The latest build for Overwatch‘s PTR server is now live for PC players of the popular shooter, Blizzard has announced. Although principal game designer Geoff Goodman provided us with a small taste of what to expect in the new patch earlier this week, it now appears as if Roadhog isn’t the only hero in line for some much-needed tweaks.
Goodman outlined changes being made to the character’s hook ability in the original forum post, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Both Ana and D.Va are being primed for some rebalancing, especially the latter, who’s going to feel considerably different to play in comparison to her live version.
Ana’s change is rather simple: her Biotic Grenade’s healing potency is being reduced by half, a decision which, Blizzard says, was taken due to it being currently too powerful, especially when used on tanks or guardians, who have naturally large amounts of health.
As for D.Va, Blizzard is reducing the amount of armor she currently possesses but bolstering her health. What’s more, the damage churned out by her mech’s Fusion Cannons is being reduced while the number of bullets per shot has been increased.
Check out the full list of nerfs and buffs below:
Hero balance updates
Ana
- Biotic Grenade
– Healing boost on allies has been decreased by 50%
Developer Comments: The healing boost from Ana’s Biotic Grenade was providing too much healing, especially when used on targets with large health pools.
D.Va
- Health increased from 200 to 400
- Armor decreased from 400 to 200
- Fusion Cannons
– Bullet damage decreased from 3 to 2
– Number of bullets per shot has been increased from 8 to 11
Developer Comments: D.Va’s armor often made her feel like she had no weaknesses, even against heroes that are often effective against bigger targets (like Reaper). The changes to her Fusion Cannons will result in a small overall decrease in damage, but they should feel more consistent now.
Sombra
- Hack
– The time it takes to hack a target has been decreased from 1 second to 0.8 seconds
On paper, they all look like fair changes, but in practice – who knows? To Blizzard’s testament, the existence of the PTR servers is a fantastic method of testing the proposed nerfs prior to making them official, and who better to put them through their paces than the fans who play the shooter on a day to day basis?
The full patch notes, which you can see here, go into a lot more depth, although they largely deal with bug fixes to various aspects of play, including to the new Oasis map, which released earlier this week.
As always, none of the above is set in stone, but if they’re positively received, expect the update to roll out on the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and live PC versions of Overwatch in the near future.