Every single Overwatch player has, at one point or another, wished they could cancel a misplaced ability on behalf of their team. In the Nov. 12 Experimental update, the developers are finally giving players a bit of that power in the form of multiple quality of life changes. Abilities like Mei’s Ice Wall and Symmetra’s Teleporter can now be manually canceled after death.
This update also features a few changes to support heroes, from a minor Brigitte nerf demanded by the community to a surprising-yet-massive quality of life change for Ana players.
These changes can be tested by accessing the Experimental Card on Overwatch’s game selection screen. Since this is experimental, none of these changes are guaranteed to move forward to the live servers in their current state, if at all.
Support hero changes
Ana
- Biotic Grenade now passes through allies with full health.
For Ana players, this quality of life change may be the best thing to happen to them in years of patch updates. On the live servers, Ana’s Biotic Grenade will instantly break when encountering anything, including an ally at full health. Many optimal grenade throws have been ruined by a full-health Roadhog jumping in front of the trajectory. With this change, Ana players can finally skip the frustration and throw a Biotic Grenade straight at the enemy team.
Brigitte
- Base health reduced from 175 to 150.
Never say community outrage doesn’t accomplish anything. In the Oct. 29 live patch, Brigitte’s health was bumped up to 175 after she fell out of the support meta. Over the past few weeks, Brigitte has once again become a seemingly “must-pick” hero in high-level competitive games. This has accidentally led to the return of a “double shield” meta with Sigma and Orisa. While this reversion is necessary, it’s also likely been done quickly to appease angry players.
Moira
- Biotic Grasp healing resource consumption rate lowered from 14 to 12.5.
Moira’s primary healing ability, Biotic Grasp, will now be less costly to use. This increases her functionality as a healer and may make her a better pick in certain scenarios.
Damage hero changes
Multiple damage heroes have had quality of life changes added to their abilities that allow for manual cancellation, especially after elimination. This will let players fix misplaced abilities, like Ice Wall, to avoid inconveniencing teammates.
Hanzo
- Storm Arrows can now be manually canceled.
Mei
- Ice Wall can now be manually destroyed while dead.
Symmetra
- Teleporter can now be manually destroyed while dead.
Torbjörn
- Turrets can now be manually destroyed while dead.
Pharah
- Can now crouch mid-air to accelerate downward using Hover Jets.
This small change allows for more aerial acrobatics from Pharah players, possibly letting them duck out of the way of ultimates or sharpshooters.
These changes will be tested by players using the role queue ruleset on the Experimental Card. Changes are normally tested for at least a week before being transferred to the live servers if they prove useful to the game’s balance.
