How will Wrecking Ball fit into the meta?

The sentiment amongst our flex-tanks is that Wrecking Ball can be played, but there will be no guarantees. If he was to be played, he may not necessarily be played by themselves. Rather he may go the way of Brigitte and be taken on by a DPS player to fit into mobile tank compostions. Names being thrown around to combo with Hammond seem to be Winston and D.Va. This comes as no surprise, when all tanks are aligned with mobility, there is a lot of the map that can be covered as solid high-resistance unit.

I think dive with 3 tanks switching 1 dps or support to Wrecking Ball could be good, so you would have Winston D.va Wrecking ball all jumping on 1 target seems pretty scary.

Leodeddz — Orgless and Hungry

We already see niche instances where mobile heroes who provide palpable crowd control creating hell for main tanks. With his ‘Roll’ and ‘Grappling Hook’, he can traverse maps with ease. Throw in the fact that ‘Roll’ when combo’d with ‘Grappling Hook’ will create knockbacks, main tanks can lose a lot of staying power they once had.

What counters can we expect to Wrecking Ball?

As is the norm with new heroes, eventual counters will rise to the surface. While initial thoughts are that Sombra may be a viable counter, currently in Contenders Europe, we do not see her played beyond as a scouting tool. Well what are the weaknesses of Wrecking Ball? His obscene hitbox, prime for those accuracy bankers.

If you can shut down his mobility and provide enough damage to break through his oppressive resistances, Wrecking Ball can be more efficient at fuelling your ultimates than Grav’d team in front of a Reinhardt.

I would say Zen’s discord and hard focus. Also Hog is pretty good against him. I think if Hammond plays well it’s really hard to focus him down though.

Txao — CIS Hope

Txao suggests Roadhog and Zenyatta. Orb of Discord would be able to allow Wrecking Ball to be demolished, Roadhog provides adequate burst and his own crowd control from his hook.

Reaper, Dva, Hog are counters because of the survivability and the burst damage they can put out.

TwolzZ-We Have Org

TwolzZ shares similar thoughts to Txao, as do many of the off-tanks. While we see Roadhog and D.Va played in Contenders Europe already, Reaper is a rarity. If the theories are true and we’re seeing a lot of triple tank dive coming to the meta. Having a tank buster may prove invaluable in a new version of counter dive.

A lot of the time, we can expect mirror compostitions to overcome challenges by simply playing them better than your opponents. If you can produce a more mobile composition that can avoid danger and target crucial members of the backline, Wrecking Ball’s support can fall apart.

What maps can expect the rolling ball of fluff to appear on?

The mobility and resistances of Wrecking Ball provide a lot of sticking power, assuming the architecture of maps allow for it. Control maps provide isolated and unmoving points of contestation for Wrecking Ball to attach a grappling hook, stay mobile and layer damage and CC on aggressing heroes.

Looking at confined points, such as Liajang Tower: Garden, attaching a hook to the top of the pillar and rolling around a protected area can provide crucial time to recover from a lost fight. Gaining control of a point can lead to solid defensive holds, teams can pour resources into keeping Wrecking Ball alive while he disrupts attackers and sends out damage.

If you get control of point you can have him spin circles around point and stall out for so long like, imagine Lijiang gardens and you start to lose the fight then you decide to give every resource into keeping him alive on point

ELLIVOTE-Angry Titans

Throw into the mix his ultimate, “Minefield”, and you can immeadiately create a more advantageous defence on these control points. The radius at which Wrecking Ball can send out his mines, can swarm an isolated point.

Outside of control maps, imagine which maps Spiderman would excel on and you can correlate those to Wrecking Ball as well. Having ascended grapple locations to facilitate Wrecking Ball’s mobility will be key. WatchPoint: Gibraltar comes to mind. Lots of highground to be contested and rolled over.

For non control maps, Ithink maps with a lot of verticality like Watchpoint could be strong.

Leodeddz-Orgless and Hungry

While not stated by any of the pros surveyed, I can see maps like Eichenwalde providing a suitable playground for Wrecking Ball, particularly during the second stage.

Molf1g seems to think that Wrecking Ball could find a home on Rialto. Touting the flank potential on the 1st point as a reason to for him to see gameplay.