Overwatch is about to get another wild Experimental Card update at the hands of some of the community’s most vocal professionals and creators.
After the popularity of the Nov. 30 Creator Cup card, which included changes for all 32 of the game’s heroes provided by community creators, Overwatch developers have decided to repeat that success with a new crop of masterminds.
Houston Outlaws coach and Overwatch League player Jake Lyon revealed on Jan. 19 that he’d be handling proposed changes for flex and projectile DPS heroes like Pharah, Hanzo, and Doomfist.
Popular streamer ml7 is in charge of support changes. At the time of publication, creators responsible for hitscan DPS–such as Soldier: 76–and tank changes are unknown.
Though we don’t have a confirmed launch date for the next Experimental Card, Jake was given the go-ahead to share some of the changes he proposed to developers on his stream. These changes will be included with the next Experimental Card, though some numbers may not be exact when the patch goes live.
Bastion
- Configuration: Sentry (his immobile mode) is disabled.
- Configuration: Recon clip size increased to 100 (from 35). Max spread is reduced by 20 percent.
- Model size reduced by 15 percent.
- Self-repair is no longer canceled by primary fire and can be used simultaneously.
- Quality of life option to use normal crosshair during Bastion’s ultimate, Configuration: Tank.
Doomfist
- Now has a new passive where if a player doesn’t hit an ability, they get a one second cooldown reduction on the other two cooldowns.
- For example, if you don’t hit a Rising Uppercut, the cooldowns for Seismic Slam and Rocket Punch are reduced by one second.
- Can cancel Seismic Slam after a short delay by hitting the button again.
Echo
- Passive (falling) glide speed increased by 15 percent.
- Echo gets a new passive called “Assimilation.” Final blows instantly heal Echo for 30 percent of her current missing health. This passive still works during Copy and self-heals will charge her ultimate just like any other healing effect.
Genji
- Swift Strike (Dash) now has two charges. Eliminations refund one dash charge each; casting ult refunds one charge. Dash damage reduced to 30 (from 50).
- Dragonblade duration reduced by 50 percent (to three seconds from six seconds).
- Dragonblade now applies a 40 percent attack speed buff upon ending that lasts for six seconds; the buff starts after you sheathe the sword. The next ultimate charges as normal during this buff.
Hanzo
- Dragonstrike’s dragon is spawned immediately if the arrow hits a wall before the normal .6 seconds has elapsed.
- Storm Arrow has been removed.
- In its place is a new ability, which gives a six-second status buff with a cooldown of 14 seconds. Cooldown should start on cast, so there’s eight seconds of downtime.
- These status effects include all of the following:
- Lunge cooldown is reduced to one second for the duration of the ability.
- Storm Bow charging movement penalty removed, from 30 percent to zero.
- Storm Bow charge speed increased; the time to max charge is now .45 seconds.
Junkrat
- Footstep audio removed.
- RIP-Tire can jump high off of walls while climbing them.
Mei
- Ice Wall now boosts players (and Mei herself) far into the air when it’s cast under them, in the same way Baptiste’s charged jump works. Affects both allies and enemies.
- Cryo-Freeze collision size increased by 50 percent.
- Melee attacks on fully frozen targets deal 100 percent increased damage.
Pharah
- Direct hits from Rocket Launcher now apply a 25 percent movement slow for .5 seconds. Knockback is also increased by 100 percent for direct hits.
- Concussive Blast now has two charges.
- Players “booped” by a Concussive Blast cannot be “booped” again for 1.5 seconds. This applies to both Pharah and other players.
Sombra
- Primary weapon spread reduced by 20 percent. Rate of fire increased by 20 percent.
- Hack’s cooldown, when broken, increased from two to three seconds.
- Enemy Hack status effect reduced from five to 3.5 seconds; this also affects EMP, Sombra’s ultimate.
- Stealth now has an eight-second timer, but makes no audio cue to enemies upon passive decloak from the ability ending. Active decloak, from a Sombra canceling the ability, is unchanged.
Torbjörn
- Rivet Gun primary fire applies a stacking effect to enemies, which increases the damage of subsequent primary fires by five.
- Stacks decay individually and last five seconds.
- There is no stack limit, other than what is possible with max fire rate.
The last Experimental Creator Card – developed by popular streamers Flats, Somjuu, and Violet – was a huge hit in the Overwatch community and led to a full-fledged Creator Cup tournament.
