In the past few weeks, Blizzard has teased fans of Overwatch of some of the biggest changes the community has seen. For now, though, the team is sticking to a handful of changes for some heroes that needed much love. Will the changes are enough to reshape the current meta, or will the developers supply a few more changes?
The patch that hit the live server on October 29, Thursday, focuses on increments of health points changes that could be enough for some heroes to be viable again. The fans of the first-person shooter will also see certain abilities changed on this update.
The official blog post greets readers with a note from the Overwatch team, “We’re making some max health adjustments in 25 HP increments to allow for more fine-tuning of heroes’ power.” They also stated that, up until this point of the game, they have only done changes in 50 HP measurements to “simplify” the hit points changes.
Since the devs introduced an in-game Experimental card, it has helped their competitive players test and gauges the proposed changes. The recent patch was no exception, as all of them were tested in the said game mode. Except for the massive reconstruction of Baptiste’s ultimate ability, the Amplification Matrix, which was experimented with as a nine-meter glass door, Jeff Kaplan and the team might have to brainstorm some more for the said hero.
The biggest changes’ recipients are Baptiste and Mei. The healer’s Biotic Launcher’s primary fire now has a recovery time of 0.38 seconds instead of 0.45, while his secondary fire received a recovery of 0.9, from 0.8, but its healing is increased to 60 from 50. The developers noted that these implements are to help him deal damage quicker and make healing more impactful.
The Ice Queen, Mei, has two of her abilities buffed. The immunity and self-healing Cryo-Freeze now also restores 15 ammo per second. Ice Wall’s cooldown is also reduced to 12 seconds from 13. Blizzard noted that since the patch for her primary fire, she spends more time reloading. “To help smooth out this gameplay, she now regains some ammo during Cryo-Freeze,” they added.
Since McCree’s firing rate was slowed, players who mains the cowboy have been disappointed. With the end of October patch, the devs are proving they still love the Peacekeeper. The said gun’s reloading time has been reduced to 1.2 seconds, from 1.5. On top of this, the hero’s base health is also increased to 225, from 200.
Other health changes are Brigitte to 175 from 150, Widowmaker to 175 from 200, and Symmetra’s base shield is now 125 from 100
