‘Overwatch 2’ Nerfs For Sombra, Genji, Zarya, D.Va And Kiriko Revealed

Games ‘Overwatch 2’ Nerfs For Sombra, Genji, Zarya, D. Va And Kiriko Revealed Kris Holt Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. I write about games, with a focus on Overwatch 2.

Following New! Follow this author to stay notified about their latest stories. Got it! Oct 28, 2022, 06:05pm EDT | New! Click on the conversation bubble to join the conversation Got it! Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Sombra is in line for some nerfs in a mid-season balance patch. Blizzard Entertainment Incredibly, we’re almost halfway through Season 1 of Overwatch 2 already.

It’s been quite the launch month, for better and worse. The game is in a more stable shape for most people (though I’ve been getting some ridiculous lag spikes on PC this week), and Team 4 has taken stock of all the heroes to see where some changes are necessary. In a post on the game’s forums, community manager Andy Belford laid out some upcoming balance changes for Sombra, Genji, Zarya, D.

Va and Kiriko. These heroes are described as “standouts” and the tweaks are designed to bring them “more in line with the rest of the roster. ” In other words, they’re all getting nerfs.

Let’s break down what’s changing: Sombra Hack ability lockout duration reduced from 1. 75 to 1. 5 seconds Hacked enemies are no longer valid targets for hacking for the duration of the effect Hacked damage multiplier reduced from 40% to 25% MORE FROM FORBES Overwatch 2: Sombra Can Hack Enemies In Stealth Mode By Kris Holt Recommended For You 1 Why The Rock’s Social Media Muscle Made Him Hollywood’s Highest-Paid Actor More stories like this Fewer stories like this 2 The Prudent Speculator Industrial Sector Small-Cap Value Bargains: MAN & HURC More stories like this Fewer stories like this 3 Survey Says: In Tough Times, Great Companies Listen More stories like this Fewer stories like this Sombra got some major damage buffs with the intent of balancing out her broader rework with the fact that hacked targets have a shorter ability lockout duration.

Currently, they can re-use their abilities 1. 75 seconds after being hacked instead of having to wait for the Hack status to end. However, Blizzard (and many players) found that it was still too easy for a Sombra to sneak into the backline and wipe out supports.

These tweaks should give hacked targets more of a fighting chance. The fact that Sombra can no longer stack hacks on the same enemy is definitely welcome, especially given the fact that she can remain in stealth mode while hacking. “ This is essentially a per-target cooldown that enables Hack to keep its current four-second cooldown for potentially hacking multiple targets,” the developer comments read.

Genji Maximum ammo reduced from 30 to 24 Shuriken damage reduced from 29 to 27 Yup, that’s a nerf. Blizzard says Genji wasn’t really in the meta until the game launched so he hasn’t been retuned for 5v5 until now. “We also saw that, in early beta tests, other flanking Heroes such as Tracer and Reaper were also significantly more effective in OW2, ” the dev comments read.

“These changes will bring Genji more in line with the other flanking damage heroes. ” Zarya Barrier duration reduced from 2. 5 to 2 seconds Barrier cooldown increased from 10 to 11 seconds Zarya will soon, in fact, become mortal in Total Mayhem .

These are much-needed changes because despite concerns (including from me) that a change to how her bubbles work would make her weaker in Overwatch 2 , she’s become very effective as a solo tank thanks to her barriers and high damage output. MORE FROM FORBES Zarya Will Soon Be Killable In Overwatch 2’s Total Mayhem Mode By Kris Holt “For opponents, feedback has indicated this can feel as though Zarya has very limited windows of vulnerability, which feels difficult to deal with when combined with her ramping damage potential,” Blizzard said. “These changes will reduce the barrier uptime, making it slightly more difficult for her to gain energy and will provide enemies with more time to deal damage to her.

” D. va Fusion Cannon spread increased from 3. 5 to 3.

75 Boosters impact damage reduced from 25 to 15 These are minor tweaks to balance her out. Here are the dev comments on these updates: “ D. va ended up feeling too deadly after the last round of changes given how resilient she can be with the improved Defense Matrix.

Both our stats and high-level player feedback regarded her as not effective enough before that compared with other tanks, so this is a partial revert to establish some middle ground there. ” Kiriko Swift Step invulnerability duration reduced from 0. 4 to 0.

25 seconds The final hero who’ll be tweaked this time around is the brand new support. Kiriko is briefly invulnerable after she teleports through walls to stop her from instantly dying. However, the window “ ended up being a little too long and led to some confusion when shooting at Kiriko.

” Blizzard plans to roll out these changes in a patch on November 15. Intriguingly, these balance changes will be in play for the Overwatch League playoffs, which start on Sunday. Just a few weeks after these tweaks go live, there will be more balance changes that come into play at the start of Season 2.

We’ll learn more details about those in the coming weeks along with, I suspect, a look at the new tank hero . MORE FROM FORBES Overwatch 2 Has A Ton Of Exciting Content Coming In The Next Few Seasons By Kris Holt For more news and updates on Overwatch 2 and other games, follow my Forbes blog ! You’ll get a weekly round-up email that includes everything I publish. You’d be doing me a solid, too — it’s a great way to support me and my work at no cost.

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