IS BALL BUSTED???

Season 10 just dropped and so did the new Wrecking Ball rework. Here's the very early reaction from a multi-season rank #1 ball player followed by some gameplay later into the stream. Catch my streams live at:
🎬🎬🎬 twitch - / yeatle 🎬🎬🎬
🎮🎮🎮2nd youtube - / @yeatleposts 🎮🎮🎮
🐦🐦🐦twitter - / yeatle 🐦🐦🐦
🎉🎉🎉 discord server - / discord 🎉🎉🎉
Early Thoughts: (0:00)
Gameplay: (5:37)

[@yeatle]

The title is a question but more importantly a joke.

[@Meowblivion]

He’s busting my balls, that’s for sure

[@Meowblivion]

He’s busting my balls for sure

[@hillwoop9101]

Imagine a non-overwatch player seeing that title

[@CrCrown]

OVERWATCH 2: THE CBT UPDATE @yeatle

[@waltuh3713]

don't let any blizzard employees see this, they'll nerf my boy💔

[@tomnilan7318]

Ball community: we want skilled counterplay to cc. Blizz: best we can do is spiderball

[@docroh1217]

gimmick ability

[@Ryniano]

The mine health change prevents it from being instantly killed by doomfist slam which is nice, thats the only real benefit ive found from that change so far

[@Gillian_FFXIV]

But what about barriers? Rein and Sig could instantly eliminate the mines. Is it still the same result?

[@Ryniano]

@@Gillian_FFXIV barriers dont destroy the mines they just act as a target and detonate them

[@emilrasmusen9518]

@@Gillian_FFXIV Yeah well rein cant destroy them with pin or shatter anymore. i cant say for sigma but if reins barrier dies your basically dead so throwing it away at mines i would say is a waste when swinging/fire striking could achieve the same.

[@DD-fs7pg]

It's actually huge in those matchups though. It went from maybe a 5 or 6 for doom against ball to 4-6 in ball's favor. Not to mention that ball has actual utility now, there's really no reason to ever pick doom vs ball since ball has better survivability as well and plays the exact same role and has the same counters as doom.

[@lobsterfork]

@@Gillian_FFXIV I always felt that was the hall mark of a bad ult. If the tank shield can just blow through their shield and without any fear of being punished then you probably used it in a bad position.

[@TheScottishMutt]

14:30 Certified Hammond moment.

[@dirusj4006]

Tank moment honestly.

[@moonyeast]

that physically hurt to watch

[@amnedits4898]

“okay breathe… you can do this… NOW!… SHATTTTT!”

[@aegerman6317]

@@dirusj4006This is why I rarely take criticism of the tank role seriously lol. He got shattered by himself against the entire enemy team. If he didn’t die there I would literally eat the leather off my shoes

[@dnkypnch7442]

He’s mobility is insane but he still doesn’t do much as far as damage is concerned. I like it and I do think the shield generator is a good step in the right direction for ball.

[@SA33YPANDA]

He's not meant for crazy damage, he's meant to distract by off angling and distracting

[@beingbag2606]

yeah still really feeling the season 9 damage nerfs to piledriver and fireball. IDK why they didnt scale those up with health pools like most other melee abilities

[@thenelsonbruhs722]

The shield sharing thing and the grapple refund with no fire are both nice QOL changes but ball still needs some kind of way to temporarily negate CC like most other tanks have

[@kale2sad]

​@@SA33YPANDA but compared to the other tanks his damage is low, hog is meant to displace people but he also has damage

[@horatioarkas389]

What's Pedro Pascal playing Wrecking Ball?

[@clankfish]

he's just hanging there... menacingly

[@bigfudge2031]

14:30 that looks like my Wrecking ball gameplay

[@tobicontinuedd7575]

Ball is better imo, retract is kinda slow but im sure u can pull some sick clips with it, overhealth for teammates is just a situational thing

[@destructo3457]

Nuh uh

[@bigfudge2031]

He literally only got more tools/buffs and didn't lose anything, of course he is going to be better

[@fizzlock]

The big thing is that you can now Piledrive from almost anywhere without using your grapple cooldown due to the retract (and its a lot easier than wall bouncing). Also, spider ball is fun on defense 😂

[@alvin_row]

If retract was faster it'd be ridiculous. I mean it's already ridiculous, you can get to places insanely fast.

[@artimist0315]

Overhealth for teammates is harder to use properly but I wouldn't be surprised if it became really good in coordinated play.

[@BenzyOW]

One thing I've been doing is using both fireball and retract and the same time when going for an engagement, which essentially makes the engagement so much faster and harder to counter for the enemy. Really interesting how you tried using it to set up more, rather than for going in. I think this rework has a lot of potential!!

[@felipeleite3944]

With the CDR it's possible to use it for the setup then for a quick run over the enemy team too which is pretty cool

[@donovan4222]

I like how they are leaning into balls biggest strength, which is his mobility, while also trying to minimize his weakness of not being able to peel for teammates. It’s a good way to help ball without making him broken and CC immune.

[@TundraCrow]

It could be just its a new feature to his ability, but I do love how using the retract function sorta just dumbfounds people into now shooting you as effectively. Like they are unable to comprehend three dimensional movement.

[@user-ih1nq5hd6r]

dont know about anyone else but my ball busted after this patch

[@INTlyoshik]

My ball is in entire lobby counterswap situation. All I do playing hide and seek with sombra bastion mauga and zen.

[@BroBruhBruv]

@@INTlyoshikthat’s been me every game since OW2 came out Edit: Except that hide and seek shit. I ain’t scerd

[@arthuruchoa4211]

My ball was already struggling past season, managed to hit masters5 but rn it feels worse, don’t know why maybe I was expecting too much from this patch but now I’m struggling to keep on diamond 1

[@-8h-]

Don't say that, we don't need him reverted.

[@pj5011]

From “The fall of ball” to “Is ball busted”

[@mattisjouy392]

IT STILL SUCKS SOMBRA EZ WIN

[@gneisenau102]

So, now hacking an hanging ball is like fruit harvesting 😂

[@TheSoprah]

Gotta eat the ball

[@THYnameISsarcasm]

I think they should make his primary fire not have spread and compensate with falloff and maybe adjust damage per shot. Honestly, I feel like tanks as a whole aren't rewarded for good aim as much as they should be and because of that the tank abilities often end up either overtuned or useless.

[@donovan4222]

Ball is actually one of the most aim intensive tanks if not the most aim intensive. Hitting headshots with the pea shooters makes a huge difference.

[@THYnameISsarcasm]

@@donovan4222 I actually agree, which is why the spread feels so bad to me. At first it's not horrible but it ramps up so fast that it's only really accurate for the first few shots. I prefer games with lower body shot damage and higher headshot multipliers though, I feel like it widens the skill gap in a really healthy way

[@Greaseman762]

Toronto kicking makin a come back

[@Hejdo8]

0:01 holyy I’ve never seen that brig skin. Coool

[@CristoBaller5]

Was waiting for your gameplay for this! And you did not disappoint. Let's go yeat!!

[@squigie7051]

So I played a bunch last night the main tech and new Playstation of ball is either playing a safe engage or a greedy engage. You can start by rolling through enemy team grab shields get out then rush with team give them shields while u use retract and grapple fire ball to fling into the backline faster Which is a tech from the retract just grapple a wall fireball jump retract release and you go flying. Ball is in a really good position right now I feel he is good and actually not op while not being hot garbage. He can adapt to his counter picks which is what every tank should be able to do instead of counterwatching. If they have sombra you can poke her dive her and save shields to help your team live against her flanks. The real strength of new ball is counter diving if they dive your backline doom genji u can get shields and give them to your team to counter the dive and actually book them further into your team making it harder for them to escape

[@NLambo88]

Been waiting for this one

[@elpapisaint]

One thing I don't understand: why did they not give his boop more damage? I mean lucio did. Queen got more damage on her carnage. Why can't ball get a dmg buff for the new health pools? Idk just something I find odd. Same goes for minefield to be honest although to a lesser extent

[@necrosis6037]

Because they don’t know how to play their own game

[@PhosphorusOW]

because blizzard doesn't care about the playerbases opinions

[@kingsoflucis1939]

If you retract while going up in fire ball you go flying

[@ToonNoah]

IS BALL WHAT!!!!??????? 🤨🤨🤨🤨🤨

[@jorgejorge2902]

Yes. His balls are busted 😫

[@BloodRain222]

He’s insane on clash It’s awesome seeing Yeatle happy about playing ball again too. Being able to slam and then still be able to swing around is awesome

[@unripetoast-nu4lv]

I've also noticed that you can tighten the arc when swinging on grapple. Might lead to some insane moves with Ball

[@assgoblin3981]

naw this title is villainous

[@Solarimeshari]

Sheesh! Yeatle on ball again is a sheesh worthy moment! Let’s goo!

[@aquatic4699]

The fact the overhealth stays even if you distribute it last minute is really nice: You can always give it at the last sec and you don't miss out on anything as you were about to lose it anyway, just have to get in the habit of pressing the ability again right as its ending every time

[@GSPV33]

I love this set of changes. Beautiful.

[@sEaNoYeAh]

So this opens up old Miro Winston, wait on a sign (rip the old school spot on Lijiang Night Market), drop on enemies then bail strats. Hit and run

[@Panmantan]

When you grapple high and have a flames going, if you retract while going up you fly

[@reddrift3022]

It seems the grappple retract speed and normal grapple speed is additive, add to the fact decreasing the radius of your swing while doing a circle increases angular momentum, a max range grapple into fireball and detract as you swing around will send you flying

[@slam_dank_jam8356]

I appreciate this analysis

[@mmik9683]

I like that the change in hook means if I misclick / let go of a grapple instantly by mistake I don't just lose the CD.

[@motleymain]

Hey Yeatle! Try fireballing then retracting, you get crazy speed and can even U-turn push people if youre grappled on a small ledge like Circuit bridge. If you fireball, retract, then detach mid retract you can go REALLY far which can help setup dives faster.

[@jorgejorge2902]

I think machine guns still need a buff because of how hard it is to kill a half hp ana. Or buff head shot damage at least. More consistent damage

[@Siks7Ate9]

Ana's hitbox is also wonky af tbh.

[@Gibbypastrami]

Ayo the change to the cooldown wtf that completely changes his skill requirements that’s wild Literally the earliest most important step to learning ball is how to setup a PD without using grapple I guess it’s still there since fireball makes the cooldown longer, but still that’s huge for new players (and ppl like me returning after a long time not knowing any of the maps anymore) 6:16 YES THIS IS WHAT I MEAN HOLY SHIT this DEFINITELY raises the skill floor!!! I love it!! Wrecking ball can use his PD on CD without wasting grapple or needing to do a tech or find high ground? This is insane, might be broken tbh, but now since PD can actually be used on CD we can see its full potential in combos and they can adjust the cooldown and damage accordingly!! I have a feeling this is revolutionary for Wrecking Ball, they might’ve just made him relevant to 5v5, he doesn’t need to go find off angles and weird high grounds if you don’t know the wallbounce tech (also, that tech is inconsistent especially on controller, like, it did not allow PD on CD, especially for newer wrecking balls) he can be a frontline tank, like, it’s not his strong suit, but a wrecking ball in front of the team, giving them shields, bouncing in the enemies face instead of needing to start somewhere weird he can attempt to work his way forward into the team instead of backward, but backwards is obviously still the move, all of this is just a wordy goldy way of saying his skill floor is lower People like Yeatle will show how it needs to be adjusted

[@echodff]

Yeatle is the guy the main character meets at the beach bar while on vacation

[@davissreyez2146]

They have to release a patch to be able to remap the retract to any button.

[@user-nw1je1ur6t]

THE BUFFED HAMPTER!!!!

[@iidentifyasasausagemcmuffi6231]

if you retract while i’m bash mode, you go further into the sky and fast when you launch yourself at enemies

[@hurtlp]

that slow rise to the lifeweaver at 6:21 was so ominous 😹

[@Delbs1]

Seein Yeatle play ball is such a joy tho

[@stanley3384]

Oh my God, the blushing hamster is so cute

[@N0AHVEGA]

Omg babe look Yeatle’s back 😍

[@Gibbypastrami]

Def need to add a detract after this retract change lol, would be cool if you can find spots where you can keep changing the length and go around pillars and other stuff in your way while spinning (would be even cooler if this could all happen while in fireball but that would prolly be busted

[@broomlord8557]

These changes just continue to prove my theory blizzard doesn't fundamentally understand their game. Which sucks I wish they did. Ball didn't really need these things other than the mine hp buff I guess. They don't address any of his issues other than: high skill floor at first glance

[@necrosis6037]

Ball needs some kind of CC immunity and more damage on his abilties or guns. All this stuff besides the grapple change were stupid

[@broomlord8557]

@@necrosis6037 agreed

[@Four-Beat-DJ]

1. I think the retract needs to be a bit faster because it’s so awkward slowly retracting upwards 2. Mine damage needs to be increased because of the HP buff 3. Make ball grapple out of spawn 4. Increase his gun damage because of HP buff

[@Popsvoice]

Due to shields lasting 4 sec on allies regardless of time remaining, I think the play is to ALWAYS distribute shields right before the duration is over. Free overhealth is free overhealth. Don’t go out of your way to distribute but always do when given any allies in range and it’s about to expire.

[@heibytime1803]

I cant tell if this video made me think ball was giga nuts, or if Rein was even more giga weak

[@darktriforce]

Thoses new mechanics are really awsome ! giving shield to other can really give tool to people with a very very high level of "game reading" !

[@toxic_icecream]

You can fireball during retract but if you have enough velocity while you fall. For example if you try to be spiderman-ball after several hooks 5 second cd will block you from contunuing. Idk how broken it is if you just retract - shoot - retract - shoot in the air instead of playing normally

[@EvilGreenHat]

The Spider Hamster is finally awake

[@gaze2156]

The shield change almost encourages you to either follow up on someone else's engage, or counter-engage when the enemy dives your team. Your shield is best when you're surrounded by enemies AND allies, which doesn't really happen with typical Ball gameplay. Don't think of it as a way for you to do normal Ball things better, think of it as a way to kinda-do some non-Ball things. You can actually stand with your backline and protect them from a dive or get into a middle of a brawl and have a better JQ shout. I do think it's a bit awkward and they could try to make it better for normal Ball activities, but it's fun when it works.

[@metallikalm4336]

Grapple change is not bad, shield is questionable. Ball and Rein need Mauga’s charge.

[@sergiohenrique3551]

My take is that adaptive shield should give ball cc imunitie, it would require knowledge from the ball to know when to use it, would make him more bearable to play against counters, but the enemy team can still have counter play.

[@oSw1ftzz]

Silver take

[@necrosis6037]

@@oSw1ftzzbronze take

[@Djitterbug]

⁠@@sergiohenrique3551 Nah, fireball should have the cc immunity. Means there’s counterplay and he has moments where he can be caught out. Cc immunity on shields would be way too bloated, already gives him 1000+ health and lasts ages. The focus should be on him being a mobility tank.

[@t.g.v8889]

My first instinct when I loaded up the patch is to retract while fireballing and he didn't even think of it?

[@oSw1ftzz]

I think you should be able to hold to retract and release to descend.

[@LFanimes333]

He is better now, but not absurdly better. He’s probably like B tier solely because of the ally shields. Retract is fun but not really extremely powerful. It’s just a neat trick with potential for funny shenanigans and baits. He will probably be in a better place once Orisa gets nerfed and (hopefully) Sombra gets some extra nerf as well. Fuck Sombra is what I want to say.

[@nickkiosk5513]

the retract is extremely overpowered they made it where his grapple has infinite cooldown again so you can basically just hook to the ceiling over objective and retract and wait until the entire enemy team is under you

[@LFanimes333]

@@nickkiosk5513 That’s not overpowered at all lmao. It’s a neat trick at best.

[@fizzlock]

​@@LFanimes333 it makes him less map-dependant, which I wholly support

[@necrosis6037]

The ally shields just makes other people stronger, not even him. He’ll get nerfed because Tracer is strong

[@LFanimes333]

@@necrosis6037 Making other people stronger is in fact a strong ability pal. What even is this take. And no, I think it’s unlikely we will get nerfed. He’s good now, but not that good anyways.

[@-8h-]

Wait, i havent played since they added ramattra, they made it so that ball can hold grapple infinitely again? It was always funny using that to hold objectives

[@AstroTorch]

My hamster got a couple new toys in his box, nice

[@phredbookley183]

Christmas Ornament style for the win!

[@josephknight2452]

This might be a little OP, but I think ball shouldn’t be removed from ball mode if he gets CCed (ie sleep, hindered, hacked, etc.) That way Ball still gets stopped but isn’t just sitting dead in the water. They also can’t come out to shoot or enter fireball so it wouldn’t really allow them to do damage. Basically just helps his survivability when going up against this comp, sorta like how Mauga can’t be controlled when he does his charge

[@idclol2883]

we love ball busting🔥

[@jeagerist4072]

No yeatle, you’re busted.

[@jaronnut5425]

seeing 1000 hp by him hitting e is so funny

[@LateCloser]

Haha, I see what you did there ball player... "I need to be more mindful..." Mine Field. YEP.

[@stottpie]

I don't see how it makes it easier to get value from him. It slightly increases his max value, but his value floor is still close to zero if red team decides to go counters.

[@rare9242]

it just feels like the application of the shield is so counter-intuitive. how often are people able to go as deep as ball to get that shared shield before time goes out or the shield? or alternately you soft engage, waste your survivability for the next 15 seconds by shielding people and now you can't dive with them so its like ya its great they have hp but nobody to take space. it just doesn't feel like it was tested much. it just has so little synergy for how the character is played. the grappling hook changes definitely feel like they're going to bring some awesome tech and it totally increases the ceiling, but it just feels like the wrong kind of changes because none of it addresses why ball is bad. the hook emphasizes all the stuff that is actually cool about him, I just wish it all amounted to something.

[@RoyalWill02]

Some more ammo would’ve been nice. The number of times someone has gotten away because I had to reload. They increased everyone’s health give me ammo to lower them health bars. And a “delete sombra from game” button.

[@rubbertoes_3764]

skill issue

[@RoyalWill02]

@@rubbertoes_3764 what skill issue? I can already tell you’re just a miserable person. 🙄

[@_V.Va_]

Skill issue. Just kill Sombra, ya miserable nut.

[@necrosis6037]

@@_V.Va_sombra screws up your momentum with an interaction that’s inconsistent to others. It’s a bug that needs to be fixed

[@-saltless]

The guns alone aren’t meant to give u kills alone. Consistently landing abilities + gun dmg already creates enough pressure to force cool downs and even kill at times Gun dmg feels fine especially after the bullet hitbox increases where landing shots feels really consistent

[@starpower1884]

How to fux ball: Give him a self destruct button that makes him explode like dva mech but it kills him and and anyone in 10meter range

[@TysonASMR]

Ok but jade Hammond with the jade weapon skin?? 💚😍

[@amonhan]

every time i watch your gameplay... i realize ... i know nothing about playing ball! now i know how jon snow feels by knowing norhing

[@dr.downvote]

Yeah and blue as well. Busted blue balls!

[@ACatienza]

omg I'm wearing that old navy shirt right now!

[@WolfySundae]

I love the rework!

[@tristencopper8039]

I play on console but I bind retract to swap form because primary fire will swap you out of ball form automatically. Idk how this will translate on PC.

[@dieteticaura7343]

mines not being instantly cleared by doom slam is a very nice change

[@tc_kommark]

The *STACHE*

[@hrdgms27]

grapple won't break? Time to play as a chandelier. Wait, if grapple doesn't break, doesn't that mean u could do that bounce back wall bump unlimited times?

[@wealthybone2990]

Does this mean Yeatle is back to playing hamster? Also this seems great for hammond makes him a bit more fun to play and a bit more useful.

[@mrcrapucinno]

just wanted to say i like your shirt🙌

[@Toadiferous]

The rework has some nice QOL changes, and I think it both makes him easier *and* raises his ceiling a bit too. Way more forgiving if you misclick grapple at a bad time, whether that's by just releasing and getting the short CD, or by gaining that extra bit of height from retract to get a slam you normally wouldn't have. You can also reach some insane speeds by retracting during a swing around a corner. Looking forward to experiment with new rollouts. I feel like he still needs a damage nudge to keep up with the new HP though. They specifically held off on buffing his damage until the rework, but he never even got the baseline increase pretty much everyone else got. I also wish they'd fix reload to be consistent between forms (at least if you start it outside of ball form and go into it). But otherwise I like the basis of the rework a lot.

[@PoisedHD]

the fact that hack/hinder doesn’t reduce hooks cd when not getting ramming speed shows how out of tune they are with the game, i’d love to see how many hours devs with actual sway have in heroes like ball and doomfist have total, it can’t be more than 200hours across the company

[@gordonbaker1712]

What a handsome young man

[@valaphee]

Its actually busted, as you can get "super speed" when grapling a high point, accelerating and retracting and basically fly in a straight line across the map. (and the enemy has basically no time to react) Or catapulting to the sky ceiling and effectively getting out of LoS/range and then pile driving back down.

[@gwyn.]

I'd call this the Nutsack update for ball

[@maxougg_10]

Change decent but like adaptive shield give is to short and using slam is still super high risk for medium reward

[@destinykd12]

new ball opinion dropped

[@scrubzero1735]

Ball do be kinda cracked

[@cLoNocuBo]

THE CHARACTER FEEL SO BAD STILL THE FIRST WRECKING WHERE U HAD MORE FREE MOVEMENT IT WAS GOOD

[@kidinnacape3065]

Did he never notice the slingshot tech that flats did?

[@Mattzerater]

This title is crazy ngl☠️☠️

[@fdjw88]

Now, all Blizzard needs to do is to increase Ball's dmg by a little bit.

[@tobiasweber2517]

does the hinder stop grapple? so if you are hanging can he just throw that shit up at you. hack will probably work i wonder what else couzld stun you out of it. a doom probably and a flying ulting brig :)

[@H2KUR3N]

i feel its bad if you RELEASE jump button the grapple does not back to its longer state

[@SecretlyStarscream]

Crouch should let you make it looser

[@HeavenVacancy]

Why are you so damn handsome in this video?

[@snakeeyes6669]

I played against ball in comp yesterday. Wrecked my team. Seemed like he had infinite grapple.

[@pendleton123]

Ball max health is 1025. Absolutely nuts

[@imjustken1]

Ball needs better guns. For both short and long range

[@cd7677]

*instantly forgets how to do walljumps*

[@checktwoo]

hehe funny title

[@user-sk2zh1oz5j]

Did the slam damage get a buff scaling from height?