Hello everyone!
We’re starting up another Experimental mode, this time featuring balance adjustments to a number of heroes (Patch Notes). While we can’t say that all of these updates will reach the live version of the game, we’re hoping this test provides some insight into changes we’re looking to make and an opportunity for feedback from our players.
What are we trying to address?
At Overwatch’s highest levels of play, we’ve seen the meta become more defined due to certain heroes over-performing. With this experiment, we’re testing some hero adjustments aimed at shifting away from a barrier-heavy meta. In addition, we’re taking this opportunity to address some under-performing heroes. We hope these changes will help to diversify hero choices and team compositions.
What are we testing?
In this Experimental mode, we will be making hero updates (value adjustments, rather than changes to ability function) to the following heroes:
- Brigitte
- Orisa
- Pharah
- Roadhog
- Sigma
- Symmetra
- Zenyatta
These changes are focused on reducing the potency of some shield-heavy Tanks, while also targeting heroes like Brigitte, who help enable the meta we’re looking to address. We’re also including some adjustments to under-performing Damage heroes like Pharah and Symmetra to increase their effectiveness.
We hope that you’ll give this Experimental mode a shot and share your feedback! Reminder that game development is an iterative process – especially hero balance. We’ll be reading your feedback, monitoring the experiment, as well as live games to gauge whether these changes address our goals of moving the barrier-heavy meta.
Thanks!