Overwatch heroes Roadhog, D.Va, and Ana will be the latest casualties of the upcoming patch, now playable in the public test realm.
If you're an avid Overwatch player, you've likely been enjoying the post-holiday updates already made, mostly in the latest control map, Oasis. The latest patch notes, however, detail some of the changes about to be made to a select group of heroes. While some of the changes seem to be justified, others are leaving players scratching their heads as to what could have motivated such a drastic alteration.
According to Blizzard, Roadhog, D.Va, and Ana will be receiving a nerf to help balance their abilities:
Roadhog
Chain Hook-Targets are now pulled directly in front of Roadhog (rather than straight to him), except in cases where Roadhog drastically rotates-Hooked targets are now released if they leave Roadhog’s line-of-sight before being pulled-Line-of-sight checks (which detect if targets should be initially hit by the hook) are now done from Roadhog’s position, rather than the hook’s position
Ana
Biotic Grenade-Healing boost on allies has been decreased by 50%
The general fixes to D.Va, on the other hand, might be a misstep, according to most players:
D.Va
-Health increased from 200 to 400-Armor decreased from 400 to 200Fusion Cannons-Bullet damage decreased from 3 to 2-Number of bullets per shot has been increased from 8 to 11
As you can see, her armor has been essentially swapped out for more health, while her guns now do less damage, but fire more rounds. These changes seem superfluous to most considering D.Va was a toon that was already relatively well balanced and these changes don't seem to alter her gameplay. According to the dev comments on the matter:
D.Va’s armor often made her feel like she had no weaknesses, even against heroes that are often effective against bigger targets (like Reaper). The changes to her Fusion Cannons will result in a small overall decrease in damage, but they should feel more consistent now.
Several general fixes and even a slight buff to Sombra (hacking sped up from 1 second to .8 seconds) will be included in the upcoming patch, which you can experience for yourself and provide feedback to Blizzard only on the PC version of the game.
[Blizzard]
