Blizzard recently launched a new Overwatch update, detailing changes for old characters and even the addition of a new character.
There were many changes to the old characters like D. Va, Mercy, Zenyatta, and McCree. Blizzard felt players thought D. Va wasn’t a viable tank so they buffed her damage absorbtion ability known as “Defense Matrix” as well as her ultimate which allows her to self-destruct her mecha. D. Va now is able to use her “Defense Matrix” more often and for a longer duration, allowing her to become a better tank. Her ultimate was also buffed making it so the explosion activates within three seconds of activation instead of four and now the explosion no longer does harm to her.
Next up is the staff-wielding healer, Mercy. Blizzard felt her ultimate was already very strong so there was no need to buff it, but it was far too easy to kill Mercy while she used it. In order to fix this, they made her ultimate take longer to charge, but she will be able to move as she uses it and her ability to fly to another player is immediately recharged so she can escape from a dangerous resurrection with more ease. As well with that change, her staff no longer stacks with the help of other Mercy players meaning no super buffing one character anymore.
We all knew this was coming — the gunslinging McCree is receiving a slight buff. In their last patch, Blizzard nerfed the damage of McCree’s main weapon, the Peacekeeper. This made McCree slightly underpowered compared to other characters to say the least so they increased the damage of the gun at longer ranges, but it wouldn’t do as much at extreme ranges that Hanzo and Widowmaker are meant to handle.
Zenyatta, the orb-wielding omnic monk is getting some slight changes in this new Overwatch update. His base shields are getting an extra 50 points, making his base health a total of 200. His primary fire damage has been reduced from 45 to 40, and his alternate fire damage has been buffed from 35 to 40, hopefully making his alternate fire more viable. The Orbs of Harmony and Discord were to slow upon activation at a movement speed of 30. Compared to it’s buffed 120 movement speed, that’s not much. Then finally, Zenyatta’s ultimate has been given a very nice buff. This buff allows Zenyatta twice his normal movement speed upon activation and the healing per second it did has been increased from 200 to 300.
Now for the moment we’ve all been waiting for, the support sniper Ana has officially entered the main game on PC with this new Overwatch update. Ana has the ability to do damage to her enemies with her sniper and do healing for her allies with her sniper as well. She an ability known as “Biotic Grenade” which is a grenade that once again can do damage to her foes and healing for her friends. As well as her grenade, she has an ability known as “Sleep Dart” which allows her to pull out a tranquilizer gun putting any enemy it hits to sleep for a short amount of time or until the sleeping enemy is damaged. Her ultimate is called “Nano Boost” which is a shot from some type of wrist launcher she has that, when it hits an ally, allows the ally to move faster, do more damage, and take reduced damage.
That’s about it for the major changes that came in this new Overwatch update. From everyone here at Video Game Culture HQ, have fun with the new update and remember…
We’re all soldiers now.