u/Substantial-Bee-4049

I have considered myself a support main for as long as I’ve played the game, and Kiriko has always been my go to. Of course, she has always been the go to support, and teammates almost always request her. That is, until now, for obvious reasons.

I’m not here to whine about Kiriko’s current state. I simply have felt a little lost with what do since she is not as strong as she has been.

I have been bouncing between emerald 3-5 on support, and have played Kiriko in probably close to 90% of my support games. Lately, it feels like I’m going on a downward trend with her, and I don’t think I’ve put enough time into the other supports to be able to confidently play someone else while keeping up like I would with Kiriko.

I think possibly what I’m noticing is that I don’t have as much carry potential with her, whereas in the past most of my wins were when I performed exceptionally.

I think this is why in the last month, I have been playing more dps - even surpassing my support rank, which has not happened before. I almost exclusively solo queue, and have found lots of success and enjoyment from play Freja, despite her recent nerfs as well. She is a hero that if played well, has lots of carry potential (I’m also aware this is due to the nature of the dps role, particularly in 5v5).

My question for any of you: considering me being a mid rank player, is it worth to learn another support hero that currently has more carry potential? Who have you guys been defaulting to? Or is Kiriko still extremely strong and I’m just bad?

disclaimer - I don’t mean I’ve literally never played another support. I like to think I have the fundamentals down for many other supports such as Ana, Wuyang, Juno, but don’t have nearly as much time on those hero’s in comparison to Kiriko. I am level 100 on Kiri, and my next highest level is Ana, which is level 25.

TLDR;
I’m a Kiriko one trick and not sure if I should hang her up for someone else given her current state, or continue to one trick her.

So by now I would assume we all know what happened to our dear Kiriko with this recent update…

Am I the only one who isn’t all that upset? I mean, I totally feel the changes when playing her in game, and they suck. That being said, why do I see people saying this forces her into a heal bot role? If they nerfed her healing, would that not just promote more aggressive play with Kiriko?

I am by no means the best player. I reached Diamond 5 solo queuing Kiriko last season, and am currently Emerald 4 this season - but I feel like this isn’t the end of the world? I’ve always thought that the best way to play Kiriko was to take off angles and get picks, using your cooldowns to stay up, while healing your team in between. I almost think of it as a Zenyatta with better mobility and sustain. Nerfing her healing will just encourage you to focus on getting picks more, no? Even after her changes, I still played her last night and was doing great numbers on both damage and heals. Maybe it’s my lobbies, maybe I’m getting carried. Who really knows.

That being said, I’m curious what you all think about the minor perk. I’ve always selected fortune teller, and I think that could have the possibility to be an even stronger pick - if Kiriko should be played for more damage now. But I can totally see if picking the other minor perk would be smarter, considering the most recent nerfs.

Feel free to call me a dumbass for how I play/view Kiriko, but if they want to make her healing worse, then I will continue to be every support/dps’s worst nightmare :D