genuinely think he got worse, if they reverted him I think it would be a buff. the concept of the blind slow doesn't work after they nerfed near sight and it's activation time takes forever and covers such a small area. the cascade ult is definitely worse and while the cove is better, it is not better than having a wall that regens. only having 1 cove also sucks, forcing the agent to be exclusively on double smokes comps just because only the wall gets any real value most of the time. old harbor could've been viable on maps like bind, pearl, abyss, breeze and maybe even split, the cove being a good site hold util and the cascade being able to take space, not to mention the big ass ult that actually gave info and did something notable to the enemies.
tldr: revert harbor, but remove team slowing, and while keeping the wall as the signature, give 2 coves with the new omen like smoke.
harbor
even by adding one more cove his current kit would be a lot better, he just lowk doesn't feel like a controller that can hold his own weight
Cascade's flexibility is overstated. It was far too restricted by harbor's current position, distance, and orientation to whatever he's throwing it at, and high tide still has the same issue
On the other hand, cove became a much more valuable tool since it can't just be spammed as soon as it's thrown
it was a very good piece of util combined with an info util like how nrg used to abuse the wall + vyse flash combo on abyss to isolate people
Thing is riot couldn't give him more niches beyond that without just making him the "double controller smoke dump" guy that viper, omen, and clove already got nerfed for.
It's hard to visualize because we haven't seen teams run him yet, but a toggleable cove, area-based storm surge, and a buffed but still spammable ult open up more reliable plays round-to-round
Harbor still cannot be run as a solo controller with just a single orb smoke and preventing spam is honestly not that useful. Also means you can’t spam back so it goes both ways.
Cascade isn’t meant to serve as a smoke in the traditional sense. It is much closer to initator utility because it makes space creation and clearance easy and rapid for long sightlines like in mains and longs. Throwing a single cascade in a main abyss basically instantly gives you control. No team is running through that wall without expending utility and it effectively serves as an omen blind in a sense by pushing back defenders from the line.
He's not worse. Old harbor was even more of a double controller exclusive because he had no range on his abilities.
His new kit, believe it or not, has the same smoke volume as his old one. The blind is bigger than you think, especially since its activation time is the same as a Tejo stun, and it's easier to follow up on than a paranoia because of the slow effect.
All he really needs is for high tide to have longer range too. Maybe even make it so whichever of high tide or cove is used first is the one that recharges, but that's a little convoluted
He is worse now. They basically tried to make him competitive with omen and took away the ability that teams had the most success using him for, the cascade. It allowed for rapid forward space creation and info denial. Now he is just a shitty version of omen with a wall.
Cascade was an incredibly niche piece of utility compared to cove, and while I'm sad to see it go it's really not a big loss compared to everything he gained. Notice how the most awkward piece of his new kit, high tide, is the only one that didn't change at all
With some changes to high tide we just gotta see what teams cook up because he's already quite a bit better in ranked
He gained an orb smoke (singular) which still makes him still not viable as a solo controller
Cascade was literally the main reason any VCT team was running harbor… cove was only good situationally
His ranked winrate is still horrible as well
I dont think they tried to make him compete against omen tho. I mean he only has one cove, how can he compete against omen with 2 smokes? HIs competition is still viper who has similar abilities
He competes with omen in the sense that he can use his smoke for midrounding while still having his wall (equivalent to 2 or more smokes) for executes/retakes. He still synergizes well with viper
He doesn’t even effectively match viper. Viper can put a wall up at any time to cut off information but harbor only has a single non rechargeable wall now. It is completely different. They clearly tried to make him viable as a single controller but one smoke is not enough and his util got worse off for secondary controller purposes. His cascade could give info denial and rapid space creation capabilities for teams in the past, and now all he has is a worse omen blind and a singular orb smoke
just revert everything and give the cove placing thing from the rework
Only one use of wall is terrible and cascade was his best ability before rework. They should just revert him and keep the new cove working like omen smoke. Also make his walls not slow teammates.
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