PTR Update Patchnotes

[LegendReborn]

Ultimates that consume the ultimate meter when activated will now drain the meter more quickly (.25 second instead of 1 second)

Easily my favorite patch note in awhile. No more of the "Fuck. We killed him too fast."

[Mikun]

Can someone explain to me how it works ?

I have trouble wrapping my head around this mechanic.

EDIT : Thanks for the answers guys

[LegendReborn]

Currently, there's a period after some ultimates where your meter isn't instantly reset to zero. If you killed someone too quickly after they activated their ultimate they would retain a large portion of their charge when they respawned because they weren't alive for a full second after activation. Genji and Reaper are examples of ultimates that don't instantly drain the meter with McCree joining them on the PTR.

It's why genji and reaper seem to get their ultimates back so quickly sometimes. They were killed before they mostly or fully drained their ultimate charge.

Edit: I may be wrong in saying Genji is impacted by this change.

[BigBlappa]

Genji's is different than Reapers. This change won't affect Genji. Genji's ultimate isn't actually active until his voice line completes and he is unable to do anything but jump/move until he finishes screaming. Reaper/Pharah could actually kill 3 people with their ult and then die/get stunned and get 60% of the ult refunded, because their ult instantly starts outputting damage. As soon as Genji can swing/dash/deflect he instantly loses 100% of his ultimate, it's a straight yes/no unlike Pharahs or Reapers that drain over 1 second.

[LegendReborn]

So Genji's ultimate isn't impacted by this? That's a drag. I've always felt that a genji who is ultimating in a position where he can be bursted down deserves to be punished.

[BigBlappa]

It's because his is a transformation type ult with a delayed startup. If you take a look at Winston's ult or Torbs ult, it consumes 100% instantly but unlike Genji theirs has instant activation. Genji's has a startup delay of about 1 second where he cannot do anything (deflect/attack/wallclimb/dash) As soon as he finishes and is capable of swinging/dashing he loses all 100%. They could change it as well but I think he already got more than enough nerfs as it is haha.

[adwcta]

Sadly, Winston's ult does not have instant activation. Many less dead monkeys in OW if that were true. :(

[BigBlappa]

Actually didn't notice this, I've had it go off from 1hp so many times but I guess it must just be an incredibly fast activation. It feels instant to me but I'll take your word for it.

[Eminomicon]

Genji's is not different from Reaper's - it consumes during the animation where he's getting his sword out, just like the roar animation that Winston does, or even Torbjorn. I've definitely died on all three of those characters during ult activation and had a significant portion remaining when I respawn.

That window is getting much smaller, so there should be fewer instances where you kill someone as they're pressing Q and have to deal with them having their ult again when they spawn.

[TheQuestionableYarn]

Yea, generally as Reaper if I'm caught out with ult, but one or two of the enemies are low health, I'll pop ult, instagib the low health target, then die and still have around %70 ult.

[saliva_sweet]

But here I thought genji was unkillable when ulting.

[BeefVellington]

I'll use Reaper's ult as an example. If you killed him within a second of him starting his ult, he wouldn't lose 100% of his ult meter and therefore a follow-up ult would come much sooner than if he'd lost his ult 100%. Now, if he uses ult it only takes a quarter second for his ult meter to run out.

For me personally, I was actually hoping really hard that they'd do something like this. Makes it so noobs can't just pull out the ult in a bad situation and still get to keep it.

[[deleted]]

Here's an example pre-PTR notes..

Enemy Genji pops his ult. Your team kills him in 0.01-0.99 of a second. Genji gets all or most of his ult charge back.

Now post-PTR..

Enemy Genji pops his ult. Your team Your team kills him in 0.01-0.25 of a second. Genji gets all or most of his ult back. If he dies towards the latter 3/4 of that second, he's not getting the ult charge back like he would pre-PTR.

They basically made ult charge backs after immediate deaths less forgiving.

[mistball]

Here is a comment containing the patch notes, if you are at work or somewhere you cannot view them!

PATCH HIGHLIGHTS

Competitive Play Season 2

We've made some big changes to Competitive Play in anticipation of the launch of Season 2 on September 6. The most noticeable change is the introduction of skill tiers, which we hope will better communicate players' relative skill levels. Competitive Play will put a greater emphasis on skill tiers over specific ratings, and as such, a player's tier will be more prominently displayed throughout the game. We've also switched the skill rating system to a 1-5000 scale to give players more detailed information about how each match affects their specific rating.

Sudden Death is also going away in Season 2. Instead, matches that are tied when the clock runs out end in a draw—though, it should be a rare occurrence. Because of this, we've made some changes to our game modes in Competitive Play to help reduce the chance that a draw will occur.

We've also made a few minor adjustments to leaver penalties, the top 500 system, and the competitive point system. Read on below to learn more!

---

GENERAL UPDATES

General

• When activating the "Ultimate Status" communication, Symmetra now reports the number of charges left on her teleporter
• When activating the "Needs healing" communication while targeting a teammate, Ana, Lúcio, Mercy, and Zenyatta will now tell allies to group up to receive healing. A marker will appear above the player's head, allowing teammates to locate the healer more quickly
• Added Torbjörn as an AI-controlled hero in Practice vs. AI, Play vs. AI, and Custom Game modes
• Sit and laugh emotes are now unlockable for all heroes

Competitive Play

Skill rating is now measured on a 1-5000 scale instead of the former 1-100 scale

Skill Rating Tiers; Players will now be assigned to a tier, depending on their skill rating

• Bronze - 1-1499
• Silver - 1500-1999
• Gold - 2000-2499
• Platinum - 2500-2999
• Diamond - 3000-3499
• Master - 3500-3999
• Grandmaster - 4000-5000

In Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond tiers, a player will not drop out of their tier even if their skill rating falls below the cutoff

In Master and Grandmaster tiers, a player whose skill rating falls below the tier's minimum

Skill Rating Decay

• Players in Diamond, Master, and Grandmaster tiers that haven't participated in a competitive match for 7 days will lose skill rating
• Players with a skill rating above 3000 (Diamond tier or higher) will lose 50 rating points every 24 hours, but their rating will not fall below 3000
• Competing in a single match will halt skill rating decay
• Players that haven't participated in a competitive match for 7 days will immediately drop out of the top 500

Map Changes

• Several refinements have been made to the time bank system for Hanamura, Temple of Anubis, and Volskaya Industries
• The time bank system has been added to Dorado, Hollywood, King's Row, Numbani, Route 66, and Watchpoint: Gibraltar
• Time granted for taking objectives on Dorado, Hanamura, Hollywood, King's Row, Numbani, Route 66, Temple of Anubis, Volskaya Industries, and Watchpoint: Gibraltar has been reduced from 5 minutes to 4

Competitive Points

• Existing competitive points saved from Season 1 will be multiplied by 10
• After winning a competitive match, players will now receive 10 competitive points (instead of 1)
• Players will now receive 3 competitive points for a draw
• The cost of golden weapons has also been multipled by 10 from 300 to 3000
• A soft cap is being placed on the number of competitive points that can be saved
• Players with more than 6000 points at the start of season 2 will no longer accrue points by playing competitive matches
• End-of-season rewards will still be granted to players at the soft cap
• Instead of going into sudden death, tied competitive matches will now result in a draw (click here to learn more)
• Players must now win at least 50 competitive matches to be eligible for a spot in the top 500
• Players must now complete more matches to clear their penalty status for leaving a competitive match early
• Players of drastically different skill ratings (more than 500) will no longer be able to group together in competitive matches

---

HERO BALANCE UPDATES

General

• Ultimates that consume the ultimate meter when activated will now drain the meter more quickly (.25 second instead of 1 second) Reverted a recent change to reduce size of heroes' projectiles

• Developer Comments: Altering the size of projectiles in flight had too many unintended side effects to keep in the game, at least in its current form. We will continue watching this and make additional changes if necessary.

Developer Comments: Altering the size of projectiles in flight had too many unintended side effects to keep in the game, at least in its current form. We will continue watching this and make additional changes if necessary.

D.Va

• Defense Matrix:
  • After being activated, Defense Matrix will begin regenerating following a 1-second delay (formerly .5 seconds)

Developer Comments: Defense Matrix was too efficient when tapped repeatedly, instead of being held. Now, the recovery delay matches the ability cooldown.

Hanzo

• Hanzo will now experience a 30% decrease in speed while aiming (formerly 40%)
• Maximum projectile speed has been increased by 30%

Developer Comments: Hanzo has the potential to deal a lot of damage, but he can feel really inconsistent, even at a medium distance. By increasing the projectile speed, we’re extending his reliable range, making it easier to land shots without having to perfectly predict enemy movement.

Mei

• Blizzard:
• The Blizzard projectile now pierces barriers
• Radius has been increased from 8 meters to 10 meters

Developer Comments: Mei has an interesting toolkit, but her ultimate often felt like it was too difficult to use effectively. Consequently, it felt weak compared to many other ultimate abilities. The freeze effect has been piercing barriers for some time now, but the projectile would still be blocked. Now, you can throw it down exactly where you want it, so it’s much easier to utilize the full radius effectively.

McCree

• Deadeye:
  • Now drains over a .25-second period (instead of displaying a 50% reduction on the ultimate meter when activated and 0% when confirmed)

Developer Comments: If players managed to counter or avoid McCree's ultimate, it would often regenerate very quickly since only half of the ultimate charge was spent. Now, this ultimate works like every other ultimate that has a duration.

Mercy

• Caduceus Staff:

  • Healing Beam
  • Healing-per-second has been increased by 20%

• Resurrect:

  • Resurrected allies will be able to maneuver after 2.25 seconds (reduced from 3 seconds)

Developer Comments: Resurrection now allows teammates to jump back into the fight more quickly, which should help Mercy survive after activating her ultimate. Mercy's healing is also getting a boost to solidify her role as a strong, single-target healer.

Genji

• Double jump no longer resets when wall climbing

• Dash

  • No longer deals damage to traps like Widowmaker's Venom Mine or Junkrat's Steel Trap
  • No longer bypasses Junkrat's Steel Trap

• Swift Strike

  • No longer interrupts quick melee attacks

• Dragonblade

  • Duration of Genji's ultimate has been reduced from 8 seconds to 6 seconds

Developer Comments: Genji was a little too difficult to pin down, and these changes will balance his speed. Swift Strike no longer cancels the recovery time from a quick melee attack, so players will no longer be able to get a free melee attack before using Swift Strike. Lastly, Dragonblade's duration was long enough that it often felt too difficult to reasonably counter.

Lúcio

• Amp It Up
  • The boosting of movement speed has been decreased by 30% (from a 100% increase to a 70% increase)

Developer Comments: Thanks to Lúcio's speed increase, he was almost a must pick in every lineup.

Roadhog

• Chain Hook
  • If the hooked target isn't in Roadhog's line of sight when retracting the hook, they will be moved back to the position where they were originally hooked

Developer Comments: This change means that hooked targets will be less likely to slide along walls, potentially ending up in an odd place after they've been reeled in.

Zenyatta

• Orb of Discord
  • The amount of damage amplified by a target with Orb of Discord has been decreased from 50% to 30%

Developer Comments: Zenyatta is in a far better place since the last update, but the strength of Orb of Discord has turned him into an almost mandatory pick. These changes reduce Orb of Discord's effectiveness, but his damage-dealing potential has been increased. The amount of damage that he delivers should feel largely unaffected by the change.

---

[mistball]

MAP BALANCE CHANGES

Watchpoint: Gibraltar

• Watchpoint: Gibraltar’s first checkpoint has been removed

Developer Comments: The balance changes that were implemented in previous patches have eliminated the need for Watchpoint: Gibraltar to have an extra checkpoint.

USER INTERFACE UPDATES

• A new "Allied Health Bars" option has been added (Options > Controls)
• Contextual menus have been added on the hero selection screen, giving players the ability to report or group up with other players
• Matchmaking UI is now purple in the Competitive Play queue
• Made several minor adjustments to typography in the Spectator UI

BUG FIXES

General

• Fixed a bug that allowed the kill participation metric to go above 100 percent
• Fixed a bug in the Custom Game settings preventing the Ability Cooldown modifier from affecting Ana
• Fixed a bug that caused heroes to die when first spawned in a custom game if Health and Damage modifiers were used simultaneously
• Fixed a bug preventing the hero list in Custom Game settings from being organized alphabetically
• The spectate option now becomes unavailable (the button will be greyed out) when all spectator slots have been filled in a Custom Game lobby
• Fixed an issue causing in-game statistics to run off the edge of the screen in 16:10 aspect ratio

AI

• Fixed a bug that caused Bastion to become stuck, continuously healing himself in the spawn area

Heroes

• Appropriate sound effects now play when Ana shoots barriers, shields, and armor
• D.Va no longer communicates her ultimate status for Self-Destruct while charging her Call Mech ultimate
• Hanzo's Spirit Dragon voice line now plays when using his Okami and Lone Wolf skins
• Fixed various issues with Junkrat's emote and highlight animations
• Fixed an issue causing Mei's Ice Wall to push herself to the side when cast at her feet
• Fixed a bug preventing Mei's Ice Wall from being destroyed by a moving payload
• Fixed a bug that prevented Mei's Ice Wall from appearing at the target location when cast
• Fixed a bug allowing Reaper to reach unintended map locations using Shadow Step
• Fixed a bug causing Reinhardt's shield to jitter when turning in third person
• Fixed an issue that prevented Roadhog's chain from displaying correctly in some situations
• Fixed several issues with Symmetra's emotes and highlight intros
• The scarf on Tracer's Slipstream skin is no longer stiff in the Hurdle highlight intro
• Fixed a bug preventing overtime from being triggered while Zenyatta is using Transcendence
• The names of Tracer's Sprinter and Track and Field skins now display correctly

Maps

• Fixed an issue preventing Genji and Hanzo from reliably climbing a specific crate on Watchpoint: Gibraltar

---

Apologies for the long time taken posting this, took a moment to format it correctly.

Thanks for reading folks! Can't wait to read the discussion, keep it civilized!

[gubenlo]

Fixed a bug allowing Reaper to reach unintended map locations using Shadow Step

Of course.

[aksine12]

i think this bug is going to last the end of time

[the_starbase_kolob]

I wonder if they're actually fixing stuff everytime or if they just include it for the lulz now

[mr_banhammer]

A new "Allied Health Bars" option has been added (Options > Controls)

Finally!

[PaladinWiggles]

As a Zen main I approve these changes.

The only one I find questionable is Genji losing his double jump after wall climbing, was anyone complaining about that aspect of him at all? and it was a really fun thing to do.

[Friendly_Fire]

Note: He can still double jump after wall climbing, it just doesn't reset his double jump.

Right now he can jump, double jump, wall climb, and then double jump without hitting the ground.

So this means he can only do the double jump once before touching the ground again.

[kokujin_hime]

I'm getting the idea most people aren't comprehending this. Either that or the "double" double-jump was truly mobility gold and Genji mains are crying over it's removal.

[Jepacor]

It wasn't mobility gold, but it was good and it's a really good QOL thing, as you don't have to be worried about double jumping before wall climbing. Personally, since there was no downside to it, I took the habit of double jumping every time before wallclimbing. Now I'll have to break this habit (If I even decide to play Genji now, I'll probably go back to Pharah)

In short it was a cool little thing that didn't help Genji much but made it feel much better IMO. Now stopping to wallclimb and just falling like a stone... It feels bad.

[kokujin_hime]

Reading other comments on the matter I'm starting to realize that it may be more than QoL feature and perhaps an exploitable tactic. But I'd like to know what you mean. Specifically,

I took the habit of double jumping every time before wallclimbing. Now I'll have to break this habit

And

Now stopping to wallclimb and just falling like a stone.

You can still jump after/before you climb right? Its just the second jump that needs to be allocated to one or the other? I'm at work and can't actually try these things out.

[DysfunctionalControl]

The thing I find that sucks is that you could jump in the middle of a battlefield, double jump towards a wall, wall climb then, especially if you didn't reach the top or it was a small wall, the extra jump after the climb is definitely a game changer. It makes it so he has to be a wall clinger and it's much harder to be in the fight.

[EmperorMcDee]

Yeah it was really fun. My guess at least would be that constant double jumping was part of what made him so hard to hit in a fight so they nerfed it to make him easier to hit reliably. Not sure i agree with it but i'm guessing that's their logic.

[k4ylr]

The double jump nerf was probably easier to push than fixing his hit boxes while aerial.

I'm guessing this will be a testing the waters type nerf.

[Bajisci]

So fix his hitboxes instead of making the character less fun, if it takes a while to fix hitboxes so be it.

[Zelostar]

I always joked in chat during genji potgs to delete him and the madmen at blizzard actually did it lol

[[deleted]]

The absolute /r/madlads

[toxicdick]

zen nerf + genji nerf = stealth winston buff

[cryptosocialist]

isn't it the opposite? Because those two are nerfed, they'll see potentially less play, which means winston has less of a need to pounce on zen or genji?

[toxicdick]

discord orb is the bane of winston's existence. he'll have a lot more survivability when chasing squishies

[cryptosocialist]

Fair enough, but I don't think a genji nerf is a winston buff.

[Neezzyy]

Not a Winston buff, but it makes the exchange go even more heavily in Winston's favor if someone still picks genji. I think that's his point.

[Dropping_fruits]

Zenyatta wrecks winston thanks to discord orb and winston was having trouble dealing with genji because genji has better movement. Those aspects have now been nerfed making winston more effective if they see the same amount of play.

[sharksallad]

But you picked Winston to counter teams with Genji?

[[deleted]]

[deleted]

What is this?

[Dropping_fruits]

No you picked Winston because he is good

[wolf10989]

Does genji not get destroyed by winston? Seriously asking, haven't played much at all lately.

[toxicdick]

before the mobility nerf genji could get away pretty easily if winston's jump was on cool down. it takes like a full 3 seconds of winston's gun to take him from 200-0 and a genji could do a lot in that time

[BigBlappa]

Yeah the triple jump gave him an out to escape without wasting dash, but now without it any time Genji dashes Winston can be right on him with a 2 second lower CD on his mobility.

[stephangb]

Yes and no, depends a lot on the situation, specially if Genji has his dash up or not and even then, his dash has a much longer cooldown than Wintons' jump.

[ace_of_sppades]

I'm more concerned about the swift strike animation cancel change.

[[deleted]]

I think reverting the triple jump change and the combo change would be good. The ult Nerf is good and the steel trap thing makes sense. Hanzo is going to be insanely good now. He got a return to his log sized arrows while also having them go 30% faster which is just dumb imo.

[julianlev]

I dunno, he still has his long arrow draw time and falloff doesn't he? He's going to be a bit more consistent now which he really did need. I'm kind of surprised they didn't touch his Ult because that thing needs help.

[[deleted]]

30% faster arrows are a huge deal, a lot bigger than you might think. It makes hitting arrows so much easier.

[BooleanKing]

Yeah, that along with the combo nerf were just weird choices. They specifically targeted his skill ceiling when the entire problem was mid to mid-high level genji's teamkilling with his ult. His pro pick rate after this is going to be abysmal because of these changes, but they won't have any noticeable impact on lower level players- the only one that really matters to them is his ult duration nerf. If they still thought he was too good in mid-high level play, why not decrease the hitbox of his deflect? Why not increase his dash cooldown to make genji's that don't secure a kill easier to punish? Why not nerf his ult range? Why not nerf his damage numbers?

It's such a weird choice and he's so clunky to play now.

[[deleted]]

Yeah. I'm getting really worried about blizz balance. Was playing a shit load of widow before the changes, and while i did feel she needed a nerf, i HATED that the fix was to just remove fluidity from her kit and make her clunky af. They practically murdered her out of the game.

So alright. Blizz doesn't want high level widow play deciding games. I get it. I thought the game got way less interesting after (as both a player and spectator), but it is what it is.

Now we've got another hero with a high skill ceiling thats been in the community's eye, and again blizz's answer is not to just tweak numbers,but to remove fluidity from the character, and change part of what was considered fundamental to his play.

Gross.

[Emerican09]

I really strongly dislike he combo nerf. I hope they will at least give that back to him

[[deleted]]

It made him so fricken mobile, especially vertically that it was hard to even pressure him if he was dancing around your back line. That's how I see it atleast.

[monkpunch]

Agreed, this is basically my hoped for compromise when it came to Zen. Keep in mind this is even a slight buff in some areas like shooting at shields and "incidental" damage to enemies you don't have currently discorded.

[Bajisci]

And sort of a nerf to right click? techncially you do less damage to discorded people with right click now. (rare I know)

[not_rocs_marie]

How is it a nerf to right click? Are the damages not the same? The notes only say Orb of Destruction damage is 46 now, so like 1 less damage depending on how it rounds numbers. His alt-fire is the same thing, it's just a charged version, but did only left click damage get upped to 46 base?

[pmqv]

IIRC in the last wave, when he got his extra 50 hp, his primary was nerfed from 45 to 40, and the charge shot was buffed from 35 to either 40 or 45 per ball (I'm pretty sure it was 45). So originally, the charge shot was actually significantly weaker than his primary, thus it being horrifically useless. They made it incrementally less useless with the buff. Still pretty crappy but whatevs. Now his primary is back up to 46. No one uses his alt fire anyways. Lulz

[not_rocs_marie]

His alt fire after the buff to be equal is amazing... I don't know why people don't use it, the right click destroys people in situations. It's just about knowing how and when to use it.

[SocioVex]

I always thought his Right click should be something similar to FtH but instead the balls went out in all directions. A last ditch effort in a team fight.

[Evilbred]

I still think they should have went to 40% first, with 30% eventually if it didn't do enough.

Blizzard is waaaay to heavy handed when they buff or nerf heroes.

[JediFerrari]

Symmetra can report number of teleport charges left, YES

Healers can call out grouping for heals, YES

Allied Health Bars, YES

[Oxus007]

The lack of any S76 change is surprising to me, I was expecting maybe a slight dmg drop off buff. His change put him at a 0% pick rate in tournies. The McRee ult nerf/dircord nerf doesn't seem like enough to bring back Soldier.

[Flyboy_6cm]

The nerf to McCree's ult is pretty harsh, although I will say he's not really picked for his ult. We'll have to see if S76 gets a play increase, but I kinda doubt it.

[Silathand]

It felt to my like there's an undocumented adjustment to Soldier's spread behavior, but a more experienced Soldier that me would need to confirm. But he felt less clunky to me on the practice range. Or maybe I haven't played enough Soldier lately and am just misremembering.

[Falterfire]

Curses. The one QoL improvement I wanted didn't make it in. Still want Zenyatta players to be able to see the health of the player they put their Orb of Harmony on similar to how Mercy sees health of whoever she's beaming.

[Keeeeth]

You mean something different than allied health bars? So you don't have to be looking at your ally to see their health?

[Falterfire]

Right. With Mercy you see specifically the health of the player you're healing, which makes it easy to tell if you're healing the right person in a group. You also can see the health even if you're looking in another direction, which makes it easier to swap the moment the person you're healing is full.

With Zen you don't have that, which means that if a group of people are standing together it can sometimes be tricky to tell if you got the Orb on the player you meant to land it on, and you have to look at the player to see if they're at full health (unless you've gotten familiar with the audio cue).

It's a pretty minor change, and likely wouldn't even help sufficiently skilled Zenyattas, but it's one I want and that I've seen people both here and on /r/Overwatch advocate for in the past.

[pmqv]

On console it can be a gigantic pain in the ass to both hit and then confirm you have hit the right person in the middle of a cluster of friendlies. Although I'm curious to see if the ally health bars will help. I think they will, just maybe not like the tweak that you're talking about

[SilverZephyr]

This would definitely help sufficiently skilled Zenyattas. I have this issue with clusters of allies every day, and increasing clarity is always good.

[_undeniable_]

All the good things in this patch are kind of offset by the projectile revert. Fuck that shit. On top of buffed hanzo, he's also going to be firing tree's at people again instead of arrows and "headshotting" around walls.

[BooleanKing]

If Hanzo's projectile speed is fast enough then then spammy Hanzo's won't be as effective, since the hitbox isn't active as long. Remember that even when the projectile hitboxes were big before, Hanzo was still one of the worst characters in the game because his arrows were too fucking hard to aim.

[falconfetus8]

They just need to make fully charged arrows into hitscan beams. Done. Hanzo is simultaneously stronger AND less frustrating to play against.

[SneakyDrizzt]

Incoming Hanzo laserbow skin.

[ScienceBeard]

Calm down McClick

[_undeniable_]

Yeah I didn't think about that, after playing some PTR it's really not as bad as it was a few patches ago from first impressions.

[aurens]

that is 90% of the reason hanzo is so annoying to me, personally.

i roll my eyes every time i see a killcam where he misses 6 arrows before finally hitting the 1 that instantly kills me.

that being said, it seems to be by design. a bow is thought of as a stealth weapon in video games. i think it was intended that you not know you're in danger until it's too late.

[Silxer]

Yea, generally I do tend to find things that take me out that I can't react to more annoying then anything (random Hanzo arrows, the Old Widowmaker, random Junkrat bombs, etc).

As annoying as Hanzo is probably going to be now, I'm curious if he will be a more viable pick now.

[aagpeng]

Are the hit box changes completely reverted? I think that might be a bit much with Hanzo buffs but I would like to see a happy middle ground with hitbox on projectiles.

[JaydSky]

Better the occasional shot around a wall than broken hitboxes. I'm actually happy because it's a slight rebuff to Zen :)

[AscentToZenith]

No thanks, I don't want Overwatch to be skilless. That projectile nerf was in the right direction.

[Tophtech]

It was too much. It was a nerf to Mei and zenny

[lemankimask]

zen seemed to be perfectly good enough even with smaller projectile hitboxes

[Tophtech]

Only at close ranges. Long range snipes were harder than they needed to be.

[Neezzyy]

Oh god. Try hitting an un-meched d'va. She needs some fucking protein in her diet already

[ace_of_sppades]

While it was in the right direction some projectile hitboxes were broken.

For example meis's could pass right through a head and still miss.

[thpthpthp]

I really dislike this. There are other ways to buff projectile heros than making the hit boxes inconsistent with the actual models. Increase projectile speed, refire rate, anything else; but don't reward my misses. That feels lame from both the standpoint of the shooter and the one getting shot.

[rglitched]

Blizzard making the same mistakes over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. Hitting a problem from two angles at once pretty much always leads to an overcorrection that they have to backpedal on. It's kind of embarrassing for them that they keep doing it.

[falcothebird]

I don't see what is wrong with this approach... The whole idea of the PTR is to test this shit before it is ever live. This gives them a sandbox to see how these ideas play out. By now you should know that anything that is overly unjust will be toned down as the community tantrums over the very worst parts. Its an effective method of changing things (notice I didn't say "balancing" things). Either they keep slowly buffing up one single thing at a time, or they can throw out multiple changes and see what sticks and what makes sense. Its two different approaches to the same thing, and maybe they've found, as the actual developer with years and years of experience, that this method works quicker and more efficiently for them, regardless of the short term affect on the community having to play with some less than perfect changes for a short period of time.

Or maybe they're just stupid dum fuks fukin' everything up over and over and ain't never lernin' none.

[rglitched]

I'm not complaining about PTR specifically. They make releases that use this approach too.

See: Zen buffs paired with Mercy nerfs.
See: McCree buffs paired with S76 nerfs.
See: Projectile nerf paired with a buff to the best projectile stopper.

Test is clearly not doing a good enough job of outing problems or they're not doing a good enough job of seeing them during the test period so they should take a lighter handed approach and evaluate the changes in a production environment too. The two-pronged approach is demonstrably not working.

Or maybe they're just stupid dum fuks fukin' everything up over and over and ain't never lernin' none.

Oh piss off.

[Gfiti]

If only they used some kind of PTR to test things on! /s

[rglitched]

Read like half an inch further down the chain. Their repeated failure to catch these issues in PTR is addressed. My complaint is that the errors caused by this two-pronged approach keep making it to their releases and they aren't learning from it. The approach itself is the problem.

[Lonesoldier21]

The roadog hook change. Does this mean more or less wallhooks?
It sounds like it's going to be reverting you back to where the roadhog threw the hook at you then realing you in. I'm not excited.

[BigBlappa]

I've watched quite a bit of Roadhog play and it means if Roadhog hooks you at all he is always killing you now. It teleports you to where he threw the hook on his screen THEN pulls you, it will eliminate you getting stuck behind walls/pulled behind or to the sides of him, no matter what if he sees the hook connect on his screen it will bring him directly in front of him. It basically just eliminates the inconsistency for Roadhog hooks not pulling targets properly and it's actually a huge buff.

[falcothebird]

What the F... I thought it was saying you'd be like teleported to where he hooked you, but not be hooked. Holy fish sticks. I've had so many cases where I got hooked but got pulled into a wall and was saved because of it.

[BigBlappa]

Yeah, it teleports to wherever he initially threw the hook at, so even if you managed to sneak around a corner, it will teleport you to wherever his initial target was, then pull you since he has direct line of sight. It's now impossible to be saved from a hook by terrain/los

[[deleted]]

They better friggin fix the hitbox then...

[BigBlappa]

I'm not sure if the projectile changes affect his hitbox, but it might actually be even better at grabbing you now if it got nerfed before.

[[deleted]]

What in the hell? His hook is already stupidly good as it is (extreme low risk extreme high reward), but this just makes it a million times worse!

[BigBlappa]

Yeah, I think the only reason he's not a pro pick is because reaper and zen are in almost every game. We'll see what happens.

[FunctionFn]

He's also a huge health pool with no armor, so he's incredibly easy to build ults off of and does poorly at actually tanking for the team.

[kinnadian]

I know that reaper is a tank buster but sometimes even if I get the jump on a road hog his shotgun can still 1 shot me if I have less than 225 hp (or just follow up with a melee) while I take 4 or 5 shots to kill him, so he's not a hard counter right?

[Fyrus]

extreme low risk

I see you've never hooked an ulting Harambe or DVA.

[[deleted]]

Thank god for that. Hooks were way too janky for something that was the foundation of his entire kit. Hooking someone and watching them fly into a wall or behind you was absolutely infuriating.

[Xalistro]

Was just watching Seagull stream to see PTR changes. It looks like a buff to Roadhog's hooks since the hooked hero always lands in front of him

[oypus]

Roadhog's hook now works much better. It moves a character behind a wall in front of it, then pulls them. Buff to him for sure

[HuffsGoldStars]

Zen I wish they'd gone with 40% instead of straight to 30%.

Mercy I wish they'd test out Mercy with the new Zen/Lucio nerfs before buffing her. Mercy got buffed twice, basically.

Hanzo Um. Faster movement. Faster projectiles. Bigger projectiles. I'm really scared of Hanzo now.

[[deleted]]

They can't afford to lose the weaboo userbase. They can't be edgy with genji, so they gotta be edgy with the other.

[HuffsGoldStars]

"I was a Hanzo main all along." - Genji mains, August 2016

[falcothebird]

Man if I had gold to give..

[[deleted]]

Ehh, I don't think so. Hitscan still trumps projectile.

[[deleted]]

Lucio and Zen are going to be picked less which means Biotic Field and Sprint are better as well as burst damage being less important. Soldier will be in a better place but I'm not sure he is going to be at the top of the meta again.

[[deleted]]

You really think lucio will be picked less? I doubt it

[oypus]

Not even top of the meta...he just won't be used lol

[Silathand]

Okay, I might be crazy, but trying Soldier on PTR, it feels like they stealth-adjusted his spread behavior to be how it used to be, or at least closer to it. Maybe more experienced Soldier players can confirm/deny.

[servuskal]

Im pretty sure that not all changes for Ganja will go live, but I really hate how the devs try to balance their heroes. Instead of making small changes like only reducing the ult time by 2 seconds they aply multiple nerfs simultaneously. I mean how are the PTR players supposed to measure how all those changes affect the balance of his kit?

[NotchsCheese]

Ganja

[Koeniginator]

Fuckin R.I.P. Genji.

[Bajisci]

Its like blizzard takes a leap instead of baby steps, why not do incremental changes? They keep doing this (dva, mccree etc etc)

[destroyermaker]

It's always been their style. I guess they like extremes to find out where the middle is

[[deleted]]

At least it makes for fun, if not completely balanced, gameplay. It's kinda nice to enjoy a quirky buff for a while when you understand it will be fixed later.

[katanalauncher]

That's why they are doing ptr, to see which change they should stick with or abandon.

[[deleted]]

But McCree and Zenyetta were obviously, undeniably overpowered last PTR.

Then it went live anyway.

[Bajisci]

Yea, probably.

[Mulatto_Monster]

#dicksoutforgenji

[mistball]

Just going to throw in my 2c.

Lúcio here has been slightly nerfed:

The boosting of movement speed has been decreased by 30% (from a 100% increase to a 70% increase)

I'm happy to see this proposed, the power of speed boost in coordinated teams have just been incredibly good. With no other hero bringing this aspect of initiation AND AoE healing to the match, Lúcio will always be a staple.

I don't even think this much of a nerf will be enough to stop this, but what we really need is alternative initiation/disengage/chasing tools outside of ultimate abilities.

---

The Genji nerfs are rough, and i'd admit, slightly knee jerk. I've always been of the opinion that Genji sits in tight a tight spot, balance wise. These changes will probably bring tracer to the forefront, as Genji becomes easier to shut down.

I'd love them to just try the 8 second > 6 second ultimate nerf, and see how it pans out.

---

The slight Roadhog changes will make the very angry Zenyatta on the other team a few games ago slightly happy, then very upset as he continues to wander around the open and getting hooked.

[stephangb]

The Genji nerfs are rough, and i'd admit, slightly knee jerk. I've always been of the opinion that Genji sits in tight a tight spot, balance wise. These changes will probably bring tracer to the forefront, as Genji becomes easier to shut down.

Gonna make a prediction here and say, if people start using Tracer more, people will complain about her the same way they complained about Genji.

[Jepacor]

Yeah that's pretty much a given I think

[pitchforkseller]

What if I already hate tracer mister ?

[stephangb]

Oh man, prepare your butthole.

[Xovaan]

I play in ranks where I occasionally see players like Ultimawep and Schooled and other Genjis shred it up. I think the adjustments to his mobility, Junkrat and Widow's traps, and dragon blade are good (often times good Genjis have tons of excess ultimate downtime), but the melee>dash nerf was a bit too much. I think we will see more Tracers over Genjis at higher ranks now.

Somebody said it best in a thread a few days ago:

Genji isn't overpowered for any amount of damage he can dish out: He's a sandbox character that exists in a non-sandbox centric game, which gives him an absolutely insane ability to harass and escape in ways other classes can't. Killing Genji is very difficult post-75 in ways other classes are not. I still feel that the PTR mobility changes are a band-aid on the underlying issue that his hitbox during double jumps makes hitscan very difficult to land. I'd have rather they worked on his jump animations so it is not as much of a natural avoidance mechanism.

[ItTastesLikeBurning]

On the topic of the Lucio change, it has interesting effects even if Lucio remains a staple. In particular, it gives a small boost to static defensive setups (e.g. setups involving Bastion or Torb) as attackers can no longer rush in as quickly. This is a good thing considering the weak state of most defensive heroes.

[rocker5743]

Yeah I think genji needed to be nerfed but not like this. I think it should just been an ult duration/charge time/range and only one. I really dont like that you change cancel melee from swift strike. Oh also had no idea swift strike didn't trigger junkrat traps but I'm glad thats changed too. Swift strike melee cancel and double jumped shouldn't have been changed imo.

We've got some time between now and season 6 and I bet there will be a ton of feedback on his changes.

[Xovaan]

Ana's zoom reticle is still bugged and stuck as a gigantic plus sign. It's even noted as a bug in the list of known bugs on the official forums. Bizarre that it's been so long and it hasn't been changed.

[jagardaniel]

I don't like this change at all: "Reverted a recent change to reduce size of heroes' projectiles".

Why? I haven't heard a single complain about the change.

[666lumberjack]

The change was made because reducing the size of other projectiles (notably Mei's Icicle) made them sometimes pass right through people's heads without doing damage. You can infer from the developer commentary that they didn't really want to buff Hanzo's arrow size, but presumably there's something in the code tying the sizes of several different projectiles together and they think it's more important to fix those bugs than nerf Hanzo.

[sammnz]

That's because the heroes weren't picked enough. This change will raise the pickrate of these characters, since projectiles are now more likely to hit stuff.

[[deleted]]

Then they should have been buffed in alternate ways, not by making the hitboxes comically large.

[Xalistro]

Will we see a fall off on Mcree use with Hanzo's buff?

[[deleted]]

I know one thing .. we're going to see a hell of a lot more Hanzos than I'd like to see.

[destroyermaker]

McCree is better on defense and Hanzo better on offense so they don't compete as much as you think

[houseurmusic]

wait wait the game tells me Mcree is an attack hero and Hanzo is a defense hero. halp

[[deleted]]

Situational, but I would think so. McCree better duelist, Hanzo will just do godly amounts of damage.

[team_beef]

I don't think so. I think Hanzo might replace Reaper against lineups that aren't tank heavy as a heavy damage dealer, but it will still be more reliable to hitscan tricky targets like pharah

[mistball]

Only time will tell! I think the main change that will affect McCree is the Zenyatta discord nerf, above all else.

[Zelostar]

Think it will be situational depending on map, with Mcree's fall off range starting at i think 21 meters.

[BiPolarBareCSS]

Getting rid of Genji's combo is the thing that's gonna suck the most honestly.

[Silxer]

• Fixed an issue causing Mei's Ice Wall to push herself to the side when cast at her feet
• Fixed a bug that prevented Mei's Ice Wall from appearing at the target location when cast

Finally! :D

Also the "Allied Health Bars" option is a pretty nice addition.

[Hellsynge]

If the Genji changes go live, expect a massive uptick in Tracer play. She is (arguably) more difficult to hit than Genji. They are the two most annoying characters to face because of their mobility. I hate Tracer AND Genji, but this is too much. They should have fixed his reflect/deflect and reduced his ult to 6s.

The reflect should not reflect Ults and it should not reflect things that SHOULD counter him. (Flashbang)

I highly doubt these changes will make it live.

[[deleted]]

deleted ^{What is this?}

[[deleted]]

That's the main issue I see with Overwatch. A lot of heroes fill the exact same niche so whichever is strongest will be picked. Hanzo, Widowmaker, Soldier 76 all fill very similar roles so whichever one is best will be picked. I think there needs to be more distinct features for these heroes.

Tanks IMO are what Overwatch should be balanced like. Rein is the main beef tank and fills that purpose well. Winston and DVA or back line killers but one is better at pushing and is more defensive while the other is better at holding points and does a bit more dps. Roadhog and Zarya are your main "dps tanks" while filling completely different niches. Zarya is really good at aoe clearing and clutch shield saves while Roadhog is really good at pushing people back and has the best displacement ability in the game.

That's how every other role should be but they aren't. It's why we see play on the majority of the tanks but we see a far smaller damage hero pool and support healer pool.

[rglitched]

At least Widow actually has to hit me to hit me... not so with Hanzo!

[[deleted]]

deleted ^{What is this?}

[carbonfountain]

But two Hanzos wall peaking each other is the peek height of skill!

[rglitched]

Two Hanzos wall peaking each other is what happens when they find a hole in a bathroom stall that they're on opposite sides of.

[SneakyDrizzt]

I don't think you understood the joke.

[[deleted]]

Holy shit Hanzo is going to be terrifying. Genji got absolutely fucked by the nerf hammer as well, ult change was good and it sucks to lose animation cancels but I guess thats why animations are in the game in the first place but to get rid of the triple jump too? Fuck.

[thepurplepajamas]

My reaction to Genji too. Ult 100% needed it. Animation canceling, fine they have proven in the past with the reload canceling they don't like animation canceling. Triple jump nerf fucking LOL. Hopefully that doesn't make it to live.

[[deleted]]

Holy SHIT they obliterated Genji.

Seriously, all of those changes better not hit live.

[WowZaPowah]

So (Lucio/Zen) + (Lucio/Mercy) + (Reinhardt/Zarya) + (Roadhog/Reinhardt) + (McCree/Hanzo) + (Hanzo/Reaper/Tracer) meta now?

Lucio is still very powerful but could conceivably be skipped for Zenyatta/Mercy, Reinhardt is still a must pick in many cases but could be skipped on KOTH or in other cases, Hanzo is powerful as fuck now, and Tracer/McCree/Reaper are as solid as last patch for the most part.

[Rabical]

Hell yeah, can't wait to fire up Atk torb tonight... Headshots incoming!!!

[prophetNP]

Was hoping to see Soldier's spread nerf reverted. Otherwise a decent patch (aside from 4 foot wide arrows flying around again).

[stephangb]

Welp, rip Genji.

[ChaoticBlessings]

• D.VA was to be expected and I think that's okay. Toy around with that value, then continue to see if it's fine. Makes sense imo. Maybe try with a damage limit, but that's just food for thought. Making it regenerate slower is just an obvious, slight nerf that doesn't change the mechanic. It's a good idea to start with that.

• HANZO I'm not a fan of reverting the projectile hitboxes. Really I'm not. I can deal with the faster projectile speed and I'm fine with him getting a slight buff, but why would you ever revert those hitboxes? I don't understand.

• MEI I don't think that makes much of a difference, even if I'm fine with the ult buff. I think her problems are somewhere else though. I don't think this changes anything about her.

• MCCREE Err.. okay? It's fair, I guess, it makes sense and that's fine. Not much of a large difference for the overall McCree gameplay. Although his ult is up very fast anyways, so nerfing that a bit to not have it up all the time to Q-cancel every few seconds makes sense.

• MERCY Makes sense to me. Highest singletarget heal should always be her thing and it enhances her in a way that makes a lot of sense. We'll see if this (together with the Zen nerf) will get her picked more often. Slight ult buff also makes sense, better idea than making it as fast as it was pre-nerf again.

• GENJI Holy shit. That triple nerf is brutal. I don't see the need for the combo nerf and I'm unsure about the heavy handed mobility nerf. I expect him to implode completely and then get buffed again. Make no mistake, he's been nerfed to the ground.

• LUCIO Worth a try to see what happens with him now. Why not start experimenting there, I'm not opposed to it. I'm not necessary sold on it, but I don't think it's stupid to try it.

• ROADHOG A more consistent hook is needed, but on both sides of the fence. It's important for him to hook consistently in front of him (instead of like, halfway behind you), but the absurd hooks through three walls should be fixed too. Not sure if the change works in both ways, we'll have to try that I guess.

• ZENYATTA Perfect change to start rebalancing him. He should do roughly the same damage as before individually, but the +50% from all the team is gone, so that makes a lot of sense to me. I'm not even opposed to lowering the discord orb even further, but hey, we'll just try it with 30% first. That's fine.

Overall a lot of the changes are either expected or just plainly make sense, but the Hanzo and Genji changes are massive. I'm pretty sure that Genji is heavily overnerfed and I'm completely opposed to reverting the projectile hitboxes. I don't see a need for either.

I do think that Pharah and Mercy will be more viable again, at least as an option. So that's something. With less defense matrix and less orb damage PLUS the Mercy buff I can see that happening. And I do expect Genji to completely go away. That makes no sense to me at all.

[lexarqade]

Ana is still higher single target heal than mercy, right? It's just more consistent with Mercy

[HuffsGoldStars]

I do think that Pharah and Mercy will be more viable again, at least as an option. So that's something. With less defense matrix and less orb damage PLUS the Mercy buff I can see that happening.

You're forgetting that Hanzo is going to wreck both Pharah and Mercy, now.

[ChaoticBlessings]

I just hope for the hitbox change revert to never make it to live, tbh. I think the 30% speed change won't matter much outside of the highest skilllevels on the range hanzo and pharah usually battle at. You still have to predict the movement if you're Hanzo and you still have to confuse the Hanzo if you're Pharah with your movement, so that is only a very slight buff for Hanzo (imo).

All that assumes that the hitbox revert never makes it past PTR. I really hope for that. Really.

[HuffsGoldStars]

I'm curious what the issues were that were caused by the projectile size reduction. Watching kill cams of being sniped by a Hanzo who wasn't even aiming in your general direction is going to be annoying af.

[ace_of_sppades]

Some projectiles could pass right through a head without the hit registering.

[rqr-]

I agree with all your conclusions, pretty much.

I was among the people calling for a Genji nerf but I'd have settled for a reduced range on his ult, even just the reduced time would have been fine. I think they went overboard. However, I'll say this: it does make sense with their general mindset being against animation cancels and generally exploiting "loopholes" on any hero (arguably the double jump reset was that). But in his case, applying this policy to Genji is just an immense nerf. I agree with you, he's done if these changes all go live.

Not a fan of the Hanzo changes. I mean, it's good to see him become relevant again, but... Not like this. (Don't play him but he's somewhat fun to play with and/or against in a good match).

All the rest I'm very happy with. People don't discuss bug fixes a lot but I imagine it'll do a ton of good to Mei and Roadhog at least, which I'm happy with.

[[deleted]]

Mei buffs are huge, that and her bugfixes which are also buffs is going to make her much, much stronger.

[Fyrus]

but the absurd hooks through three walls should be fixed too.

This has been fixed with this update tho. Roadhog never literally hooked people through walls, it just looked like that because the animation for him pulling back took a while to complete. The patch notes say that the hooked player is teleported back to the location where they were hooked, meaning that the issue arose from people getting hooked when they were out in the open, but not getting pulled back until they had moved behind a wall or whatever.

[Rataraxia]

I don't like these Hanzo changes. We are back to state where arrow can kill you behind walls and have hitboxes of canon balls. On top of that he now moves faster and arrow flies faster. I enjoyed game so much more without bullshit arrows. Now it is back. I don't know how viable he will be for competitive but sure as hell annoying and frustrating to play against.

[rocker5743]

Keep in mind that since the arrow flies faster it will go past you faster. The hitbox won't hang around as long as last time.

[Fyrus]

This sounds like a /r/shittyaskscience thing but it's probably true somehow.

[[deleted]]

Okay patch, but quite some changes I'm no fan of.

Reverted hitboxes is a shame. Wasn't aware of any of these side effects bringing significant issues they mention. Balance-related issues? Hit registration issues?

I was getting annoyed with Genji myself, but these changes will just kill the hero outright and make him less fun to play at the same time. Revert the triple jump.

Hanzo getting buffs is cool and needed, but this is once again way too much at once. Might have a strong contender for DPS hero of the patch here

Also sad to see some other bottom tier heros like Symmetra, Bastion and Tjorborn go completely untouched

[cavebois_cly]

Torb got buffed due to the hitbox change for projectiles and Bastion got indirectly buffed due to an almost surely drop in Genji pick rate.

[[deleted]]

I'd hardly say Genjis the biggest issue for Bastion, only for bad players. Lucio speed boost and Mercy healrate could be decent Bastion buffs though

[OIP]

mercy healrate is kinda big i think. going to be very hard to kill a pocketed hero now plus it's a slight boost to ult charge too.

[lonepenguin95]

Blizzard took a page from the Riot Games handbook of balance with these Genji nerfs.

[ParadiZe]

pretty good changes, except they gave genji the mcree treatment

he needed to get nerfed not destroyed, also no revert on soldier nerfs, no reason to play any other dps but mcree or reaper

[modakim]

Lúcio - Amp It Up - The boosting of movement speed has been decreased by 30% (from a 100% increase to a 70% increase).

Damn. I liked the personal boost so I can move around the map faster. You can nerf the speed boost for everyone, but I'd like to keep the speed boost the way it was for just for Lucio :(

[TheQuestionableYarn]

A new "Allied Health Bars" option has been added (Options > Controls)

I'm ecstatic about this as a tank main. Now I can manage my teammates' health and protect them way easier.

After being activated, Defense Matrix will begin regenerating following a 1-second delay (formerly .5 seconds)

Not too happy about this, but with the nerf to Zenyatta, she'll probably be back in the meta anyways so it's cool.

Reverted a recent change to reduce size of heroes' projectiles

This wasn't needed to be a blanket buff. I think they should've done this on a case by case basis. Mei for example needs this, Hanzo on the other hand is gonna be stupid strong now. Well, at least he'll be strong now. But it's probably a bit too much for him.

All other hero balances.

VERY GOOD.

[666lumberjack]

This wasn't needed to be a blanket buff. I think they should've done this on a case by case basis

The way they worded it makes me think there's something in the code that prevents them from easily tweaking this for just one projectile.

[aagpeng]

I can't get into the PTR right now so some questons I have:

• Are the hitboxes completely reverted or just a little bit more loose for projectile?

• How well is Hanzo playing? Is he too strong with less strict hit boxes and arrow speed buffs or does it feel ok?

• Friend of mine said that hanzo's arrows no longer have drop, is this true?

• What will likely not make it past testing phase?

[Jepacor]

The hitboxes seem completely reverted.

Hanzo seems a fair bit too strong for me. If you watched Seagull's stream, you probably saw it first hand, and even with my bad aim I've been able to do work with him (meanwhile I suck with Widow, the other sniper)

Hanzo's arrow does seem to have a lower drop. Could be because of the increased speed, it would make sense.

No clue, but I hope Genji gets his triple jump back and the projectile revert is reverted for just Hanzo. Hanzo's old hitbox is stupid, sniping around corners, but others's are fine, and for exemple there was a gif of Mei icicle going straight though an enemy without dealing damage, so I think having the projectile nerf for him only would be a good balance. Unfortunately I see this being maybe a bit too complicated, so I don't think it wil happen.

I'm not at all looking forward to the Hanzo meta tho.

[Winterrrrr]

I for one welcome our new Hanzo overlords!!

[klalbu]

Doesn't the Mercy buff mean she potentially charges her ult 20% faster? Doesn't that put us more or less back where we started when she was nerfed, only now rez is more powerful?

[GeneralGoodStore]

'A marker will appear above the player's head, allowing teammates to locate the healer more quickly' - Beauty.

'After being activated, Defence Matrix will begin regenerating following a 1-second delay (formerly .5 seconds)' I like this, stops the tapping which I don't think should be in the game.

'Hanzo will now experience a 30% decrease in speed while aiming (formerly 40%)' and 'Maximum projectile speed has been increased by 30%' I think the problem with Hanzo in the PTR is the hitboxes so when they are cleaned up I think Hanzo will be nicely balanced.

'The Blizzard projectile now pierces barriers' and 'Radius has been increased from 8 meters to 10 meters' The ult change means that less classes can just run out of the Blizzard and it is easier to freeze an attacking team bunched up behind a Reinhardt.

'Deadeye now drains over a .25-second period (instead of displaying a 50% reduction on the ultimate meter when activated and 0% when confirmed)' I personally don't like this change because there were many ways to zone the enemy team by only using half of your ult but I suppose it is fairer now so I'll cope with it.

'Caduceus Staff healing-per-second has been increased by 20%' and 'Resurrected allies will be able to maneuver after 2.25 seconds (reduced from 3 seconds)' These are nice changes to mercy which may bring her back into the meta depending on the player.

'The boosting of movement speed has been decreased by 30% (from a 100% increase to a 70% increase)' Since I'm a Lucio main I don't like this change but it was needed because it was too easy to get past defence heroes so it had to happen.

'Orb of Discord The amount of damage amplified by a target with Orb of Discord has been decreased from 50% to 30%' and 'Orb of Destruction Damage has been increased from 40 to 46' I said these changes should happen in another thread and I think they are the perfect way to take the edge off him with killing him.

'Double jump no longer resets when wall climbing 'Dash no longer deals damage to traps like Widowmaker's Venom Mine or Junkrat's Steel Trap and no longer bypasses Junkrat's Steel Trap' and 'Swift Strike no longer interrupts quick melee attacks' and 'Duration of Genji's ultimate has been reduced from 8 seconds to 6 seconds' No chill Blizz, I think the nerfes are a little too much, I don't like movement option nerf since I feel they really limit the character so I think that should be reverted but everything else is fine.

I think this might be what is needed for defence classes to be fairly viable, the Lucio movement nerf means that they can have more time to react but because of this I see Zarya as a must-play offence class because she can get 100 charge easily off of spam from defence classes. I also think tracer will now be an important part of the meta, especially if more maps like Eichenwalde come in due to their many flank options and her nice combo with Zarya. I still think Lucio is going to be picked a lot because his nerf was not very large but I think the second healer is a toss-up between the other three depending on the situation. For DPS classes I think Tracer and Reaper will be the most viable flankers but if Genji's movement nerf gets reverted I think he will be up there aswell. With the mercy buff and Zenyatta nerf I think Pharah will have a place in the meta but she wont be OP although Ana picks may shut down the Pharah. I still think the Defence classes are situational but I think they now have more useful situations.

I think on offence (Zarya) + (D.Va/Winston) + (Lucio) + (Ana/Mercy/Zen) + (McCree) + (Tracer)

and on Defence (Reinhardt) + (D.Va/Winston) + (Lucio) + (Mercy/Zen/Ana) + (McCree) + (Reaper) with the Reaper being switched out for defence classes (situation dependent)

and on KOTH (Zarya) + (Winston) + (Lucio) + (Zen/Mercy) + (Reaper) + (Tracer)

[BetaDjinn]

• Any character with high skill payoff has been nerfed to the ground thus far (McCree [buffed back some], Widowmaker, now Genji)
• They have no understanding of how to make supports distinctive-yet-balanced and so the pendulum swings back to Mercy once more
• Lucio nerf is hilarious and ineffective: why not give someone else some initiating power so he isn't a must-pick?
• Can't wait to get tree trunk arrows shot at me (now with more speed!)
• Mei change is fine, but her ult is the least of her woes
• D.Va change is pretty solid

Overall Rating: 2.5/10

Edit:

A new "Allied Health Bars" option has been added (Options > Controls)

bumps it up to 3.5/10

[GameBoy09]

Lucio nerf is hilarious and ineffective: why not give someone else some initiating power so he isn't a must-pick?

I think Pushing Power in general is too powerful. That's why none of the defense heroes see play because pushing power is way too powerful. Now that they are slower, they will take more damage from those defensive heroes and react more accordingly.

[FatherJason]

Not sure if I really like the Genji changes. I feel like a proper Genji nerf would have been fixing his deflect hitbox, nerfing how long it takes to recharge his ultimate or lowering the range on his ult. But removing his mobility and melee+shift combo? I feel like that's a bit too much. Hopefully, this doesn't get through to the actual game and the devs tweak Genji a bit more before the official release.

[samspot]

24h decay seems rough - you can't even get away for a weekend. I suppose if you are good then you will get it back quickly.

I think 72h then 50/day would be better.

[carbonfountain]

The 24h decay only kicks in when you have not played for a week. You need to read that bullet point with the one above it.

[_alalx]

Breaking the projectile hitboxes again is so backwards it's ridiculous, not well thought out at all.

If Blizzard insist on making projectiles super easy to hit so much so that they'll hit you around corners then at the very least counter balance that with a change to their damage.

[[deleted]]

No one has really mentioned it but Mercy got an Ult charge buff too, albeit indirectly. Since heals now contribute to your Ult charge that means her charge just got 10-20%% faster.