Overwatch players are furious at the “worst” Experimental patch yet
Blizzard EntertainmentThe April 15 Overwatch patch brought in a slew of changes to multiple heroes, and the player base is not pleased with the direction the developers are taking the game.
Currently, Overwatch is in a rush-down meta, which consists of brawly heroes such as Reinhardt, Mei, and Reaper being speed boosted into the enemy team to assassinate targets.
One big problem with this meta stems from Baptiste’s Immortality Field being able to save teammates with ease – something the developers tried to address by rebalancing the support’s kit.
Sadly, the changes are leaving a lot to be desired, as Immortality Field will still be able to keep players alive – just with a little less health than before. As streamer Warn pointed out, this doesn’t really change things.
I’m sorry, this doesn’t change the fundamental value of an ability that keeps an entire team alive through every ultimate of every fight OFF COOLDOWN.
Please @PlayOverwatch consider damage reduction over IMMORTALITY. pic.twitter.com/mmUFESvyhZ
— Warn (@WarnTV) April 15, 2021
“I’m sorry, this doesn’t change the fundamental value of an ability that keeps an entire team alive through every ultimate of every fight off cooldown!” the Ashe main exclaimed. “Please PlayOverwatch consider damage reduction over immortality.”
Additionally, to compensate for the Immortality Field nerf, the devs increased Baptiste’s healing when landing direct shots. This, too, has players annoyed.
“140 healing directs through Bap window… I’m sad,” remarked OWL pro Charlie ‘Nero’ Zwarg, referring to how much healing Baptiste can do now when firing through Amplification Matrix.
why they always give broken heroes redeeming buffs that end up being better than the nerf…
— danteh (@danteh) April 16, 2021
“Why [do] they always give broken heroes redeeming buffs that end up being better than the nerf?” asked Dante ‘Danteh’ Cruz, who was a bit baffled by the changes made to the hero.
Elsewhere, Contenders Korea pro Sang-hoon ‘Kaiser’ Ryu called the patch “probably the worst” he’s seen.
“Rein comps are rarely seen in KR competitive and monkey comps are used more,” he said, remarking on how Reinhardt had his health nerfed a touch.
I think these changes are prob the worst Ive seen lulw
Rein comps are rarely seen in KR competitive and monkey comps are used more.
Sad that there isnt many MT players to complain about these changes pic.twitter.com/Jj8vJdGqGm— Kaiser (@ian9721) April 15, 2021
This was echoed by popular Twitch streamer Flats, who believes that the meta was changing from Reinhardt anyway and moving towards “double bubble” consisting of Winston and Zarya.
However, with the buffs to Orisa and Roadhog, it seems like Winston may not even have much time to shine.
Hog and Orisa buffs make me gag 🤮
— Flats (@Flats_OW) April 15, 2021
Finally, players are already calling for Moira’s huge Orb buff to be reverted. In a clip posted on Twitter, a player showed how they were able to constantly stay alive against a Winston and even a Brigitte by constantly spamming the Biotic Orb.
“Nerf Moira,” the player captioned the clip.
nerf moira https://t.co/lrLXH9M0x4 pic.twitter.com/irCZsTMlDZ
— NolanCoronaV (@NolanCoronaV) April 15, 2021
Of course, because these changes are still on the Experimental Card, there’s a chance not all of them hit the live servers – but very rarely does Blizzard ever hold back on changes once they’ve been approved for testing.
In any case, we’ll have to see if the Overwatch devs listen up or if we’re headed towards a bizarre and even more controversial meta.