Shortly after the Tracer Comic Challenge began, a new experimental patch made its way into the Overwatch live client. Following in the last patch’s wave of nerfs, this was mostly tweaks up and down. The most notable change was to McCree’s roll, making it go 20% further and be activated in the air. The latter of these did not make it through to the live patch, but the rest of the experimental changes did.
Ashe
Dynamite
- Explosion damage reduced from 75 to 50
This change is intended to reduce Ashe’s overall power while maintaining the impact of her rifle. This will also be a decent nerf to her ultimate charge rate since Dynamite charges it so quickly when landed on multiple targets.
Baptiste
Amplification Matrix
- Ultimate cost decreased 15%
On August 31, nerfs decreased Baptiste’s ammo and Regenerative Burst. This means it has taken significantly longer to build the Amplification Matrix than Blizzard would have liked. This is a strong ultimate but can easily be avoided or devalued, so it is important to have it more readily available.
McCree
Combat Roll
- Distance increased 20%
Flashbang
- Stun duration increased from 0.7 to 0.8 seconds
The developers have shown that they are trying to make McCree not so reliant on just his gun. This comes on the heels of last patch’s nerf to his fire rate. He has been firing every .42 seconds since June 2019, but it got reverted back to the original .5 seconds. The flashbang adjustment is another revert. In April 2020, the stun duration was reduced from .85 seconds to .7 seconds. The increase back to .8 allows a little more consistency in confirming kills in the stun. This is especially noticeable when following it up with Fanning the Hammer.
The only change that did not make it from the experimental card to the live patch is McCree’s roll. On experimental, it was able to be activated in the air. This let McCree traverse between many high ground locations, and bypass parts of maps like the Hanamura Gap. While this did not get patched through, the distance increase did. This should make him slightly more mobile, plus more able to avoid certain projectiles and abilities with the roll.
Orisa
- Base armor increased from 200 to 250
Fusion Driver
- Projectile speed increased from 90 to 120
This change is another revert with the armor. It seems Blizzard is struggling to find the sweet spot for Orisa’s armor. In December 2019, they increased it to 250, then in August 200 decreased it back to the base of 200. Now it is going back up to 250 in an attempt to increase her survivability.
The increase to her projectile speed is implemented to make her gun feel more responsive. The hope is that with less need to lead targets, the gun will have more impact and more fun to play.
Roadhog
Chain Hook
- Now pulls targets 0.5 meters closer (3.5 meters down to 3.0 meters)
This buff is an attempt to give Roadhog lethality to 200 and 250 HP targets but not shred Tanks so easily. When his damage was buffed from 6 to 7 per pellet, he became the scourge of ladder play. Even in the Overwatch League he was played to great success. So last patch they reverted the damage buff but not the ammo or recovery nerfs. This left Roadhog in a pretty bad spot. Bringing hooked targets closer to him will allow a more consistent follow-up and higher chances for headshots dependent on player skill.
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