“Overwatch” is a constantly changing game that evolves with each competitive season. To give importance to other characters, sometimes Blizzard needs to make extreme changes to their kit to make them useful again. In line with this, the developers have heavily modified Mercy and Symmetra by changing their ultimate abilities and technically giving them new skills. That said, “Overwatch” Hero Mei is in a really strange place in the game. Does the hero need a rework to keep up with the other heroes?
The dive meta
Defense heroes were never really popular picks in the “Overwatch” meta as they’re either too weak to be effective, or require too much skill for lower ranks to use.
However, Mei has always been a pretty stable hero in the meta because of her slow burn skills and helpful ice wall skill. In the dive meta last season, her ice wall was great for keeping enemies away from the point. However, the hero struggles against faster opponents that can dash away from her primary fire, as per invenglobal. It takes a few seconds before she can actually freeze someone, so a Tracer or a Genji can easily zoom away.
While Mei can easily freeze Tanks, she can kill them as fast as other DPS heroes can. If she’s trying to freeze a Tank during a team fight, there's a big chance that another opponent will intercept mei. Since the “Overwatch” meta has been focusing on heavy team fights lately, Mei’s effectiveness has seemingly been dipping over the past few months.
Skills
The “Overwatch” Defense hero’s skills are pretty powerful as she has the ability to one-shot opponents. Moreover, she can even freeze herself in a box of ice that makes her invulnerable to any attack – even ultimate abilities. Meanwhile, her ultimate skill freezes a large area which is a powerful zoning tool.
The main problem with Mei could be that she lacks effective AOE options as she mainly has to rely on 1v1 fights to get picks.
Her alternate fire is a projectile attack that fires pretty slow and gains less damage the farther the enemy, making it pretty weak if both teams are fighting across the map. Similarly, her invulnerability skill is also pretty powerful since she can regain health. The only problem here is that she has little escape if two or more enemies surround her while she’s frozen.
The competitive Overwatch Reddit has shared that adjusting some of her parameters might be able to help her survive the meta.
If ever Blizzard decides to rework another hero, maybe they could look into this “Overwatch” Defense hero in the near future. Giving her one AOE ability or more freedom with her other skills should bump up her place in the meta.
