Overwatch Experimental Patch Notes – May 27, 2021

A new patch is now live on Windows PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch. Read below to learn more about the latest changes.

To share your feedback, please post in the General Discussion forum.
For a list of known issues, visit our Bug Report forum.
For troubleshooting assistance, visit our Technical Support forum.

EXPERIMENTAL HERO UPDATES

The next experiment begins! This time we’re hoping to get your feedback on some balance changes. We’re using the 2-2-2 Role Queue ruleset so that you can get a feel for how these balance changes might affect the live game.

HERO UPDATES (ONLY IN EXPERIMENTAL)

Baptiste

Exo-Boots

• Charge time increased from 0.7 to 1 second

Developer Comments: Though it felt better to use, the previous reduction to the Exo Boots charge time resulted in Baptiste becoming much more evasive against some heroes. Since he already has strong defensive ability options in Regenerative Burst and Immortality Field, we’re reverting how quickly he can charge the Exo Boots jump.

McCree

• Peacekeeper
  • Reload time increased from 1.2 to 1.5 seconds
• Combat Roll
  • Distance reduced by 20%

Developer Comments: Much of McCree’s recent success can be attributed to his increased maximum health and we think that aspect is working well to help solidify a close-to-mid-range role for him. We’re reverting the Combat Roll distance and Peacekeeper reload times as they lead to longer distance Flashbang initiations and made the burst damage from ‘Fan the Hammer’ less of a costly investment.

Moira

• Biotic Grasp
  • Resource regeneration is now three times higher while channeling Coalescence

Developer Comments: Many channeled ultimate abilities automatically reload the heroes weapon as they’re locked out from reloading for a short time. The new regeneration rate will refill about half of Moira’s Biotic energy resource over the full duration of Coalescence. This doesn’t fully refill Moira’s energy from empty as it would be unfortunate to lose that portion of her gameplay if players were able to fully cycle between ultimates with healing alone.

Reaper

• The Reaping
  • Life Steal amount increased from 30% to 35%

Developer Comments: This adjustment brings Reaper’s self-healing with his Hellfire Shotguns back to about where it was before the recent weapon tuning changes.

Zarya

• Particle Cannon
  • (Primary Fire) Beam damage now scales from 75-170 damage-per-second, down from 95-170

Developer Comments: Zarya’s base damage wasn’t adjusted after the beam hit detection changes awhile back but she wasn’t seeing much use at the time either. Now that she has a more dominant presence in a variety of team compositions, we’re looking at reducing her beams average damage, though the same maximum damage is still achievable.

This Experimental mode is anticipated to be available until the afternoon (PDT) of Tuesday, June 1, 2021.