Overwatch Dev Discusses Mei and Mercy Buffs, Zenyatta Nerf

Find out how some of your heroes will be changing.

Blizzard Entertainment’s Overwatch has had a pretty interesting ride thus far especially when hero changes are concerned. Look at McCree who’s been buffed and nerfed to what seems like a point of indecisiveness. Then again, there are heroes like D.Va which have been improved greatly thanks to a few changes.

After getting buffed with the last major balance update, support hero Zenyatta is one of the few who will be nerfed according to hero designer Geoff Goodman. It doesn’t sound all that bad though. “Zenyatta is definitely playing a lot better these days. At this point anecdotal feedback, internal stats, and competitive feedback are all showing hes actually a bit *too* strong at the moment. At this point we’re looking likely to reduce some of his power in an upcoming patch, probably related to his Discord Orb.”

Goodman also talked about providing a new ability to Mercy which could potentially create healing over time for team-mates. “If she were to get a new ability it would ideally have to be something that she could use more ‘outside of combat’ or something that is generally used much more rarely. That said there are some things we can do to help her out in the near future.”

As for Mei, he noted that her “ult can feel a bit unwieldy and inconsistent, especially when you compare it to other similar ults such as Reinhardt’s. We’re internally testing allowing the ultimate projectile she throws to pierce barriers (such as Reinhardt’s shield), and increasing the radius a bit on it.”

We’ll find out what the actual changes are when the next update arrives but what are your early impressions? Hopeful? Fearful? Let us know below.

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