for missing the pulse is funny af😭🙏

So, I'm insane, but bring back beta bastion with late OW1 selfheal and make him a tank. No, I don't mean just bring back Configuration: Tank, I mean make him a tank. Stationary turret mode with a big, tough frontal shield but can only turn 90 degrees in either direction. 450 total HP including armor. Late OW1 self-repair, put the current grenade on E. Shield only regenerates while in Configuration: Recon, so you have an ebb and flow and don't just sit in sentry forever(not too sure about this one). And bring back Configuration: Tank as his ult and give him a bunch of bonus health during it. Is this balanced? Probably not. Is this a good idea? Probably not! But is this is a hilarious yet fun idea? I'll leave that to y'all to think about.

I Love ur idea for a bastion rework and I 100% agree with you, but I personally would keep the 50 self damage to nade, but give self heal back and put nade on E.

I used to main Bastion as one of my dps's in OW1 and he was tons of fun. Current version of him is still good too but I think it definitely needs some tweaks here and there. The changes you proposed for him are very in line as to how I would change him, specially with the flying stationary turret thing, that sounds hilarious to see! Another change I'd do would be regarding the Lego skin. It's my favorite Bastion skin by far, but the sound design of the primary fire bugs me and makes me feel like I'm shooting with a nerf gun. Which I get it's what they were going for and was probably requested by Lego themselves but I'd like to be able to change it in the options menu or something, idk.

Thank you, Roy, these videos make my days better!

When the community crafted gamemode came around, i was so happy being able to play bastion since it felt like i could actually do something instead of hanging far back with my team and never using my tank form

I might try and make that rework you suggested into a custom game. If I do I'll put the code in an edit below.

I was waiting for this one

erm what the bastion?

Bastion is getting some love finally. Thank you

I really wish they'd bring him back to ow1 bastion and give him a third ability that feeds into the form switch style more instead of nade

i miss tank form so much but i don’t think it could come back unless it’s nerfed hard or with an ult cost of 8 or 9k

I think, they should revert the rework, but changes the forms, making the tank an ability and the turret the ult, then we can talk if having these changes it would be better if he was a tank role o stay on dps. But It would be a much better fun idea

Bastion needs to go back to his old self It made so much more sense mechanically, lore wise, skill wise, and he felt unique

I think it would go a long way is Reconfigure swapped Self-Repair out for A-36 Tactical Grenade, lower Assault form's gun to 9 damage and the cooldown of grenade to 4 seconds (or restore Ammo and make Reconfigure work like OW1) . Despite this turning Assault into a more hybrid of Sentry and Tank, I'd still say Tank should come back.

Dude I can’t wait for “Ramattra: Overwatch’s first tempo tank?”

I think he just needs more agency, a better ultimate, and self repair back on ability 2 (or just another ability). Rn he’s kinda just worse soldier 80% of the time. Tactical grenade needs to be a bit more consistent upon death, because it feels like half of the time it can’t decide whether it will despawn or not, even if you stick an enemy. I’d much rather the higher damage assault form than lower damage but the ability to headshot, and would personally prefer to keep assault over sentry. Reducing (or removing) the self damage on grenade is also on the table to be honest. Not all of these need to go through for me to be happy but I’d take at least a few.

I love this character and the form switch. I can agree with the start of this vid more. I love bastion and ram they need more love.

If I were running Overwatch I would personally remove role passive and give each character their own passive that benefits their playstyle and is balanced around them. I would make Bastion have stationary turret with grenade like you said and give hime the tank ult back. But for his personal passive I would make it an out of combat regen that plays the self repair animation and slowly brings him to full health like the current regen passive everyone has. It works and keeps the theme of Bastion being a self repairing war machine.

As someone who has been playing since at least the pirate ship/bunker meta it’s almost comical how easy he is to take down now across all ELOs.

Literally just bring back the old ult and I will be so happy

With Tank Config being such an interesting part of OW1 Bastion's kit, I wonder what it would be like to give Assault Config an alt-fire that resembles Tank Config's primary fire (nerfed damage-wise, since it's on a basic ability). Bastion can use it to more frequently rocket-jump. A lot of the various escape abilities become less reliable if Bastion can persue as well. As for Artillery, I think its unfortunate design is the result of existing skins. If Assault mode takes the minigun and mashes it with the tank treads, then Bastion's other mode is going to mash the tank cannon with sentry's stationary legs. They've got the art assets there and it'd be a lot of work to make more or further tweaks. Artillery also does feel like a response to discourage bunker and pirate comps, but those don't really exist to the same degree in OW2, sooo I dunno.

If their intention is to keep the new raid boss tanks and armour changes, I think the best solution is to move him to the tank role. Rework him for some extra survivability, bring back tank mode. He's one of the easiest heroes to shoot in the game, above multiple tanks who have more survivability. He loses basically any DPS 1v1. He requires a pocket to be enjoyable which are resources taken away from the tank (the most important role) Make him a tank, he'd be like a minigun-based Ramattra.

Can you do a vid about which tanks would synergyze if they brought back 6v6?

Not speaking from a competitive perspective, the flexibility of being able to move while in turret form is a nice qol change for me, reminds me of playing heavy from tf2. Maybe a trade off for removing the cooldown is make the cast time in and out of config longer and lower the movement speed more during the config. but mainly id want them to revert artillery as well

Hearing smt ost in an overwatch video is something new

15:54 I wheezed so hard when you said exist LMAO, I can't, it caught me so off guard. Smth funny is that despite being a junkrat main, originaly, when I came back on ow2 with a few memories of ow1, I wanted to be a bastion main, but seeing the lost of tankform and the lost of the multiple form identity just kinda killed the hype for me. He is still my favorite hitscan to play, but I am sad to see the state he is in. If I were to truly suggest stuff for bastion here is what I would do: Bring back tank form Give him the infinite turret form back but allow him to move like in ow2 Remove the speed penalty in turret form Reduce the spread, reduce his base dmg but allow him to headshot in turret form. Also add a dmg falloff on 20m Give him self-repair on his e Increase sentry form dmg a lil bit. Mostly the idea would be him using turret form for quick dmg burst on close-midranges and also when he needs a bit more survivability with the ironclad passive, and him using sentry for longer range poke and the nade burst combos and more of in the neutral pokier style fights Reducing the turret form dmg would make it worse into armor and get him a bit away from that tankbuster idea that is so harmful in ow2, and that would also make him not break with infinite turret form And what I am with all of this is to go back to that multiple form identity and have each form have its own purpose

WOOOOO RORY VIDEO LETS GOOOOOOOOOOO

The music tells me that someone has been playing SMTVV :>)

TELL ME WHY YOU DID IT‼️ I never noticed the fire being the Lego fire on the bastion skin before, anyways great video yet again!!

Hope we get more stance character in the future

OMG BASTION VIDEO MY FAVORITE CHARACTER WOOO YAY LETS GOOOO

My idea for bastion rework Turret form on resource meter and can swap whenever Self heal ability while in turret form Tank form brought back but you can choose artillery or tank like how symmetra used to be

let bastions assault mode be a resource meter I feel like that would be the best option and would make him so much more fun

I’ll stand by the fact that my favorite change of Day 1 OW2 was Bastion. He actually felt fun to play as someone who didn’t like Bastion in OW1 But you’re completely right on the money that he’s just not allowed to be threatening to Tanks. I play Ball and can safely say that, even though design-wise I should be afraid of Bastion, he is just so easy to delete if you catch him off cooldown

I was a bastion main :3 and was good too

In FGs we call them stance characters 😂

bastion i think would feel a lot more dynamic and interesting if you could always switch between assault and recon mode without that cooldown, kinda like how it worked in ow1. ofc i would want them to tune down assault a lot, but i would also like if recon had more power put into it as well. it'd be cool to have this style where you constantly switch between assault and recon for either short range burst damage or mid to long range damage, with the downside being the lack of utility and knowing when to switch to what mode. i think it'd be less jarring and make both modes compliment each other rather than one just being a kill mode on a cooldown. also being able to move is so crucial to any fps that idk how you could make old sentry work without being too niche or too overwhelming. assault is a good change imo, i just want it to have more flexibility albeit at the cost of damage and/or range. also ALSO tank configuration should 100% return that ult is cool asf. great video as always!!! excited to see whatever else you make.

I think they could just bring back the self heal during his tank ult since theres no need for the nade anyway

Reconfigure should let bastion cycle between 3 modes. 1) Recon - as is now, but can do headshot damage. This would be the central mode! 2) Tank - (old bastion ult) but nerfed. slow the projectiles down and reduce the damage per shot - maybe like 4-5 bullets max before a loonnnng reload time. 3) Assault or Sentry as it used to be He keeps the grenade but for mobility/disruption in Recon and Assault. Ultimate - same as it currently is; he'd be quite mobile in every other aspect of his kit

great vid dude, also the smt v music 🔥 TASTE

Rework idea: Remove assault mode Add Tank configuration: 5 shots per reload with a mid damage (like phara's rockets) Damange reduction in tank mode:15% Speed reduction in tank mode: 45% Artillery: 4 shots, every shot have knockback

i do 80% of my kills with recon. its just so fun and incredible. great dps with no recoil? yessir

Btw to add salt into the wound: It’s actually 6 seconds not 8

Id be fine bringing tank form back. Would be way better than now. As far as balance, I do like of turret is now a cooldown because that gives counter play, but he also is a bit of a noob stomper. The number of times I see my teammate just w into a bastion turret and explode 20 time in a match are to many to count.

What transformer skin u think Bastion is getting ya'll? Or are they gonna skip the obvious choice and give 1 to kiri.

I love Tank Configuration and agree it works better in 2 but I always imagined it would be a little over tuned in the 5v5 format. It’s pretty easy to land direct shots deleing squishies instantly and with one less tank to distract and absorb tank shells it feels like a free pick 100% of the time. I can envision a universe where day one Ow2 meta was Sojourn and Bastion cycling their ults to cover each other’s downtime and win every team fight through one shots. I really REALLY wanted to like Artillery. I was so happy to see them move away from the philosophy that Bastion having an ult that disconnects from him didn’t fit the character which is why they scrapped the Remote mine ultimate way back then before the beta. I like the idea of Bastion having a Swiss Army knife of a kit, but maaaan Artillery just sucks and feels useless a lot of the time. The game moves so fast that I can’t even get good zoning out of it. Always wanted them to lean heavy on the transforming robot aspect when they first talked about a rework though. Make Bastion a jack of all trades ready to fit any team comp. I wanna see him turn into a ATV and zoom around the field with Tracer and Lucio, I wanna see him go Tank as an ability and slowly push up with his Rein providing cover fire, I want his ultimate to turn him into a Apache Helicopter ready to fly out with Dva Pharah Echo Mercy. There’s just so many cool things you could with Bastion that I’d love to see

Yo SMT V music, let's fucking go!

It makes me pretty annoyed when people say bastion ruins people's days. Every character kills you, he's one of the most normal and fair characters in the game. Tank is really the only thing that struggles and that's only if their team doesn't have critical thinking skills.

how i would've reworked bastion by putting the form change with no cooldown and giving him 100 max hp + 10% speed boost when in assault form. while also giving his recon form x2.5 headshot multiplier.

artillery would have been amazing in ow1 and old tank would be amazing now in ow2. i hope we get it back rest can stay

I blame goats

IT IS IMPORTANT TO MENTION At some point beta or before bastion's ult was a remote control mine. As you cna imagine that didnt exactly fit his character...

I miss old bastion

Just in the beginning of the vid, so dunno whats coming, but i just wanted to say I love form switching in Games, in Monster Hunter as a niche example, i love the Switchaxe, i also loved Bastion in OW1 and i loved Ram in early OW2, but over time i noticed a very boring design and gameplay loop... you have the lower dps but more mobility Form and the high dps but low mobility Form and the loop is basically "Get into position or build up second form -> do tons of damage -> repeat" and it kinda sucks.

I just want him to have self repair You don't even have to remove an ability, just but self repair in ability2

I've got to be honest I thin kanyone who wants his old stationary turrent form is high on their own supply. Having to stop and start like that was so damn clukly, and worse still they'd become even more difficult to balance sicne it's so easy to counterplay with how much mobility and mitigation there is in the game. Bastion would either be a complete throw pick or break the game.

I don’t like Bastion, neither playing him nor against him. But I think giving him back tank ult is a good call.

I honestly think that they should bring back self repair and add it to his moveset including tank, but we will be talking about self repair. Now why not just replace nade? Well, bastions recon isn’t that strong as even supports have a better weapon then his recon, so the nade could help with his firepower when his turret is on cooldown. Now for tank, I completely agree with this guys opinion on tank. And maybe even buff his recon slightly by 3 damage? But this is all my opinion, so you can disagree if u want.

When I play bastion I just do careless over the wall jump flanks into transformation and spray down everyone I can see hoping I hit my shots and elim more than 2 of them and at least 1 is a support or tank. Then if I survive that I just run back to my team while blasting whoever is left alive and hope I get healed. Fun enough, basically the Reddit Lucio of Bastion gameplay though.

Just curious, who's your favorite form switcher in any game? Doesn't have to be a shooter, just anything that fits your definition.

I agree entirely. Everything in ow2 bastion (except the nade) is just horrible, including the fire rate in recon. I always loved machine guns in fps games, and the only hitscan options were soldier and bastion. Soldier had recoil and was boring, and bastion had spread and was fun. I like your idea for his rework possibilities, but my idea would be ow1 bastion entirely, but with slower movement in turret (compared to ow2) and slightly less damage as a trade off. Your nade and headshot ideas are good though. Damn I miss ow1 bastion! Using ult out of a fight just to reposition was always fun and confusing for the enemy team!

Personally, I honestly don't like the current version of Bastion compared to Overwatch 1's Bastion. There he actually felt more like a... well, Bastion. The moment they made his Config a temporary change is when they kinda ruined it for me.

Is that SMTVV music I hear???!!!

Not done with the video, but I think Bastion should stop being a tankbuster and start being a tank. In other words, move Ironclad to his recon and bring back the self-repair to let him act as a second tank like Mei does... All making him like a Roadhog that trades the stun/oneshot for reliability and the grenade's mobility.

I wish we could just have the old bastion back but keep the tank treads on sentry mode. His grenade feels very out of place. Both the visuals and the way it shoots out of his minigun feel off. With Bastion being more in the opening and such an easy target to hit, Id rather have self healing instead of a grenade. Artillery feels like an ability that should be in PvE, it looks cool but is impractical. Old tank mode would go hard after the new armor changes, sentry mode only does half damage against most tanks now. It also felt alot more skillfull sniping people with a shell than dropping 3 bombs in a corridor.

This guy would love eyedol from killer instinct

As a rek sai and bastion main i fucking hate being targetted by "balance" teams

Bring old Bastion back.

His ult aren't scary anymore compare to OW2 beta

Imani is a better example from Paladins.

omg ballindani shout out

I miss old Turret Bastion. They totally ruined him with Overwatch 2

Bastion takes a brain, you can't just go in and reconfig. that's the difference between me (The good bastion at Silver 3), and them (The bad bastion at Bronze 5).

Yoai ahhh censor