Today's Overwatch PC Patch Adds Ana, Tweaks Other Heroes

[Lizzy Finnegan]

Today's Overwatch PC Patch Adds Ana, Tweaks Other Heroes

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In addition to adding a new hero, Overwatch's PC patch makes changes to the game's other characters.

Last week, Blizzard announced Overwatch's newest hero, Ana [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/167917-Blizzard-Has-Announced-the-Newest-Overwatch-Hero-Ana#&gid=gallery_6333&pid=1]. Ana is a support-class sniper, and Pharah's mother. And you can play as her on PC now.

"After being out of the fight for several years, one of Overwatch's founding members is returning. Introducing Ana-a battle-scarred veteran who supports her teammates from a distance using a unique and highly specialized collection of weapons," the description reads.

A rundown of her weapons and Ultimate:

"Ana's primary weapon is her Biotic Rifle, which fires long-range darts that can restore the health of her allies or deal ongoing damage to her enemies. Meanwhile, her Biotic Grenade is perfect for a close-quarters clash, simultaneously healing teammates and injuring foes caught in its small area of effect. (Affected allies will also receive a temporary increase to all incoming healing, while affected enemies can't be healed for a few moments.) And if the battle starts to get out of hand, Ana's sidearm can fire a Sleep Dart, knocking her adversaries unconscious. Plus, Ana's ultimate ability, Nano Boost, empowers one of her teammates, granting faster movement, increased damage, and resistance to enemy attacks."

Also included in the patch are a number of different hero balances, some of which are the result of self-healing abilities now charging ultimate abilities. Bastion, Soldier: 76, and Lucio's Ultimate cost has increased by 10%, while D.Va's has deceased by 15%. The best part - while the explosion delay from D.Va's ultimate has been reduced from 4 seconds to 3 seconds, it no longer damages the player who activates it (woohoo!). Meanwhile, Mercy's Ultimate charge cost has increased by 30%, but is balanced out by the fact that Mercy "will be a lot safer when activating the ability in the middle of combat."

For a full list of changes to the various heroes and bug fixes, you can read the patch notes here [http://us.battle.net/forums/en/overwatch/topic/20747185139]. According to Blizzard, the patch will hit PS4 and Xbox One soon.

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[Frankster]

In other news, avoid ranked because at the moment there's a tendency for people to pick Ana and stick with her no matter what, EVEN IF YOU ALREADY HAVE A MERCY AND A LUCIO or that we really need something else then what she offers but none of our other players can switch. No I am not salty because I went down 2 whole ranks cos of this *shifty eyes*

Re: Changes
I feel D-va buffs were needed and the defense matrix changes are great, but am meh about the ulti changes and in particular hate she is immune to her own explosion now. Means she is going to be able to get off free potshots as people run away, or worst, block people from escaping in certain maps with tight passages, safe in the knowledge she doesn't have to worry about escaping the blast radius.

Oh and Zen is kind of a damage monster now, before he was pretty much worst healer but with decent damage potential if he didn't die easily, now he is worst healer but a dps monster with a strong ulti now that you get bonus move speed when it's used, you can't as easily duck around a corner and wait for transcendence to pass.

 

[Headsprouter]

Zenyatta's getting me MVP cards now, and they actually credit his defensive assists these days, which is a great part of the patch.

D.Va's ult is mad. Feels like it fused with the ideas behind Reaper's ult, but with range to make up for the warning, which I dislike. I preferred the old one because it felt like a useful pushing tool rather than a bomb.

I don't know what to say about Ana. Her ult definitely has devastating potential, if you picked the right player. Her rifle is fun to use, but overall I feel everyone's still learning.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

I agree that d-va needed a boost, but her being immune to her ult kinda pisses me off, free kills to allahu akbar whenever she wants now, not to mention she can continue shooting at the enemy or blocking them from escaping the blast, which in turn fuels her to get her mech back even faster.

haven't gotten to use ana yet, seems like fun but i'm sure there is a learning curve to use her right.

 

[major_chaos]

I'm gonna have to play with it to be sure but D.va's ult sounds super broken now. It was already a great disruption move and second to none turret killer, but now with so much less time to escape and no risk of accidentally committing suicide it sounds like it could just be flat one of the best kill ults in the game. Like Reaper ult but with twice the range and zero counterplay. All the other changes sound good, although I don't think +5 damage will be enough to get people using Zen's alt fire as long as the core mechanics remain awful.

 

[Cowabungaa]

It was already a great disruption move and second to none turret killer

An ult for a turret is a terrible trade-off. If you need to do that there's something wrong with your team. Toblerone has another one up in a jiffy, Bastion just walks away for a bit and Symmetra cares even less.

As for being a great disruption move, I never felt bothered by D.VA's ult. It works 'best' on cap-the-point maps but even there it's just a minor inconvenience. The thing is that it's so easily dodged. Just slip behind a wall or an ornament and you're completely fine. It never did anything. And on cart maps it just cleared the cart for a few seconds. Her ult truly was the worst in the game.

 

[saluraropicrusa]

It was already a great disruption move and second to none turret killer

An ult for a turret is a terrible trade-off. If you need to do that there's something wrong with your team. Toblerone has another one up in a jiffy, Bastion just walks away for a bit and Symmetra cares even less.

As for being a great disruption move, I never felt bothered by D.VA's ult. It works 'best' on cap-the-point maps but even there it's just a minor inconvenience. The thing is that it's so easily dodged. Just slip behind a wall or an ornament and you're completely fine. It never did anything. And on cart maps it just cleared the cart for a few seconds. Her ult truly was the worst in the game.

hell, one of the things i like to do with d.va is throw up defense matrix, rocket boost right into a turret, and shoot it down. if it's not molten cored, and you're point blank, you can take it out in seconds.

anyway, it doesn't even effectively clear the cart; you can just hide on the opposite side of it.

hell, you could hide behind a lamppost and not take any damage. the only way to really kill with it is find a way to take the enemy by complete surprise, which is really difficult. her ult is loud, and the danger sign is on your screen the entire time.

this change is for the better. although i'll be happy once people calm down and we don't have 2 or even 3 d.va teams.

 

[major_chaos]

An ult for a turret is a terrible trade-off. If you need to do that there's something wrong with your team. Toblerone has another one up in a jiffy, Bastion just walks away for a bit and Symmetra cares even less.

As for being a great disruption move, I never felt bothered by D.VA's ult. It works 'best' on cap-the-point maps but even there it's just a minor inconvenience. The thing is that it's so easily dodged. Just slip behind a wall or an ornament and you're completely fine. It never did anything. And on cart maps it just cleared the cart for a few seconds. Her ult truly was the worst in the game.

Except the whole point was for D.va's team to move into the gap while the other team splits. I used that ult to turn around quite a few games where my team was totally stuck on a entrenched enemy and needed some way to get a foot in the door. That said I always found it much more useful on offense than defense but I would say that about D.va as a whole.

And even if I agreed that it was the worst before (which is a hard to accept when Pharah exists) was the solution really to give possibly the straight best kill ult in the game to a tank when their shtick is highly disruptive ults with limited kill potential?

 

[Cowabungaa]

Except the whole point was for D.va's team to move into the gap while the other team splits. I used that ult to turn around quite a few games where my team was totally stuck on a entrenched enemy and needed some way to get a foot in the door. That said I always found it much more useful on offense than defense but I would say that about D.va as a whole.

And even if I agreed that it was the worst before (which is a hard to accept when Pharah exists) was the solution really to give possibly the straight best kill ult in the game to a tank when their shtick is highly disruptive ults with limited kill potential?

I've rarely seen it be useful in that simply because the gap it gave was always so tiny or there were more than enough obstacles on or near the point for team members to hide behind for half a second. I definitely saw D.VA players try, and try hard to do that at that, but it was rarely enough. At best it cleared Ilios' Lighthouse capture point or a final push on a cart map. And that's way too situational, which to be honest was its biggest problem. It's kinda lame if you can use your ult only in a very select few situations.

I'm not even sure it's the best kill ult now though I have yet to see it in action. Oh yeah it's buffed, but nothing was changed at how easily it's spotted and nothing was changed on how easily it's dodged. As the poster behind you said, even just going to the other side of the cart was often enough. That's pretty lame. Pharah's ult is way better in that regard. The difficulty with that one is not popping it in a place where you become sniper food. Most Pharah players aren't sneaky enough with it.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

I agree that d-va needed a boost, but her being immune to her ult kinda pisses me off

Why? Why should she be damaged by her Ult if her teammates can just stand around it with no damage? I'd be with you if friendly fire was a factor for her Ult but it never was.

D.Va was the worst tank in the game and badly needed some sort of buff.

 

[RaikuFA]

Her Ult is still my worst nightmare (Roadhog player).

 

[Cowabungaa]

Why? Why should she be damaged by her Ult if her teammates can just stand around it with no damage? I'd be with you if friendly fire was a factor for her Ult but it never was.

To be fair, it seems a wee bit unfair for Tracer then, who can still be killed by her own bomb last time I checked.

 

[bjj hero]

Im just disappointed we get more sniper...

D va definately needed a buff. She never seemed to be a worry.

 

[saluraropicrusa]

Why? Why should she be damaged by her Ult if her teammates can just stand around it with no damage? I'd be with you if friendly fire was a factor for her Ult but it never was.

To be fair, it seems a wee bit unfair for Tracer then, who can still be killed by her own bomb last time I checked.

the thing is, tracer also has movement/escape abilities that pilot d.va doesn't, making it much easier for her to get away from her own bomb. whereas if d.va was in a bad spot/somehow blocked off when she set off her ult, she was screwed (which didn't happen often but i've done that to myself a few times).

 

[SirSullymore]

Why? Why should she be damaged by her Ult if her teammates can just stand around it with no damage? I'd be with you if friendly fire was a factor for her Ult but it never was.

To be fair, it seems a wee bit unfair for Tracer then, who can still be killed by her own bomb last time I checked.

the thing is, tracer also has movement/escape abilities that pilot d.va doesn't, making it much easier for her to get away from her own bomb. whereas if d.va was in a bad spot/somehow blocked off when she set off her ult, she was screwed (which didn't happen often but i've done that to myself a few times).

Not to mention Tracer's bomb has a way smaller blast radius.

Any way, still waitin for Ana on PS4, hurry up Sony!

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Why? Why should she be damaged by her Ult if her teammates can just stand around it with no damage? I'd be with you if friendly fire was a factor for her Ult but it never was.

To be fair, it seems a wee bit unfair for Tracer then, who can still be killed by her own bomb last time I checked.

Tracer's ult has such a small radius in comparison. D.Va's Ult has a pretty big area of effect and unless there is something to hide behind D.Va dies. Seems silly in that respect.

Tracer has many ways to escape her ult, D.Va does not.

 

[Frankster]

Why? Why should she be damaged by her Ult if her teammates can just stand around it with no damage? I'd be with you if friendly fire was a factor for her Ult but it never was.

To be fair, it seems a wee bit unfair for Tracer then, who can still be killed by her own bomb last time I checked.

Tracer's ult has such a small radius in comparison. D.Va's Ult has a pretty big area of effect and unless there is something to hide behind D.Va dies. Seems silly in that respect.

Tracer has many ways to escape her ult, D.Va does not.

I'm noticing a trend with the way you describe D-va's ulti..Namely that in that situation the dva player is doing it wrong xD Or was anyway, now that I've played a bit, can confirm the changes have altered how d-va uses her ulti.

Previously to use dvas ulti to best effect you weren't supposed to rush in, activate your nuke then gtfo out, but use a ramp or simply start using your boost, THEN you activate your ulti, this way the enemy had less chance to react and depending on map and obstacles, could never see it coming so could only hope they picked the right hidey spot. In beta this, together with dvas ulti going through walls (thus making hiding behind obstacles pointless), was what made her so broken.

Now these changes have had a weird effect where it's harder to use D-va's ulti in the way I described, since -1 sec activation time works against it, shortening the range of a boosted ulti somewhat (anyone have that gif of a dva ulti taking out all the enemy on point b on voslkaya industries by any chance? would perfectly illustrate what i mean, and why having -1 sec detonation time means it's no longer possible to do that, gotta be closer now).
This now has the effect of encouraging d-vas to instead use their ulti as you describe, rush in and activate in middle of an enemy team with you still in the radius..Which doesn't matter anymore.

So yeah tldr, previously d-va shouldn't have been in her own ulti's blast radius to begin with anyways, unless it was a truly desperate situation that's just playing her wrong. Or was, now it's playing her right.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

I agree that d-va needed a boost, but her being immune to her ult kinda pisses me off

D.Va was the worst tank in the game and badly needed some sort of buff.

I agree, and she was buffed, but her ult takes pretty much any danger out of using it now, while most powerful ult's have some sort of downside or vulnerability to it.

I agree that d-va needed a boost, but her being immune to her ult kinda pisses me off, free kills to allahu akbar whenever she wants now, not to mention she can continue shooting at the enemy or blocking them from escaping the blast, which in turn fuels her to get her mech back even faster.

Well.. That's kind of the point.

Dva's ult was literally the worst in the game. Now it's a lot better. Her ult can actually score kills now, instead of just being a minor nuisance.

Before this patch, her ult was literally "force enemies to push the payload from the other side for 5 seconds".

I was constantly watching for the ult to go off if there was a d-va on the map, but I had seen quite a few triple/quad kills it got, either because the reinhardt was batshit stupid, or the d.va was smart on how they boost launched it into the funnel point/payload.

now, I'm willing to be proven wrong, but I've already seen some damn good d-va players, and if this ult is as good as I'm assuming it is, it's going to snowball into that ult going off double the amount of times it used to per match and she's going to climb very high purely because of her ult change.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

I'm noticing a trend with the way you describe D-va's ulti..Namely that in that situation the dva player is doing it wrong xD Or was anyway, now that I've played a bit, can confirm the changes have altered how d-va uses her ulti.

Previously to use dvas ulti to best effect you weren't supposed to rush in, activate your nuke then gtfo out, but use a ramp or simply start using your boost, THEN you activate your ulti, this way the enemy had less chance to react and depending on map and obstacles, could never see it coming so could only hope they picked the right hidey spot. In beta this, together with dvas ulti going through walls (thus making hiding behind obstacles pointless), was what made her so broken.

They way you've described D.Va's ult is an effective way of using it, but in a situation where she's surrounded and has her Ult, using the Ult and then dying due to its massive radius is kind of a huge piss off. No point in clearing a point you want to caption if you die in the process. Unless your team is ready to continue your point cap (which in pub matches, good luck) you blow up, likely die, and then the enemies who survive keep the point.

If friendly fire was universal to all team members and not just D.Va I'd be on the other side of this but its not.