It's that time again. The latest live update from Overwatch brings some changes to the hero pool, at least concerning some strengths and weaknesses of the champions. Some, like Ashe, can be happy, others rather not - poor Mei!
Five heroes now have to live with some updates of their skills and values: Ashe, Genji, Mei, Pharah and Reinhardt. While Ashe players will be happy, others might be quite disappointed because Mei, in particular, has been nerfed. What we see are mainly changes that were tested in the public beta mode five days ago and are now going live.
Ashe - The Viper
Shoot:
- Magazine capacity increasing from 12 to 15.
- Shots fired shortly before recovery no longer delay the next shots.
- Undirected shots reach a new maximum spread of 4 to 6.
- After targeted shots, untargeted shots can now be fired much faster.
- After a well-aimed shot, reloading can be done faster.
Bug fixes:
- Ashe's Unscoped Fire has been improved - no more bugs that render it unusable.
- Ashe's weapon is now correctly displayed in the kill feed.
Pharah
Rocket Launcher:
- Explosion damage increases from 65 to 80
- Impact Damage reduced from 55 to 40
Pharah is now back to her state at launch with the maximum explosion damage being 80. It's arguably even better as the minimum damage has also been increased.
Mei
Endothermic blaster:
- Maximum ammunition capacity reduced from 200 to 120
- Endothermic Blaster (secondary fire): Ammunition costs reduced from 20 to 10
No doubt the big nerfs of this patch go to Mei. The changes won't stop her from zoning out players with the rest of her kit so Mei will still remain a viable pick.
Genji
Shuriken (Secondary Fire):
- Recovery time reduced from 0.75 to 0.65 seconds
Genji's total DPS increases and he can now build meter even faster than before.
Reinhardt
General:
- Steadfast knockback resistance reduced from 50% to 30%.
Reinhardt is now less bulky as his passive gets toned down. This basically means that he'll be flying back a bit further, so a lot of scenarios can change as a result.
It'll be curious to see how these seemingly small changes will impact the game. Overall we see buffs to the DPS heroes and nerfs for the rest. Ashe will definitely be a much more desired pick now. But what about Overwatch's new heroine Echo? Many expected her to release with the current patch, but it seems she'll be arriving later in April. Chances are we'll see her around Easter - even if, in our opinion, Overwatch didn't need yet another damage dealer. On the other hand, her skillset is quite interesting and she'll most likely be a direct counter to some of the other characters on the roster. We won't see the changes listed above for at least a couple of weeks in the OWL until then the community meta will be free to shape itself. Stay tuned for more Overwatch updates.
