McCree BUFFS, Orisa Finally Gone? - PTR Patch Breakdown

The newest patch has just hit the player test realm (PTR) and it’s covering a lot of ground, but more importantly, this could be a watershed moment where Blizzard is finally going to patch Overwatch more frequently, we can only dream. With that said, it’s time to review each change one-by-one and if you’re looking for a quickfire breakdown, check below for a TL;DR.

Hanzo

• Storm Arrows

  • Damage reduced from 70 to 60

Hanzo seemed to be slowing down on the previous patch so lowering his damage should expedite that process along. I still think there are going to be some maps where you have a strong defensive position and can bunker down and take long, extended fights and aim to break the opponents shields. Nice change to what seemed to be a go to pick for the upcoming meta. I do agree with the idea that the burst potential is still there for Hanzo to duel, but this tones down his shield poke. 

McCree

• General

  • Base health increased from 200 to 250

• Peacekeeper (Primary Fire)

  • Recovery time increased from 0.42 to 0.5 seconds

• Deadeye

  • Firing Deadeye no longer locks the player’s aim

So this makes McCree much more sticky and hard to just bully around, but he still suffers due to a lack of vertical mobility. The ultimate change is interesting though, I do wonder how useful it is in practice. Could be a world where he is used on maps that select teams might default to Pharah on their rollout. As long as you don’t lose too much value into the Reaper matchup, there's room to see him run. 

Reaper

• The Reaping (Passive)

  • Healing amount reduced from 40% to 30% of damage dealt

It’s a nice tweak, but I don’t see Reaper slowing down. From what people are saying Reinhardt and D.Va paired with a very deathball-like strategy makes him nearly the perfect DPS. He wants to be close range, he can Wraith Form in and out of harm's way, he can even fient an engage by Shadow Stepping in on a flank and then baiting out enemy defensive cooldowns and walking away. I highly doubt this change does anything.

Orisa

• Fusion Driver (Primary Fire)

  • Damage reduced from 11 to 9

• Fortify

  • Cooldown increased from 8 to 10 seconds

• Halt!

  • Snare duration reduced from 1 to 0.65 seconds

I think Orisa in general has been on her way out, but with this, I think she’s finally dead and gone for a while. Lower damage, an increased window for punishment when Fortify is down, and lowering the snare on Halt by that much should be sizeable enough that even people on the ladder can feel it. She was being used as this beefy flex tank that was good at locking down targets to force brawls. This firmly pushes her out and we should see MUCH more D.Va and Sigma play in her place. Great change!

Sigma

• Hyperspheres (Primary Fire)

  • Range reduced from 22 to 20 meters

• Gravitic Flux

  • Can now be interrupted before targets begin falling

  • Impact slow duration reduced from 0.9 to 0.6 seconds

• Accretion

  • Explosion damage reduced from 60 to 40

The concept of Hyperspheres was always so weird to me. In theory, a good Sigma can have absurd amounts of damage uptime which creates a ton of pressure. Touching it’s range is an eloquent way of tapering back his damage without being harsh about it. Sigma now is force to commit a little more to his position when trying to pump damage. Love the ultimate change, was always really unintuitive to see Gravitic Flux finish even after he’d been stunned or even killed. The slow duration is interesting, this is going to force teams to act quickly. This gives the receiving team slightly more time to regroup after the ultimate, we should see poor use of Gravitic Flux punished more effectively. 

Baptiste

• Biotic Launcher (Primary Fire)

  • Recovery time increased from 0.36 to 0.45 sec

• Biotic Launcher (Secondary Fire)

  • Heal explosion reduced from 60 to 50

Second patch in a row Baptiste sees changes, this not only signals actual lowering in power, but his perceived power takes a hit as well. It seems like Baptiste players will have to be much more mindful about when they chose to do damage. I still think he is useful, but I do have to wonder if the ship has already sailed in people’s minds. Seems like Moira is back on the menu is social media is anything to go by. 

TL;DR—Please let this be the first of many quickfire patches coming this Overwatch season. Orisa seems all but removed. Baptiste still has Immortality Field but after two patches of nerfs he should be rotating out sooner rather than later. McCree is much more useful than he was previously and should see some amount of play on a few maps. And Sigma should feel a bit different and much more punishing. 

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