Experimental Mode – Scaling Power

Hey everyone!

We have another Experimental mode focused on adjusting damage and healing output for heroes (Patch Notes). As with all Experimental modes, these changes are not guaranteed to reach the live version of the game.

What are we trying to address?

We’ve been reducing the power level of barriers in Overwatch over the past few patches. Now, with the recent updates to Tanks, we’ve seen some feedback about gameplay pacing feeling much faster with fewer barriers in-play. Also, over four years, we’ve released more than 50 major patches and even more balance-focused patches, which has led to some shifts in what would be considered the “base power” of heroes. While we don’t expect these changes to address all of these concerns, we want to take steps towards scaling back damage and healing outputs in a way that still allows heroes to feel impactful and fun to play.

What are we testing?

The Experimental hero updates are primarily focused on adjusting heroes’ Primary and Secondary Fire, but you’ll also find some adjustments to abilities in the mix. We’re also aiming to tackle this issue on both sides – In addition to reducing some damage and healing outputs, we’re also making some adjustments to Armor. Namely, reducing the power of beam-type weapons and abilities’ efficacy against Armor.

A number of heroes with high damage and healing to reduce their overall output are receiving adjustments during this Experimental mode:

  • Ana
  • Ashe
  • Baptiste
  • Junkrat
  • McCree
  • Moira
  • Orisa
  • Pharah
  • Symmetra
  • Widowmaker
  • Zarya

We hope you check out the new Experimental mode and provide us with your feedback! Science will reveal the truth – And all great science requires data! As always, this is an Experiment, so the changes in this test may not reach the live game.

Thank you!

141 Likes

Why nerf sym?!?!?

Also here are the changes:
Armor

  • Beam-type damage reduction against Armor health pools increased from 20% to 30%

ANA

Biotic Rifle

  • Ammo reduced from 14 to 12

ASHE

General

  • Max ammo reduced from 15 to 12

Secondary Fire

  • Aim-down sights damage reduced from 85 to 80

BAPTISTE

Secondary Fire

  • Grenade ammo reduced from 12 to 10

Regenerative Burst

  • Total healing reduced from 150 to 75
  • Baptiste now receives twice as much healing from Regenerative Burst

JUNKRAT

Frag Launcher

  • Impact damage reduced from 50 to 40 (Total 130 to 120)

MCCREE

Primary Fire

  • Recovery increased from 0.42 to 0.50

MOIRA

Biotic Grasp

Healing

  • Lingering heal reduced from 4 seconds to 2 seconds (Total healing from 65 down to 35)
  • Healing per second increased from 65 to 70
  • Healing resource consumption rate increased from 11 to 14 (27%)

Damage

  • Attach angle reduced by 37%
  • Healing resource gain rate increased by 50%

ORISA

Halt!

  • Radius increased from 4 to 5
  • Projectile speed reduced from 30 to 25

PHARAH

Rocket Launcher

  • Recovery increased from 0.75 to 0.85

SYMMETRA

Secondary Fire

  • Max damage reduced from 140 to 120

WIDOWMAKER

General

  • Max ammo increased from 30 to 35

Secondary Fire

  • Scoped ammo cost increased from 3 to 5
  • Scoped shots now have up to 50% damage falloff from 60-85 meters

ZARYA

Secondary Fire

  • Ammo cost increased from 20 to 25

Source:

81 Likes

when is this dropping?

5 Likes

I think right now

oh no this looks awful yall literally made dps worse and kept hog a power house.

48 Likes

OMG these changes are wild.

14 Likes

Were Junk and Sym really that much of an issue that they needed nerfs over, say, Hanzo?

And what is this falloff nerf for Widow? Do such distances even exist on maps, realistically?

90 Likes

Lmao, why Symmetra???

Interesting changes otherwise.

82 Likes

Wow! This is a whole lot of changes. Excited to see how they work out. I’m especially eyeing Bap and Moira, I wonder how those changes will affect total healing in-game.

8 Likes

arent you skipping like really strong heroes dps wise???

13 Likes

Reverts everywhere! nice!

36 Likes

What you do with Baptiste is seriously a meme at this point tbh

76 Likes

you guys really didn’t touch hog?

104 Likes

Why ANY nerfs to Baptiste, Orisa, or Symmetra?

Why flat nerfs without other changes to McCree, Pharah, and Junkrat?

Why no changes to Mercy, when you’re nerfing Ana again?

So many awful changes

49 Likes

Wish I wasn’t on Vacation.

1 Like

Finally a widow nerf.
I like the changes, except maybe the fact that bap is almost unkillable now, I would love to see a tone down to hog’s damage as well.
Anyways I feel like this is a step in the right way.

14 Likes

Now lets hope the widowmaker one goes live.

20 Likes

add hog nerfs and its perfect.

14 Likes

Baptiste is nerfed overall; he heals himself same as he does on live, but heals his teammates less

38 Likes

I’m fine with the Ashe changes, but could you perhaps test these?

Viper

  • Hipfire damage decreased to 32
  • Scoped damage decreased to 75
  • Headshot muliplier increased to 2.34x

This way it emphasizes headshots and skill, and punishes bodyshotting and spam.

10 Likes