Overwatch: Mercy and Junkrat are being nerfed in the new PTR patch!

A new balance patch for Overwatch is being tested on the PTR. Mercy and Junkrat are being heavily nerfed!

Last night (01/05/2018), a new patch for Overwatch was deployed on the test servers of the hero shooter. While there are no new features or major highlights this time, there are some adjustments to the game’s balance. Primarily, two heroes are the focus of the changes: Mercy and Junkrat.

• Mercy
  • Valkyrie
    • During Valkyrie, resurrection is no longer instantaneous.
    • Valkyrie no longer grants additional resurrection charge.
    • The speed bonus from Guardian Angel has been reduced by 50%.
    • The duration of Valkyrie has been reduced from 20 to 15 seconds.

Basically, the developers wanted to take some power away from Valkyrie with these changes. Although opponents could counter Mercy more easily due to the resurrection’s casting time, it was often possible for Mercy to prevent these disadvantages herself with Valkyrie.

Junkrat loses one-shot potential

With Junkrat, there is only one change, but it is likely to have a significant impact.

• Junkrat
  • Remote Mine
    • The Remote Mine now deals less damage when the opponent is further away from the explosion center.

The developers’ intention was to take a bit away from Junkrat’s “one-shot” potential. Because with an attack from his weapon in combination with a mine, Junkrat could deal 200 damage and thus kill many heroes in the blink of an eye. While this is still possible, it now requires more precision to execute this combo.

Whether the adjustments to Mercy and Junkrat will go live as is is still questionable. There will surely be some fine-tuning before the patch’s release.

What do you think of these changes to Junkrat and Mercy? Was it time for Blizzard to nerf the two heroes? Or is this once again a slap in the face for the “Mercy mains”?

The developers of Overwatch are already testing the next hero internally – and many new maps!