Doomfist’s Rocket Punch has received a nerf on the Overwatch PTR

Since his inception onto Overwatch’s live servers a couple weeks ago, Doomfist has been running rampant as a DPS hero in both Quick Play and the Competitive Ladder. He even saw valuable playing time during season four of OGN Overwatch Apex in Korea.

One of Doomfist’s most instrumental abilities, his Rocket Punch, is a main reason why he’s such a handful to deal with. It only has a four second cooldown, it does a ton of damage, and it can be used to escape from harm’s way.

Last night, however, an update hit the PTR servers, and Reddit user “byboomstick” created a GIF to illustrate a change to Rocket Punch that should make it a little less ridiculous.

As you can see in the image, the hitbox for Rocket Punch is pretty forgiving on the live servers. Now on the PTR, it appears that you need to be way more accurate to land a Rocket Punch, as the hitbox seems less wide on the powerful attack. The cooldown is the same and it appears that the damage is also the same, if not similar.

This should help bring Doomfist back down to Earth a bit. Rocket Punch is an unbelievably versatile move that most players believe needs to be toned down a bit, so this is a decent starting point.

There is a fine line, however, as the ability is indeed instrumental in his build as a character, and if it’s nerfed too much, it could take Doomfist from a really strong DPS pick to a poor all-around option.

You can check out Doomfist’s change on the PTR now to see if the change is substantial enough.