Hero Changes in OW2 Patch Have Crazy Buff For One Hero
The mid-season patch for Season 6 has come with a Hero Mastery mode that allows players to train with certain heroes, perfecting their gameplay style and abilities. The hero roster was also a big focus of the mid-season patch, with some heroes getting interesting changes.
Zarya is probably the most updated hero. The patch made changes to her Projected Barrier, which is meant to shield allies. Health was increased from 200 to 225, the cooldown was decreased from 10 to eight seconds, and the size increased by 15 percent. This change was meant to incentivize Zarya players to use her barrier on allies more, but it came with some added benefits.
After playing around with Zarya after the patch, one gamer noticed that the Russian tank can now gain a maximum of 45 charge with a single use of her Projected Barrier. This basically means that she can deal a crapton more damage and build up her ultimate insanely fast.
The buff was so OP in the right hands, in fact, that some competitive players are hoping that the max charge is actually a bug.
All Overwatch 2 Hero Changes in Season 6 Patch Notes
ZARYA
Projected Barrier
- Health increased from 200 to 225
- Cooldown decreased from 10 to 8 seconds
- Size increased 15%
Developer Comment: Zarya often spends both barrier charges on herself as it is usually more consistent for building energy. The change to Projected Barrier incentivizes using the barrier for her allies more often.
JUNKER QUEEN
Jagged Blade
- Impact damage increased from 50 to 65
Developer Comment: This change rewards throwing accuracy with the Jagged Blade without directly affecting Junker Queen’s self-healing.
ORISA
Fortify
- Cooldown begins when the ability is activated instead of when it ends
- Cooldown increased from 12 to 16.5 seconds
- Overhealth bonus decreased from 125 to 100
Developer Comment: The Fortify cooldown has been adjusted so that the effective uptime remains the same. However, Orisa is no longer incentivized to cancel the ability early to begin the cooldown immediately, which makes the interval between uses consistent and more susceptible to counterplay.
ASHE
The Viper
- Reload time decreased from .25 to .2 seconds
Developer Comment: Ashe has the longest total reload time of all heroes to balance out the advantage of being able to shoot after a partial reload. However, we are shortening it slightly to make the full reload from empty less punishing.
BASTION
A-36 Tactical Grenade
- Impact damage decreased from 30 to 15
Configuration Artillery
- Can no longer deal critical hits
Developer Comment: The A-36 Tactical Grenade is now more reliable after having its projectile size increased recently, so it doesn’t need to be quite as damaging. The change to Configuration Artillery is a bug fix from what was intended for the ultimate, and we’ll monitor to see how this impacts Bastion’s performance.
MEI
Endothermic Blaster
- Damage increased from 65 to 70 per second
- Duration before slow falls off between primary fire hits increased from 0.5 to 0.6 seconds.
Deep Chill
- Bonus damage can now also be triggered with Mei’s quick melee
Developer Comment: Mei is still underperforming after her last set of changes, so we are increasing the effectiveness of primary fire and improving the quality of life to Deep Chill.
BAPTISTE
Regenerative Burst
- Instant healing decreased from 50 to 40
- Heal over time decreased from 50 over 5 seconds to 40 over 4 seconds
Developer Comment: Regenerative Burst’s overall healing output has been too effective after gaining the bonus instant heal for low-health allies, so we are reducing its total healing slightly.
KIRIKO
Protection Suzu
- Now passes through enemy heroes.
Developer Comment: The Protection Suzu no longer knocks back enemy heroes, so the projectile doesn’t need to impact them either. This quality-of-life change prevents accidental activations when thrown into groups with both enemies and allies.
SUPPORT PASSIVE
- Duration until support passive activates increased from 1.5 to 2 seconds
Developer Comment: Support heroes have received individual improvements to their survivability and are quite strong overall, so we’re reducing the impact of the role-wide passive.
