Blizzard has released a new patch on the public test servers of massively popular multiplayer shooter Overwatch.
One of the major inclusions in the patch is the addition of Ana, a support-class sniper, as a playable hero. The battle-hardened Ana is capable of both healing her teammates and damaging enemies through her sniper rifle, as hinted by a teaser image released by the official Twitter account of Overwatch last week.
The introduction of Ana is not the only thing that Blizzard included in the patch, as it also comes with several balancing tweaks and a significant change to the game's competitive mode.
Ultimate Changes
One of the general changes is the fact that self-healing abilities will now also charge ultimate abilities. Due to this change, some of the heroes received changes to the costs of their ultimate. Specifically, the ultimates of Bastion, Lucio and Soldier: 76 now cost 10 percent longer to build up, while Road Hog's ultimate is up by 45 percent.
D.Va Buffed Up To Tank
The character that benefitted the most from the patch is D.Va, whose Defense Matrix ability received a huge buff. The skill had its cooldown decreased from 10 seconds to only 1 second and can last for 4 seconds while the button is held but operates with a resource meter that will deplete while it is active. The resource meter will recharge when Defense Matrix is not in use, and it will take 10 seconds for an empty resource meter to get filled up.
The ultimate of D.Va has also changed, with its cost decreased by 15 percent and the delay before the explosion down to 3 seconds from the previous 4 seconds. In addition, D.Va will no longer get hurt by her ultimate's explosion.
"D.Va isn't being selected as often as our other tanks, and we feel a lot of that stems from the underperformance of her damage absorption abilities," explained Blizzard in the patch notes, leading to the buff on her skills.
Zenyatta And Mercy Get Buffed Too
Zenyatta also received a buff in the patch, with his base shield increased by 50 to give him 50 health points and 150 shield points. His Orb of Harmony and Orb of Discord skills have been made to travel much faster, and his ultimate will allow him to move two times faster and recover 300 health per second, from 200 health per second in the past.
Mercy, on the other hand, saw her Damage Boost skill increased to provide a 50 percent boost compared to only 30 percent previously, but it can no longer be stacked with another of her boosts. The cost of her ultimate was increased by 30 percent, but Mercy will now be able to move while activating the skill, and it will also refresh the Guardian Angel skill's cooldown.
No More Hero Stacking In Competitive
Blizzard has also removed the possibility of selecting multiple instances of the same hero in the game's competitive play.
Blizzard explained that hero stacking is fine in quick play, where games are more relaxed, but in competitive mode, the company believes that hero stacking has become detrimental to Overwatch, which leads to bad playing experiences.
Hero stacking has been abused to great extent on Assault and Hybrid Maps and has been used in strategies that aim to frustrate opponents and cause indefinite delays. Because of the higher stakes in competitive play, these tactics have become rampant, and so Blizzard has decided to pull the plug.
