The Newest Nerfs/Buffs on PTR and More...

As of today, there's a bunch of changes to a variety of heroes on the PTR of Overwatch and these changes are likely to increase the play-rate of some heroes. The characters that have been given some alterations are: Reaper, Mei, Zenyatta, D.Va and Moira. The majority of these changes are due to Jeff Kaplan's concern about the Four Tank meta making a come-back. It's not often seen in Overwatch League but having a read through forums and Facebook groups, this meta is widely loathed because of how difficult it is to counter and how DPS players are often left to wonder what to play. These buffs and nerfs will hopefully keep that at bay, as Jeff hopes.

Starting with Reaper, it's clear to see why Reaper isn't part of the meta currently. Whilst he has a lot of damage output, he's rather squishy and is only really viable against certain tanks on certain maps (e.g: Winston on Attack for Temple of Anubis). Nothing has been done for his DPS or his health recovery, however, something that has been begged for is his ability to cancel Wraith. Wraith is a noisy, obvious ability and operates on a countdown where your enemies can anticipate when you're vulnerable. The newest change they've made for Reaper allows you to cancel out of Wraith without the small animation at the end. This lets Reaper players cancel out of Wraith and retain the element of surprise; something that's fundamental to Reaper's play style. Something that I, and I'm sure other Reaper players are still hoping for, is a quieter Shadow Step. Reaper functions as a flanker often and his ult is best used when deploying Shadow Step on higher ground and dropping down to use Death Blossom. Hopefully, Blizzard will look into making his entry less "DEATH COMES", and more "death might be coming but how could you possibly tell?" Obviously, it would be best to keep some kind of signal for when death is, indeed, on its way, but it'd be nice if the supposedly quiet Reaper wasn't constantly giving away his position with his edgy quotes...

Interestingly, Mei has been given a slight buff. Jeff Kaplan has been saying that the Overwatch team wanted to give Mei an advantage and make her less situational and more viable for other maps and play styles. Now, we have been given a slight buff that I'm rather excited about: her Endothermic Blaster now freezes multiple enemies. This is particularly interesting because whilst it gives Mei's team advantage over their enemies, Mei herself will struggle to kill more than one target when frozen, as the effects do not last as long as her ultimate, Blizzard. If you've been frozen by Mei, there's a slight chance that you won't be shot in the head by a tiny Chinese woman. Just try to position yourself away from her or pray for your own Mei to wall you away from her...

Zenyatta's nerf is very slight but likely only the top 500 players will really notice this. The beauty of using Zenyatta is that you have a high damage output whilst simultaneously healing your teammates. If you were to apply your Orb of Discord and then used your alternate fire, Orb Volley, you could easily one-shot most heroes. If you've been watching Overwatch League, you'll know that Jjonak on New York Excelsior is a very deadly Zenyatta because of this ability. Zenyatta's actual nerf is that his rate of fire for Orb Volley has been nerfed by 15 percent. Now I personally am not a Zenyatta main (I struggle to aim with him), but my partner is and he barely notices the change. He's not a top 500 but he uses Zenyatta almost constantly in Competitive and though he doesn't use Orb of Volley often, it's not hugely noticeable. The damage is precisely the same; you simply need to be slightly more accurate when you aim, and it might help to improve your tracking so you don't miss (like I do 100 percent of the time).

D.Va's slight nerf is, like Zenyatta's, barely noticeable. The damage output from her missiles has been slightly nerfed so that the explosive damage isn't quite so high. Without getting too technical, essentially, D.Va's impact damage of her missiles has stayed the same (if you fire at an enemy directly, it does the same amount of damage), but the explosive damage has been depleted slightly. This explosive damage will affect your main target and anyone close by. D.Va will basically do less burst damage than before, but it certainly won't impact her play-rate and she won't be leaving the meta any time soon.

Finally, Moira has had some small changes to her; however these don't fit into the categories of buffs or nerfs. The alterations Moira is expecting are more visual than ability-driven. Her Coalescence as we know it is a solid block of yellow and purple and with the amount of environmental damage Moira can do, it makes sense to make some changes to how her abilities appear. Her Coalescence has been changed to be slightly more transparent so that both her allies and enemies can still see the map and remain totally aware. Additionally, her Biotic Grasp for both damage and healing has been made to be slightly more transparent, as has her Fade. When she utilises Fade, it's no longer a burst of purple. So rest easy Moira mains, she hasn't been nerfed yet!

One of the things I really enjoy about Overwatch is the amount of dedication Blizzard and their employees have towards this game. They are constantly rolling out changes that makes the game more balanced and makes many characters more fun to play. I can imagine we'll be seeing more Meis and more Reapers in Quick Play and potentially ranked, and I'm excited for it!

Esther Elzinga brings the softer side of Reaper to life in this fantastic cosplay!