High DPS has been a staple in Overwatch’s ever-changing metas. Some heroes have been dishing out consistent damage at such a rapid rate that they’re must-picks for most team compositions—with a few prominent faces even banned from the Overwatch League’s upcoming Countdown Cup.
This iteration of Overwatch’s Experimental Card features some of the game’s most oppressive heroes seeing tweaks to their damage, while others are receiving some help to get back on track. While the card doesn’t have changes to too many heroes, a few of the names included will likely see more usage if these experimental changes hit the live servers.
As with all Experimental Cards, these changes are implemented for the sole purpose of testing and may not be implemented on the live servers in the future. Here are all of the changes accompanying the July 29 version of the Overwatch Experimental Card:
Damage
Doomfist
- Meteor Strike: Now speeds up the cooldown rate of his abilities by 100 percent while in the air.
Doomfist, while not being a particularly underpowered pick, pales in comparison to other damage heroes like Tracer, Mei, and Ashe due to his all-in melee playstyle. It doesn’t help that Doomfist is incredibly reliant on his Rising Uppercut and Seismic Slam combo. If it doesn’t successfully send your opponents back to spawn, it’ll leave Doomfist open to that same fate. This cooldown speed up while in the air may be a little high and might not make it to the live servers, but it will at least make Doomfist feel a bit more welcome in the current meta.
Genji
- Shuriken: Damage increased from 28 to 29
- Dragonblade: Damage reduced from 120 to 110
The other Shimada brother has the potential to stop entire teams in their tracks. But with the Overwatch meta constantly shifting between mobility and sustain, Genji’s dreams of one-vs-six plays haven’t come to fruition as of late. While these dreams won’t be fulfilled entirely, Genji will be getting a bit of help in the basic attack department. Since this will help him slice and dice enemies a bit better, the damage on his Dragonblade is being slightly reduced to compensate.
Soldier: 76
- Heavy Pulse Rifle: Damage increased from 19 to 20
- Biotic Field: Healing reduced from 40 to 35 health per second
Like Genji, Soldier: 76 is also receiving a buff and nerf in this Experimental Card. Soldier’s damage certainly isn’t lacking, but similar to Doomfist’s current situation, other heroes do his job a lot better. Coupled with his lack of vertical mobility, Soldier hasn’t been faring well as of late, so his Heavy Pulse Rifle is getting a nice buff of one damage. To compensate, Soldier’s solo and team survivability with his Biotic Field is being held back a bit.
Tank
Roadhog
- Now passively gains 25-percent less ultimate charge
Roadhog likes to be at the center of attention—maybe a little too much. His ability to naturally tank damage and take reduced damage while using Take a Breather makes him an optimal choice as an off-tank to accompany someone with big shields. To prevent him from going hog-wild too often as a result of tanking and dishing damage, his ultimate charge gain will now be passively decreased.
Wrecking Ball
- Grappling Claw: Now begins on cooldown after respawning
- Adaptive Shield: Cast time reduced from 0.2 seconds to zero seconds. Duration increased from seven to nine seconds.
- Minefield: Proximity mines no longer stick to walls.
The ball certainly isn’t weak by any means, since his speed, self shield, and ability to stall maps continue to be a prominent aspect of this hero that make it difficult to shut him down. To prevent this, this Experimental Card is placing his Grappling Claw on a cooldown upon respawn, making it unusable when immediately leaving the spawn area and thus preventing Wrecking Ball from sabotaging an enemy’s point capture or payload push. Since this has long been a staple of the character and is now being removed, his Adaptive Shield will last longer and activate faster, allowing him to soak up more damage in fights where he may not be swinging around too often.
Support
Moira
- Biotic Grasp: Self-healing increased from 20 to 24 health per second.
Moira’s role as a support has been a unique one since her ability to heal herself and her allies is reliant on how much damage she can deal to opponents. This, in turn, has made her an infrequent choice of support when heroes like Lúcio and Ana are readily available to heal without this drawback and without the need to be constantly in the face of enemies. This buff to her self-healing will allow her to survive in fights a bit easier, though she likely still won’t be at the level of her fellow heroes in this class.
