Good to know. I was thinking they were meme changes, but then I started getting scared after a few days. I was thinking “Okay, blizzard…You can say sike now.”
I’da loved to see the Genji buff go live. I don’t think it’d be good for the game, but it would be funny to see the forums go crazy.
well that’s good and all but honestly what’s the point of even gating the changes at all then? I mean someone like Moira had no changes whatsoever and junkrat had his damage increased by 5… if you wanted to break the mold, buddy, break the game, like, give Moira no resource or give junkrat 10 traps
That’s the only thing left to say about this event, if nothing is going through why even hold back?
bets on tournament DPS?
i think it will be genji widow mirror!
Praise the Lord. A Blizz person confirmed these will never go live.
The Hammond nerf…
We literally JUST HAD an ExC go live.
I’m actually looking forward to this tournament happening in a week’s time.
175 HP Tracer.
then don’t call it nor implement it as an experimental card. experimental cards already have a defined connotation that they’re meant for trying out balance changes seriously and not just for memes. not advertising upfront that this isn’t supposed to be taken seriously didn’t help either, esp since quite evidently some of the panelists thought this was supposed to be for serious balance suggestions too.
“trying something out” or “conducting an experiment” does not mean throw aimless random things in and hope for a ground breaking revelation to happen, because it highly likely wouldn’t give any meaningful results compared to being well thought out with designing the experiment that aims to test something of value in a scientific, well reasoned and measurable manner.
If there truly is no intention of considering any of these changes as something potentially to be put into the live retail environment, then advertise it like that rather than advertising it as an actual experimental card. Sure, you may be using the experimental card backbone code to implement this, at least rename+rebrand it to remove any association to the possibility of it being considered from retail balance if that really is the case.
If there is actually an intention of considering any of these changes for retail balance, then this is a poorly designed “experiment” from the perspective of collection of suggestions, to the suggestions themselves.
Just because they’re “not intended” doesn’t mean they won’t.
Man, these Pros and their wild tricks. Hehehehe.
Can’t WAIT to see what they do with Junkrat’s extra 5 damage on his Mine. Got my finger over the Clip button so no-one beats me to it! OH wait, YouTube.
“Whoa! Did you see that Mine?! It hit Roadhog for 35 instead of 30, taking his health down to a dizzyingly low 565! Cripes! Thankfully his Baptiste was there with the ImmoField JUST. IN. TIME!”
You like nanoblade being even more of the only thing Genji does? Because people aren’t calling him an “ult bot” already…
i’m one of the people that misunderstood this, thanks for clarifying. though there may be some ideas in there worth trying out for the real balance, some of it clearly misses the mark right off the bat. definitely fun though!
Heck yeah! I’ll love playing Wrecking Ball and feed! And I get to shoot and grapple less often too? Awesome!!!
Bold of you to assume the hog would not just get bubbled from a Zarya that can now be 34m away gaining even more charge.
Clearly not that important cause I found this post because someone quoted it another thread. It’s pure luck that I’ve actually seen this and based on the number of likes, not many people have.
And it’s 2 days after the stream.
The best time to “clarify” this was at the start of the stream. This blue post was made one day after the stream.
Thank the DEVS! It aint hitting Live. Those changes were atrocious!
Sombra but with hack on 2s cooldown all the time 
im just going to say it, even though theses changes wont go to live, most of these changes would make low-rank unplayable. it kinda is right now honestly, the game is way too much balanced for the upper-ranks. in the tank category for instance, rein has such a powerfull shield and deals so much dmg that he is a must pick if u want to win, and junkrat deals way to much dmg with his primary and conc mine, plus the ult is really difficult to kill and it kills almost any character from any range, and all this with ease. please blizz save the low-rank!!!
Seriously?
Huh? I thought these balance changes were going to be permanent changes. Anyway, I can’t wait to test these balance changes! I’m really looking forward to trying them out.
These changes seem like all heroes are getting a complete overhaul, probably for Overwatch 2. At a glance, some changes are good & should go live. While, some changes are bad & shouldn’t go live. Also, some of changes makes me question why they were a thing in the first place.
Experimental Card Hero Balance Changes:
Ana - While the ammo increase is fine, the self nano boost will be a huge change. She’ll have some kind of protection on cooldown, even though it’s from an ult.
Baptiste - Regen Burst having 10 less healing for teammates will bring it closer to his grenade healing. Immortal Field protecting 1 health will be a huge change, but, I’m not sure if it’ll be a good change, yet.
Bastion - Self Repair’s movement speed change will help him move faster, which is a good change. He really needs faster movement to fully utilize recon & turret modes.
Brigitte - If the heal passive when dead gets removed, I wonder why it was even there to begin with.
D.Va - The increased booster duration is fine, it seems like a quality of life change.
Echo - The ult end health change will make her less annoying to deal with, & that’s about it.
Genji - The reduced spread change is good, he’ll be more accurate. The ult change will be a huge change. If this change is permeant, there needs to be a limit on it.
Hanzo - The ult change is good, it seems like a quality of life change.
Junkrat - Concussion Mine having more damage is fine.
Lucio - The Soundwave cooldown increase will make him less annoying to go against. The Crossfade change is a huge change, if it goes live. Maybe, having it scale is a bit unnecessary.
Mei - Having more ammo is good & her icicles will be 14 shots, instead of 12.
Mercy - The Guardian Angel cooldown reset is an interesting change.
Orisa - Her barrier having more health is good, but, having the cooldown increased is really bad. Her barrier being at 700 health will match Winston & Sigma’s barriers’ health.
Pharah - The new damage taken passive is interesting. I think taking more damage while grounded is unnecessary & taking less damage while airborne isn’t enough.
Reaper - If the Shadowstep voice line gets removed, I wonder why it was there at all.
Reinhardt - I think the ult change will make him better. It’s impossible to take advantage of stunned enemies with only 2.5 secs to hit them.
Soldier - Having 2 rockets is a huge change for him. He can deal a lot more damage with 2 rockets.
Sombra - The Hack changes & Translocator change are fine.
Symmetra - The turret travel speed increase is fine.
Torbjorn - Having 2 turrets is a huge change, since they can cover more ground. The health change is unnecessary, just keep them at 100 health each.
Tracer - Her health increase & Recall cooldown increase is fine.
Widowmaker - The Venom Mine changes are good. It makes it a lot more dangerous.
Winston - Some of his health will be shifted to armor health, while the total health is the same. He’ll have 500 health, 165 armor & 335 health. Why can’t he just have his overall health increased to 550, instead? Him having 550 health, 200 armor & 350 health will be a much better change for him.
Wrecking Ball (Hammond) - While the reduced size change is fine, the other changes, reduced ammo, increased grapple cooldown & Adaptive Shield generating ult change, will be a huge detriment to him. Adaptive Shield is 550 more health on cooldown. Getting ult change from 1,150 health on cooldown is bad. Decreasing his ammo is also bad, he won’t be able kill his targets. I’d accept his grapple being on a 6 sec cooldown better, if that & the size reduction were the only changes.
Zarya - Her barrier range increase is fine.
Zenyatta - His ult speed increase is fine.
Doomfist, McCree, Moira, Roadhog & Sigma don’t have any changes. I think Roadhog is the only other hero that would need a change, if the other changes go live. Roadhog will most likely need a damage reduction passive or armor health. Having damage reduction on cooldown isn’t good enough for him, he has no other way of protecting himself.
That’s my thoughts on the big experiment card before playing it. Hopefully, the heroes are more exciting or interesting to play with those changes. Right now, I feel bored playing Overwatch with very little changes or small impactful changes that don’t really matter too much.
Thanks for that confirmation, every single change that made characters worse should never see the light of day. Especially Wrecking Ball’s changes.
If this was just for a fun set of matches, I would have expected much better and wilder changes and I feel like the devs were expecting that as well. Something like bringing back Scatter Arrow for example.
Oh well, I hope they do this again though, with different, more creative persons to choose next time.