Support players finally get a piece of the wild changes the Overwatch 2 beta has become known for with a mid-cycle patch.
The July 11 patch for Overwatch 2 brings the first iteration of a widely-discussed rework for support hero Moira, who has languished in the beta as other supports dominated the lobby.
Moira’s standard attack, Biotic Orb, has now been split into two different abilities with separate cooldowns. Necrotic Orb—currently labeled as “Enfeebling Orb” in the game—is a projectile that explodes in a three-meter radius. While it deals damage, the main draw of the ability is its debuff: Heroes hit by the orb are given the “Weakened” effect, reducing the damage dealt.
Some of Mercy’s more contentious abilities, like the automatic “superjump” added in this beta, have also been reworked in this patch.
General changes
- The final hit that would deplete a hero’s Armor Pool is now dynamically reduced.
Hits will do more or less damage based on the armor a hero has remaining. Previously, “if a hero had one armor remaining and took 100 incoming damage, that would instead be reduced to 70 damage due to armor,” the developers said in the patch notes. “Now, in the same scenario, that hero will take 99 damage.”
Support hero changes
Mercy
- Guardian Angel
- Mercy is no longer automatically launched upward when she reaches her destination.
- Guardian Angel now has a meter that charges up while it’s active. Canceling the ability with Jump now launches Mercy in the direction she is facing. The more charge she has, the more launch speed she’ll have when canceling Guardian Angel with Jump.
- Holding the backward directional input and canceling Guardian Angel launches Mercy in the opposite direction.
These changes should make Mercy players a bit happier as it retains vertical mobility and reduces the potential to Guardian Angel out of Resurrect range by accident.
Moira
- Necrotic Orb (temporarily named “Enfeebling Orb” in-game)
- Replaces Damage Biotic Orb, with a separate cooldown of 16 seconds.
- Fires a straight-moving projectile that explodes in a three-meter radius on impact of an enemy or environment.
- Deals 40 impact damage and 10 explosion damage.
- Enemies affected by Necrotic Orb’s explosion receive the “Weakened” effect, reducing all damage dealt by 75 percent for four seconds.
- Biotic Orb
- Damage Orb has been replaced by the above ability, “Necrotic Orb.” Each orb has its own separate cooldown.
- Healing Orb capacity decreased from 300 to 250.
- Cooldown increased from eight to 10 seconds.
- Biotic Grasp
- Self-healing decreased from 24 to 20 per second.
- Fade
- Cooldown increased from six to seven seconds.
Moira’s newest ability, Necrotic Orb, hits enemies with a “Weakened” effect that reduces damage output. If used correctly, this ability could be used to negate ultimates that deal intense damage, like Genji’s Dragonblade and Junkrat’s RIP-Tire. You can reportedly now even survive a D.Va Self-Destruct with a well-timed Necrotic Orb.
Like Moira says, though, everything must be balanced. To get such a powerful ability, many of her healing abilities were nerfed for balance reasons.
