Overwatch’s newest patch, which hit the live servers on June 30, may encourage you to buy your favorite Brigitte main a big mug of tea. Big nerfs were teased for the shield-wielding support in the latest Experimental Card and they’ve all reached the live servers as of today.
Ashe received a sizable Dynamite adjustment while D.Va and Junkrat got a few minor buffs. High-ranked competitive mode players will also notice a few adjustments in the upcoming season of play.
General updates
A massive change will be coming to the competitive mode when season 23 begins on July 3. After completing placements, the highest initial skill rating (SR) a player will be able to achieve is 3,900. This effectively places all top players in the Masters competitive tier at the start of the season. But players will still be “matched with other players of similar skill,” according to developers. To put this in perspective, the highest-ranked players often place their accounts at 4,400 SR and climb as the season progresses.
Without SR decay, which was removed several competitive seasons ago, players have been able to place their accounts at a high level and leave them there the entire season. Additionally, “achieving a very high SR at the end of a season can no longer be achieved by completing a mere five placement matches,” the developers said.
Competitive Open Queue will also be found alongside regular Role Queue in the competitive play menu. These two queues won’t interact and will have separate leaderboards, but they’re now found under the same competitive play card.
Hero updates
All of the hero changes that were tested in the latest Experimental Card went through to the live servers in this patch.
Brigitte
- Repair Pack no longer grants an additional armor health pool when healing full health targets.
- Barrier Shield maximum health increased from 200 to 250. Regeneration rate decreased from 100 to 85 health per second. Cooldown when destroyed increased from three to five seconds.
Brigitte is now officially nerfed. Her Repair Packs, often used to bolster the health of flanking DPS heroes in dive compositions, will no longer “overheal” with armor on top of full health. “Granting additional maximum health is a powerful ability and has proven too effective when combined with the additional healing of Repair Pack,” the developers said.
To compensate, Brigitte’s shield has been given an extra 50 health to help keep her protected from attacks. The shield will have an additional regenerative cooldown and will regenerate slower, so Brigitte players will have to be more mindful about their shield usage.
Ashe
- Dynamite cooldown increased from 10 to 12 seconds.
Ashe has been a must-pick hero in most team compositions this summer, due in part to the enormous power of her Dynamite ability. The area-of-effect damage ability will now have an additional two seconds tacked onto its cooldown, making it a bit less oppressive than it has been.
D.Va
- Fusion Cannons movement penalty reduced from 50 to 40 percent.
- Defense Matrix cooldown reduced from 1.5 to one second.
- Micro Missiles activation delay reduced from 0.5 to 0.25 seconds.
As the era of Orisa and Sigma continues, D.Va has been mostly pushed to the wayside in most team compositions. These buffs may help to bring her back into the forefront, though. Less movement reduction and a lower Defense Matrix cooldown mean that D.Va can zip around absorbing damage in ways that Sigma can’t. The Micro Missiles change allows her to inflict damage in quicker sequences as well.
Junkrat
- Concussion Mine trigger delay reduced from 0.156 to 0.1 seconds.
- RIP-Tire time to take control of Junkrat post detonation has been reduced from 1.5 to 0.9 seconds.
Junkrat has long been a bane for double shield compositions, but these minor buffs may make him more of a pain for enemies in the future. The Concussion Mine change is relatively minor but allows Junkrat to detonate mines on a quicker basis, allowing for rapid elimination of enemies. The biggest change is the RIP-Tire adjustment. Players can now get out of the “self-stun” during his ultimate nearly twice as quickly, allowing them to get right back into the game and complete kills.
These changes are now effective for all modes in Overwatch, including quick play and competitive mode. All changes have been uploaded to the live servers. The patch notes can always be accessed from the main menu in Overwatch for quick reminders of these changes.
