Proof that Blizzard is deliberately weakening the healing capability of supports

General Discussion
1

Brigitte

Repair Pack

  • Armor over-heal reduced from 75 armor to 50 armor
  • HPS decreased from 60 to 55

Developer Comment: On top of the high utility Brigitte brings to her team, she also dishes out a ton of healing and armor. We’re reducing some of this healing and armor to help keep her in line with the other healers.

I want you to focus on the bolded text, reader, because it clearly states Blizzard’s motives to weaken the support class overall via direct healing nerfs as well as hard nerfs to forms of sustain that aren’t direct healing. There would be no need for changes to “help keep [Brigitte] in line with other healers” (that is to say…bringing her down to fall in line with the weakened Support class as a whole) if Blizzard wasn’t wantonly reducing healing numbers to begin with.
Let’s examine the most recent healing nerfs, ignoring the infamous 60->50 hp/s mercy nerf (more on that in a minute):

Moira:

  • healing per second (HP/S) on full spray reduced from 80/sec to 65/sec This is a 18.75% HP/S decrease! 65 hp is granted over the span of 4 seconds with a tap of spray if I’m not mistaken.
  • Healing per instance reduced from 4 → 3.25. This is a 18.75% decrease in healing output!
  • Self-Healing via Biotic Grasp reduced from 30 → 20. This is a ~33.333% reduction in self-sustain via Biotic Grasp.
  • When considering the combination of Healing Orb and Biotic Grasp, max self-sustain from combining the two has been reduced from 95 HP/S to 85 HP/S. This is a ~10.5% reduction in this self-sustain combo.
  • The combo of full spray healing and Biotic orb has been reduced from 145 HP/S to 130 HP/S. This is a ~10.34% reduction in maximum non-coalescence healing output.

Baptiste:

  • Healing per instance has been reduced from 60 to 50. This is a ~16.667% reduction in healing output!
  • As a result, Baptiste’s potential maximum HP/S has been reduced from 75 HP/S to 62.5 HP/S. This is a ~16.667% reduction of potential Secondary Fire HP/S! Actual HP/S numbers will vary based on positioning, accuracy, barriers, Fist Pump (Regen. Burst) usage, and reload necessity.
  • Ultimate charge cost increased by 20%. This directly reduces the time Baptiste and his teams have access to doubled healing.
  • Immortality field duration reduced from 8 → 5 seconds. COOLDOWN increased from 20 → 25 seconds. The uptime/downtime ratio was changed from 8 UP/12 DOWN at max to 5 UP/20 DOWN. This is an increase of ~66.667% to Immortality Field’s MINIMUM downtime. The downtime can be larger if the IF is destroyed early, and a single Hack can negate its full duration.

Brigitte:

  • Repair Pack HP/S reduced from 60 ->55. This is a ~8.333% decrease in HP/S.
  • Repair Pack ARMOR overheal reduced from 75 → 50. This is a whopping ~33.333% reduction to overheal and armor provision. This reduction also introduces a lot of new damage breakpoints which should not be ignored and make heroes such as Doomfist, Junkrat, and Pharah even more viable against team comps featuring Brigitte. Damage boost is even more effective against Repair Pack because it can now largely negate the overheal.
  • Overheal via Repair Pack + its HP/S as it interacts with incoming damage is impossible to calculate because it varies on a case-by-case basis. Similarly, stacking Repair Packs with Inspire is difficult to calculate because it is a dynamic interaction.

Mercy:

  • For reference, the infamous 60 → 50 HP/S change was a ~16.667% decrease in healing.
  • Valkyrie was later improved to feature 60 HP/S during those 15 seconds to make the Ultimate “feel” more powerful.

Ana:

  • Nano boost burst healing reduced from 300 → 250. This is a ~16.667% reduction in burst healing output!

After personally adapting to the Baptiste and Moira changes, one similarity stands out for the two heroes: They basically function and feel the same, but just seem to operate and “feel” slower than before their nerfs.

The intent and theme seems to be clear: Reduce healing output across the board. This makes the window of opportunity to outplay healing larger because healing is overall slower now. This makes inefficient play more viable which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, especially when considering low ranks (bronze thru gold) It also allows Damage Boost sources to be more viable which isn’t a bad thing, because it allows the community to explore new strategies/meta options (as if the player base weren’t metaslaves who ride the wave of hero changes already…)

I remember reading a thread by [another forum user. Not naming names bc my memory is bad sometimes and I don’t want a flag] a week or so ago that stated that all power levels of the game were being lowered gradually (rapidly with the speed of these changes?) and that it would be an aggravating and rough process, but eventually we’ll approach the opposite of power creep via reverts to power creeped elements of the game. I want to say this seems to be the case, and on that note I wouldn’t be surprised if Junkrat sees a primary fire damage revert soon.

I also remember reading a forum thread made by [another user] who stated that “it seems like all supports are being balanced around and with reference to Mercy’s 50 HP/S value.” Looking at the % and numerical reductions, this seems to very much be the case. I’m not sure how I feel about this, because nerfing all supports to be on par with a C-tier support so that C-tier is the new A-tier doesn’t seem like a good idea to me. That being said, I do have over 500 Suppprt hours across all platforms on this account alone (I have 3 accounts on XBL, 2 PC accounts, and this account is linked to PSN but I do not play there at this time.) so my opinion may be biased.

I also remember an interview with Jeff Kaplan wherein Jeff stated that he wants the balance stage of Overwatch to feel “chaotic,” similar to “how it was when the game first came out…” …and at that time, nobody really knew how to play and there was no structure. The blanket reduction in Support and Tank capabilities is definitely thrusting us into an era of chaos whether we like it or not.

I also remember posting this statement a few months ago:

Not only is my statement still true to this day, but I’d go so far as to say that my statement was prophecy at this point, as my observation is reinforced with each nerf to the Support roster.
Speaking of appeasement, I’d like to point out that the Damage and (to a lesser extent) the Tank roles have seen appeasement in the form of partial reverts to the initial hard nerfs.
Doomfist getting a 0.5s forced recovery time after uppercut? That got changed to 0.35 after myself and many others suggested that number as a starting point, as well as dozens if not hundreds of Doomfist players & threads stating that “uppercutting is instant feeding now” without taking the time to actually adapt to the changes and adjust combo inputs to compensate for the harsh nerf.
Widowmaker gets a nerf from 0.83 seconds charge rate to 1.0s charge rate? PTR changes used the aforementioned numbers, but current Patch notes detail the change as being from 0.75s charge rate to 0.9s charge rate. Idk how to interpret this one because Blizzard either has partially reduced the nerf or just had bad documentation or typos for days. Apparenrly the PTR patch notes were incorrect, and live patch notes are correct. No readjustments were made to the widow charge time.
Orisa had a gun damage nerf on the PTR (11->9) that was partially reverted (11->10 instead). (Side note: patch notes have been occasionally wrong since the Barrier nerfs patch).

But I ask you: Where is the Support player appeasement? There is none!

We seem to be rapidly approaching a singularity that I’m not sure I’m very comfortable with…

This post has taken about two hours to craft, and has probably taken less time to read, so I appreciate you for taking the time out of your day to read my opinions on the current state of Support balance! :slight_smile:

I’ll get off my soapbox now.

Edit: bad math in the Baptiste section. Added a note about hack being supper effective against IF.
Edit2: As mentioned further on in the thread, PTR notes for widow were wrong. Updated that section.
Edit3: I was confusing a change to The Reaping as a change to Fortify. I have stricken that comment from the OP.
Edit4: I forgot all about Ana. Added notes about Ana.
Edit5: Added notes about Moira’s self-sustain nerf as well as combining Moira’s healing with Biotic orbs.

52 Likes
2

Long post for what should be done anyways. If one hero can output more heals than the others then they should be reduced. Why pick a lower HPS healer when you can pick the better ones after all.

12 Likes
3

to be fair the dps are dealing with something similar, why learn how to overcome to additional balance gates on sustain fighters like spread, dmg ramp ups and limited range when you can learn character like widow, mcree, hanzo, ashe etc who only have to learn how to aim and generally still have more effective dmg at range than sustain fighters

11 Likes
4

The thing is that Brigitte didn’t output more heals than the others unless you consider stacking inspire and repair packs.

9 Likes
5

Because the supports that were nerfed have been enabling sh***y sustain metas alongside the shield tanks that no one wants to play or watch, that’s why. The Brigitte nerf might be a bit pre-mature, but they’re acting ahead for once.

27 Likes
6

even then half the armour is probably wasted with it being on a timer and all

5 Likes
7

the only problem im seeing is those same dps players that complain theres too much healing will complain theres not enough healing in the game, so in the end it will all break on supports back and false reporting

15 Likes
8

Personally? No healing is no healing. I can hardly tell the difference.

1 Like
9

True. Completely unplayable and useless now. RIP

1 Like
10

last time i checked people were on going on how they hated having 4 dps in every game.
now that you only have 2 dps, and lower damaging heroes as tanks and supports, dosnt it imply we need less healing?

7 Likes
11

I made a post specifically targeting the Brigitte nerf as well.
In short, not only are they making the individual healers less individual by nerfing what makes them special they are also making you feel like your impact is nonexistent. Before the last waves of support nerfs I felt like my healing did something before I could go back to shooting for 5 seconds and then heal. Now I feel like I have to genuinely baby sit not only DPS but also Tanks. The sustain is becoming non existent while the DPS is staying the same

12 Likes
12
  • Community complains about power creep.
  • Developers acknowledge that “healing creep” exists.
  • After backlash, developers change balance philosophy.
  • Universal decrease in healing capabilities.

Seems pretty logical to me.

17 Likes
13

None of the nerfed dps have actually gotten a direct damage nerf (beyond storm arrows). There’ll be a time period of getting used to the changes, but once habits are relearned from these reverts we’ll see whether or not this holds true.

1 Like
14

Less heals means more fragging on Zen. I for one am excited.

1 Like
15

what heroes had damage buffs?
mccree, 76, mei.
thats all right?

16

Junk and Pharah, too. Just in terms of damage/fire rate. Tracer had the range buff.

Not that I agree with him. Damage creep is such a joke and support/tanks shot themselves in the foot complaining about powercreep when they hoped that would mean dps nerfs. Rofl.

4 Likes
17

I said nothing about damage buffs, though? I just said that people are getting used to the old timing of their abilities. We’ll see how things fare once people get used to that again. That’s literally all I’m saying.

2 Likes
18

Well, yes. They are obviously nerfing the power creep of supports and tanks at the moment. With supports specifically, they’re bringing everyone down to around Mercy’s level.

I’m a support main and I think these changes are ultimately good for both the role and the game.

5 Likes
19

I play support and I have no issue with supports across the board getting ‘nerfed’. I don’t see it to be a nerf to myself or my hero. Just means the game has more killing and more skill to healing.

1 Like
20

I agree and disagree. They’re toning down heal speed, yes, but it’s to make room to tone down burst damage and make sustained damage dealers more viable like 76. At least I hope that’s their idea lol

4 Likes