With the Winter Wonderland 2018 came a new balance patch for Overwatch. This adjusts Doomfist and Brigitte, among other things. Changes to Brigitte have been desired for a long time.
What has changed? With the patch from December 11 for Overwatch, both the Winter Wonderland event and some buffs and nerfs arrived. McCree was particularly buffed, as his alternate fire now does more damage.
The nerfs affected Brigitte and Doomfist. Doomfist can no longer control opponents as well and loses a bit of range. Although Brigitte heals more now, she has received significant reductions to her shield bash. This nerf prevents her from being able to kill Tracer with a combo.
Flankers can breathe easy
This is what happened to Brigitte: After Brigitte was almost hated by parts of the community, she received adjustments that many players had been calling for a long time. She loses much of her old playstyle.
Her changes in detail are:
- Shield Bash
- Can no longer penetrate barriers.
- Damage reduced from 50 to 5.
- Inspiration
- Cooldown reduced from 1.5 to 1 seconds.
- Duration increased from 5 to 6 seconds.
- Total healing increased from 80 to 100.
You can find the complete patch notes in German on the official Overwatch website.
This is what Brigitte’s changes mean: Brigitte can now heal more effectively, as she provides more healing over a slightly longer period. While the stronger healing may seem minimal, it should be sufficient to keep the team alive better.
The changes to her shield bash are the actual nerf that many of her opponents have demanded. Because Brigitte now does less damage with the shield bash, her popular combo is also weakened (shield bash, melee attack, whip shot).
Previously, she could deal 155 damage with the combo during the duration of the shield bash stun. Opponents with low hit points like Tracer were killed even at full health. This is no longer possible due to the reduced damage.
Since she can no longer penetrate barriers and stun the tanks behind them, she can no longer open up attack options as she could before. However, with the new shield bash, there were already some issues on the PTR.
This is the situation for the other heroes: McCree now deals more damage with his alternate fire. “Fan the Hammer” adds 10 more damage per bullet. This allows McCree to more easily take down tanks and eliminate targets that jump right in front of him.
Doomfist loses range and thus damage on his seismic slam. The uppercut now stuns targets for only 0.6 seconds instead of 3 seconds. In addition, the damage of his ultimate in the outer area has been reduced, while the inner area has been increased.
The changes to Doomfist correspond to those that Jeff Kaplan hinted at during Blizzcon. They mean for players currently that Doomfist has to play more cautiously than before.
This is what the fans say: Reactions to the new patch are mixed. Many people celebrate the nerf of Brigitte, while others fear a trajectory like that of Mercy, who was continually nerfed and adjusted.
Brigitte has lost her status as a flanking healer. In forums, it is often mentioned that she now has to be played more defensively. However, she is now a valuable addition to her team.
There are primarily complaints regarding Doomfist’s changes. Very few players found him “too strong” before and do not find the changes justified.
How the discussion will develop remains to be seen. In recent times, disputes over new patches have usually subsided after a few days and weeks.
What is your opinion on the changes?
What awaits us in the future is probably a surprise. Overwatch has let the developers “just work on anything”.
