Crowd control has long been a point of contention in Overwatch 2, and while Blizzard has attempted to largely phase CC abilities out of DPS heroes when the hero shooter transitioned to its 5-vs-5 format, the devs seem to have reverted their position this week.
Game director Aaron Keller unveiled numerous hero balance changes coming in season five in a Dev Take post today, and in discussing how crowd control effects fit into the grand scheme of the competitive hero shooter—and previewing a few changes that fall under that umbrella—Keller may have upset some fans.
In particular, Keller said originally removing CC from most DPS and support heroes was a “positive” change, but in some situations, it was actually vital to have extra utility.
Related: Overwatch dev teases massive hero changes coming in season five
“We have a lot of high-mobility heroes in the roster, and a team can’t always rely on their tank,” he said in the June 6 developer update. “So we’re softening our approach here. We don’t want to return to the state the game was in previously, but we feel like there is room for more CC, especially soft CC, in our lineup.”
For that reason, Blizzard is updating Mei’s primary fire to apply a significantly increased slow after 1.5 seconds, similar to what players were originally used to seeing from the character prior to all of the Overwatch 2 hero reworks. Meanwhile, Cassidy’s Magnetic Grenade is getting a damage nerf and a coincidental slowing effect too.
Related: How to counter Mei in Overwatch 2
Mei has been among the strong DPS heroes in the past season, in the right hands. While she can’t slow heroes the way she could in the original version, her Blizzard Ultimate and her ability to wall tanks off from their team make her among the most difficult heroes to play against.
Not only is she a valuable pick with massive utility, but she has also become one of the frequently picked DPS heroes in brawl compositions in the Overwatch League.
Though Keller only noted her weapon will have a stronger slow in season five, the game’s lead hero designer pointed out on Twitter shortly after that the increased CC will come with a drawback; the DPS of Mei’s primary fire is going to be reduced to 55.
As someone who doesn’t play tank heroes very frequently, this change isn’t going to affect heroes that I use directly all that much. Whether a Mei is spraying me to death in two seconds or making me an icicle and finishing me off with one pop to the dome, most of us will just be sent back to spawn regardless.
I see this change being more of an effective nerf for some tank heroes that Mei will be inclined to counter. This could make life difficult for dive tanks, like Winston and D.va, that could previously hop over Mei’s Ice Wall ability.
Starting next week, those heroes will have a tougher time surviving.
