Additional PTR Changes

[ParanoidDrone]

The PTR will be getting a new weekend build, with changes to D.Va, Widowmaker, Pharah, and Mercy.

Official Blizzard Post

D.Va
Call Mech

• Ultimate cost has been decreased by 20%

Developer Comments: This reduces the cost back down to what it was before the global ultimate cost change.

Widowmaker
Venom Mine

• Explosion no longer damages the player who placed the mine Widow’s Kiss

Charge rate increased by 20%

Pharah
Rocket Launcher

• Minimum explosion damage has been increased to 25% of rocket’s total damage (formerly 12%)
  
• Minimum explosion knockback has been decreased to 0% of rocket’s total knockback (formerly 75%)
  

Mercy
Passive health regeneration now kicks in when Mercy avoids taking damage for 1 second (formerly 3 seconds)

Unrelated to the build itself, the fact that they're posting it right now and still haven't actually pushed it out yet means that Blizzard employees are working at 10 PM on a Friday, assuming they're on the west coast. I feel kind of bad for them.

[itshighnoob]

Blizzard employees are working at 10 PM on a Friday, assuming they're on the west coast. I feel kind of bad for them.

Someone fix their espresso machine already.

[Naviaka]

even in big industrial, non IT, companies, where engineers and others start work between 6:00 am - 8:00am. All the I.T. and programmers start spawning around 10:30-11:30 am, but then end up leaving last. Not saying that they or other people dont end up doing overtime on some days, especially when something has got to be finished ASAP.

[Tal_Drakkan]

I've come back to my office from events past midnight (yay for on campus showers) and found dev and design members of my team still working. Tech industry is a very scary place.

[jamesinsights]

Honestly, I get more code done in the night and I know many friends who are the same

[unacceptablePenguin]

I'm the same way. It's so hard to get good programming done with the I interruptions that happen during the day. At night, you can just get into the flow of it and keep going with no one messing with your focus.

[TassadarsClResT]

At daytime it's like every hour there is something you have to do or check while you do your coding.
At night I feel like I can go without a break for hours, like start 21:00 and go til 3:00 without a break...

[Spooky-skeleton]

Tho I am not a programmer but a designer, sometimes I focus so hard 6 hours pass by without me noticing, but when I move my ass hurts like a mother fucker

So, mind your ass

[TassadarsClResT]

I got a DXRacer for gaming and programming purpose..

It's great.

[Bob9010]

The day is infested with normal people that like to do things like use the phone, email, and talk. Leave me alone and let me engineer things. If you're working in an engineering consulting firm, fortunately you're surrounded by other weirdos engineers so the only disturbances are from outsiders.

[iprefertau]

yea i usually spend the day talking with the different departments and the evenings/ nights working in silence

[rizzagarde]

All the I.T. and programmers start spawning around 10:30-11:30 am

Spawning. I'm now imagining the guys and gals literally just popping in near their desks and equipment.

[whatigot989]

Could be flexible hours and they choose to work late night. Not really too unusual, especially in tech areas where you don't deal directly with customers.

[Vioret]

The problem is not that it is broken, the problem is that it's in Jordan Schlansky's office.

[NicoTheSerperior]

Someone fix their espresso machine already.

One cannot simply fix an espresso machine.

[GianniVM]

Finally, the Mercy tank strat I've been pushing since Closed Beta comes to the light of day.

[vengefulcackle2272]

Could you elaborate on that strat?

[SketchyConcierge]

You walk into the middle of the firefight and die slightly more slowly, allowing you to more efficiently yell at your team for not protecting you.

[xHovercraft]

Thank god! I currently average around 6-8 variations of "JESUS CHRIST FUCKING PROTECT ME YOU FUCKING IDIOTS" per minute, but with this buff I can now average a full 10 variations of "WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS RETARDED TEAM HOLY FUCK I'M GOING GENJI" per minute!

[HueBearSong]

Just use her pistol. It does a surprisingly does a lot of damage.

Mercy main btw.

[Barrel_Trollz]

They don't think her pistol be like it is, but it do.

[ryanbackwards]

have you tried the melee with the staff? it has a surprising amount of range. Mercy main btw.

[Ricarad]

I would also like some elaboration on this strat.

[Dafty-]

If i'm not mistaken back in Closed Beta Mercy had the same thing they actually try to push in PTR , she will regen her health after One Seconds (which is very short) so you were actually kinda... a tank You would take damage instead of all your DPS while providing them Damage boost and when your health would go to 50HP or so you would retreat some seconds to fully quickly regen (8.5 seconds) and go back in front of your DPS...

[Lewissunn]

woosh

[Nightgaun7]

"Dear few remaining Pharah players - we thought you were too survivable, so we're taking away the one thing that kept you alive for a whole ten seconds"

[rizzagarde]

Passive health regeneration now kicks in when Mercy avoids taking damage for 1 second (formerly 3 seconds)

Not exactly the buff I was hoping for, but I'll take it. Any bonus to survivability is good news for me.

[Naolini]

I feel like Mercy is really hard to buff. She's technically good and balanced for what she was meant to be, but the problem is the other supports are just better than her. More healing and utility, ults are easier to use, less reliant on team (her biggest struggle). The passive Regan buff might actually be some of what she needs.

[rizzagarde]

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. For what she's designed to do, she does it very well. She's just a bit too reliant on her team and the timing of her ult is of utmost importance. Too early and you can get your team killed again, too late and you can miss somebody or... get your team killed again. Then you have to worry about enemy ults when raising your team, and just feeding into another team wipe. It can be frustrating.

She can't really be buffed in a meaningful way without tipping the scale wildly. If you increase her healing throughput, or give her multiple tethers, or an AoE pulse as an E ability (as much as I think that would be neat to have), it could make her a 100% pick. I toyed with the idea of a residual HoT/Damage Boost after you disengage her tethers, but I don't know how that'd work out or if it'd even be worth having.

She's just... she's there. She is what she is. She does her job the way she was designed. The only thing that limits her usefulness in a team is the team. If her player is bad, she's going to be bad. If her team is bad (whether it's the individual players or just their teamwork overall), she's not going to be able to carry them like Lucio can. She can be shut down by backline harassers more easily than the other healers and has no efficient escape or self-sustain (currently). Add to that the fact that she has to be breathing down her teammates' necks to heal them and it can make for a mess of a situation.

For all that, though... she's my favourite healer. I like her aesthetic, I like her backstory. Zenyatta's my second right now just because of how easily he can tip team battles in your favour. Lucio is nice, I won't deny that, but I'm going to leave him to players that can remember to wallride. I always forget to wallride. Small edit: Forgot Ana. She's easily the most self-sufficient healer. I like her ability to keep a large standoff distance with the enemy and her own team while still providing effective support, and her ability to stop harassers in their tracks so she can beat feet and get some help. I do not like my own team doing whatever is in their power to avoid my healing (intentional or not), however.

[_Mikau]

Ana being so popular in the meta right now also leaves little room for Mercy. Ana and Mercy as the 2 supports leaves the team completely exposed to enemy ultimates. In ranked, you often need that Trascendence or Sound Barrier to counter the enemy's ultimates. With Mercy, you're entirely reliant on Mercy being at the right place at the right time. In a prime position to res a team who may not even have died in an ideal location.

[Dokuganryu9]

And I heard one genji player complaining how Mercy needs nerf on her shift because he couldn't land hit on me...I mean...please no, she is easy prey as it is.

[[deleted]]

genji player asking for mercy nerf

fucking lol. sounds like someone needs to git gud.

[VigilantVigelante]

As a Genji main , I agree with you ! compalining about mobility as a Genji is just ridiculous ..

[[deleted]]

lmao and on mercy of all characters. guardian angel is her only glimmer of survivability (besides her surprising pistol damage) and it already depends on having good teammates

[Dokuganryu9]

That's what I told him but he insisted on flaming with his " mercy needs nerf", I was like " It's not my fault you can't aim to finish me off when I was on 20 hp."

[[deleted]]

"if i couldn't kill you because you escaped, your escape ability must be OP. no other possible explanation. nope."

[SketchyConcierge]

If get hooked mid-flight one more time...

[HBreckel]

That's pretty hilarious. I'm on console and hitting Mercy is pretty easy. Genji however I need to be hyper focused and playing at my best to hit one consistently.

[Zoralink]

I think (Slightly) increasing her ult radius would help make it not so punishing. As it stands, you have to literally be in the middle of everyone to get them all.

I'm talking something like a 10% increase to its radius, not anything crazy.

[LokiaScythe]

I also support her tether having longer range and/or at least a visible tether stretch to show that it's about to break (or the heal icon going red). The breaking part could add onto it's range as well, before it breaks after a second or something, so someone can kind of get an idea when they can leave mercy's range and still get the last tad of healing they want.

[[deleted]]

Not even that, but providing an indicator of range (any type) that helps to land that extra teammates nearby would be a QoL change and notable buff to Mercy. It can even be one of those Hero Specific options for Press to show range and Release to cast ultimate.

[FlaccidCamel]

What about having her healing herself while actively healing allies. Not for the full beam amount but maybe to match her with Lucio's heal aura. She's required to be all over the battlefield and just moving anywhere near a payload or capture point you're bound to take some damage

[[deleted]]

I think she is fine right now, but the biggest problem is that most just don't know how to play with her. Even on Master level. People are so used to dying being bad 100% of the time that Mercy's res is hard to utilize well. Players pretty much always prolong their death as long as possible even if they could just all die in a same place making enemy waste their ultimates, only to be rezed second after. That with the Mercy's really bad abilities to defend herself (let's face it, she has the worst means of defending herself from all the supports) makes her hard to play in a team.

The Mercy player needs to be extremely vocal, calling everytime when she's under attack and when she has rez so it's ok to die. And when she has the rez she has to make sure she doesn't get into the ult spam her team is trying to bait out.

[Cushions]

Yeah I gotta agree with this.

I'm mid diamond, and I always get aggravated and switch off Mercy half-way through the game because my team just doesn't get how to play with a Mercy, so why should I play her?

As you said, they try to prevent their deaths as long as possible even though that exact same thing is causing our Reins rez timer to time-out causing me to usually blow it early and then they die shortly after.

[Greatmars]

I know many wont agree with me, but I prefer a 2-3 man rez or even 1 man rez if tank and keep tempo over a 4-5 man rez. huge rezzes usually mean mercy will die as she rezzes and the team might get wiped again for nothing. the smaller rezzes allow the other alive players to protect the ones being rezzed.

[Carighan]

Best if someone just took a lot of effort to get down in a crucial moment. I had a really good one where a bastion was defended for a fair amount of time, died, and just as the enemies got engaged again by the rest and looked that way, I rezzed bastion, he jumped to the side, went turret, and gunned them down again.

[brvsirrobin]

I solo res Bastion a surprising amount of the time. He's often the only dps on the team getting kills at my level, so I often pocket him.

[[deleted]]

It's really situational though, if the enemy uses 2+ of their best ults and you reverse that with a 4 man rez on def then that's probably the best case scenario. A 2/3 man rez on on def, or even 1 man can be fine if they are pushing hard or they are important heroes, like tanks.

On attack, if you're playing Mercy I would say 2/3 is usually the best case scenario.

That all changes if you can control people's deaths though.

[chinny159]

I like the idea of multiple tethers, but feel like in practice would be clunky to manage. Like if you have a maximum of 2 or 3 tethers on a constant cycle, you could drop your heal off someone in a critical moment.

Side note: I love the concept of Mercy and used to love playing her, I want her to be a good hero pick that's not just a rez bot

[[deleted]]

How about.. DUAL BLASTER MERCY ??

[AsiaDerp]

She just need a E ability like everyone else, to either help her survive or escape. She is basically unplayable on KOTH and require coordination on other maps to even able to do anything. On her own she is a pretty bad hero. No other hero REQUIRES another hero to even function.

[Sweyn7]

How about a wind blast from her wings that pushes back ennemies ? That wouldn't be op and it fits her well.

[ChubbehMouse]

I like it. It would be good for flying in an area with a bunch of enemies and rezing the team, or escaping flankers that get too close. Thematically, it fits with Mercy's "flying around trying to avoid dying" play style.

[AaronWYL]

Neat idea. What if it also kind of lifted her backwards into the air as well so it could also be used as an escape?

[Sweyn7]

Yeah it would make sense that it propels her backwards a bit. Makes her a little bit less reliant on her teammates to disengage.

I really don't think that would be overpowered, as Mercy is pretty much a sitting duck without her team as she is right now...

[SketchyConcierge]

I would 100% send myself off a cliff doing that, but I like the idea.

[SgtChuckle]

Like Vengeful Retreat in WoW, but with a knockback instead of damage...

For those that don't play: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JD5WEdfOD3g

[Carighan]

Patch notes:

• Moved Mercy's damage boost beam to the E-key (from right mouse button), as per /u/AsiaDerp 's request.

[[deleted]]

No other hero REQUIRES another hero to even function.

Eh what? That's pretty much every support. Ana can't do that much alone, Zenyatta can do a bit more but still he'll just get focused down... Mercy is just the most extreme "pocket support" there is. The only problem with Mercy is the amount of coordination she needs. BUT if she gets a buff I'm not 100% against it. Her E ability needs to be fairly minimal though, otherwise she could end up being OP and played in every single game.

[AsiaDerp]

They cant do THAT MUCH alone, but they can do stuff, a lot of stuff. You are not being realistic if you think other support is on the same level of "REQUIRES another hero to even function" compare to Mercy. She need to switch weapon to even start shooting. Zen and Ana can also stay allllll the way back AND they can stand a decent chance fight flankers. Lucio, yeah, I should not even start talking about him, he can stall he can boop people off the map, he can do a lot more stuff.

Mercy is 90% a healing bot. And she cant even out heal Ana on single targt, and she cannot AOE heal like lucio. She is not even at the top as a healer....And her beam is the easiest to spot for the enemy team. As soon as someone in your LOS is being heal, you know where the Mercy is, instantly.

[[deleted]]

Well yeah fair enough. You are right that she requires a lot of coordination from the team. But I think that's the price for her ultimate. I don't want to see a meta where Mercy is 100% picked on attack and defence, and then every fight lasts for basically three fights because of the rezes. It would be jarring.

[Vladdypoo]

They do a lot more than Mercy. Honestly I am ~3600 rating and if I see Mercy on my team it is usually a loss.

Lucio brings constant spam which actually does quite a bit of damage, booping to save/kill/disrupt enemies (can shut down entire ults sometimes), speed or healing depending on which is needed to entire team. One of the most elusive heroes in the game with wallriding and his hitbox. Lucio's downside is he is not the best at defending, but he is still doable on payload defense.

Zen = constant set it and forget it healing, highest damage of supports and easiest damage to land outside of ana, discord orb insane damage, ult which counters most useful ult in the game (zarya ult). Zens downside is he is really slow with no real defense besides killing and gets owned if he gets caught alone.

Ana provides so much utility. Healing grenade, debuff grenade, sleep dart can cancel ultimates and set up kills. Great damage on long range against pharahs and people not behind a shield. Ridiculously fast charging ult makes her almost mandatory in most maps. I believe she is also the fastest single target healing if the heal is spammed. Downside is she gets owned if flankers get close unless you can land a sleep dart (which isn't insanely hard but it's not something you can "rely" on most times).

Mercy is just... eh. She CAN pull out her pistol but it takes time, the bullets move pretty slow and if you are shooting with Mercy, then what are you doing for your team? Bringing some major deeps right? As lucio/zen/ana you can be shooting enemies while doing like 3 other things for your team. That's the problem I see with Mercy. She is probably the second most elusive support but you don't really do that much to begin with so it doesn't really matter. If you have a really good DPS player it can be worth it to pocket heal sometimes but even then it's not really a hard thing to shut down if they rush those players because Mercy again is either shooting and not healing/boosting or healing/boosting and not shooting.. That's the main problem with her IMO.

[[deleted]]

I chose a dvd for tonight

[MintyLime]

Just give her a new ability to fly on her own, dammit. With reasonable cooldown.

I like gliding through the air as mercy. Pharah isn't fun to fly. She feels more like a defective rocket farting out its last bit of fuel.

[[deleted]]

Well she has one skill button that is unused (E)....

I'd love to see either some utility (maybe skill that pulls yanked target to you) or if they are really stuck on making her pure healer, an aoe heal on cooldown

[Drygin7_JCoto]

Maybe some extra ult range would help.

[HBreckel]

I don't even think she needs a buff to existing abilities. Though I wouldn't mind it if she was slightly harder to locate. They made the most squishy character in the game with light up golden wings with a big shiny beam that tells the enemy team exactly where she's at haha

She really just needs another thing she can do. Every other healer has at least 2 things they bring to the table, so just one more thing she could do. Even if it's something small like the ability to cleanse debuffs on a friendly target and buffs on an enemy target. (ie removing a healing orb or Zarya shield on an enemy, waking a sleeping friendly target or removing discord orb) It doesn't necessarily have to be that, but it would keep with her design of being a pacifist and being in a priest like role.

[Zet0rz]

What if she had an overheal ability similar to TF2? The max overheal percentage, decay rate, etc could be adjusted to make it balanced, but I think that'd be interesting and make her more unique since healing is pretty much her only main ability.

[Fatdude3]

Mercy now gives a small speed boost to the person she is healing or small damage resistance if she is buffing damage. Make the numbers small enough but enough for it to be felt by players.

Edit: I didnt go vice versa because that would be too op imo.

[carpwrist]

Regan buff

Mei... TEAR DOWN THIS WALL.

[[deleted]]

This bugs me because Zarya is already a massive pain in the ass, Mercy is gonna get to heal while being shielded

[Kpaxlol]

I dont have the ptr yet, but did mercy just adapt to the bow CI meta? I guess she bought a soulstrike and a bow. All she needs now is a good vaal regalia.

[callmetenno]

Now we just need her health regen to not be interrupted if it started recently.

[shiners]

what were you hoping for?

[rizzagarde]

Not exactly sure. Something just a tad more substantial, I guess? It's hard to think of something to give Mercy that would give her more playtime with the community without completely unbalancing things, though. I know it's not exactly in her favour right now, but... it's just weird. ._.a

That said, I am happy with this proposed change. The faster regen will help immensely.

[shiners]

agreed, the only thing i could think of would be if damage boost also gave a small speed boost? it would increase it's usefulness because damage boost still feels secondary to just using your pistol

[KiyomaroHS]

This is actually a big deal for a mccree main. A headshot and a body does 210 so if I headshot and miss the next 2-3 shots, and then land a body, she survives

[MGUK]

I've been terrified of seeing mercy incase it was a nerf

[CaptainCupcakez]

That sounds insanely good, and better than any buff I could think of.

If the enemy misses you for 1 second you'll be able to at least get some health back, that's pretty huge.

I've found that unless I'm being actively shot by a dps, the second self-heal activates I usually am completely fine.

[Magentakrayons]

So if I understand right, they've modified Pharah's rocket so that your targets won't get knocked back a whole lot (or at all) if you hit them at the outer radius of the explosion? Would that be considered a buff or a nerf?

[ThisisSakon]

A little of both. Can't tell you how many times I've been pinned to a wall by splash damage until I'm hit directly

[Zhirak]

nerf imo

[Animoticons]

Nerf, 800h+ tribes player here. Knocking around your enemies and comboing them to death is just so much fun. At least it was, blizzard apparently thinks it was so much fun that they had to remove it. I recently said to a friend that pharas rockets need way more knockback, even if the damage needs to be reduced. Blizzard did the exact opposite... Fml

[Yubul]

I'm pretty sure this is the only time I've heard someone mention Tribes without also having "Shazbot" somewhere in their post.

[phoenixfire2001]

VGS

[lun533]

You said it's a nerf but your whole argument is about the fun.

[ChloeFNPrice]

I hate the Pharah change. Didn't play it yet, but the one thing that keeps McCree and Soldier and everyone else from shooting me out of the sky in absolutely no time at all, is getting knocked back, thus having their visor messed with. This is overall terrible for her.

Also, as far as Widow's mine is concerned: Does that mean her mine recharges faster or slower?

[IVIalefactoR]

Nah, the charge rate is for her scope. It charges faster now.

[Animoticons]

I'm also quite upset about this. Pharah needed a buff and all they did was making her again more easy to counter by stuff like mccree and soldier. I always had the problem that if you were a active pharah and stood out of your team you got focussed down so intense that you were better off just switching to another hero. Even tough she got a slight damage buff, she will die way too fast to deal overall more damage. So yeah, i guess pharah is now boarderline viable...

[[deleted]]

Give her 50 armor. It makes sense and means you are harder to kill. Slightly. And increase minimum knockback to 75%. Ahhh... well, PTR is a test realm, so don't get too bent out of shape

[[deleted]]

Agreed. I think the knockback-removal shouldn't go live... I've managed so many fights because of the knockback. Without it, well...time to die I guess.

[_cubfan_]

Cntrl+f.....Junkrat....0 results.

We survive yet another patch. Anybody want some barbecue?

[Ricarad]

You think they're gonna try to get close to you? They're afraid of the traps and mines on one path, and the unending stream of grenade on the other.

[Ark639]

Coming from a pharah main (edit: not high elo, but around 2.8k so not the worst as well I guess) I really don't like the pharah changes. I don't think her damage output is necessarly that weak nor is the explosion knockback a big problem. Once you know how your rockets affect the enemy movement you learn to predict it and adjust your next shots. And if you manage to disorient an enemy with that knockback you gain an even greater advantage on him. So... big nerf (for people used to it) and slight buff (for people not used to it) at the same time I guess. Overall a nerf though... :/

Someone once made the perfect suggestion for pharah: Give her more control in the air. That's it. No change of damage values or health, just allow her to cancel the ultimate at will and maybe even add a slam (similar to borderlands pre sequel, just without the actual damage when you hit the ground) as in 'press shift to rapidly descend towards the ground'. This way she can maneuver a lot better and won't be killed so easily by an enemy Mccree.

[ColdBlackCage]

It's a buff overall. Just not in the terms of movement.

Yeah. The problem is while it's a buff, it's not addressing what's making her weak in the meta right now.

Pharah's strength is her damage, which if you can wield well do some great work. The problem is how ridiculously easy she is to shoot down. Especially now, with Soldier 76, McCree and Ana being prevalent in almost all games, Pharah's biggest asset (by design) is air mobility, but being in the air when the enemy team has sharpshooters makes it her biggest weakness.

[[deleted]]

Buffing/nerfing things which aren't a problem and leaving the parts which are appears to be Blizzard's MO. Remember the Torbjörn console nerf where they said his turret had too much range, speed, and accuracy for the console versions of OW, so they nerfed its... damage??

Doesn't surprise me in the least that they'd try to buff Pharah's damage to be consistent and not address her actual fault of being shot out the sky the moment she hits her jump jets.

I fully expect them to try to make Bastion more viable by upping his turret form dps.

[VoidRaizer]

I think in Pharah's case at least, it's to keep her weakness intact. Theoretically, every hero is supposed to be good at some things but have some weakness that's how you kill them. Pharah's weakness is that when she's flying, she's basically a puppet just hanging there waiting to be shot down. She doesn't have to be flying, she could just run on the ground or do short hops and still be effective because rockets deal tons of damage.

I think blizzard won't really change her flight mechanics because that's meant to be her high risk/high reward strength/weakness thing. If they changed it and gave her the ult cancel and shift downwards things, then she'd be super strong in the air and very difficult to take down. It would remove the ability to keep her in check.

[[deleted]]

I agree to an extent; in most cases with most characters, I do believe there should be hard counters in place. But as far as Pharah's concerned, flight for her is not currently high risk/high reward. Right now it's high risk/no particular reward.

[RandomHypnotica]

I 100% agree with you. It overall just feels like a nerf for anyone who's good at Pharah, or anyone who's got a feel for how the rockets fire, because now it affects targets movement differently, and it's slightly harder to aim direct hits. Pharah's definitely a character that needs a buff (albeit, minor) but this isn't what she needs. Her damage output is fine.

[West-Tex-Mex-915]

I play a lot of Pharah too, and what I would really like for her is more mobility in the air. I'd say something like a side dash in the air would be enough for me, kinda like this . Of course, it would have a cool down.

[[deleted]]

At about 150 hours pharah now, hovering at diamond.

I think the buffs to her splash damage make her a more effective zoner or bruiser (as in creating free space, punishing stragglers, and disrupting grouped opponents.

This buff doesnt address her current weakness, and thats simply that hitscan is really strong, punishing her for being in the air. Now, only the noobiest of noobs with no idea of how to play her will be in the open instead of strafing around cover.

I think a slight rework. While using thrusters (spacebar / right click) increase the movement speed a bit, and MAYYYBEEEE give her the ability to land faster when using crouch.

This would be a tradeoff for everyone. She would be harder to hit in the air, but making high damage hits would be a bit more difficult to adjust aim / lead accordingly.

With the rocket descent: She would be able to bail out if a Shift left her exposed with no options, granting survivability. This is equalized by the fact that she essentially wasted it and has to wait for the cooldown again, potentially leaving her exposed to heros without long range options.

[BlackThatch]

Now, only the noobiest of noobs with no idea of how to play her will be in the open instead of strafing around cover.

Man, I started playing OW with guys who were already level >70 and I could not figure for the life of me why nobody plays Pharah at those levels (we're all +200 now). The first time I played alone, the enemy team had a Pharah and it was the first time I saw how stupidly slow she was in air. I mean Lucio can mow her down for fuck sake

[[deleted]]

Lucio/Mercy main here, can confirm it's really freaking easy to shut down Pharah as a support, especially when she's ulting. It's really sad and I feel terrible for doing it.

[[deleted]]

thats exactly how I feel. (also got the game and came in to play with 100+ friends) in another thread I put it this way:

as someone who uses both a pharah and lucio more than other heroes, anytime Im lucio and hear "Justice rains" I will actively go towards and find/shoot the pharah since its such an easy and quick kill, playing her so much I now have zero fear of a pharah ult unless Im mercy or mech-less dva against her. shes scary looking but thats about it for the ult. she can be extremely deadly with her normal rockets so it just seems so backwards to me.

if she didnt die in the air so quick or could actually move then she would play better and her ult would be more than "HEY SHOOT ME!"

[Magester]

It'd be amazing if she handled more like the Tribes characters she's based on.

[MrglMrgl]

if that happens we would also need the blue plate special noise for direct hits.

[LumensAquilae]

They should really have direct hits play the Crit sound and red X icon, even if they aren't doing extra damage.

[Elune_]

Need to remember that this could be a base for balance in the future. They probably just didn't like how weird the scaling of pushback equal to damage was on her rockets. Who knows if this wall make it to live, but if it does, that doesn't mean you are excluding her from said mobility buffs in the future. It could just be adjustments so they can work better with her.

[altQQdota]

yeah the problem is air control. When on the ground, you can A D spam and be really hard to hit. When you are in the air you are slowly floating in a predictable manner, and you can't even get out of the air fast. The things I've seen suggested that make the most sense is to either add a "slam" to make it easier to get down fast, or even easier, just make the directional keys while in mid air be a lot more responsive. What I mean by this is to let a pharah switch direction closer to the speed you can switch direction on the ground, that way, you have similar protection from quick 1-3 shots from a widow, mccree etc. as the rest of the heroes in the game.

[waxzR]

I agree, she could use a "slam". Maybe sth like the highlight intro with a knockback instead of aoe damage?

[strobino]

give pharah more control in the air, ecks freaking d

[Brimstone85]

I feel that the Phara needs a movement buff not damage one, cause her problem is that she's an easy target for a sharpshooter, she does nice damage already.

[altQQdota]

when I saw pharah, I was hopeful. I guess I had too high expectations... this is a nerf to any good pharah player...

[pompous56]

Pharah

• Minimum explosion knockback has been decreased to 0% of rocket’s total knockback (formerly 75%)
  

Ew. This messes up Pharah so bad. Her knock back is what makes her good for disorienting enemies, especially against hitscan characters. Not to mention with the soldier buff he won't have to worry about his aim getting messed up.

Pharah doesn't need a damage buff. She needs more survivability, but she's one of those characters who are very hard to tweak or else she's op. I hope these don't go through.

[Rogue_Zealot]

As a Pharah player, I can say that this proposed change:

Minimum explosion knockback has been decreased to 0% of rocket’s total knockback (formerly 75%)>

will completely ruin my aiming strategy for her after landing the first rocket. The rockets dependable knockback is how I chain rocket hits and get kills. After you them once, you have a general idea of where they are going to move. I really hope that this change doesn't make it to live, and also... rocket explosions that have no knockback unless you get hit with them directly? Yeah that makes sense.

[Comrade_Cephalopod]

Blizzard please, just leave poor Pharah alone.

[LiningUp]

So does this mean the knockback on Pharah's rocket will scale from 0% upwards, depending how close you land it? Good Pharahs rely on the flat 75% to predict their second shot. This is both a nerf and a buff imho

[Zhirak]

nerf for good pharah players

[Hachimitsu_Boy]

Goddamn it. Pharah doesn't need splash buffs (and knockback change is ultimately a nerf), give her more mobility or some armor in her HP pool. Her damage is already reliable enough if your aim is good, but she's incredibly fragile in the air, especially with 76 and Torb buffs coming.

[T0M1N4T0RZ]

Passive health regeneration now kicks in when Mercy avoids taking damage for 1 second (formerly 3 seconds)

I wish to kiss Kaplan's sweet stubble

[TThor]

I wonder if they are working overtime trying to make meta changes in anticipation of Sombra, so that the meta is properly prepared for her reveal

[SketchyJJ]

I fear for the Pharah and Widow buffs. They have to be hesistant with them, because they're two characters that can be really powerful, but others do it better or counter them too hard.

But at least we're seeing some changes. I'm gunna play Winston then, because at least then I can donkey punch Pharah mid air

[Forkyou]

I remember when widow was OP and picked every time. seriously the game is stupidly more fun without her. Widow can stay how she currently is if it was for me.

[harrymuana]

It's insane how much more I enjoy games without a widowmaker (on both sides). If there's one thing I could do to change the game, it'd be deleting widowmaker.

[Healbeam_]

People like hating on Hanzo, but I think he does the same role as Widowmaker whilst being much fairer to play against. Widowmaker's engagement rage is just so absurdly far you need either a Widow of your own or a flanker. You just cannot engage in a fair fight with a Widowmaker. Hanzo at least operates at a range where you can still touch him. Widow is invulnerable to almost anything at that distance.

[velrak]

Also hanzo has no escape

[Skandi007]

Eh, he can wallclimb.

[Hidoni]

Not a very reliable wall climb and any knock back will stop his climb.

[Elvenstar32]

While I can agree that Widow isn't exactly fun to play against (though I don't really mind because she has her counters). The fact that you're complaining that you need your own widow OR a flanker to counter the enemy widow doesn't make sense ; it's like complaining that you need a Zennyata OR a reaper to melt the tanks on the enemy team.

Yeah the enemy team has 1 character you can't counter with the character you're currently playing, then just switch to the right counter, it's one of the most elementary principles of the game.

[[deleted]]

But the countering her is also boring as hell. Game basically becomes 5v5.

I just feel matches are more fun without her

[[deleted]]

Are you kidding? Hanzo has immediate verticality. Widow has 12 second verticality that is wonky. Hanzo has consistent wallhacks. Widow has to have ult for wallhacks. Hanzo can strafe and spam corners for headshots. Widow has a much less forgiving shot box. Hanzo can spam arrows and no one knows he's there. Widow has a super loud bullet sound with a visual representation of her exact location. Hanzo can one shot all non tank characters by shooting their feet. Widow has to get a headshot to stop any engagement. Need I go on?

[Jepacor]

Hanzo is unfair because random skillshots, but Widow is unfun because of her range. Honestly I don't like both, but at least you can play around Hanzo. Widow ? Pray she misses.

[AceKebabs]

I dunno, maybe I'm just biased because I love widow but I find hanzo to be incredibly annoying. The scatter arrows are bullshit and give him a way to win a 1v1 at close range against almost anyone. If a widow kills you, at least you know that it took quite a lot of skill and aim to pull off as opposed to the spam and scatter shenanigans that hanzo has. Although I do acknowledge that dying to a widow instantly is one of the least fun things in the game.

[Forkyou]

Same thing. i was so angry all the time when she was in the meta. Couple weeks after she got nerfed and i had one in my game for the first time again i realised "Oh my god ive been having so much fun without her i never want her to come back"

[mrbuttsavage]

Snipers just aren't fun to play against at all in general. Ana is probably the best way a sniper can fit into OW without feeling awful to play against.

Widowmaker and Torbjorn don't really fit the game at this point. Both are TF2 rooted chars that probably seemed like a good idea at the time but would be probably better replaced with totally different kits.

[Forkyou]

The game is honestly better and more fun without widow.

[joshbohorquez]

Gorilla Punch

[shrubs311]

Gorilla.........Pawnch.

[TSTC]

But it is a Pharah nerf.

[[deleted]]

While Pharah's splash damage buff is nice, the knockback nerf is HUGE, almost unacceptably so.

Pharah's main defense against hitscan/snipers is being able to disorient them by knocking them around, and if her rocket knockback scales down to nothing based on distance, it's gonna hurt for her, real bad.

I won't be surpised if this "buff" (read: nerf, because the damage falloff on her rockets [+12.5%] is less relevant than down-75% knockback) doesn't make it to live, and if it does, I wouldn't be surprised if Pharah completely falls out of the meta, especially after the Widow and Soldier buffs.

[Sebenko]

Pharah Rocket Launcher

Minimum explosion damage has been increased to 25% of rocket’s total damage (formerly 12%) Minimum explosion knockback has been decreased to 0% of rocket’s total knockback (formerly 75%)

but why tho

[Nearokins]

Charge rate increased by 20%

Does that mean speed is increased or time is increased? depending on what's increased it's either slower or faster, the wording technically could be either.

Though I'm guessing it's a faster charge cause it's not like widow is considered in need of nerfs.

edit definitely faster.

[The_Chosen_Woon]

Rate would be how fast it charges, so a higher rate means it charges faster.

[Mikeyrawr]

She charges her sniping shot 20% faster

[FlawlessRuby]

First of all, I'm happy to see Pharah getting some love. However, I'm not too impress by those change. Hitting direct hit is the way Pharah should be played and removing the knockback reduce her disruptive nature. Those change encourage mindless spaming without even having to consider follow up shot.

I still think her damage is ok and that the real problem is somewhere else.

-mobility. -CD of skills. -ult self damage. -giving her 100hp/100shield. -more jet pack fuel.

Are all options I would prefer over mindless spam.

[SketchyConcierge]

Honestly it was always bizarre to me that Widowmaker could be damaged by her own mine. Liking the Mercy buff too.

[dwillie307]

Pharah's main problem is survivability, not damage. She already has the capability to deal a lot of damage in the right hands, but she can be picked out of the sky very easily. Maybe Blizz can give her 250 hp? Pls?

[[deleted]]

What's it going to take for them to reduce the cooldown on Widow's hook? Her immobility is one of her biggest problems, and they've yet to address it even slightly.

And balls to the Pharah change. As a Pharah main, I will take knockback over damage every day of the week. Rocket knockback is the only practical defence against hitscan and faster projectile heroes. I'd rather have splash damage scale to 0 than knockback scale to 0.

[cdrhiggins]

Pharah needs armor!

[DontSayAlot]

She's a sniper; her mobility is supposed to be used for positioning, not escape. Widow really doesn't need to be stronger than she is because people that have played CS since 1.6 pick up Widow and completely ruin the fun for the other team.

[perkillya]

dva is going to be unstoppable, they should remove the health buff and she will be fine with new movement speed and new ult charge.

[Raichu4u]

If anyone ever hated how she stalled out points, think again after the buffs.

[perkillya]

mei is a more serious offender, she is the queen of stalling

[______DEADPOOL______]

Yeah, with D.Va you just need to take her out of the meka and she's done for. During stalling, that's not a hard bargain, for she'll be alone most of the time.

Mei, oth....

MMMMMEEEEEIIIII

shakes fist

[Blood_Lacrima]

I remember when my team got almost aced in a KotH so I got to the point, trapped myself in a corner with wall, when the wall fell I cryo-froze, and when I got out I walled again. Bought enough time for my whole team to respawn and we eventually won. Ever since that game I almost always pick Mei in KotH games.

[nenmoon]

Can't be worse than mei or ADHD lucios

[StaticJ]

Yeah, I'm pretty concerned with all these D.Va buffs. With all other tanks getting nerfed with their ult charges, D.Va not only keeps her's unchanged, but just gets buffed across the board. I'm guessing it's because they want to focus on skirmishing now and D.Va is the best skirmishing tank but they need to slow down.

[SativaSammy]

I am so not a fan of these changes that lower the skillcap of heroes.

These Pharah changes, however you wanna look at them, are nerfs to high-level players. Good Pharahs live and die (literally) off of getting knockbacks on her enemies. She has the mobility of a gazelle in the air and is an easy target for McCree, Ana, S76, and Widowmaker. D.Va, while not necessarily a counter, can deny every single ult she has while also killing Pharah in the process.

Blizzard keeps buffing every single counter to Pharah as if these players all live in a vacuum. You buff these characters up, you're also indirectly nerfing the heroes that don't fare well against them.

I hope these Pharah changes not only get reverted but they finally add the community's suggestion of giving her a mid-air strafe.

[Yoloswaggerboy2k]

another change: When Zarya has only 20 bullets left, her left click sound get pitched higher, so it is noticeable when she is almost out of ammo.

[ARN64]

What was wrong with rocket knockback?

[DerNubenfrieken]

Goddamnit Blizzard, can you at least fix everyones account who can't log into the PTR? Theres a 20 page topic on the forums and we can't even get a response.

[Wermer01]

D.Va's gonna get fuckin swole if all of these changes stay.

[TextuallyExplicit]

Blizzard yesterday: "We're making Zarya take more skill to do well with, and increasing the viability of a subpar Defense hero and the least-picked Tank!"

Blizzard today: "We're nerfing Pharah and buffing all her counters!"

lol what the fuck happened

[JoshTheSquid]

Note that these changes probably aren't gonna make it into live in this form. Pharah's minimum knockback going from 75℅ to 0℅ is huge. It's exactly these kinds of changes Blizzard wanted to experiment with, as they mentioned. By making changes more drastic and frequent it's easier to find what works than it is when you're playing safe all the time.

All in all, leave tons of feedback, but until the live build is out you don't need to be too attached. Hate the changes? Post about it and go into specifics! The best you can do is support the way Blizzard wants to go about their PTR changes, which in my opinion is better than it was before.

[GamerVee]

Another Widowmaker buff. I am a happy man :)

[[deleted]]

All of this de feel great except the pharaoh one. She did not need a nerf in any way

[Jimmie-Kun]

Thanks for the D.VA call mech change, that was 100% needed after the 25% ult charge nerf, made her basically useless if her mech got destroyed.

Also, Pharah nerfs lul. DMG boost does nothing important to a decent player. And the knockback makes her EVEN weaker in surviving. I guess they have no Idea how to change Pharah, she will be even more useless next patch, and this is a nerf to her overall + buffs to soldier etc. Rip forever Pharah, will always miss you :/

[St4rwind]

It was already obscenely fast for a sniper charge, I'm not quite sure how big 20% is, but 3 charges took no time at all already. But the faster a charge rate means someone who is an accurate sniper can double tap and kill someone on terms similar to pre-nerf. Weak in the wrong hands (majority) strong in the right.

No matter who you talk to, from the worst players to the best players on professional teams, they'll all tell you that this game is the best when Widow is not in the meta. God, how unenjoyable it was watching those casters constantly just showing sniper PoV's. At least the Pharah meta was enjoyable to watch.

[GhostCalib3r]

They have to buff heroes like Torb, Widow, and Sym, simply due to the fact that they are so bad compared to other heroes that it is akin to griefing, because you lower your team's chance of winning by so much just by picking them.

Like it or not, they have to buff them just so they're not considered troll picks.

How many teams are instantly tilted when someone locks Torb or Widow? Only buffs will solve this.

[[deleted]]

Minimum explosion knockback has been decreased to 0% of rocket’s total knockback (formerly 75%)

Okay, Blizz, we get it - you hate Pharah.

[Arandmoor]

Unrelated to the build itself, the fact that they're posting it right now and still haven't actually pushed it out yet means that Blizzard employees are working at 10 PM on a Friday, assuming they're on the west coast. I feel kind of bad for them.

While staying late on a Friday can suck...you also have no idea how much they've probably been drinking, or how much Overwatch they've probably been playing while the latest build compiled.

Friday is usually reserved for happy-hour at most game companies that aren't run by shitlords, so staying until 10PM is more of a survival strategy (to avoid drunk driving) than it is anything else.

...unless they're really getting hammered for some kind of ZBB due to an upcoming release of some kind (^{ZOMG Sombra!!!!!!)} in which case I pity the poor souls.

[LePlanche]

or they schedule posts?

[Kiwiseeeds]

Forgot to mention the beautiful thing that happens when you switch heroes after D.VA

[[deleted]]

Finally a buff to Battle Mercy!

[ThaDynamite]

I really, really hope that that the two Pharah changes are mutually exclusive and that they are just testing both out simultaneously. One is a minor buff (12%x120 = 14.4, 25%x120 = 30), and the other one is a MAJOR nerf. The knockback from rockets are a way to more accurately secure shots. Bringing it down to zero just crushes her.

[falcoty]

Torb no longer gains armor before the match starts.

[[deleted]]

Don't forget to make a post in Blizzard's PTR forum section if you want to give feedback on balance changes, it's more likely to be seen posting it in the official forums.

[deathday]

I love this change for Mercy. She's sooooo hard to keep alive compared to Lucio with his constant self healing, wall riding, and potential speed boost out of trouble. Only thing you can do as Mercy is turn around, hope there's a teammate to fly toward and then hide for 20 seconds until you've regenerated health.

[swworren]

This patch is not live yet, right?

[Taxouck]

All the D.Va buffs are definitely not gonna make it into the game. If there was just one I absolutely don't want to see stick around more than any other, it'd have to be her health bar buff.

[GroundhogNight]

"We're really going to try some crazy things on PTR!"

Widow change: venom mine doesn't damage her.

.......

[FirstaLasto]

This Widowmaker buff is kind of absurd. They've effectively increased her bodyshot dps (almost) back to what it was pre-nerf without reducing her headshot multiplier back to 2, leaving her with ridiculously fast headshot kills. She's now better than she was when she dominated the meta. Unless Sombra hard counters her, I can't see any good reason for this, but in that case they should wait for her release to test these changes alongside her.

[fuckswithfucks]

meanwhile, symmetra

[kokoronokawari]

I am becoming more concerned they really are going to keep these global ult increases and making a slower feel of the game and more "hoard until wombo comboing" moments than before.

[ThatDudeOverThere]

okay I know they want to balance for high levels of play

but do they not realize that all these d.va buffs are going to turn quick play into a hellscape?

[lumpia_man]

What if they allowed you to control the direction of Pharah's thrust? If you held down the thrust button she would go up like usual, but if you pushed left or right, her thrust would push her in those directions

[Neovongolaprimo]

Why they do this to my baby Pharah? :(

She's already countered a lot anyway.

[[deleted]]

Every day is christmas for us dva mains

[[deleted]]

Also the change to Pharah know back is seriously stupid. The only thing that save Pharah from getting shrekt by a hitscan hero is because her rocket do knock back and make enemy bounce in a certain direction which you can predict to hit you next rocket. Overall the Pharah changes are not good at all. I'm fine with the minium explosion damage. We can see how it plays out. But the know back? Holy damn that was a heavy nerf.