An Overwatch update now on the game’s live server drastically alters Mercy’s ultimate, Valkyrie, and nerfs Junkrat’s Concussive Mine ability.
Fans of the Overwatch healer have been dreading the Mercy nerf, but those who frequently play against her—that’s nearly everyone—have been waiting anxiously for the patch to drop. The new Overwatch patch does a number on Mercy’s ultimate, making it a much less powerful ability. Valkyrie’s length has been reduced to 15 seconds, down five seconds from its previous length of 20 seconds. Resurrects while using Valkyrie now have a slight cast time, whereas it was previously instantaneous. Likewise, the ultimate no longer grants a bonus charge of Resurrect.
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While using Valkyrie, Mercy’s speed boost during Guardian Angel (the ability that allows Mercy to fly toward her allies) has been reduced by 50 percent.
Some players found her much too powerful while using Valkyrie; enemy teams just couldn’t deal with her while using the ultimate. She became an instant pick for nearly every Overwatch game, so Blizzard decided to tone down the ultimate with a power nerf. The changes have been in testing on the Overwatch PTR since Jan. 4.
Junkrat is seeing a nerf with the latest Overwatch patch, too. His Concussion Mines have had their damage radius reduced. The mines now do less damage the further away from the explosion’s center the enemy is. The mines became much too powerful in the eyes of Blizzard’s developers when Junkrat was given an extra charge to boost mobility. It was simply too easy to do too much damage by throwing out the mines wildly. Junkrat players can still hit similar numbers with regard to damage, but have to be more accurate with their throws.
The new hero adjustments have been in testing on the Overwatch PTR since Jan. 4, which is a fairly long incubation period for Overwatch tweaks.
