Thought Dump #1: PTR Update, 8/24/17

Thought dump will be a regular series where I will post my unedited thoughts and musings about Overwatch that don’t merit a full length article.

Another PTR patch, and another set of changes we must consider. This time around the balances changes were only to D.Va and Mercy, with Reinhardt also receiving a quality of life buff. Everything contained here is specifically for professional level play, not ladder, unless specifically noted.

We’ll start with the Reinhardt change because it’s the shortest. While holding his shield up, the player can hold LMB and rotate the camera to look around. It gives Rein a better view of the battlefield which improves his awareness, and could mean he reacts to something that he might normally be blind to.

It also allows him to peek around corners without having to walk around them. Besides some specific corners I may have not thought of, it appears he has to expose a small part of his shield through the wall. So your enemies will know you looked, but you expose a much smaller area of your shield so it will take less damage compared to simply walking around the corner.

This technique also means you are not vulnerable to some various tricks, like being hooked/hit with a sleep dart from behind or pulled vertically by Graviton Surge. Overall it’s a buff to Reinhardt, but he will still struggle against hard dive. However there is a chance teams slot him in as the primary tank because of D.Va’s defensive power loss.

Defense Matrix has long been one of the least liked abilities in Overwatch. I loved the ability, and thought it allowed for different styles of D.Va to thrive. The visuals needed to be clearer, but overall I liked it.

The way it was nerfed is what I believe to be the correct way to approach it. Your resource bar runs down twice as fast, meaning that instead of a maximum of four seconds of up-time you have two. With half the up-time D.Va players will have to much more selective about what they block.

Defense Matrix will still be just as powerful at reactivity blocking key abilities such as incoming Graviton Surges, however against high sustained damage it’s far worse. Nano-Hog, Nano-Visor, and Deadeye all will be able to get the majority of their damage through.

Beyond that, her ability to peel is also cut in half. Tracer’s will now only have to wait a mere two seconds before they can execute supports. Winston’s diving forward will no longer have nearly the same protection from their D.Va shadow.

Combined with the regularity at which we see Doomfist players punish forward Winston play I’m wondering if Winston might phase out of the meta as the primary tank choice. Especially with the incremental buffs to Reinhardt and Zarya, and how well they pair with Doomfist, it’s possible we see a return to a slower meta.

Not so fast though, D.Va may have lost a significant chunk of defensive power but I would argue her offensive potential increased by leaps and bounds. She now has a missile barrage that deals roughly 200 damage that can be used while firing her primary weapon, using defense matrix, or flying. In addition her primary fire can also be used while flying with her boosters.

Previously D.Va would either be protecting her allies, or dealing damage as her LMB and RMB were exclusive abilities. Now that the missiles can be used at any time means she can be sitting in a Soldier 76’s face blocking damage and chunking him out.

But perhaps even scarier is how much damage she can deal while diving someone. Between the impact damage from her jets, missiles, and primary fire it’s fairly simple to burst for 300+ damage on targets at medium or close range.

At long range you’re going to miss many of your missiles due to the projectile speed, but with help from a Tracer/Doomfist/Winston it would be easy to slay a support. If you’re not a pro player, D.Va will most likely feel more fun to play as her damage is a lot higher.

But by far the most interesting set of changes is how Blizzard has approached Mercy. While we’ve been theory-crafting D.Va changes for months, particularly surrounding Defense Matrix, I don’t think anyone saw the Mercy changes coming.

I won’t go into great detail, but in essence Rez is now her E, with a 30 second cooldown and can now only raise a single fallen ally. However when we examine how Rez has been used in recent times in pro play, this is a significant buff.

Whether it be Winston, Pharah, or Genji; Mercy’s frequently use their ultimate to bring back a single key target. And now these sort of “tempo raises” are on just a 30 second cooldown, meaning they are available much more frequently. If a professional team has a designated star carry, especially one who plays Pharah or McCree, they might get a big boost from these changes.

We can’t forget Mercy’s new ultimate, Valkyrie. Valkyrie essentially makes Mercy better at everything she does for 20 seconds. I won’t be discussing her insane damage, go look up some clips, because Jeff Kaplan already stated that it would be adjusted.

Beyond that there are three major aspects of her ultimate we need to be concerned with. First is that using Valkyrie instantly resets the cooldown of Rez, and sets it to a subsequent timer of 10 seconds. In practice this means Mercy can raise, ult, instantly raise again, raise once more during her ultimate, and raise after it expires because the cooldown was still reduced.

So if well timed Mercy can still raise 4 members during a fight, which in the past would have been considered a success. However this requires an ultimate that, by my estimations, costs 1875 ultimate charge instead of the previous 1625.

So her mass raising will be less frequent, but the number of raises she is able to get off in any given map should be the same or higher. Especially considering she can start raising immediately, instead of waiting for an ultimate to be built. The only downside is that her raising is much less powerful against wombo-combos, but against picks from Doomfist or Pulse Bomb she will excel.

The second aspect of Valkyrie is how survivable Mercy becomes. Instead of a flat invulnerability for a few seconds Mercy now can fly in any direction at will faster than running speed, her Guardian Angel now has increased range and speed, and her passive healing is no longer interrupted by taking damage.

Not a single hero in the game will be able to chase her down while her ultimate is running, and she effectively has an Orb of Harmony attached to her for the duration as well. The combination of healing and mobility should allow her to stay safe in order to pull off the chain Rez combo.

The third aspect of Valkyrie is that Mercy finally gains the ability to aid more than one ally at a time. Her staff’s beams now bounce to other nearby allies, while also having increased range. This means she provides a mobile version of Orisa’s ult, albeit a lower damage boost, making her an significantly stronger offensive tool.

Mercy overall looks stronger in every aspect. She no longer has to hide in order to be effective, and can actively contribute to fights while still being able to raise a similar number of players.

Overall if this patch were to go through in this form I wouldn’t be surprised to see Mercy’s playrate rise. She still lacks the raw power of Zenyatta or Ana, but in situations where you want a Mercy to pocket a Pharah or McCree she is even more potent than before.

The largest potential for breaking the current meta is D.Va. The hole that now exists in a team’s defenses is an interesting problem with many potential solutions. You could run more dedicated tanks like Reinhardt or Zarya, or run even harder dive comps as picking off supports is easier than before.

In either of those situations D.Va would still be a powerful tool, but with a larger emphasis on her offensive ability. I think professional teams and players will still be able to do amazing things with Defense Matrix, and the gap between bad and godly D.Va players will be more evident.

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    Josh 'Elbion' Tuffs

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    This is the place I’ll be publishing my less serious content. If esport related it’s a topic that doesn’t merit a full length article.