Overwatch consists of several heroes, and from time to time, they are buffed and nerfed for balancing reasons. The latest update released yesterday on PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch has tweaked six heroes.
Genji received a small change where his Shuriken recovery is lowered from 0.75 to 0.68. However, his Dragonblade Ultimate cost is increased by 15%. Mei received a much-needed buff and it's applied on her Cryo-Freeze healing speed, now increased to 50 from the previous 37.5 per second. Pharah and Reaper also received minor buffs. Hover Jets regeneration rate of Pharah is up by eight while the damage per projectile of Reaper’s Hellfire Shotguns is improved by 0.5. You can read more of the tweaks below along with the developer comments.
HERO UPDATES
Genji
Shuriken
- Recovery lowered from 0.75 to 0.68.
Dragonblade
- Ultimate cost increased 15%.
Developer Comments: We’re increasing Genji’s Shuriken fire rate to enable him to have more impact outside of his ultimate and increasing the cost of Dragonblade to account for the increased damage potential.
Mei
Cryo-Freeze
- Healing-per-second increased from 37.5 to 50.
Developer Comments: A while ago there was a change to make Mei’s Cryo-Freeze collision consistent with her Ice Wall, meaning she could no longer be targeted by allies while inside the block of ice. We’re increasing her Cryo-Freeze healing rate since she isn’t able to be easily healed up by her allies during that time.
Pharah
General
- Hover Jets regeneration rate increased from 35 to 43.
Developer Comments: The intent for Pharah’s Hover Jet fuel adjustments is to find a balance where it enables her to maintain an altitude reasonably well with careful fuel and cooldown management, but not so easily climb to the extreme heights some map ceilings allow for as it can lead to less interactive gameplay.
Reaper
Hellfire Shotguns
- Damage per projectile increased from 5.5 to 6.
Developer Comments: The recent adjustment to Reaper’s shotguns ended up being less beneficial than intended so we’re increasing the damage per projectile slightly.
Sigma
Experimental Barrier
- Cooldown reduced from 2.5 to 2 seconds.
Developer Comments: While the previous cooldown increase for Experimental Barrier had the intended effect of opening up more counterplay, there may be a tuning value that feels less restrictive for Sigma and still achieves those goals.
Zarya
General
- Energy drain rate increased from 1.6 to 1.8 per second.
Developer Comments: Zarya has been overperforming in a variety of team compositions so the increased drain rate will bring her average energy level down slightly between engagements.
The patch notes were posted on the official site.
So what do you think? Are you interested in any of these changes? Is there any other Hero that you think deserves a buff or nerf? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
