Blizzard is once again tinkering with the healers of Overwatch. The popular healer Mercy is getting nerfed, while almost all other healers will receive a buff.
Mercy is getting nerfed: Mercy is currently present in almost every match as a healer. She usually restores more health than other healers and is expected to continue to do so – however, Blizzard wants to prevent her from completely crowding out other healers.
Specifically, Mercy’s healing beam will be 17% weaker and will heal only 50 health points per second instead of 60. All changes are expected to take effect with the next patch.
Changes to the healers in the next Overwatch patch
Most other healers besides Mercy will also receive a buff with the next patch. This is intended to give them a better chance of finding a place in a team and not just sit on the bench for special situations.
Ana: Ana’s Nanoboost now heals the target for an additional 300 health points. The effect stacks with the buff to attack power and damage reduction triggered by her ultimate. This change is intended to make her ultimate a bit more versatile and give Ana the ability to effectively save teammates.
Lúcio: Lúcio’s Sound Barrier now provides a shield of 750 health points instead of just 500. Additionally, the range of his auras is increased from 10 to 12 meters. With the stronger ultimate, Lúcio can now fully negate high damage spikes like a Kamikaze tire. However, the shield still expires in the same time as before.
Moira: Moira’s healing resource now charges 20% faster. According to the developers, Moira is already a strong healer. However, she struggles when there are no enemies nearby to charge her resource. The change is intended to help her better support her team, even when it gets caught in long-range battles without nearby opponents.
Brigitte: Brigitte is the only healer besides Mercy to receive a nerf. The cooldown of her Shield Bash has been increased from 6 to 7 seconds. Brigitte has the highest win rate among all healers, even though she heals the least. The nerf to Shield Bash is intended to make it somewhat easier to play against her without trimming too many of her abilities.
Zenyatta: Zenyatta is currently considered by Blizzard to be in a very good position. He fulfills his role as a hybrid between DPS and healer. Therefore, no changes will be made to the Omnic monk.
The community is happy, but…
Most comments under the update in the Overwatch forum express support for the upcoming changes. Many players see it as a step in the right direction to adjust the somewhat overpowered healers and give weaker healers a chance.
However, there is also some criticism of the decision to nerf. While Mercy is certainly a very strong healer, the actual reason for her strength is her resurrection ability. Weakening her healing may not necessarily be the right approach.
As previously mentioned in earlier posts by Blizzard, balancing Mercy’s resurrection is difficult. The ability is iconic for Mercy and cannot simply be removed – however, adjusting it is very complicated.
What do you think of the changes? Do you welcome them or are you annoyed by the nerfs? Let us know in the comments!
Like our Overwatch page on Facebook and don’t miss any more news!
