Other Support Characters Will See Adjustments
As with any MMO or MOBA, consistent tweaks are necessary to maintain a balance between heroes. Granted, patches don’t succeed completely, they just do a little better each time. In the case of Overwatch, a game with an ever-expanding roster of heroes, Blizzard can’t seem to nail down Mercy.
In the past, Mercy has seen a variety of tweaks to compensate for her frail frame. Today, she’s unrecognizable from her Vanilla version, a clutch character who could revive her entire team in an instant. Then she saw a heal nerf, then a self-regeneration boost, followed by a decrease to ultimate regeneration, then a healing nerf and some cooldown tweaks, followed by an increase in her pistol damage. Later, Jeff Kaplan and crew said: “you know what, let’s change everything” Still, she’s the most viable support character when it comes to raw healing power. Therefore, she will be receiving another nerf: her healing ability will drop 17%, which lowers it from 60 HP/s to 50 HP/s. Does this reduce her effectiveness? Yes. Her viability? No. According to Overwatch developer Geoff Goodman, she will still offer the most healing power out of all the Support characters:
“Mercy is intended to be able to consistently pump out more healing than any other healer over the course of a match. While this is currently true, the difference in healing is so significant that it makes it very difficult for other healers to compete with her for a spot on a team. Reducing her healing output will close this gap a little, but she will still maintain her status as the go-to pick for raw healing power. We’ll keep an eye on her to make sure she is still a strong pick.”
Speaking of Support, Goodman gave us a preview of upcoming changes to all healing heroes.
Ana, arguably the most difficult healer to use, will receive a buff to her Nano Boost. It will come with the ability to heal allies for 300 HP. Obviously, this is great for increasing team viability, but it doesn’t really improve her own survival rate if teammates don’t peel.
Additionally, there’s Support character Lucio, whose Crossfade Aura Radius will be increased. He’s receiving this in conjunction with 50% increase to Sound Barrier. As an example of how useful this can be, Goodman brought up Junkrat’s RIP-Tire, which “Sound Barrier can now potentially negate completely.” However, the shield still deteriorates at the same speed.
As for character Moira, her base heal regeneration rate has been increased to 20%. This reason for this is simple: distant enemies can make it impossible for her to focus on healing.
Last but not least (unless we’re talking about healing power) is Brigitte. She’s the tankiest support, and will, therefore, have her Shield Bash cooldown increased from 6 to 7 seconds. Goodman explained: “Overall Brigitte’s win rate is still the highest of any support, despite dishing out the lowest amount of raw healing per second. This speaks volumes to how powerful her kit can be outside of her direct healing numbers.”
Full patch notes will be unveiled at a later date, For now, let us know your thoughts on these changes to Overwatch. Which tweaks are you (or not) looking forward to the most? Comment down below.
SOURCE: Blizzard