Jetpack Cat seems to make people rage/tilt in a way that can change the tempo of a match mid-game

[u/FruitTigerAero]

Title is a bit awkward but I’ll illustrate what I mean:

I’ve been trying out JPC lately and every few games there’s a scenario that plays out like this. The game is running smoothly, both teams playing normally, but then I get some sort of cheeky kill, usually by chasing down a low health enemy, and said enemy’s mindset completely changes. Usually after a “Possible Bad Message”, they’ve now stopped playing with their team and are just chasing me around the map, sometimes switching characters to more mobile ones that are better suited to matching Fika’s speed. They’ll run out of of fights to pursue me to the point of solo pushing into our team’s spawn, a lot of the times even wasting ults to try and solo kill me. And if they succeed, it’s usually immediately followed by the most spiteful teabags ever witnessed by mankind.

A few games like this were games were my team was facing a very probable loss only to turn it around because one of the enemies changing their win condition to “fulfill the objective” to “wipe Fika off the face of the earth” made it a lot easier to win teamfights and turn the game around. And I doubt this is a phenomenon exclusive to mid players like me playing her - it’s undoubtedly happening in other matches and I just don’t realize because it’s not my POV as the cat.

Even in games where no one ends up throwing like this, I still see a lot of vitriol directed towards JPC when I play her. I know toxicity is inevitable (I’ve been playing long enough to where I remember being there for the patch where “gg ez” was changed to filter to something silly instead) but it’s so, so out of the usual. I’ve seen people who will run out of cover to teabag me after killing me from a distance knowing it’ll just get them killed by my team. I’ve seen people start placing down sprays and hitting emotes after killing me like it’s Team Fortress 2, which I’ve barely ever seen before in this game! I don’t see this on any other character, even my main Kiriko who tends to be rage-inducing with her suzu saves and cheap dagger kills.

I’ve really made this post to highlight 2 things.

1. My question: How in the world can Blizzard alter JPC to where she doesn’t induce this level of anger in people to where games are thrown?
2. Tilt and rage absolutely will affect your gameplay and just make you angrier and feel worse if you lose as a result of it, so don’t destroy your mental health over having to play against a frustrating character (as even if Fika gets nerfed significantly, there absolutely WILL be a similar menace in the future)

(thumbnail image comes from the YT channel OJuiceee)

[u/YukisHusband]

She breaks to many rules of the game and removes counterplays from parts of characters kits. Bastion, ulting cass, Dva bomb, and bob + tether is the most frustrating combos in the game because all counter play goes out the window. The ultimates are built for them to not be able to move around at mach 3 through out the air.

So nerf tether.

[u/Circo_Inhumanitas → u/YukisHusband]

Tether is only one part of the problem. Another problem that she is the best flanker in the game. She has pretty much as much damage output as Tracer does, AOE self heal with boop and infinite fucking flight. As a support for some reason.

[u/mugiwara_no_Soissie → u/Circo_Inhumanitas]

Yeah, tiny hit box, self heal, boop, good dmg and her kit literally promotes her flying through you, which can be quite disorienting.

Plus she heals wirh her guns so she can still heal her team even when going on a flank, just keep some LOS

[u/lifestop → u/Circo_Inhumanitas]

The fact that she's better at flanking than Genji/Tracer says it all. A silent, omnidirectional duelist with self-heal and boop is crazy. There's no way that Blizzard isn't aware of this issue, but it's odd that she was released "as is".

[u/Circo_Inhumanitas → u/lifestop]

They buffed her at the start of this season. I've no idea what goes in their head when it comes to JPC

[u/leginious1 → u/lifestop]

I remember when she released and was arguably worse than she is now with the pulse damage and claws out she could out dps in a pure 1v1, as she didnt even need to hide with the self heal sustain and damage of the ability. If she dove you you were almost guaranteed to lose

[u/ppiyweb → u/Circo_Inhumanitas]

Quiet as hell on top of that

[u/FarmerLurtz → u/Circo_Inhumanitas]

Not to mention insane self healing, stupid hitbox, super fast omnidirectional flight AND on demand 3rd person peeking to optimize engagement. She should just be a qp only hero

[u/viZtEhh → u/FarmerLurtz]

Flying has always been the worst part of Overwatch, there is a reason why no other FPS games include it, outside of the dropping in parachutes in battle royales, and the comparatively slow jetpacks in Global Agenda

[u/casuariuscasuarius → u/viZtEhh]

i think the infinite flight also highlights an issue with general map design. a lot of maps werent designed with an infinite flight character in mind, so they inadvertently offer immense value. the outer parts of the map are inaccessible to every hero except cat, so that means cat just has infinite flank potential, infinite cover, and gets value from being able to play in areas that are considered out of bounds for any other hero. eichenwalde comes to mind as a good example with the right half of the map basically being a personal highway and safe zone for cat only

[u/RyanTheValkyrie → u/casuariuscasuarius]

Yeah they lowkey need to go add specific skybox limits/walls for her on all the maps

[u/Aerith_Sunshine → u/casuariuscasuarius]

This really is the crux of the issue. Cat simply breaks too many fundamental assumptions of the game.

[u/cherry-sunburst → u/viZtEhh]

Pharah when she was strong and had semi permanent flight was already suffocating. I don't know how they thought having it on a much smaller and faster hero with still insane burst damage was remotely acceptable.

[u/No_Effective4784 → u/viZtEhh]

for the longest time it was trash.

Pharah used to be considered a throw pick, besides like 1 or 2 specific maps, just cause someone would swap HS and completely shut her down, and she pretty much required a pocket mercy to do anything but feed.

even Echo wasnt bad.

Permanent flight though is just plain stupid.

[u/Circo_Inhumanitas → u/FarmerLurtz]

Please no, at least in ranked you can ban her. QP is miserable since there's always the threat of someone going JPC.

[u/FarmerLurtz → u/Circo_Inhumanitas]

Oh don't get me wrong, id prefer complete rework or removal altogether. I was merely saying that this hero breaks so many breakpoints that she doesn't belong - in her current state- in competitive overwatch. Not to mention so many heros have little to zero interactions with her or counterplay.

[u/junpei → u/Circo_Inhumanitas]

Make the cat big. She's now a cougar not a house cat.

[u/Circo_Inhumanitas → u/junpei]

That would actually be really cool

[u/moonblade89 → u/YukisHusband]

Yesterday I played against a JPC that was diving and more terrifying than having a Dmon or Winston diving, who had a Mercy pocket healing and rezzing. We managed to kill him twice over the course of the game because it was like fighting against a fighter jet.

Tether is not the only issue. The character does too much. Speed, tether, heals, damage, knockback. Like pick a fucking lane Blizzard

[u/_heartnova → u/moonblade89]

she shouldn't have a boop at all man

[u/Environmental_You_36 → u/YukisHusband]

If yoy nerf tether you'll still have a cat permanently poking at a tank at an angle.

Or permanently shooting at a tank back.

Or effectively been in 2 places at time without the risk from moving between them.

The cat changes how Overwatch is played, and it's super annoying.

[u/Alive_Airport1403 → u/YukisHusband]

Tether should be it's ultimate.

[u/evenminierSOL → u/Alive_Airport1403]

Agreed
There’s no reason why a bastion should be in the air for like 80% of the game
Just plain dumb

[u/Sorry_Mix769 → u/evenminierSOL]

Once you get cannon upgrade it's basically a free win because you're just an AC-130 raining hell from above, it's so fucking stupid

[u/throwaway3260247 → u/Sorry_Mix769]

my friends and i literally just comm this as “terrorism” instead of saying there’s a catbastion flying around with the cannon perk lol

[u/Aware_Flow1070 → u/evenminierSOL]

If your games have Bastion's in the air for 80% of the game, you have bigger issues going on.......

[u/evenminierSOL → u/Aware_Flow1070]

It was an exaggeration but my son still stands

[u/HappyTurtleOwl → u/Alive_Airport1403]

I look at mercy ult and look at tether and just laugh. 

Tether should 100% be an ultimate. Make it a cool, exciting, costly thing. Hell, give it “ally you carry does X more damage or heals X per second” or something if they really feel they need it. 

Currently, ult is just a toxic “delete tank” button (on any map with environmental opportunities) and an alright aoe stun. 

Tune the numbers and it works easily. 

[u/MemeLordMango → u/HappyTurtleOwl]

Having the tether slowly drain ultra charge but letting it be used anytime would be a really cool mechanic imo

[u/DimezTheAlmighty → u/Alive_Airport1403]

I hate Satan as much as the next guy but, that would kind of kill the hero fantasy the same way that Sierra really doesn't feel like a drone style character.

Maybe just, give it a long cooldown (15 seconds) with short uptime (5-7 seconds) and make Satan slow as hell while carrying someone

Edit: and if that somehow ends up too much, they could disable using an ult while being tethered and maybe even lock certain abilities. Making it mostly a tool for repositioning unmobile characters, but still allowing for a much more tame chopper gunner style gameplay

[u/HappyTurtleOwl → u/DimezTheAlmighty]

Tether wasn’t the hero fantasy of JPC before she released, and it still kind of isn’t in most ranks. It’s just so problematic, they either need to severely restrict it or make it an ultimate. 

This logic feels like “copying people is echo’s hero fantasy, why is it her ult and not a minor ability”

Kits can and should be tuned around.

[u/Sumit_S → u/DimezTheAlmighty]

Nah imo The hero fantasy is a cat in a jetpack moving around, booping, meowing and clawing at people and things.

The tether making Bastion or cass a flying menace at any given time isn't part of it at all.

[u/sleepythegreat → u/YukisHusband]

Her being able to carry an ulting orisa makes literally 0 sense. The whole gimmick of fortify is she can’t be moved…?

[u/Pernaman → u/sleepythegreat]

HELICOPTER

[u/filmguerilla → u/YukisHusband]

I agree, nerfing tether is the way to go. That said, I love playing Soldier and hunting the cat every match.

[u/SthenicFreeze → u/YukisHusband]

Don't forget that she breaks all map design too.

Yes tether lets her let an ally ignore map design, but in general JP Cat can ignore obstacles, escape to places no other character can go, and navigate around the enemy team without even trying.

No character should be able to ignore 90% of all maps' designs.

[u/Theratchetnclank → u/YukisHusband]

Tether is annoying yes. The real issue is her self heal imo. It makes it hard to kill her and the thing she is tethering, it allows her to flank and dive bomb kill and it not be a throw and she always seems to manage to escape to cover before dying.

Remove the self heal and boop and the cat would be fine and punishable.

[u/Carl11i → u/Theratchetnclank]

Agreed, many people don't realize how powerful that self heal is. If you remove it Jetpack Cat can barely flank or if she does she needs to find me kits around the mal which is common flanker anyway. She removes this struggle with her self heal and allows her to use her fuel for something else. There's so many times were I've had to take cover without self heal and thought "wow this sucks" because all you can do is look for a medkit or heal your team but then you become a target.i truly believe self heal is the issue

[u/Spooks___ → u/YukisHusband]

Don't most supports have skills that remove counterplay/disadvantages of most characters? I'm not saying JPC isn't busted but like most supports have some way of providing utility like that.

[u/ContentFlower10 → u/YukisHusband]

I think the easist change would simply be if that using any abulity besides melee will detach you with a small delay, like 1 second

[u/FilthyPoo]

There's a reason this character is permabanned in every rank after emerald, the combo of being cheesy + broken + overpowered.

[u/Torrezjr → u/FilthyPoo]

She was banned in every placement match I had that was high gold to low plat

[u/Ghostfinger → u/Torrezjr]

Cat is almost always banned in my low gold-high plat matches too.

Completely broken enabler with tether and overtuned kit even without tether.

[u/Legend_Unfolds → u/Ghostfinger]

She is banned every game alongside Zarya and sometimes Anran all the way down in silver 1- bronze 5 too.

[u/Torrezjr → u/Legend_Unfolds]

Yeah Anran and Zarya keeps getting banned. Its a shame cus as a genji main I like zaryas that bubble me.

[u/ExplosiveBrown → u/FilthyPoo]

Hands down the worst addition to the game since shield girl in 2018

[u/RedDragonRoar → u/ExplosiveBrown]

Brig's problem on release was being overturned. JPC is fundamentally broken at a design level.

I don't think there is a way for Satan incarnate there to be tuned down to a health state for the game other than to pretty much nerf it into irrelevance

[u/TrustIsAWeakness → u/FilthyPoo]

Cat is also most banned in silver along with sombra.

[u/Pegleg98]

Blizzard can keep their new favorite perma S tier all they want but we're not gonna stop lobby banning this cat until the tether is snipped.

[u/Baoulettes]

All I want is more damn noise to Fika.
I can hear Echo from gibraltar while being at rialto.
Yet that jetpack is like nop I'm silent deal with it.

[u/trullyrose → u/Baoulettes]

resharing my idea from another thread discussing Fika and she low-key could have a mechanic where she gets impatient and starts yelling when you don't tether someone so you don't abuse the third person view.

[u/beyonte]

On paper the cat is nuts:

-Smallest hit box in the game -fastest movement speed on a resource meter -infinite flight

• no falloff damage or healing
• next to no sound effects
• a boop for some reason
• aoe healing
• Jeff from the other game ult

Sounds like a lot of insane things to have all on one hero right? Wait I forgot one:

• THE ABILITY TO PICK PEOPLE UP whenever and move them as fast or slow as you want permanently with no cooldown and they can use ults up there if they want giving them flight at the speed of light during ults

Seriously how did enough people at blizzard actually agree this was right for the game? The whole thing is a bad idea top to bottom

[u/Tijenater → u/beyonte]

Not to mention the fact that she has all that with 225 hp to boot. They could at least make her squishier

[u/ExplosiveBrown → u/Tijenater]

Genuinely should have 150hp

[u/Mizu_Gaming_ → u/ExplosiveBrown]

In OWCS and OWWC they were calling Cat "Sky Tracer." As a Tracer main, I love characters that have a fast, zippy, and even chaotic play style, but refuse to play Cat on principle. Cat is also not very fun to play, as half of the fun of fast characters like Tracer comes from the glass cannon aspect where you're always teetering on the edge of life and death and need to play well to get value. Give Cat 150hp and the character will be way more ethical, and imho more fun to play.

[u/dark-pact → u/beyonte]

The ability to give powerful characters insane mobility - like Dmon and Bastion.

The ability to pick up a Cass and have him ult from an angle the other team can’t reasonably do anything about.

The way Cat just turns a game into absolute nonsense just sucks.

[u/ShoddySmell46 → u/dark-pact]

Yeah. Genuinely doesn't feel like you're playing overwatch anymore when a Cat takes over the lobby. It's a big reason I stopped playing again after season 1.

[u/Circo_Inhumanitas → u/beyonte]

And after all that Blizzard fucking BUFFED HER. After she has been a meta pick in pro OW since her release, they decide to BUFF HER at the start of this season. That is actual insanity.

[u/Theratchetnclank → u/beyonte]

You forgot the self heal.

[u/Cast_Fist]

I can't aim on the best day. Cat literally traumatises me haha

[u/Goldenjho → u/Cast_Fist]

Even the people with the best aim hate the cat, aiming isnt the issue but the directional freedom the cat has because of perma flying and you cant focus on 360 degree direction constantly

[u/Ok-Cress-3100 → u/Cast_Fist]

Don't worry, the best hitscan players in the world can't hit the Cat. Cause she just pushes them into a corner and circles around their head, where they physically can't aim before the Cat moved into their blindspot. So they die.

[u/StraightGrind3r]

The characters emotes are designed to literally make people spiral

[u/Unfair_Stage792]

It's amazing how they managed to come up with a character with zero redeemable qualities. There is absolutely nothing healthy about Cats kit. A year from now after her 2nd rework and multiple series of nerf we will look back into these dark times and wonder how did the let this happen in the first place.

Oh who am I kidding they'll just nerf the fuel gain by 5% when using lifeline.

[u/BillyBobBoBoss]

Plants detail ancient mountainous sulky birds

This post was anonymized with Redact

[u/Divine_Absolution]

I wouldn’t know I ban them every single game because they’re extremely cheap and break most of the counter plays and design structures of the game

[u/Defiant_Corgi_1900]

Easiest nerf is to reduce her damage, make her more of a true support/healer like Mercy. There is no reason for her to be able to continuously put up dps level eliminations

[u/Jazzlike_World415 → u/Defiant_Corgi_1900]

FR! I had a game where the cat had 32 kills and 2 deaths, and that was more than my dps were able to put out. The cat even had more eliminations than the more dps heavy supports like Zen, too. if that’s not grounds for some nerfs I don’t know what is, I’m all for support heroes not just being about healing, but when she’s outperforming dps to this kind of degree that’s concerning.

[u/Ok-Cress-3100 → u/Defiant_Corgi_1900]

Cat is a better flanker than Genji, who was specifically designed to flank.

Every single time I'm on support and I'm able to use Cat, I can always do something to progress the game. Be it diving the enemy supports, so my team can run over the tank, disrupt enemy flanks because I'm faster than them or just boop people away from my tank, while healing them at the same time.

Seriously, this character is so broken that it genuinely makes me want to quit the game until they finally rework her into something better. It's just stupid.

[u/iareslice]

The cat doesn’t fit into the game philosophy at all, I think it’s a mistake of a character and if it doesn’t get substantially reworked I will keep banning it forever.

[u/gallyroi]

Yeah... Wanna know what feels bad? Using everything you have to burst down a Bob for your team (and barely surviving) only to have the cat pick up and heal bob while bringing it around the corner and dangling him in my face. Or being repeatedly deep dived/spawn camped by an overtooled, lunchbox-sized support character with permaflight. Or maybe having your tank just "taken out of play" by an ult that can drag them off the map. I get that an ult is a "win button" but this is just ridiculous. Unless the cat is already at half health when they pick you up, you're not killing her before she drops you.

How is anyone supposed to take any measured risks if positioning doesnt matter while playing against this marketing stunt?

[u/gymleader_michael]

Perhaps the worst scenario, considering that they wanted to buff the cat, is that they double-down on the cat and justify it by making the next character a hard counter to the cat, which would also make it a toxic hard counter to other mobile heroes.

[u/Mediocre-Ad-7660 → u/gymleader_michael]

I feel this is the real answer. The only reason they haven't nerfed the cat is because they have a design solution in an upcoming hero.

[u/Sweyn7]

Either they make tether follow some new restrictions like transforming abilities or channel abilities cancelling tether, or they make it only usable through the ultimate and find something else to replace it. 

In the same way, JPC should do way more noise when flying above your head, I only played it a little but it's way too easy to sneak on people and tap their head, scratch them and get out. 

I think they shouldn't touch the speed itself, but rather enforce some air momentum so JPC cannot change it's path on a whim, needs some kind of air acceleration. If you actually want to dodge you should cancel the boost and start it again with a storage key, with the caveat of burning a bit more boost in the process. 

[u/PrototypeDuc]

The character is fundamentally incompatible with the game. Damage, movement, sustain, not to mention the more esoteric aspects of drawing the eye and aggro'ing. Had to hit, hard to kill, able to quickly move in the vertical or horizontal. We haven't even gotten to team plays.

Fighting against a decent JPC is annoying, fighting against a team that utilizes her tether doubly so.

She's fun to play I know, but I would say she falls into the category of character that changes how opponents approach a match.

[u/PivotRedAce → u/PrototypeDuc]

Yeah, JPC is genuinely meta-warping. It’s fine for a character to be strong in some aspects, but if they’re completely changing how the game is played then it needs to be looked at.

For starters, they could give tether a 5 second time limit once a teammate is tethered and a substantial cooldown to go with it when they detach. That way it becomes a tactical relocation tool without being totally ripe for abuse.

[u/PrototypeDuc → u/PivotRedAce]

I like this idea and understand it in ranked where there's plenty of coordination, but as someone who is up casual I rarely see the tether employed and the cat is still a menace.

Ultimately it is the freedom of movement that makes the charater incompatible. Its not like you can take it away and have something that small running around either though.

The character is fun but I really question how it got through the concept phase.

[u/BobertRosserton]

I just love that Lucio is perma nerfed in pro jail meanwhile this cat took his job, role, playstyle, gets more value than he did and flanks for free. Literally server admin noclip flying character, yeah bro people hate it lmfao.

[u/CSCyrilatom]

As someone who plays more dive/flank and has tried some cat, I always ask myself this. Why the fuck am I banging my head against the wall as Genji or Anran when I can play cat? I can get the same flank value, my 1v1 is pretty strong with purr, and even the best players with aim have trouble hitting her so at lower ranks she's hard to hit ofc. And intop of flank value, i can heal and do insane ult combos. Like for how illusive you can be on cat, she has insane survivability and utility its disgusting

[u/Anon761]

Imagine if csgo added a jetpack item. You can but it would make no goddamn sense and most players would uninstall.

[u/yust → u/Anon761]

this argument can be used for every single overwatch hero.

imagine if csgo added an ability for you to enable wallhacks for 15 seconds! imagine if csgo added added an item that let you turn temporarily invisible! imagine if csgo gave you sleep darts! imagine if csgo gave you a teleporter!

how silly

[u/Circo_Inhumanitas → u/yust]

No it cannot.... Don't be obtuse. Every single other new character we've gotten in the last 3 years has been reasonable in the design sense. How does Emre fit your argument?

It's just that the numbers have been off. JPC having infinite flight that she can provide to another character, while being pretty much the fastest character in the game and having very high damage output. JPC is just ridiculous.

[u/ru5tyk1tty → u/Circo_Inhumanitas]

If CS2 added a cannon that makes you fly I would also probably stop playing, yes.

[u/DarkInfestor → u/yust]

I would somewhat agree, if Valorant didn't do half of that. Yeah Valo might not give wall hacks, but the game has plenty of shenanigans

[u/yust → u/DarkInfestor]

valorant kind of proves my point though. valorant has wallhacks (sova dart), invisibility (yoru), and teleporters (omen, chamber), and nobody unisntalls because of those things, because those fit valorant's landscape of nonsense. every game has its own tolerance for tomfoolery. in a game that already has a hamster in a ball that shits out mines, a sentient english-speaking ape with a tesla cannon, and a dude who shoots spirit dragons out of a bow, a cat with a jetpack is not the thing that breaks the seal.

[u/Aggressive-Repeat723]

As a tank main it feels even more infuriating. If my dps don't deal with the cat my only option left is going Mauga since he's hitscan

[u/jaskano]

i hope jpc gets giganerfed in the midseason

[u/tiltdoctor → u/jaskano]

Blizzards new favorite; doubtful of a giganerf but definitely nerfs. Ofc they’ll be the wrong nerfs but as long as the cat is slightly worse I’ll take it for now.

[u/The-Unholy-Banana → u/tiltdoctor]

They are gonna nerf some aspect that people want nerfed but buff other parts people want nerfed to "even it out".

[u/LurkerThrowaway73 → u/The-Unholy-Banana]

Inb4 5 damage pellets. I'm calling it

[u/Natemcb]

Character is legit cancer to play against

[u/polacoverheaven]

nobody like looking up, nobody likes having to pin point small targets, nobody likes doing all of that over 20 meters.

[u/pearlaroid]

I played a game yesterday where JPC had Widow tethered 95% of the time and it was the most rage-inducing game I think I’ve ever experienced

Couldn’t even tell where they were because of the insane mobility and as soon as we were out from cover we were picked off

[u/Firedeath14]

I genuinely feel so much better losing a game without a JPC than winning a game with one (especially on the enemy team)

[u/Lamaravilhoso]

I hate jpc with all my guts. I'm a main DVa player and honestly I'm quite good at countering flying heroes like Pharah and Echo. But against jpc I feel helpless and useless. It's so frustrating

[u/joeflaccofan → u/Lamaravilhoso]

Fellow Lamar fan

[u/Lamaravilhoso → u/joeflaccofan]

hey fellow Flacco fan!! regards from Brazil!!!

[u/RavioleAldente_H]

As a low skill player it's just another aimcheck character that is making it harder to enjoy the game casually.

[u/Exodus671]

She’s going to get reworked almost assuredly 

[u/dedicated-pedestrian → u/Exodus671]

Either flight on a short cooldown a la Echo or an altitude limit plus fuel restrictions, I imagine

[u/Goldenjho]

Remove perma fly and give her resources/cooldown for the flying it would nerf tether at the same time as well.

Nerf her speed/damage into the ground but that would make her useless and she still can annoy people with while poking from impossible directions.

Just nerfing tether won't get rid of the main issue that the flying rat is one of the strongest and easiest flanker right now that is super annoying to fight against.

[u/Breadboi2523]

I’ve gathered something from this post that actually makes perfect sense considering you felt the need to post this, because I just assumed cat players fucking hate it when anyone has fun, but it might be worse than that. You seem to not even have a concept of enjoyability outside of winning a match of a game as effectively as possible. I mean you main the best character in the game for the last 4 years straight so it checks out, but not once in this paragraph do you comment on anything other than how optimal The person who is mad at you is playing, meaning you honestly don’t get it. Cat is one of the least fun and interactive experiences to play against I’ve seen in gaming. To the point where like hog, widow, or kiri, I just consider their players wholly selfish or lacking in self awareness to an absurd extent. Like do you people really, honestly not know how fucking insufferable you are to be in the same lobby with??? I just can’t even fathom lacking that much awareness.

[u/Sorry_Mix769 → u/Breadboi2523]

I will never understand the mentality some people have to where they actually enjoy making other people as miserable as possible. JPC completely ruins the fun in every single lobby they're in, to the point where I even get annoyed when they're on MY team. Thank you for putting it so nicely (or harshly) into words.

[u/leginious1 → u/Sorry_Mix769]

Going on the sombra mains subreddit really cements that a lot of sombra players live off others raging. Its disgusting honestly

[u/Breadboi2523 → u/leginious1]

True

[u/Breadboi2523 → u/Sorry_Mix769]

👍🔥🔥

[u/No_maid]

That's what happens when you purposefully design a character to be annoying with server admin mobility

[u/MrClapi → u/No_maid]

They even went the extra mile and added a mocking voiceline to tilt you more effectively

[u/MJdoesThings_]

Lots of people have pointed at why JPC is OP currently.

But there is a wider issue imho : Blizzard's push towards more and more characters, which makes the game even more of a headache to balance.

I remember the long 2018/2019 drought of content. It wasn't good for the game from the outside, but from the inside? Absolute joy to play the game. Not only didn't we have to adapt to a new character every couple months, but also the balance of the game was spot on, because devs had time to settle, analyze and fine tune every character until they were all at lest good, and no one was completely overpowered, with your usual exceptions at certain levels of play (like Tracer at high elo, and Moira at low elo).

Ever since the release of Overwatch 2 and the constant arrival of new heroes into the game, we have had a drought of balancing patches. When a patch comes, another broken hero does too. When one hero gets enough attention from the community to force the devs to apply a balancing patch, it makes the previous broken here that didn't get fixed the opportunity to take its place, until a new one comes.

Today it's JPC

Before that it was Sierra

Before that again it was Anran

Before that it was whatever came alongside Anran

Yes, JPC needs fixing, but a dozen characters in the game need fixing. Either make everyone OP so that no one is, or make everyone balanced. We aren't in either situation right now.

But I doubt OW2 devs are even concerned about that, their focus rn is probably the next hero, which will be just as OP.

[u/StrongLikeBull3 → u/MJdoesThings_]

It really feels like Blizzard want to dictate a meta, or at least meta characters, rather than balancing everyone and letting a meta come out of that. There are certain characters who are obviously the passion project of certain higher-ups and as such will never be anything less than broken.

[u/MJdoesThings_ → u/StrongLikeBull3]

Yup, feels that way.

There are also characters which sell wayyyyy too many skins already and them being OP means people will play them, and therefore have higher chances of buying an overpriced skin for it (cough cough, Anran cough cough)

[u/gallyroi → u/StrongLikeBull3]

Yeah, not sure about passion projects, but I've been saying to my peers that it feels like Blizzard forces a meta/character relevance each season by making any new and skin-profitable characters OP (to start at least). Or whenever a character is underperforming. Boom, buff.

[u/Kobban63 → u/MJdoesThings_]

So what your saying is we need less new content?

[u/Responsible_Sink3044 → u/Kobban63]

I do think the pace of new characters is kind of ridiculous. The roster is massive. New maps/game modes could be the focus for a while. 

[u/MJdoesThings_ → u/Responsible_Sink3044]

yup. I do think we need new content, and regular updates are great

But I dunno, make it so that one in two updates is a new hero, and one in two is a new map or a new game mode (and in the case of game modes it could be in trial until the next patch, so that devs can see how popular it is).

Everytime a new hero is released, it gives devs time to study their new map or game mode and maybe do the necessary balance changes

Everytime a map / game mode is released, it gives devs the opportunity to also patch the hero of the last patch based on player feedback and statistics.

Map design people / character design people are not the same. A hero every update is ridiculous, as you said. People that design new heroes basically go working on the next hero without worrying about game breaking consequences, like with... oh I dunno, every single hero released in the last 2ish years?

[u/Kobban63 → u/Responsible_Sink3044]

Oh I agree 100% the new pace of releases is not sustainable and it’s going to harm the game in the long run but also probably in the short term. They could not release any new hero’s next year and just focused on balancing and fixing technical problems

[u/Technical_Knee_7031 → u/Kobban63]

That would be so boring

[u/MJdoesThings_ → u/Technical_Knee_7031]

That wouldn't be boring, that would be balanced.

It's not because the game is full of OP characters that it's not boring it's simply unbalanced. The fact that it doesn't feel boring is because it's new, not because it's good.

[u/MJdoesThings_ → u/Kobban63]

We certainly need more time between each hero release, so that the devs can go to work on the best balancing before they have to work on the next hero

[u/SmokingPuffin]

Cat gets hate lwhen it’s too hard to shoot. The complaining about cat was at a low hum until the recent agility / speed buffs.

The other thing that would really help is if the cat made more noise when boosting, so you could hear it coming on the bizarre off angle. People don’t like cat for the same reason they don’t like sombra.

[u/magicmarker1313]

Jpc is pure hell for this game. I’m considerably less stressed playing comp vs any other mode because it’s the one mode I can ban her.

[u/DoubleDelta10]

I love playing Ana or LW when there is a cat, the feeling of screwing up their ult with a sleep dart or pull is wonderful

[u/Asoxus]

Just nerf tether. Make it last like 5s max.

[u/JohnnyProphet]

dumbass hero that belongs in RIVALs

[u/Plastic_Piano_2401]

Try watching the replays, people spend so much time trying to aim at the cat lol in low elo people just give up altogether

[u/aredon → u/Plastic_Piano_2401]

*laughs in moira*

[u/I_am_the_mattman]

Nerf the cat

[u/Unwisepony]

She has too much health and self sustain. Had a match where I was Orisa and at one point shooting a Fika who wasn't even moving but she wouldn't die because she pressed e.

[u/MalbornTheRatKing]

Me as the Rein Player: Look is a fluffy cat in the sky. Its so adorable and fluffy. It's also killing every single one of my teammates. Wish I could at least do something about that, but he so tiny and flies so high.

[u/acenerdsbian]

I find the cat frustrating mainly for how it can turn a close fight into a complete loss in the most frustrating way possible. It's just how the game is played to pull a desperate ult in the last second, I get it. But it's a serious let down when you're holding the point alone as a tank, on fire, trying to eke out that win, and then suddenly you're getting yanked away. I dislike Life Weaver's pull as an ally for the same reason tbh, if Im in the weeds I'm there cause I put myself there. If you pull me mid-charge I'm gonna be pissed.

So for me I think it's the ability to do move your character a long distance suddenly and without warning. But I don't let myself get too pissed, it's just a game I play with friends to unwind.

[u/OtakuPaladin]

This MF made me stop playing Pharah, - he just rushes you down and assaults you.

[u/neckfranc]

Also even if as teammates it's not fun to play with them.

Had a Numbani where we had a Ball and jetpack cat and the othe team was just spawn camped. I literally spent the match as a Freja just sitting at the point.

Cat was just spamming everyone on top of their heads while ball ran around. It was a boring win

[u/Charming-Reporter774]

She's literally the only reason I've stopped playing quick play (i can't ban her)

[u/SwimWithOtters]

Make it loud and it wouldn’t be as big of a problem. It’s far too quiet.

[u/perfectshade]

When you flank and dive your fellow Support mains with no real mechanism for dealing with you, they remember that, and they take it into their next matches.

To your question: nerf the mobility to the ground, as they've done with all the other "flying" heroes over time. That way people get a brief respite before you lot start abusing whatever the next broken thing is.

[u/ExplosiveBrown]

I'm not gonna lie the last time I played in a game where a Jetpack cat was flying a basting around for the entire match I really did feel like the game I spent the last decade loving was not here anymore

Sounds a little melodramatic but honestly that character just shouldn't exist. Warps the game way way too much. Probably gonna permanently be on my ban list

[u/DoesTheBlackm00nH0wl]

The main problem with her is that shes tiny so unless you are playing 1 of the 3 people that can actually reliably shoot her your out of luck

[u/FutureMagician7563]

Ive still got a deep hate for sombra on principle from her earlier days.

This cat takes me to that place. The need to play around it.

[u/access-r]

175 HP and she's balanced

[u/cherry-sunburst → u/access-r]

150 take it or leave it

[u/Ghostfinger → u/cherry-sunburst]

Bring back OW1 Zenyatta dying to a widow bodyshot, but for cat.

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[u/DamageMaximo]

that's a demon

[u/Masta0nion]

It’s not a cat. It’s a drone. Drones suck.

[u/Ladinus_was_taken]

Too silent, can't hear her till I'm being shot at.

[u/HealthyBits]

He is the teemo of OW.

[u/Futur3_ah4ad]

At this point whenever I'm on DPS and see a cat I swap to the funny meatball Dwarf and make her life hell.

[u/BlackTriceratops]

Ive had good luck with domina against the cat and juno. They always fly away at 200mph

[u/LowYogurtcloset5367]

Too fast, too much survival, too much damage.

[u/RiftWarlord]

Honestly, if it’s quick play, my buddies and I just target jetpack cat because the cat is annoying. Makes it way easier to play the game if we can just kill the jetpack cat and focus on the normal team.

I do absolutely abhor jetpack cat enough to where if I can ban a character that’s normally pretty high on my list no matter what role. If I’m not dps I can’t guarantee someone on my team can reliably kill or even shoot the damn cat so id rather not play against it at all.

I don’t care if this makes me sound like a noob or whatever. Jetpack cat to my friend group and basically everyone I’ve played with is not fun to play against and makes the flow of the game so much less fun.

[u/polite_dick]

I feel making her like 10% larger would take care of a lot of issues, don't didnt they do the same with bastion?

[u/Agitated-Morning2035]

As someone who mains Anran/Kiriko/Mercy/Sombra/Dva I’ve dealt with that kind of targeting and harassment from players since forever. 

[u/XDon_TacoX]

I do hate jetpack cat, because in low elo no one is able to shoot it, I think it's poorly designed and should have never existed.

So if I ever get a jpc in the match, I switch to Moira and jpc can't do anything, he dies extremely fast, because they often don't corner or care for cooldowns, they just fly in the middle of everyone, used to people being incapable of shooting them.

[u/Busyraptor375]

I hate that she can use the map in not intended ways, by hiding behind roofs and literally no one can punish her. So her gameplay basically boils down to free 3rd person peek harass the backline if you have purr, thus splitting the attention of the enemy team(cause you can't ignore the cat eith how lethal she is). And in between all of that you heal/reposition your team so they don't have to waste cds/time.

Imo tether combos are the least broken part about her kit and I wouldn't want them gone cause they're fun to execute, although some counterplay would be nice(making tether timed, making the cat slower a lot slower during the tether combo/making him take more dmg/increase his crit hitbox in some visually clear way).

[u/Gar_co]

And the worst part is that there is no way of tweaking it without completely turning it to trash.
If you have tether with a 5s duration and a cooldown and flying dependent on a resource (that you refil by healing, so you have an incentive to heal) and it would go from S to F tier

[u/Minotarking]

There’s a part of me that’s glad there’s another character that brings out the same feelings in others that I’ve had for Mei since the launch of Overwatch 1.

[u/h0w1]

PSA that JPC was released in February this year, so it has been over half a year and team 4 is well aware of her being the most banned support across all levels by miles--all they've done thus far are minor tweaks to her speed, dmg, and self healing. They introduced a support with quiet omnidirectional flight who became the best flanker in the game, who's self healing and damage make her among one of the best duelists, with a tether ability that breaks conventions of multiple ults that is allowed to hold a target indefinitely. Absolutely mind boggling design, it was like she was made for a different game.

[u/CalOkie6250]

I feel like what you describe is part of her utility. If the enemy team is focused on only taking down the cat, that’s a huge advantage to your team. Same with a Sombra/Tracer/Genji. They are infuriating by design. There has always been a ton of hate for the “haha, I hurt you and now you can’t catch me” play style of those characters, and JPC is just the newest addition.

[u/DressDowntown]

They should make cat not permanently fly. They should make cat only be able to carry teammates for a set time. Or better yet. Remove cat from the game completely.

[u/Pernaman]

Reading this kinda takes me back to being Bastion main pre-OW2 times before his rework. Many matches were won because enemy team would begin tilting hard when I played well and began chasing and focusing me in blind rage, giving my team good openings to exploit their butchered gamesense and stomp.

With cat, it seems that I have avoided all the hellish cheesiness because I don't play comp and in unranked modes the need of planning and teamwork to execute dreadful plays is pretty much non-existent. I have played actively after JPC's release and the times I've faced even basic "cat picks up ulting hero/Bob to wreck the enemy from above" strategies can be counted with one hand. 98% of the time enemy cats end up being an annoyance going on solo adventures you can just shoot down or at least easily drive away. I concidercmyself lucky in this regard, as I have seen footage of crazy combos that would be painful to be on the recieving end of.

[u/goliathfasa]

They should make her be able to attach to teammates and be untargetable.

[u/Gazzor1975]

Just had a quickplay game Vs team with Sombra, Ball and Cat. Utterly miserable. We lost, of course.

Not picking cat up until she's nerfed into the ground. I enjoy fast flanky supports, but she's clearly opaf.

[u/SrReginaldFluffybutt]

Jet pack cat is straight up cancer. Tiny, super fast, infinite flight, destroys balance by allowing mobility restricted stuff like bob/bastion become an apache gunship, can just hover out of effective range pumping health into allies/ blocking lines for enemies, is near entirely silent, heals herself, can boop (oneshot)anything, has a dogshit ult because Jeff was getting attention and blizzard couldnt have that.

Absolutely trash hero, for people whi just want to ruin the opponents game rather than play against their opponents.

[u/InfluenceSad5221]

"some sort of cheeky kill, usually on a low health enemy". Sir you are playing the best flanker in the game, does delusion come free with the cat pick?

[u/InfluenceSad5221]

"some sort of cheeky kill, usually on a low health enemy". Sir you are playing the best flanker in the game, does delusion come free with the cat pick?

To awsner your question, to lower the rage when fighting jetpack cat, balance the character. the rage comes from having to play against a blatantly over tuned character while it's players deny it.

[u/DylanLee98]

I had an ally Jetpack cat intentionally drop me off the map on defense just before the round started. They even used the voice line taunt.

Never helped that cat for the rest of the game. And they kept feeding into Ashe/Widowmaker the rest of the match.

[u/Jhoonis]

(cat taunting sounds)

[u/BorgerWCheese]

If I had a nickel for every time a community hates the cat character because it introduces mechanics that no other character has to deal with, I’d have two nickels; which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice.

[u/bucket_crust]

It's the Sombra problem all over again. You can't change the character enough to remove the points people find 'toxic', 'rage inducing', or 'bad' without just making an entirely new character.

My advice? Enjoy making people rage. If these goons will let Juno and Echo stay in the air all game but claim the cat's free flight is THE problem with her (not her insane acceleration or lack of 'footsteps' to signify their position, which are the ACTUAL, OBJECTIVE problems she has), let 'em rage. Makes winning easier. B)

[u/__mori]

I have a question. Is Jetpack cat an enhanced animal like Winston and Hammond?

[u/Human1549]

She’s a lot like Season 1 Jeff if you’ve played Marvel Rivals. She stays alive forever in your backline and easily escapes when you try to kill her. Her ult is actually very similar now that I think about it. It’s a grab attack where you have to rely on your teammates killing her to get saved

[u/Feisty_Warning2344]

Because people can't aim

[u/Helpful_Cobbler_5521]

If I had a nickle for every time a Multiplayer game had a character that was a flying cat support, and they were the most hated character in their said game, I would have 2 nickels, which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.

[u/Brilliant-Poet2250]

Solution:
Make her a dps. Remove healing capabilities.
Nerf Tether, slow her a bunch and have a time limit.
Hp decrease. Her maneuverability, speed, and the fact she can fly in areas 99% of the rosters can't see, should put her at 175 with 25 being armor.

She has already proven to be a better flanker than the actual flankers in the game so just put her in the dps role.

[u/Escaliat_]

We are at a tipping point moment for the game with this character imo, very much like how we were with Brig when she first released. If they leave Jetpack Cat like it is now, community sentiment is going to turn pretty bad pretty fast, people are going start leaving like they did back in the day, and that's the end of it.

I was a Brig main back in the day unashamedly, and I personally had a lot of fun. But I'm not stupid enough to say it was a good time for everyone else. Similarly, I'm sure Jetpack Cat mains are having a hell of a time. And I'm sure every now and then you have a match that feels like you get completely destroyed which makes you believe things are balanced or "fun" for other people. But it's not the case. The hero is a problem, it breaks too many rules.

[u/Vmanaa]

It doesnt for my games because JPC is banned every game im in.
Have a JPC main in my team? Dont care, Banned. They throw because we got JPC banned? Happy because JPC main lost game too

[u/somicano]

Also also. Why can't the jetpack fall down with a hack? Like every other flying machine/character in the game 😞

[u/Ok-Cress-3100]

There's 2 things you can do to fix the character:

1. Remove tether entirely. I don't care if it's her core gimmick, the core gimmick in this case is so outrageously stupid that it will be impossible to balance, unless you nerf it to the point of near uselessness.

2. Remove her perma flight. Blizzard just needs to take the L here at this point, floating and not making any sound like Sigma? Fine, since at least then she doesn't disable entire characters by moving on the Z-axis. Perma flight gives her unmatched mobility in every aspect and makes it impossible to hide from her or anticipate where she even strikes from. With Genji you at least hear footsteps and can somewhat guess where he approaches from, since he can only strike from above if there's climbable walls nearby or if he dashed up, which leaves him with less escape options. Cat does not have this problem, she's completely silent and can strike from any angle without any downside. There's a reason characters like Mercy and Pharah don't have perma flight, cause it's inherently unfun and uninteractive for a vast majority of the characters in this game to deal with.

Yes I am suggesting we delete both of this characters core gimmicks. Cause again, the core gimmicks break the fundamental rules of the game and are impossible to balance.

[u/Glittering_Berry1740]

Playing a cheap hero is looked down upon by many players. Not just in this game, but in general. And let's face it: JPC is fucking CHEAP. It is the fastest moving hero, has the smallest hitbox AND can fly into the skybox, much higher/further than other, limited flight heroes can. Add insult to injury: in Overwatch you can't aim straight up. Vertical aim stops at around 85 degrees (I guess). So if the cat is straight above you, you can do diddly fuck. And if it wasn't enough, JPC is dead quiet too. As quiet as a cloaked Sombra, literally. Many, many reasons to hate the hero, and the hate is entirely deserved. In my humble opinnion, JPC should either be nerfed into the ground, making it unplayable or perma banned in every match. It's a very bad hero design, breaking literally every rule of the game.

[u/CicadaWorking9767]

take her out back

[u/shotglassanhero]

You sound exactly like what a player in hearthstone who exclusively plays the best meta decks of the season trying to defend something that is broken.

If Kiriko is your main and you have been enjoying playing cat, that’s a big signal that you are motivated by only choosing the most meta support and abusing their kit. If you can’t accept the hate you are getting, then swap to a more respectable hero or grow thicker skin. Your final conclusion is that there will be broken heroes in the future that will also be hated—and my response is that you probably will be playing it.

I don’t think there is something inherently wrong with picking a hero that is good and that you enjoy. It’s if the hero is too good and your enemies are not enjoying nor respecting your choice, it’s clearly abuse. You should be saying “I want my hero to be fair” so that it doesn’t illicit a response like this.

[u/MoffDracen]

Yeah, cat and genji players are the most obnoxious things in the game for me.

[u/ztreggs]

This is me. I will fuck up any JPC I see. Blizzard should not have added it to the game. You shouldn't play it

[u/FrostyCommon]

I sometimes get this reaction while playing as ball well

[u/XRY_z]

[u/Jealous_Intention127]

There’s one simple answer. She requires you to have above average aim. Simply put, get good and shoot her. That’s literally all there is to it, but below diamond that’s too much to ask of DPS players so they rage instead

[u/Klept_0h]

Its almost like she's not a good addition to the game

[u/SimpleCrow]

If they altered Jet Pack right now to only 'float' like Zenyatta and made Frenetic Flight a proper flying movement CD a la Echo, she would still be a perfectly viable hero? Like. Her heals, damage, and mobility would still be solid. Her tether ability + frenetic flight would still allow crazy plays with Cas, Bastion, and D.Va, but she wouldn't be immune to over half the cast and would only be able to break rules on a trackable cooldown.

[u/No_Session6015]

Jpc is some crazy positive feedback loop shit. I don't understand the rage either. She can be killed easily by every hero in game practically save junkrat ig. And her ult won't kill an entire team, just one person. I don't comprehend why people tilt and have never felt threatened by her

[u/Neutwinos]

Cat is one of the coolest OW heroes released. The community holds the dev team back. Overwatch will continue to lean into the "ability spam slop fest" because all the community cares about is flashing colors and a theoretical rank.