Overwatch PTR Update Drops Nerfs on Orisa and Ana, Buffs for Others

[ffronw]

Overwatch PTR Update Drops Nerfs on Orisa and Ana, Buffs for Others

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The latest PTR update for Overwatch drops nerfs the newest character, Orisa, and on Ana as well.

The newest Public Test Region patch for Overwatch nerfs Ana, and it even nerfs Orisa, the newest character who isn't even in the live game yet. Orisa was just announced last week [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/169695-Overwatch-New-24th-Hero-Orisa-Tank], but she's already getting toned down a bit.

Orisa's Fusion Driver has had its magazine size reduced from 200 to 150. Her Supercharger ability has also had its cost increased by 15 percent. Obviously, Blizzard felt she was too powerful.

Also getting whacked with the nerf bat is Ana. Her biotic rifle damage has dropped from 80 to 60. Her biotic grenade has had its damage and healing cut in half, with damage dropping from 60 to 30 and healing down to 50 from 100.

There have been a few other changes as well. These include the following:

Junkrat no longer hurts himself with his explosions
Sombra's stealth sound effects and voiceover distance has been reduced to 15 meters, and her Translocator cooldown has been dropped from six seconds to four seconds
Winston's Barrier Projector cooldown now starts counting down when the barrier is placed, not when it ends
Zenyatta's Orb of Destruction secondary fire recovery reduced from one second to 0.6 second, and Orb of Discord now targets enemies through barriers

These changes are live on the PTR today, but there's still no word on when they, and Orisa, will make their way to the live game.

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[hentropy]

I'm conflicted about Ana, on one hand I don't mind her being a permanent fixture in the meta because she actually requires skill to play and can be fun to play once you get decent with her. On the other hand her burst healing is what drove the tank meta and made games less about diving and brawling and more about chiseling and poking at the choke. Between her nade and sleep dart she still might be useful in some comps but it'll likely drop her out of the meta, Zen taking her spot with things finally starting to revert back to 2-2-2, which is where I think Blizz wants it.

 

[IceForce]

Also getting whacked with the nerf bat is Ana. Her biotic rifle damage has dropped from 80 to 60. Her biotic grenade has had its damage and healing cut in half, with damage dropping from 60 to 30 and healing down to 50 from 100.

Fuck that old hag.

It was sooo stupid how she could two-shot a Tracer (and with a Mercy damage-boost, two-shot any other squishy), how her grenade did more damage than a Genji dash, and how her grenade gave herself effectively infinite health. Now, none of these things are true.

I've been complaining about Ana being OP since... basically since she was introduced. And it's taken Blizzard this long to finally nerf her down to a respectable level.

A healer should NEVER counter a flanker; it should always be the other way around. Maybe I'm just a shitty Tracer, but pulse bombs quickly became my main way of killing Anas, because trying to kill them via any other means as Tracer usually proved impossible.

 

[Godzillarich(aka tf2godz)]

Orisa nerfs seem fair, She seemed to have too much damage on her considering her role to mainly be about protection, Damage seems like should be her weakness. We don't need an Ana of tanks, Speaking of which...

Also getting whacked with the nerf bat is Ana. Her biotic rifle damage has dropped from 80 to 60. Her biotic grenade has had its damage and healing cut in half, with damage dropping from 60 to 30 and healing down to 50 from 100.

Fuck that old hag.

It was sooo stupid how she could two-shot a Tracer (and with a Mercy damage-boost, two-shot any other squishy), how her grenade did more damage than a Genji dash, and how her grenade gave herself effectively infinite health. Now, none of these things are true.

I've been complaining about Ana being OP since... basically since she was introduced. And it's taken Blizzard this long to finally nerf her down to a respectable level.

A healer should NEVER counter a flanker; it should always be the other way around. Maybe I'm just a shitty Tracer, but pulse bombs quickly became my main way of killing Anas, because trying to kill them via any other means as Tracer usually proved impossible.

While I am happy that they're hitting her hard you gotta remember there is such a thing as going too far with a nerf. This could end up like dva with her completely out of the meta. Also from what I've been hearing if this Nerf goes live on consoles she's effectively dead there.

 

[IceForce]

A healer should NEVER counter a flanker; it should always be the other way around. Maybe I'm just a shitty Tracer..

Yeah You pretty much must be, Ana should never be able to counter a tracer, Ana has 200 health, with very limited mobility, and can be take out very quickly.

*300 health. Her nade gives her an additional 100 health (or at least it did, until this nerf). And if you get hit even once by her gun or her nade, it forces you to recall instantly because you instantly lose too much health.

It's nowhere near as easy as you're making out.

 

[IceForce]

While I am happy that they're hitting her hard you gotta remember there is such a thing as going too far with a nerf. This could end up like dva with her completely out of the meta. Also from what I've been hearing if this Nerf goes live on consoles she's effectively dead there.

True, but they haven't nerfed her healing potential. Her nade still gives 50% healing boost, and her gun still heals for the same amount it always did.

All they've done is nerf her survivability, which was sorely needed. Because as things were she had better survivability than Mercy.
Ana's supposed to be an old woman, ffs.

 

[09philj]

People who complain about Ana have obviously never played her and don't understand that she's basically the Support equivalent of Widowmaker. Steep learning curve, Extremely powerful when played well.

Widowmaker is the sniper with a shallow learning curve, even by Overwatch's standards. If you can use a sniper rifle in a game, you can use Widow. If you can shoot straight, you can use Ana. She requires more skill than the other healers, but neither of them even require you to hit a target. Most of Overwatch's heroes have a pretty low skill floor and gentle skill curve, because they're all highly specialised; you're generally required to do one thing. The difficult ones are those that demand a greater degree of multitasking and battlefield awareness, especially Tobjorn, because he's turned up for a game with a totally different playstyle.

 

[KenAri]

Do not like the Junkrat buffs. He's already a nightmare to fight against, when you bump into him in a hallway and he just blows his load all over you for ~240 damage. Sad that he now also gets away unscathed.

I like the Ana nerfs. It's a shame to see the high skillcap heroes nerfed, but Ana was very boring to fight against. Considering how hard she counters Bastion however, and considering how good Bastion is against tank-heavy teams, this may actually be the end of the current meta.

 

[shrekfan246]

A healer should NEVER counter a flanker; it should always be the other way around. Maybe I'm just a shitty Tracer..

Yeah You pretty much must be, Ana should never be able to counter a tracer, Ana has 200 health, with very limited mobility, and can be take out very quickly.

*300 health. Her nade gives her an additional 100 health (or at least it did, until this nerf). And if you get hit even once by her gun or her nade, it forces you to recall instantly because you instantly lose too much health.

It's nowhere near as easy as you're making out.

You're assuming that her grenade will be off cooldown, and also discounting the fact that using it means she'll be completely unable to counter you for at least a second, and that while she's trying to deal with you she's going to be letting the rest of her team deal without getting her healing.

I feel like I don't need to say this to you, but the whole point of Tracer is that you're not supposed to get hit. Now, I get how tough that can be, I'm probably one of the worst Tracers in the entire world, but I've had Tracers run circles around me as plenty of different heroes from every grouping.

And, you know, the whole way that the game is built means that if you're playing something that repeatedly isn't working for whatever reason, switch to something else. I get not wanting to, as well, I love playing The Supreme Edgelord.

Yeah, Ana is really powerful in the right hands, but she's also the hardest Support to effectively use. She's the only one who needs to actually aim to heal her team, for one thing, and she has no passive health or shield regeneration. If you're going to complain about her burst healing with her grenade, why not complain about Mercy and Zenyatta's absurdly high health/shield regen, or Lucio's passive healing which he can boost up while also being one of the most mobile characters in the game? They're all hard to kill when played well, and I can't tell you how many games I've lost because nobody on my team could kill the other team's Mercy.

I'm not going to say that Ana doesn't have any balancing issues, but I've seen this pattern happen for ten years in Blizzard's games now: something new gets introduced that obviously shifts the general play of the game to accommodate it, and then people scream and shout about it being overpowered until Blizzard finally capitulates and runs said thing into the ground, subsequently making it only used by people who are incredibly dedicated to making the best of something which is now sub-par.

 

[IceForce]

You're assuming that her grenade will be off cooldown, and also discounting the fact that using it means she'll be completely unable to counter you for at least a second, and that while she's trying to deal with you she's going to be letting the rest of her team deal without getting her healing.

I feel like I don't need to say this to you, but the whole point of Tracer is that you're not supposed to get hit. Now, I get how tough that can be, I'm probably one of the worst Tracers in the entire world, but I've had Tracers run circles around me as plenty of different heroes from every grouping.

And, you know, the whole way that the game is built means that if you're playing something that repeatedly isn't working for whatever reason, switch to something else. I get not wanting to, as well, I love playing The Supreme Edgelord.

Grenade is on a really short cooldown anyway, so even if it's not immediately available, if you don't kill her quickly enough, SMASH, out comes the grenade and she's back at full health again.

But you're right, Genji is a much better counter to Ana, because you can reflect all her bullshit back at her. (Shame I can't play Genji to save my life)

Yeah, Ana is really powerful in the right hands, but she's also the hardest Support to effectively use. She's the only one who needs to actually aim to heal her team, for one thing, and she has no passive health or shield regeneration. If you're going to complain about her burst healing with her grenade, why not complain about Mercy and Zenyatta's absurdly high health/shield regen, or Lucio's passive healing which he can boost up while also being one of the most mobile characters in the game? They're all hard to kill when played well, and I can't tell you how many games I've lost because nobody on my team could kill the other team's Mercy.

Mercy and Zen only regain health if they don't take any damage for a second or two. Lucio's off-amp heal is really weak, and his Amp is on a longer cooldown than Ana's nade. Ana can smash a grenade at her feet, even while taking damage, and be back at full health in an instant.
You're right, all the supports have to have some level of survivability and self-sustain, but Ana's was just simply too good.

Besides, Mercy and Zen are risky picks to run for one reason or another. With Zen, he's slow and his hitbox is easy to hit because it floats and never distorts like other heroes. And with Mercy, you're sacrificing the combat effectiveness of one of your 6 team members with the hope of getting value out of Rez (which doesn't always happen).
But with Ana? She was never really a 'risky' pick. If anything, she was a must-pick that fitted into basically any team comp.

 

[shrekfan246]

You're assuming that her grenade will be off cooldown, and also discounting the fact that using it means she'll be completely unable to counter you for at least a second, and that while she's trying to deal with you she's going to be letting the rest of her team deal without getting her healing.

I feel like I don't need to say this to you, but the whole point of Tracer is that you're not supposed to get hit. Now, I get how tough that can be, I'm probably one of the worst Tracers in the entire world, but I've had Tracers run circles around me as plenty of different heroes from every grouping.

And, you know, the whole way that the game is built means that if you're playing something that repeatedly isn't working for whatever reason, switch to something else. I get not wanting to, as well, I love playing The Supreme Edgelord.

Grenade is on a really short cooldown anyway, so even if it's not immediately available, if you don't kill her quickly enough, SMASH, out comes the grenade and she's back at full health again.

It's a ten second cooldown.

I hate to say this, but if you're still trying to 1v1 an Ana ten seconds after she grenaded herself, you've got more problems than her grenade being too powerful. And I've been killed by enough Anas that I think I'm qualified to say that.

But you're right, Genji is a much better counter to Ana, because you can reflect all her bullshit back at her. (Shame I can't play Genji to save my life)

Don't worry, I don't think anyone can actually play Genji. He is pretty fun, though.

Mercy and Zen only regain health if they don't take any damage for a second or two. Lucio's off-amp heal is really weak, and his Amp is on a longer cooldown than Ana's nade. Ana can smash a grenade at her feet, even while taking damage, and be back at full health in an instant.
You're right, all the supports have to have some level of survivability and self-sustain, but Ana's was just simply too good.

Lucio's cooldown is only two seconds longer than Ana's. Yes, that two seconds can make all the difference, but there's also the fact that while Lucio is using his ability (and even when he isn't), he's also still passively healing the rest of his team (assuming they're in range, at least). Also, I'm going to pedantically pick at your wording because the only way Ana will be "back at full health" is if she's not getting the full benefit of the grenade or is god-tier and somehow manages to time it to be used when she's at exactly 100 health, in which case you're probably going to be steamrolled anyway. Now, once again I'm not going to argue that being able to heal for half of her total health bar isn't powerful, and I certainly won't argue that she doesn't have a high damage output, but if you're trying to 1v1 an Ana and you can't deal ~140-190 damage to her in the ten seconds it takes for her grenade to come back up, then you probably shouldn't be trying to 1v1 her.

Besides, Mercy and Zen are risky picks to run for one reason or another. With Zen, he's slow and his hitbox is easy to hit because it floats and never distorts like other heroes. And with Mercy, you're sacrificing the combat effectiveness of one of your 6 team members with the hope of getting value out of Rez (which doesn't always happen).
But with Ana? She was never really a 'risky' pick. If anything, she was a must-pick that fitted into basically any team comp.

Again, Ana is risky in the sense that the person playing her needs to actually be able to aim. That might sound like it's a pretty low barrier for entry, and yeah, if you're playing at a high enough level then it might be because I'm sure not everyone is as completely incapable of aiming as I am, but even her grenade requires a basic level of awareness and aim to actually get any use out of it. Mistime or misaim it and you effectively risk swinging the entire weight of the match in the other team's favor.

And if we're going to be on the subject of characters who basically define the meta, do you also complain about the fact that Zarya fits into basically any team composition?

 

[IceForce]

-

Alright, fine. I'm speaking too much in absolutes, and I should probably stop doing that.

Let me just finish by saying that there were plenty of times when an enemy Ana should've died, but didn't. Getting her to the point where a sneeze could kill her, only for her to get half of her health back in the blink of an eye (and damage / block healing on you in the process), was one of the most infuriating things in this entire game.

It's not just me saying this either. I'm an avid viewer of Fenner (a fellow Australian) who is a GM Tracer, and he too struggles at times with enemy Anas, and has many of the same complaints I do. (He does all this on stream though, making it difficult for me to link to anything specific.)

 

[Dr. Thrax]

Wait, wasn't the entire point of Junkrat that he isn't really supposed to be in close-quarters combat, and the self-damage from his grenades made close-quarter heroes a better counter to him? It'd be like playing Demoman on TF2 using the Sticky Jumper but it did damage to other people.

 

[Godzillarich(aka tf2godz)]

Wait, wasn't the entire point of Junkrat that he isn't really supposed to be in close-quarters combat, and the self-damage from his grenades made close-quarter heroes a better counter to him? It'd be like playing Demoman on TF2 using the Sticky Jumper but it did damage to other people.

To be fair Junkrat is in a pretty shitty position right now, no one really plays him in Competitive and he's seen by many as an enemy ult generator. Besides that analogy doesn't really work for him, he really doesn't have a sticky bomb launcher only a Grenade launcher.

 

[IceForce]

To be fair Junkrat is in a pretty shitty position right now, no one really plays him in Competitive and he's seen by many as an enemy ult generator.

Junkrat's tire (ultimate) only has 100hp, which I always thought was weird, because his trap and mine both have 100hp too. One would think that an ultimate should be a little bit more difficult to destroy than a standard ability.
A decent buff might be to buff his tire to 150hp (same health as a Tracer), which would make the ult a bit harder to shut down.

I've no idea where Blizzard are going with this friendly-fire grenade buff though. Whatever, doesn't really affect me.

 

[SirSullymore]

Yay Winston and Zen buffs!

 

[Lightspeaker]

Huge Ana nerfs are justified. Explained this before but she is basically the biggest reason for the Tank meta.

Not tried Orisa because I don't play on the PTR. Have to see how she is live.

Junkrat buff seems a bit unwarranted really. Okay he's not played much in comp but that's a pretty gigantic buff no matter how you slice it.

Sombra and Winston buffs are pretty nice.

The Zen buff with the Orb of Discord could make him OP.

To be fair Junkrat is in a pretty shitty position right now, no one really plays him in Competitive and he's seen by many as an enemy ult generator.

Junkrat's tire (ultimate) only has 100hp, which I always thought was weird, because his trap and mine both have 100hp too. One would think that an ultimate should be a little bit more difficult to destroy than a standard ability.
A decent buff might be to buff his tire to 150hp (same health as a Tracer), which would make the ult a bit harder to shut down.

I've no idea where Blizzard are going with this friendly-fire grenade buff though. Whatever, doesn't really affect me.

I'm just guessing here but I think its entirely possible the reason his tyre has 100HP is that Reinhardt's Fire Strike does 100HP damage. Every other character in the game has a chance to shoot down the tyre but Rein has NO other ranged ability so he's totally screwed against a Rip Tyre full stop if you boost its HP. As it is it can be pretty hard to hit the strike against it anyway, but at least he has a chance.

You could compensate by making Rein's fire strike have 150 damage but that'd be overpowered as hell (it'd one-shot Tracers for a start).

 

[IceForce]

Huge Ana nerfs are justified. Explained this before but she is basically the biggest reason for the Tank meta.

Yeah, I guess it's no coincidence that the Ana nerfs come out at the same time as a new tank is released. The last thing Blizzard wants is for the game to return to a triple-tank meta again, which would be all too possible if teams start running Orisa + two other tanks.

The way to ensure the tank-heavy meta is dead and buried, never to return, is to nerf Ana severely. And so that's what they've done.

 

[Revolutionary]

Huge Ana nerfs are justified. Explained this before but she is basically the biggest reason for the Tank meta.

Yeah, I guess it's no coincidence that the Ana nerfs come out at the same time as a new tank is released. The last thing Blizzard wants is for the game to return to a triple-tank meta again, which would be all too possible if teams start running Orisa + two other tanks.

The way to ensure the tank-heavy meta is dead and buried, never to return, is to nerf Ana severely. And so that's what they've done.

Except they didn't in the end. I'm still killing unskilled tracers btw