Today’s Overwatch patch clips Mercy’s wings; Battle for Azeroth pre-order perks
@liopleurodonic
If you’re not a Mercy player, I hope you have your cake and streamers ready. Mercy players, I hope you’re stocked up on tissues. The latest Overwatch patch brought a series of nerfs to the most controversial support hero — yes, another one.
The nerf is mostly surrounding her ultimate ability Valkyrie. The dev team is slowing her down during her ultimate, but more importantly reducing the extra utility given by the ult to her Resurrect ability. When a Valkyrie, Resurrect now functions pretty much the same as it does at any other time — no more instant cast, no more additional charges. The speed changes should make her easier to knock out of the sky as well.
Pro players have been vocally for another series of nerfs, since Mercy’s instant Resurrect is so strong they feel forced to play her in nearly every situation. Even on the ladder I’ve noticed a common discussion — okay, our two support players, who’s going to play the Mercy this round, and who gets to have fun? However, since Mercy has undergone a slow but steady series of nerfs — or maybe changes intended to nerf her, but which only make her stronger — people who gravitate toward that character aren’t wrong in feeling slighted here.
There’s a sneaky announcement in here for World of Warcraft players, too. As we know, Battle for Azeroth pre-orders went live a bit earlier today. In previous expansions, players who pony up twenty extra USD for a deluxe edition get perks that extend to other games. This one is no different. If you pre-order Battle for Azeroth, there’s a Tracer emote and a couple of Torbjorn voice lines in it for you. Nothing earth-shattering, but that makes sense. If they added a super sick skin in the vein of the new Blizzard World map, Overwatch players would have to pony up way more than would be fair. However, as someone who plays both, don’t you have like, a Reinhardt-as-Hellscream skin out back you could just stick in there? I won’t tell, promise.
Read on for the full patch notes.
PATCH HIGHLIGHTS
World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth Pre-purchase Goodies
When you pre-purchase a Digital Deluxe version of World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth you’ll receive several Warcraft-themed goodies in Overwatch. Show your faction pride on the battlefields of tomorrow with emotes for Tracer; Horde- and Alliance-themed voice lines for Torbjörn; Anduin, Jaina, Sylvanas, and Saurfang sprays; and Kul Tiras and Zandalar player icons.
To pre-order World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth, click here.
HERO UPDATES
Junkrat
- Concussion Mine
- Now will deal less damage to targets farther away from the explosion’s center
Developer Comments: Junkrat has been enjoying the flexibility his double-charge Concussion Mine provides, but it has become a bit too easy to throw out huge bursts of damage in a large area. With this change he can still dish out similar damage but he must now be more accurate with his tosses.
Mercy
- Valkyrie
- No longer makes Resurrect instant
- No longer grants a bonus Resurrect charge
- The speed bonus Guardian Angel receives when activating Valkyrie has been decreased by 50%
- Duration reduced from 20 seconds to 15 seconds
Developer Comments: Mercy’s recent Resurrect changes have helped in allowing enemies to have more counter play in dealing with her, but she was able to use Resurrect through Valkyrie enough to largely mitigate the impact of the previous changes. Additionally, we’re toning back the amount of mobility Valkyrie provides through Guardian Angel and reducing its duration to overall reduce the power of this ability.
BUG FIXES
Heroes
- Fixed a bug that prevented D.Va’s face and hair textures from loading when her Black Cat skin was equipped
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