Overwatch April 22 patch buffs Roadhog, Moira & D.Va, nerfs Echo & more: patch notes

A new Overwatch patch has just hit the live servers on PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, bringing in a bunch of buffs and nerfs to many of the game’s heroes.

It’s clear that this patch is aiming to radically alter the current meta by buffing bunker heroes such as Orisa and Roadhog while also nerfing the likes of Reinhardt who has been dominant for quite some time now.

The biggest change this patch comes to Baptiste who has seen his kit reworked slightly. Now, his Biotic Launcher healing has been decreased by 10, but buffed by 20 when he lands a direct shot.

This should actually improve him with bunker comps, but it’s important to note that Immortality Field has been nerfed. Now, heroes will only have 10% of their maximum HP remain when the ability is active.

Also on the healer front, Moira has seen a buff with her Biotic Orb cooldown decreasing from 10 seconds to 8. This should radically increase both her healing and DPS output which will in turn result in quicker ultimate generation.

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D.Va’s April Fools change has also gone live in a way. While the joke buff made her Call Mech ability deal 600 damage, this revamped version will deal 250 – still enough to kill many of the game’s heroes.

Orisa, Reinhardt and Roadhog have also been changed. Orisa’s Halt cooldown has been decreased by two seconds, which should result in more pulls while Roadhog’s damage has been buffed. Could we be seeing a return of the pulled pork comp?

Reinhardt, however, has seen his health nerfed, losing 50 armor which should make him a bit more killable.

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Finally, Echo will no longer be full health when coming out of Duplicate. She will now have either the same HP she had before the ultimate activated or 100, whichever is higher.

Full patch notes:

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HERO UPDATES

Baptiste
We are reducing Immortality Field’s minimum health threshold and Baptiste’s area-of-effect healing output as they were providing too much value overall for closely grouped teams. However, direct impacts with the healing grenade projectiles will now grant additional healing to the impacted ally to keep his single target healing effective, with a slightly higher skill requirement.

Biotic Launcher (Secondary Fire)

• Healing projectile explosion reduced from 60 to 50 health
• Healing projectile direct impact now restores an additional 20 health

Immortality Field

• Now protects teammates to a minimum health threshold of 10% maximum health, down from 20%

D.Va
D.Va’s respawn is often intentionally delayed by the enemy team if she is the last player alive from her team and without her mech. This change will make it more dangerous to be near the Call Mech arrival area for low health heroes.

Call Mech

• Damage increased from 50 to 250

Echo
This is a change picked up from the Community Experimental card. Since Echo gains an additional health pool through using her Duplicate ultimate, it seemed reasonable that she doesn’t need to be healed to full upon it ending as well. The minimum health value is there so she doesn’t instantly die to a small amount of damage when it ends, as often with a long duration ultimate it can be difficult to remember her starting health.

Duplicate

• When Duplicate ends, Echo will return to the health value she had prior to activating the ability, or to 100 health, whichever is higher

Moira
Moira has been underperforming in the support role even in team compositions and metas where we’d expect her to excel. Reducing the cooldown of Biotic Orb is a significant increase in Moira’s potential to quickly adapt to many situations.

Biotic Orb

• Cooldown reduced from 10 to 8 seconds

Orisa
We’re reevaluating the cooldown for Orisa’s ‘Halt!’ ability after previous changes have reduced its effectiveness to combo with other heroes. We’ll keep a close eye on whether the increased frequency of this displacement ability ends up being too disruptive to gameplay.

Halt!

• Cooldown reduced from 8 to 6 seconds

Reinhardt
Reinhardt has been overperforming since his last round of changes. To help increase tank diversity we are reverting his armor to its previous value while keeping the Rocket Hammer damage increase for now as it helps to balance out the reduced crowd control duration of Earthshatter.

General

• Armor reduced from 250 to 200 (Health/armor total reduced from 550 to 500)

Roadhog
Roadhog is a hero who has been underperforming lately with not much changing about him since late last year when he had a more dominant presence, though the balance of other heroes has indeed shifted around. We’re partially reverting the reduction to his damage to help bring him back up to a more effective level.

Scrap Gun (Primary and Secondary Fire)

• Damage per projectile increased from 6 to 6.6

Sombra
Sombra’s gameplay usually involves a lot of time waiting for opportune moments to strike and using the Translocator to disengage at a safe distance. Speeding up her movement in Stealth should help get her back into the action more quickly.

Stealth

• Movement speed bonus increased from 50 to 65%