Blizzard has rolled out a new Overwatch update to the PTR servers that added in a couple of new features while bringing some hero changes to balance out the meta.
Four heroes were changed in this update, two of which got straight nerfs, one with a slight mechanic change, and one with a straight buff.
Ana received a nerf in this Overwatch update by decreasing the healing boost her Biotic Grenade gives. Prior to this patch, allies affected by the skill would receive a 100% boost in healing for 5 seconds, now that number has been dropped to 50%. According to the developer’s comments, they felt that her healing boost was too good, especially for heroes with large health pools.
D.Va also received a nerf in this patch. Her health pool has been completely shifted and she now does lower damage with her fusion cannons. Specifically, her armor has been reduced from 400 to 200, but her health has been increased from 200 to 400. She essentially has the same amount of total life as before but with less armor. This makes her more vulnerable to heroes that specialize against large targets such as Reaper and Roadhog.
Speaking of Roadhog, he received a mechanic change to his hook that could be perceived as a nerf but also as a buff. The changes that were previously reported on have made it to the PTR servers and aim to make his hook feel more consistent and fair.
On the buff end of the spectrum, his hook will now directly pull enemies in front of Roadhog allowing him to land the shotgun-melee combo more reliably. There used to be cases where the hooked target would land either beside or behind Roadhog making him miss the potential kill.
On the nerf side however, his hook will now break if line-of-sight to the target is ever lost. This allows heroes with displacement abilities like Lúcio and Pharah to save hooked allies by pushing Roadhog out of the way.
Finally, Sombra received a slight buff to her signature Hack ability. The time it takes to hack a target has been reduced from 1 second to 0.8 seconds. It might be a small change, but Blizzard is being cautious with how they balance Sombra since they feel like people haven’t really fully grasped her potential just yet.
In addition to these hero balances, the update also adds a new feature that will allow players to equip up to four emotes, sprays, and voice lines that they own. They’ll be able to access submenus for these within the communication wheel as well as bind unique keys to individual emotes, sprays, and voice lines.
This patch is currently live in the PTR for PC players. A full list of changes in this Overwatch update can be found here.
