It’s been nearly three months since Overwatch developers have shared changes with the community via an Experimental Card. During that time, however, they were apparently cooking up some explosive changes.
The Oct. 21 Experimental patch tests buffs for heroes that aren’t often a part of the top-tier competitive meta, like Torbjörn, who lost some time off his cooldowns. McCree also got to test one of the more popular buffs to his kit: an aerial Combat Roll that can get him out of knockback situations.
Overall, Junkrat received the most expansive potential buffs in this patch. His close-range impact damage has skyrocketed at the cost of falloff damage added to his primary fire. While this makes random deaths from far-off spam grenades much less annoyingly constant, it also makes Junkrat a terrifying close-range enemy.
As usual, these changes are Experimental and are only active in the Experimental Card section on Overwatch’s home page. There is no guarantee these changes will make it to live servers in their current state, if at all.
Hero changes
Torbjörn
- Overload cooldown reduced from 10 seconds to eight seconds.
- Rivet Gun alternate fire ammo consumption reduced from three to two per shot.
Everyone’s favorite builder got a healthy dose of buffs in this Experimental patch. A cooldown reduction on Overload, which gives Torbjörn extra armor and speed, will allow him to use it “a bit more aggressively,” developers said in the patch notes. The “right click” fire on his Rivet Gun will also use less ammo, which means Torb just got a lot more dangerous.
McCree
- Deadeye’s initial slower damage ramping speed duration reduced from 0.8 seconds to 0.5 seconds.
- Combat Roll can now be used while in the air.
The cowboy is getting some airtime with a quality-of-life change to Combat Roll. This defensive ability can now be used in the air, allowing McCree to get out of hairy situations like Wrecking Ball Piledrivers. McCree’s ultimate, Deadeye, will also hit peak damage in a faster manner. It’ll be “threatening to enemies more quickly than before,” developers said.
Moira
- Biotic Orb’s slowed speed when it has a target has been reduced from 27.5 percent of normal speed to 15 percent of normal speed.
When Moira’s Biotic Orb finds a target, the orb slows as it “attaches” to its victim. This minor buff makes the Orb go even slower after it locks on, letting Moira sap more energy and health from enemies.
Junkrat
- Frag Launcher impact damage increased from 40 to 90 and explosion damage reduced from 80 to 60.
- Falloff was added to the impact damage and knockback amount has been reduced slightly. Between 15 to 25m, impact damage was reduced to 20 percent.
With a few of these changes, the Rat might be king once again. Junkrat’s close-range damage has been substantially buffed, doubling his direct impact damage to 90 with his primary fire. His explosion splash damage has been reduced, but those well-aimed grenades will be able to pack a massive punch.
The cost of this buff is the addition of falloff damage to Junkrat’s Frag Launcher. Impact damage is massively reduced at longer ranges, meaning you’ll be much less likely to get deleted by random Junkrat spam in the future. Developers said in the patch notes that these changes are aimed at “weakening his long-range spam potential” while increasing his close-range combat.
These changes can be found on the Experimental Card on Overwatch’s home page and will likely be live for a week or so.
