Healers are important in Overwatch, but they also have the potential to get out of hand. Sure, it’s good to be able to patch up your teammates, but it’s not fun to play a match where you can’t actually damage the other team; at the same time, it’s not fun to play as a healer and watch your options be “slightly slow down team deaths.” In order to avoid these hypothetical scenarios, Blizzard is adjusting most of the game’s support heroes in the next patch.
Ana’s ultimate will get a healing component, Lucio gets additional shields and range, and Moira gets additional resource regeneration, all of which should help cover blind spots in these character toolkits. By contrast, Brigitte’s Shield Bash is getting its cooldown increased and Mercy is having her healing beam very slightly lowered in potency, which already has people on the forums happily explaining that Mercy is now completely useless. (Which has happened with every Mercy adjustment ever.) Check out the exact numbers and developer philosophy on the forum thread.
In other Overwatch news, Blizzard announced today that it’s gearing up for another free-play weekend.
“From July 26–30, we’re calling on all prospective agents: assemble your teams and dive in during the Overwatch Free Weekend on PC! For this free weekend, we’re making Overwatch’s full roster of 28 heroes—including Wrecking Ball—and 18 maps available for play in a variety of modes, including Quick Play, Custom Games, and the Arcade. Players will also be able to level up, earn Loot Boxes, and unlock a variety of different customization options for their heroes. Plus, if you decide to purchase Overwatch after test driving the game, you’ll get to keep any progress that you made during the weekend—just be sure to use the same Blizzard account that you played on.”
