How would you fix Cyclops?
It’s no secret that Slim has been in a pretty bad state ever since 9.0 dropped, this was directly caused by the nerfs to his base stats and being left behind with power creep at the same time.
I would posit however that this was also able to happen because his character design is fundamentally weak and oversimplified, and his lack of unique tools and combination of utility leaves much to be desired.
Essentially, in his current state cyclops will only be good when his stats are the best or comparable to the best, and even then he will not offer the same utility as similar characters.
What cyclops currently has is good, his existing kit is pretty great and fun and I wouldn’t change anything drastically in his base kit (except maybe his ult). (Also they definitely good do a large mechanical overhaul to his base kit to increase his complexity and up his power but that’s out of scope for this post)
The goal here is to make changes that preserve his fun playstyle but give him more utility and let him stay competitive by increasing his complexity. Vaguely ordered by how controversial I think each change would be.
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1 . The least abrasive change you could make to cyclops is to his teamups. It’s no secret that 9.0 wasn’t fair to everyone and there’s plenty of other characters who got the short end of the stick, however cyclops is definitely near the bottom when it comes to his teamups. (Also he only anchors for one character who is one of the least played characters in the game so that sucks from a teambuilding perspective.)
The Phoenix teamup is fine, it augments his normal playstyle, makes you ricochet more, has some minor utility with dot and temporary tracking, it’s not super interesting and plays into a boring cyclops playstyle but not every teamup needs to be crazy especially if the other one is interesting. But in the case of the gambit teamup, it’s probably the least interesting teamup in the game. The only good thing I can say about it is that the purple beam looks cool.
The Gambit teamup needs to either be heavily altered or changed out for a far more interesting one that supports a unique cyclops playstyle. If you wanted to keep the visual affects and keep the spirit of the teamup in place, I think making it so when you activate the ability temporarily the right click beam no longer does aoe and instead becomes a larger more intense single target beam that shreds and pushes back enemies. This would work far better on a cooldown than a temporary buff and enable cyclops players who just like to run it down main and support their tank, or as a way to bully people who are out of place at the cost of a long cooldown.
What I would actually recommend however is swapping it out entirely for a different character and ability altogether. This isn’t about him, but gambit has too many teamups anyways so taking an anchor away from him is good for the game anyways. Personally a Magik teamup would be my favorite choice, given that they have a much stronger shared history than cyclops and gambit.
There are a good amount of things you could do with a Magik teamup, but I think giving Cyclops an additional flanking tool via a portal is a good option. Flankclops can be extremely strong and fun (at least before they gutted his damage and movement) and I would like to see that playstyle emphasized since it also reflects cyclops tactical abilities.
There are other teamup options that could work well, a teamup emphasizing his hand to hand combat would go hard or a teamup that shows off his leadership abilities would be nice. The main point here is that cyclops needs his gambit teamup changed to emphasize a unique playstyle that is separate from the basic Phoenix teamup.
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- (Wow can you believe that we’ve only made one change to cyclops and we’re already this deep?) The second change that cyclops needs is a fix to how his mobility works. His mobility is (imo) by far his most fun feature. Moving backwards is extremely cool and was actually a wishlist feature/prediction of mine all the way when the game first released. I’m incredibly happy with it, but I’m unhappy that they lock such a cool ability behind such a long cooldown. However, even though it’s a skillful way of getting around and already is very punishable, I understand that it’s strong especially once you’ve mastered it. The solution I think is to simply put it on a resource meter (which they probably would have if they weren’t scared about having already used a resource meter for the beam).
Putting it on a resource meter solves the problem of it being too strong when fully charged but taking too long to come back and giving bad game feel. It also makes him feel better to fight against since his ability to get away from you scales linearly instead of “oh his cooldown came back and he’s gone now”. To alleviate visual clutter in the UI they could redesign his beam to appear under the crosshair or even rework his beam to work on an overheat system instead.
Movement is the heart and soul of cyclops right now and it’s silly that the most fun part of his kit is on such a long cooldown that you have to never use it except for when you really really need it.
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- Cyclops seriously just needs more complexity and unique mechanics. Currently he has a few things going for him: a unique combination of aoe and hitscan, good movement, good kill confirms. His ult also technically performs utility by breaking shields but that’s quite minor.
Compare this to a character like Bucky, who fundamentally will never truly be bad because he always gets value from his absurd utility, through kidnapping, debuffing with grounded, never having to reload, constantly generating insane bonus health, absurd 1v1 potential, and an ult that is a win more button.
I do not want cyclops to become Bucky, because frankly Bucky is kind of disgusting. But cyclops does need something to make him stand out, and while a teamup change would help he needs changes (really additions) to his base kit.
One option is to give him an ability that is a snapshot wide blast that destroys terrain and knocks back enemies, kind of like a Lucio boop. Enemies knocked into walls could take additional damage. Despite being the “I blow up walls and floors” guy, cyclops actually deals very very little structural damage with his current kit which Is very strange. Being able to break walls and floors instantly would allow him to make tactical moves and adjust the terrain to a way that suits him. You could break a wall for a shock flank, or break an entire walkway to get someone off of it. A minor (or major) knockback effect would mainly be used for close quarters engagements as a final tool to try to keep someone off you, or to protect a teammate. Would this be a strong tool? Yes, but I don’t actually think it would be too strong. Most dive threats would be able to deal with a light boop if they’re coming after you, but it gives a little more time to make the interaction more interesting and makes cykes toolset wider.
Another option is to move something you would have put into the teamups into his main kit. Something like hand to hand or leadership or a hard punishing single target beam that shreds. These would all be very flavorful and true to the character and could also provide him more complexity if not utility (though I’m sure leadership related skills would count as utility).
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- The ult. Everyone knows the ult works from a game design perspective and can definitely be satisfying to get off, but it definitely feels like a strange ult for cyclops to have. It’s weird that he doesn’t actually do it in his trailer and that his ult description talks about him going visor off. This would definitely be the most controversial and unnecessary change but I would really love to see them change his ult to going visor off and firing a big ass beam for a few seconds that rips through enemies and knocks them back. It would synergize with his kit well too if he floats in midair when he uses it like with his right click. I’m honestly fairly confident this was the ult they intended to give him but changed it for some reason (visual clutter or a future hero is going to have a giant beam ult, potentially doom)
Anyways, that was my extremely long write up on what I think could be done to fix cyclops, but obviously I don’t have all the answers and redditors typically suck at game balance and character flavor so I’d like to hear all your disagreements and such. What I think is most important is we keep cyclops in mind and do what we can to educate others on the character and his status in the meta and what he needs to shine.
tldr; Cyclops needs his gambit teamup changed, his mobility put on a meter, a new ability that increases his utility/complexity, and I would personally like to see his ult changed. All while keeping what makes current cyclops fun and interesting preserved (Which wouldn’t be hard because he’s a very simple and solid base to build off of)
