Blizzard released a new experimental patch for Overwatch today with major changes to Genji and Moira, and as a result players are collectively losing their minds over it on social media and the Overwatch forums. For some reason players have forgotten that experimental, means, well, experimental.
The changes Blizzard makes to the experimental version of the game aren’t on live servers or seen in the Overwatch League. Having the experimental version of the game at their disposal allows Overwatch developers to try out tweaks and adjustments to heroes and general game features that might throw the standard version of the game into total chaos. It’s a place where unorthodox ideas can be thrown at the why to see if they stick, and why shouldn’t they? It’s supposed to be fun after all.
Alright so let’s talk about what changed.
Genji has been running rampant on ranked competitive play ever since he received a buff, so he’s being toned down and more or less everyone has been asking for that to happen. Thus, no problems there.
It’s the changes to Moira that have everyone up-in-arms. Let’s take a look at what changes have been made to both heroes below.
ShurikenGeneral
- Damage decreased from 30 to 28
Secondary Fire
- Recovery increased from 0.65 to 0.75
Biotic Grasp
- Attach angle reduced by 37%
Biotic Orb
Damage Orb
- Damage radius reduced from 4 meters to 3 meters
- Projectile slow amount after a target is found increased from -72.5% to -80%
- Damage-per-second now scales based on how close the target(s) are to the Biotic Orb
- Between 0 – 1 meter: It will deal 150 damage per second
- Between 1 meter – 3 meters : Scales linearly down from 150 to 25 damage per second
Note: The normal damage orb on live is always 50 damage per second- The total potential damage the Biotic Orb can deal is unchanged: 200 damage total
Fade
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Now phases out all allies within 6 meters (and self) for 1 second after exiting Fade
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Phasing makes a hero immune to all damage and effects. It will work exactly like Reaper’s Wraith Form or Moira’s own Fade effect in this regard
So if it wasn’t clear from reading the notes, the change here that most players are taking issue with is the fact that Moira’s Fade ability no longer affects only herself, but every ally within 6 meters of herself. Which sure, that’s a big change and could seriously alert the existing meta, as well as through the game’s balance out of whack. But I feel like I need to say it again, this is experimental and not on live servers. Thus, let’s all calm down!
Moira’s right click ability Biotic Grasp is becoming a lot less accurate and her Biotic Orb is slowing down, having its damage radius reduced, and damage-per-second scaled. So the support hero that’s also notorious for being a strong dps player (at times) is also potentially receiving a number of substantial nerfs.
General updates were also made to live servers today and are available to view below.
Echo
- Audio volume and distance have been reduced for an enemy Echo’s passive hover sound
- Audio directionality improvements have been made for an enemy Echo’s hover and tri-shot weapon fire sounds
After the initial release for Echo, we made some audio-level changes to address concerns that Echo was too quiet in combat. Those changes increased the enemy Echo’s volume and also increased the distance at which the hero could be heard pertaining to her passive hover. After more feedback, we feel like those initial attempts to adjust Echo were too drastic. In this patch, re-adjustments were made to lower enemy Echo’s passive hover sound in volume slightly, and reign in the distance at which the sound is heard to have more consistency with other Hero footsteps in the Overwatch roster. Additional adjustments were made to both the enemy echo passive hover sound and tri-shot weapon fire sounds to help pinpoint directionality.
Bug Fixes
GeneralFixed a bug that displayed player presence as being in the Arcade while playing a Competitive Open Queue match
Fixed a bug with the end of match and end of season UI displaying incorrect values for your career high SR
Fixed a bug in custom games that caused forward spawn rooms to be active for players on Deathmatch maps such as Temple of Anubis, Hanamura and VolskayaHeroes
Brigitte
- Fixed a bug that could cause continuous armor decay for heroes with inherent armor when receiving multiple Repair Pack charges
Wrecking Ball
- Fixed a bug where Wrecking Ball could hit an enemy much faster than intended with Roll Damage
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