New Overwatch Patch Gives Ana a Buff While Tweaking McCree Yet Again

[ffronw]

New Overwatch Patch Gives Ana a Buff While Tweaking McCree Yet Again

//cdn.themis-media.com/media/global/images/library/deriv/1338/1338697.jpgThe latest Overwatch patch is strengthening Ana, and once again tinkering with McCree.

Blizzard rolled out a new patch to the PC version of Overwatch yesterday, and it was basically just make changes to two characters: Ana and McCree.

The newest Overwatch character, Ana, was added to the game last week [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/167976-PC-Overwatch-Patch-Adds-Ana]. A support class healing sniper, Ana has shown up in a number of matches since launching, and Blizzard has decided that she needs a little buff. In this patch, the rate of fire for her Biotic Rifle has been increased by 20 percent, and its magazine size has been increased to 10 rounds. It's also worth mentioning that you will no longer instantly recover from her sleep darts if you're damaged. Instead, there's a 0.5 second delay.

Blizzard says that these changes are being made to up her effectiveness, as it's not where it should have been. The developer comments in the patch notes say, "While Ana has been very well received, she was showing to be a little bit weaker overall. In addition to helping her feel better to play, these changes should also increase her healing and damage output."

The other big change in this patch is to McCree. He's easily the most tinkered-with character in the game to this point, and in this patch, he gets tweaked again. This time, it's the damage falloff over range that's been changed. The distance at which his damage begins to drop has been shortened 10 meters, but the falloff amount has not changed. To help compensate a bit, Fan the Hammer has had its rate of fire increased 15 percent, and the recovery time on his flashbang has been reduced by 0.15 seconds.

Blizzard obviously felt that McCree was too effective at longer ranges, as their developer comments show. "McCree's latest range increase helped him quite a bit, but it was a bit too much in the right hands. This change weakens his long range damage somewhat, but still keeps it stronger than it has been in the recent past. The other changes combine to allow him to land more alternate fire shots on targets that he has hit with Flashbang."

Outside of these character changes, the only changes in this patch were bug fixes to character rendering, and a fix for a UI compatibility issue for ATI cards.

We'll have to see how these changes work out, but hopefully they can get McCree tweaked to where everyone is happy, and maybe leave him alone for a patch or two.

Permalink

 

[chocolate pickles]

Blizzard, just remove mcree already. It's clear you have no idea what you're doing with the character. Besides, it's not like anyone on PC plays him since you ruined him.

 

[kajinking]

Blizzard, just remove mcree already. It's clear you have no idea what you're doing with the character. Besides, it's not like anyone on PC plays him since you ruined him.

This is always the argument that gets made. "You nerfed X. Just remove X from the game already! You ruined X!"

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

Blizzard, just remove mcree already. It's clear you have no idea what you're doing with the character. Besides, it's not like anyone on PC plays him since you ruined him.

This is always the argument that gets made. "You nerfed X. Just remove X from the game already! You ruined X!"

Sometimes this comes from another frustration. We all have characters that we would like to get another glance. It's frustrating that the development team would spend so much time focusing on X character because they feel displeased or it's not up to their standards, and then ignore us when we want Y or X looked at because there's obvious brokenness.

I don't even need to post Mei. Enough people have already spoken about her. [https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=overwatch%20mei%20nerf] But other characters need a look at as well.

 

[major_chaos]

Blizzard, just remove mcree already. It's clear you have no idea what you're doing with the character. Besides, it's not like anyone on PC plays him since you ruined him.

Except for the part where his perfect accuracy infinite range hitscan primary fire was making it so if there was a even slightly competent MC on the other team Phara was nothing but a big blue clay pigeon so that absolutely needed a nerf. And with the new buff FTH is at least useable it just isn't (and should never be) back to the point where it made him unbeatable 1v1.

I don't even need to post Mei.

Actually maybe you do. You might find her frustrating but she is actually low tier as it is. I can't possibly think of a nerf that wouldn't render her totally unplayable.

OT: The Ana buffs are good. The hero concept is nice and her abilities were mostly in a good spot but her rifle felt somewhat clunky to use and these buffs should make her quite a bit more fun to play without breaking the game.

 

[That Guy Ya Know]

I don't even need to post Mei.

Actually maybe you do. You might find her frustrating but she is actually low tier as it is. I can't possibly think of a nerf that wouldn't render her totally unplayable.

I'll have to second this, I main Mei in casual but I almost never play her in competitive, its not that she bad but short of the enemy team having a Genji and a Tracer and my team needing some serious flanker hate its pretty much impossible for me to think of a team composition where there isn't a character that's a better pick than Mei. If anything she could use some tweaks to make her more competitive.

Personally I like the FTH buff it was pretty much useless after that nerf, not sure about the damage drop off nerf,IME McCree's m1 seemed to be about equal with 76's m1 at range right now but I don't play him that much due to my terrible aim so maybe I'm wrong.

I think Junkrat needs a nerf though, I played a game yesterday where it took half the match for all the characters to load so I literally couldn't see the enemy at all but I was still gold on Damage and eliminations just from firing at where I know the enemy would normally be at that point in the match.

 

[Fappy]

Not sure what they'd do with him, but I feel like Junkrat really needs to be looked at. He's the only character in the game that has consistently killed me by complete accident. A lot of deaths to Junkrat just feel cheap and lazy.

 

[Rednog]

Blizzard, just remove mcree already. It's clear you have no idea what you're doing with the character. Besides, it's not like anyone on PC plays him since you ruined him.

This is always the argument that gets made. "You nerfed X. Just remove X from the game already! You ruined X!"

McCree is a special case, blizzard really has no idea what to do with him, hes been patched over and over, every patch either cripples him completely or makes a god. They really don't know what role to fill with him, initially he was the close range tank melter, then the anti flanker, then the mid range duelist, now hes everything. He now outclasses soldier and widowmaker at their jobs. He basically does everything now and suffers nothing, he just sits in the back rattling off shots. Low health squishy prepare to be 1-2 shot, tank a headshot followed by 1-2 body shots and you're kaput.

McCree is the hands down most toxic hero in ranked right now. Pretty much every team has him and especially in higher ranks it becomes a match of protect/kill the McCree for each team.

 

[Frankster]

:S Good Ana players were already formidable and was seeing Ana very often in competitive ranked games, I have even more reason to fear her now.

Whilst talking about characters that "need" a nerf in our humble opinion:

Roadhog, the hook (and it's very generous hitbox)+left click 1 shotting people is super lame. How is no one here complaining about that? xD And the dude is 600 hp and self heals super fast too, I always dread seeing a Roadhog on the enemy team and always cheer when there's one on my team since I know that dude can take care of himself.

Genji. Oh god this ninja. Most genjis you'll meet are meh, but when you're against a good genji who can dance around in middle of 4-5 of you and keep you stalled for ages, it's downright depressing. A good genji is almost impossible to hit cos he just dances all around a team and disrupts them more effectively then any other character out there.
This type of genji doesn't pew pew shruikens at you from afar, nah a good genji vaults in the middle of your team and is the most troll character you will ever meet.
Second best character after Tracer to grief supports on an enemy team too. My nightmares as a Mercy main are having both a genji and a tracer hunting me down whilst my team mates do nothing despite frantically jumping back and forth between them, then angrily demand heals once I'm dead..Oh wait this isn't a nightmare, this is real life, aargh D:

 

[Raioken18]

YES. I will be able to play Pharah in competitive again ^_^

Now to fix the ranking system!

I'm ranked in the bottom 20% of all players but most games with Pharah, in the top 10% of all players for top damage and the top 15% for kills. Basically winning comes down to whoever had the least players AFK from their team... which is pretty crap...

 

[RedDeadFred]

Blizzard, just remove mcree already. It's clear you have no idea what you're doing with the character. Besides, it's not like anyone on PC plays him since you ruined him.

Uh... it's probably too early to tell, but I think this brings him right where he should be. Before, he was way too good at way too long of ranges. This made several heroes get completely overshadowed. With the Fan the Hammer and Flash Bang buffs, he should be able to excel at the counter flanker and squishy duelist rolls he's always been meant for.

 

[Paragon Fury]

Blizzard, just remove mcree already. It's clear you have no idea what you're doing with the character. Besides, it's not like anyone on PC plays him since you ruined him.

Uh... it's probably too early to tell, but I think this brings him right where he should be. Before, he was way too good at way too long of ranges. This made several heroes get completely overshadowed. With the Fan the Hammer and Flash Bang buffs, he should be able to excel at the counter flanker and squishy duelist rolls he's always been meant for.

This. He might still need a ranged bodyshot DMG decrease to bring him in a bit at range except in the hands of good players, but right now he seems pretty fair.

The Soldier 76 nerf was completely uncalled for though and has made him almost unplayable.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Blizzard, just remove mcree already. It's clear you have no idea what you're doing with the character. Besides, it's not like anyone on PC plays him since you ruined him.

This is always the argument that gets made. "You nerfed X. Just remove X from the game already! You ruined X!"

Sometimes this comes from another frustration. We all have characters that we would like to get another glance. It's frustrating that the development team would spend so much time focusing on X character because they feel displeased or it's not up to their standards, and then ignore us when we want Y or X looked at because there's obvious brokenness.

I don't even need to post Mei. Enough people have already spoken about her. [https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=overwatch%20mei%20nerf] But other characters need a look at as well.

I gotta scratch my head on the mei one, and I've played against some *great* mei players...

she can be amazing for defending a point from being captured, due to her 2 special abilities, but otherwise you just have to respect her left click distance and she's not hard at all to take out, and her ultimate really doesn't produce much unless it's combined with the other team hammering on the people caught in the blizzard radius.

plus there are tons of abilities that characters have that either pushes mei away, or allows you to escape from her to fight another day, so I'm not sure why out of all the characters you're having so much trouble with her.

OT: glad for both of these, pharah was useless as of late due to the twitchy unreal tournament/quake players that swarmed to mcree, and ana wasn't seeing much competitive time so I'm not minding the way they boosted her for now.

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

Actually maybe you do. You might find her frustrating but she is actually low tier as it is. I can't possibly think of a nerf that wouldn't render her totally unplayable.

I gotta scratch my head on the mei one, and I've played against some *great* mei players...

she can be amazing for defending a point from being captured, due to her 2 special abilities, but otherwise you just have to respect her left click distance and she's not hard at all to take out, and her ultimate really doesn't produce much unless it's combined with the other team hammering on the people caught in the blizzard radius.

plus there are tons of abilities that characters have that either pushes mei away, or allows you to escape from her to fight another day, so I'm not sure why out of all the characters you're having so much trouble with her.

If I ever said that Mei needs a nerf, then I'll understand what your point. But my point is that there are a vast majority of people who dislike Mei as she is. That's why I linked to the Google outcry on the character. I think she has a lot in her kit, but there are other characters who have a lot in their kit as well that I really don't mind going up against. Same as Mei. In fact, I don't mind going up against anyone. Some I'll lose to, some I'll win, and some I'll out play. That's the nature of the game.

To be absolutely frank, the times I play now, I don't even see her. But that doesn't keep the overwatch community from voicing complaints that seem to fall on deaf ears. That's my point.

 

[Hazy]

Not sure what they'd do with him, but I feel like Junkrat really needs to be looked at. He's the only character in the game that has consistently killed me by complete accident. A lot of deaths to Junkrat just feel cheap and lazy.

The trick to Junkrat seems to be anticipating where it would be most beneficial to trap you and then circumventing it. He's really good at denying you access/escape from an area, but the flip side of that strength is that he can really only deny you from one area.

At least that's been my experience as both a Junkrat enthusiast and a Junkrat slayer.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Actually maybe you do. You might find her frustrating but she is actually low tier as it is. I can't possibly think of a nerf that wouldn't render her totally unplayable.

I gotta scratch my head on the mei one, and I've played against some *great* mei players...

she can be amazing for defending a point from being captured, due to her 2 special abilities, but otherwise you just have to respect her left click distance and she's not hard at all to take out, and her ultimate really doesn't produce much unless it's combined with the other team hammering on the people caught in the blizzard radius.

plus there are tons of abilities that characters have that either pushes mei away, or allows you to escape from her to fight another day, so I'm not sure why out of all the characters you're having so much trouble with her.

If I ever said that Mei needs a nerf, then I'll understand what your point. But my point is that there are a vast majority of people who dislike Mei as she is. That's why I linked to the Google outcry on the character. I think she has a lot in her kit, but there are other characters who have a lot in their kit as well that I really don't mind going up against. Same as Mei. In fact, I don't mind going up against anyone. Some I'll lose to, some I'll win, and some I'll out play. That's the nature of the game.

To be absolutely frank, the times I play now, I don't even see her. But that doesn't keep the overwatch community from voicing complaints that seem to fall on deaf ears. That's my point.

well when you open the first like 4 links that you google searched, they are all about mei needing to be nerf and that she is OP, so that's why I took it that you thought mei was OP as well since that what's what was being discussed.

Otherwise yeah I agree to the rest of that, nature of the game that depending on what classes you lean towards, someone is going to annoy/beat you more probably than others, (such as zarya being mine, I hate that fucking immovable bubble, the amount of times a bubble has saved someone from being knocked off a ledge...*grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr*) so I'm not sure why mei is being picked out more than anyone else in that google search.

 

[Spider RedNight]

Not sure what they'd do with him, but I feel like Junkrat really needs to be looked at. He's the only character in the game that has consistently killed me by complete accident. A lot of deaths to Junkrat just feel cheap and lazy.

The trick to Junkrat seems to be anticipating where it would be most beneficial to trap you and then circumventing it. He's really good at denying you access/escape from an area, but the flip side of that strength is that he can really only deny you from one area.

At least that's been my experience as both a Junkrat enthusiast and a Junkrat slayer.

Agreed, half the fun in Junkrat is sometimes not knowing what you're doing anyway. Just embrace the chaos; accidents happen when there's a dude with timed explosives. I wouldn't really say it's any more cheap than, I dunno, a really good Widowmaker sniping everyone.

OT: Oh no, they keep fixing/changing characters! Why not nerf ALL the characters?? Or just get rid of the game altogether! >:C

Seriously, "just get rid of McCree". I guess "comprehensive edits" aren't a thing. Not like someone can go fix something that still seems broken, innit

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Not sure what they'd do with him, but I feel like Junkrat really needs to be looked at. He's the only character in the game that has consistently killed me by complete accident. A lot of deaths to Junkrat just feel cheap and lazy.

The trick to Junkrat seems to be anticipating where it would be most beneficial to trap you and then circumventing it. He's really good at denying you access/escape from an area, but the flip side of that strength is that he can really only deny you from one area.

At least that's been my experience as both a Junkrat enthusiast and a Junkrat slayer.

agree to this, there are certain chokepoints that make me absolutely giddy as a junkrat player, so I just circumvent those when I'm playing against a junkrat and I seem to have little problem against one, just don't group up with others and stay away from the typical path/major door the payload is going through, and his grenades become nothing more than bullets being dodged by neo/flash/superman/etc... (then again as a counter to this, I fire off multiple grenades off walls/ceilings to acquire maximum damage at a single moment when they rapid fire explode among enemies.)

 

[Denamic]

I don't even need to post Mei.

Mei isn't even that good. She fills a very niche role of neutralising quick flankers, and even then, most of the flankers she's supposed to counter has escape mechanisms that neuters her. Sure, if she catches you alone, she'll probably kill you, but she's trash in teamfights aside from her ult. Pick Zarya or Junkrat, and Mei is deleted.