I'm going to start this of by saying I'm a rep 70 lb so I know what I talking about I've been playing him since launch and I have alot of fun with him and I still do. I will also say that this rework brought alot to the table that makes him a better hero it wasnt a nerf but it wasnt what he deserves on his and possibly only rework. I am also not saying that this is all his pros and all his cons. I'm also also not saying that this is the final be all end all. It is always up to the person playing him as I have seen people saying this rework is great and hats off to them. I disagree but whatever.
Pros
- removal of the shove on block
- his long arm and change got nerfed (pros for the community here)
- shove after a missed heavy
- guaranteed lights after a shove
- new chains
- heavy finisher with a little extra damage
- an unblockable almost right after a shove
- lights that dont bounce
- zone start up time is better so you cant get GB out of it.
- his parrys are still strong
In between
- his top light is fast yes but it doesnt lead into anything great
Cons
- his chain all involve a starting heavy or follow up heavy with no soft faints.
- no soft faints
- long arm is still bad outside of ganking
- his zone is still bad to use in a 1v1 with a parry
- his impaling charge has doesnt guarentee a heavy if you switch side. (It can be blocked now probably due to the 100 mil delay)
-his lack of hyper armor on finishers
- his lack of mix ups (GB cancel is not a mixup because you never have to go for a parry)
- almost all his attack can be back dodge out of
- his range seem to be a little less than before (but I could very well be wrong)
- stamina is still bad
- his 50/50 with top light or charge is bad for the game.
What there is to be desired
So his big issue is that he has no real way of opening people up still , i know crazy but hear me out. He has no real way of forcing a reaction. So the biggest thing that will help him is if he has a soft faint. with the lack of soft faints he has no sure fire way to get people to open up. Something that forces a reaction, are the going to go through with the full unblockable heavy or try for a hug. You can throw out all the GB cancel you want people dont have to parry at all vs an lb because they can be back dodged away from his unblockable without fear of getting GB. The only saving grace to missing is that you can now use a shove after which yes can be dodged but most of my experience hits. On the off chance the shove misses you have no follow up it starts a new chain. You can easily fight an lb without going for one GB. Now a way I thought about getting some sort faints in there are that on his side unlockables he can soft faint it into a shove and his top finisher has the undodgeable property to it. Both of these force a reaction.
Now I know people are waiting for me to say he needs hyper armor as well. That would be awesome if he got it hell yes and I would complain but he doesnt need it. he hasnt had it and we've all been doing fine so far. I rarely get hit out of an attack in a 1v1 on purpose and in a gank you can just turtle till you get revenge and then you got hyper armor. Is he a big guy wearing full plate yes but In this universe a 190 pound bare-chested Beast can pick up a 350 fat man an carry him across the room. **** dont make sense. Although hyper armor on finishers would be awesome.
His stamina is all sorts of messed up his change still takes way so much stamina if blocked it crazy it was already nerfed with the removal of hyper armor make it so if it is blocked we dont have to wait around for all of our stamina to come back. Raider or warlord dont loes all their stamina if they miss.
He has no real way of punishing back dodges or rollers. And the only way I could think of fixing that other than giving him more ranger or to give his top finisher the unblockable property. It then forces people to make the decision to parry or wait it out.
Long arm is weird I have no idea what to do with it other than make it into a soft faint it's going to be bad either way.
In conclusion the hero has alot of good thing going for him with this new rework they took out alot of the bad gameplay mechanics he had and gave him more attacks with more room to grow except they really didnt give him an opener. But if soft faints, undodgeable properties, better stamina management and maybe hyper amore on the finisher were added it would fix alot of his problems right now. If anyone would like me to elaborate on any of my points then please ask.
Ps I have written this out two times now because my computer died first time and I just rewrote this on my phone. Ive been driving for like 3 hours with my head down and I am going to die my heard hurts so badly.