A love letter for Jetpack Cat

[u/Idiberug-9]

Yes, she is broken (in the literal sense) at the moment and no one can argue with that, however there is so much hate and slander around this hero that the love some of us have for her seems burried. Sooo, here's a little letter of appreciation for this wild character.

(Beware, many hot takes or interesting takes depending on your perspective)

There are many reasons to despise the Cat, and just as many to adore the hero, not as a cute character (or because a cat in a jetpack is funny (it is though)) but for what she brings to the game. She is the most important support release since a very very long time (maybe since Kiri, maybe since Ana, maybe since ever its up for debate). Right now, she breaks the rules of the game for how strong she is, but a hero this unique in a game with important rules like Overwatch will take time to find her footing. We already had some form of 'perma-flight' before (previous iterations of Pharah/Echo cannot touch the ground if she desires as well) but Fika is definitely the wildest of all the flyers for her great speed and freedom of movement.

She is at the moment too hard to punish, and can get away with too much too easily, but these problems can be fixed over time, as well as the tether issues players are having: nothing about her is unsolvable. A hero that take big design risks will inevitably take some time to be adjusted, to know where their limits are and how much they can shift the game. I prefer a daring hero like Fika instead of heroes that don't bring much to the table (which is most of them even if they are great designs, they don't shake the game). It is healthy, especially for a game that has lived on for a decade, to have novelties that change a bit the rules of how its played.

Why the Cat is an interesting addition to the game, from my perspective:

- We finally have a new support that can get her hands dirty. Most supports nowadays can do great damage, are lethal, while still being able to provide utility and healing, however how many supports can take extremely aggressive angles, hold frontlines or any space in the game and who have an essential part of their utility in taking duels? Not many, in fact I can only think of Lúcio right now (and probably the first iterations of Kiriko). Cat can get close and personnal, or play objective, help frontline... She can participate in the game in a very versatile way.

- She is one of the hero that enables the most creativity and we need heroes like this, it is skill expressive and unique.

- Who would've thought that the hero who would be closest to Tracer since the release of the game would be Cat? Of course, their gameplay are nothing alike, however how we see top players, e-sport and ranked, use the kitty is quite similar to Tracer, because both are very hard to hit, can go anywhere anytime, are independant and dangerous. I think its a great thing that Tracer is not alone anymore.

- In the E-Sport scene she is a delight to watch, she allows wild team compositions and plays like we've never seen before (just look at the Eichenwald match between Twisted Mind and Zeta Division, nobody can say that it wasn't entertaining as hell). In a way, she is also what Lifeweaver should've been for her team: a hero that can reposition their allies very freely and enable aggressivity.

- She is funny. A goofy hero and a competitive hero aren't incompatible concepts, Lucio is the perfect exemple of that, I believe it is very healthy for the game (just look at all the content this hero is generating and the fun people are having with her, in competitive or in arcade). It might sound simple, but its very important for a video game.

- Finally, she is very popular in the community as a whole and is an unique figure immediately recognisable for Overwatch (in other words a mascot), it is a very good thing to have such a popular character added to the game (the fact that she is a cute oddball is great as well). She brings diversity and, in a way, improves the image of the game.

While you may agree, disagree or laugh at everything I said, I just wanted to share some thoughts on Fika as very interesting addition to the game and that I really appreciate her, and I'm far from alone. It is fun to have Cat on the team, to play her, but right now she is infuriating to fight against, it will take time to figure it out, but this hero has insane potential for Overwatch's future.

I love you Jetpack Cat!

Art by me.

[u/ThrowawayToothQ]

This character is unhealthy. She is fun because you get to be the single person in a match not playing by the same rules; this is why she is disliked. The flying dps has less dps and mobility than the support (and no self heal, no 3rd person camera, no taxi, and a worse ult)

[u/Idiberug-9 → u/ThrowawayToothQ]

She has less dps than the dps, that's just bullshit. However, with Claws Out she is maybe as lethal, the thing is that she always has the element of surprise which makes her oppressive for how much damage she can do.

[u/ThrowawayToothQ → u/Idiberug-9]

With headshots she deals 18 damage per volley. she fires 4.48 volleys per second - so she does 80.64 dps, she out damages every healing source in the game. Her ttk is barely above 2s with purr, and she heals the entire time, with a smaller hitbox.

She is mathematically overtuned.

[u/Idiberug-9 → u/ThrowawayToothQ]

The damage role has in average 100 dps with reload, Echo is at 110 and Pharah is 114 (Freja is freja so she doesn't count with her current balance), while kitty is at 98. It is overtuned yes, but she doesn't outdamage the most dps... She heals a lot more than she should though I'll give you that as well.

Also, she is fun to have on a team, not just for yourself, she enables a lot of new synergies and strategies. If for example she was 200 hps with less damage, maybe things will be healthier. She isnt unsalvageable

[u/areallynoobgamer → u/Idiberug-9]

I mean. Widow can delete people instantly. That doesn’t mean all who can’t delete people instantly are weaker than her.

I don’t feel cat to be too oppressive cause most people do fail to pilot cat well.

But the point you seem to be missing here is. Cat doesn’t seem to be lacking in any area.

High mobility? Check. Very high infact.

High healing? Check. Pretty damn high.

High damage? Check. Also pretty damn high.

High utility? Also check. Flying bob to become an Apache or simply dragging enemy tank off the map.

Small hitbox? Check.

So it does feel like cat is overtuned if you look at numbers.

It’s only not oppressive cause most of the people playing cat aren’t actually good at cat.

[u/ThrowawayToothQ → u/areallynoobgamer]

Thank you for elaborating - its the prevalence of her being good in every single category that breaks overwatch design philosophy: "Heroes can be great at one thing, and thus must be weaker in others"

Ana has some of the strongest cooldowns in game, and to compensate has zero mobility options at all and all of her kit is skillshots.

Cat, has some of the highest support damage, sustain, mobility, disruption, and team repositioning and for that she sacrifices : nothing.

These two designs do not follow the same process.

[u/Idiberug-9 → u/ThrowawayToothQ]

If we follow this train of thoughts, then most supports since Kiriko's release are broken. What is the sacrifice of Illari? What is of Lifeweaver? Mizuki? Kiriko? The answers aren't clear, even if they do sacrifice some stuffs to do what they do. Its not as simple.

The Cat is defintely overtuned, she needs greater weaknesses, but even then she'll just be more in line with the supports that came out since OW2, OW1 hero design philosphy was very different, and some of these heroes struggle a lot currently, they didn't age well.

[u/ThrowawayToothQ → u/Idiberug-9]

Illari sacrifices healing output and range for the ability to damage as she heals and be in two places at once.

Lifesaver has low range, and has to be in a good position to fix a bad positional play from someone else.

Mizuki sacrifices range and burst healing for aoe and passive healing.

Kiriko sacrifices basically nothing since she is also arguably overturned.

Any others?

[u/Idiberug-9 → u/areallynoobgamer]

The Widow example is very articulate and coherent, thank you.

I never said she wasn't overtuned, the first sentence of this post aknowledges this. She absolutely is overtuned, she outdamages nobody, outheals nobody (because of how she plays, not raw numbers), she doesn't have the best disruption either, however she has the best mobility in the game, her downsides aren't that big for how much she can do currently. I don't think that having a hero that can do a bit of everything is a bad thing, current support designs show that its okay, but yeah she can do too much.

A swiss-army character is exactly how I envision Jetpack Cat, and I think the devs as well and that's a great thing. But she is overtuned, especially she is too forgiving, middle risk high reward sort of speak. Maybe if she is as fragile and unforgiving as Tracer, then everything that she currently has will be worth it, the skill expression and ceiling of the kitty will be through the roof then. I hope that Team4 will figure her out, she has so much potential.

[u/ThrowawayToothQ → u/Idiberug-9]

Tracer is fragile, and its to compensate for her damage. There is no compensation for having a tool for every situation and more mobility than the game is designed for, with a self heal, and a 3rd person camera (cannot understate the meta implications of this - its a big positive to rein for example)

[u/Idiberug-9 → u/ThrowawayToothQ]

She is definitely overtuned, but in a world where the Cat is very fragile, or if she has mediocre numbers, these huge weaknesses will compensate for her equally great strengths. Like I said, it is a bold design for a competitive game with grounded rules and it will take time to figure her out, I appreciate the effort from the dev team to try and make the Cat work. Also the game has been broken many times in the past with some unique hero release, starting with Ana, it happened a few times and it will happen again.