#artificial difficulty

Knuckle Duckle || Quack Attack

(Lunar-Charged has an advantage) (Anemo, Cryo, Dendro, Electro, Geo, Hydro, and Pyro have a disadvantage)

+100% RES to all elements

If there are at least two characters in your team who enable Lunar-Charged, -200% RES to all elements.

At the start of battle, enters Horrific Spin Attack Wall Bounce Stamina-Draining True Combo for 30s. If Knuckle Duckle receives Lunar-Charged damage, or if Aino is on-field, this combo ends immediately.

Radiant Moonfly || Phlogistn't

(Lunar-Bloom has an advantage) (Characters from Mondstadt, Liyue, Inazuma, Sumeru, Fontaine, Natlan, Snezhnaya, the Abyss, or another world have a disadvantage)

Whenever a character hits Radiant Moonfly with a Normal Attack, Charged Attack, Plunging Attack, Elemental Skill, or Elemental Burst, or performs a Sprint, Alternate Sprint, Jump, or Idle Animation, if the character is from Mondstadt, Liyue, Inazuma, Sumeru, Fontaine, Natlan, Snezhnaya, the Abyss, or another world, Radiant Moonfly gains 1 point of Xenophobia. Otherwise, Radiant Moonfly loses all Xenophobia points and its all-type Elemental RES decreases by 100% for 12s.

When Radiant Moonfly's Xenophobia charge remains above 20 points for more than two seconds, it kills you. It just kills you. Your whole team dies and all their death voice lines play simultaneously.

Whenever a character gains Nightsoul points they die instantly.

Triggering Lunar Bloom instantly kills Radiant Moonfly.

Shenhe || Not a Leyline manifestation, just wandered in here

(Ranged has an advantage) (Shields have an advantage) (Healing has a disadvantage)

When Shenhe has "Ow" points, continually consumes one "Ow" point to perform a powerful melee attack.

For every HP lost equal to 0.5% of max HP, gains one point of "Ow".

Every 2.5 seconds that pass without being hit, gains ten points of "Ow".

Okay, so the Uprising event was pretty fantastic, and is proof-positive that Blizzard should add a PvE/Story Mode element to Overwatch, but let’s address some balancing issues, especially in regards to the last PvE content, the Junkenstein’s Revenge mode.

I personally felt like Junkenstein’s Revenge was pretty well-balanced; winning on the hardest difficulty was hard, and the one time I squeaked out a win, I was both exhausted and exhilarated. I’m sure it was a bit easier for other players since I sucked with all four of the Junkenstein’s Revenger characters, but still. A good, solid challenge that could be overcome by four randoms with enough effort.

But let’s talk about the Uprising winrates for a second here, specifically the Expert and Nightmare difficulties; Expert’s win rate of 3% translates into out of 100 games, 3 of those would actually be wins. That’s pretty rough, in my opinion. I’ve always joked about the majority of Overwatch players being fucking morons, and the Uprising event definitely required some active teamwork even on the easiest difficulty, but a difficulty that spits out a 3/100 win seems pretty steep to me.

Then we look at the Nightmare winrate: .6%. That’s not 6/100 games won, that’s 6/1,000 games won. Six out of ONE THOUSAND games won. I’ll come out and say it, that’s unfair. I love a challenge, but that’s too much; certainly beyond what four randoms should be reasonably expected to accomplish. Even organized teams of friends communicating over voice chat got eaten alive. The biggest kick of it is that the difficulty is entirely artificial; none of the enemies fought smarter, they just did more damage. It’s a rubric that rewards faster reflexes, and not much else. Nightmare difficulty wasn’t fun, full stop.

I decided to save this as it’s own little clip, for future usage.