Zarya’s Graviton Surge just got a lot scarier on Overwatch’s public test region.
Among a list of Overwatch hero adjustments posted by principal designer Geoff Goodman on the Overwatch forum, there are two lines about Zarya slipped right in at the end. “Graviton Surge now disables all movement abilities of affect targets. This is similar to how Junkrat’s trap affects abilities.”
What does that mean? Mobility abilities that once allowed heroes to break out of Zarya’s Graviton Surge—which pulls enemies within the area-of-effect into a group for a set amount of time—no longer help in getting free. Tracer players won’t be able to zip out or use Recall. D.Va won’t be able to use her boosters to fly away. Mercy’s Guardian Angel won’t help either. If a hero gets caught in Graviton Surge, they’re stuck. Already a really strong ultimate ability, Zarya’s Graviton Surge is downright deadly now.
Related: One of Doomfist’s best abilities might have already received a nerf
Other changes laid out by Goodman are much smaller, but could still have a big impact on Overwatch’s meta.
Reinhardt’s hammer swing has been increased by 10 percent, Goodman said: “On top of the swing speed increase, we’ve gone through and tweaked many timings and other things about the hammer to make it more responsive.” The weapon should feel more natural while swinging and making contact with enemies.
Charge also received an adjustment: Impacting another charging hero—Doomfist or Reinhardt—won’t deal damage to both characters, but will knock both down.
McCree’s Flashbang got a slight buff, now slowing targets “significantly” when stunned. It’ll be harder for enemies to slink away behind a corner after they’ve been hit with a Flashbang. As for Reaper, his Shadow Step ability simply got a little bit quieter and less noticeable from a distance.
Two changes are listed for Doomfist, but one—the Rocket Punch nerf—has been on the PTR for a while now. Today’s patch added a user interface indicator to the new hero’s Seismic Slam ability to show how much damage will be dealt, and how much it did deal. “Also, targeting this ability while in the air is now restricted to locations lower than your current height,” Goodman added.
Goodman did not say when these adjustments will hit the Overwatch live server—though it’s expected they’ll arrive in a major patch with Doomfist himself.
