Blizzard today finally dished out some nerfs to Overwatch 2’s newest support hero—Illari—after the Peruvian youngster took over the game with her solar-powered abilities and healing turret.
The game’s director Aaron Keller warned players that Illari would likely be a powerful force ahead of her addition with the launch of season six, and with the team unlocking her in competitive mode today, the devs gave a nerf to a pair of her abilities that have been giving players fits: Healing Pylon and Captive Sun.
Illari nerfs in Overwatch 2
- Healing Pylon: Healing decreased to 30, down from 40, and shields decreased to 50, down from 75.
- Captive Sun: Projectile Impact and explosion are blocked by barriers, and projectile size decreased to 0.75 meters, down from 1.5. Sunstruck duration also decreased to six seconds, down from seven.
Related: Illari is ‘not overpowered’ but is still getting nerfed, Overwatch dev says
In a post on Twitter, the game’s lead hero designer Alec Dawson noted that Healing Pylon has “accounted for around 63 percent of her healing in games.”
“We’d like to bring down that ratio and have more focus on her active healing (which is quite strong),” he said. “Captive Sun’s size reduction change is a buff so that when it is now blocked by barriers or eaten through other abilities it makes more visual sense. The past projectile size wasn’t enabling Illari players to accurately predict whether or not the ultimate would be consumed.”
Illari is now available for players to use in competitive as well. Blizzard regularly blocks new heroes from use in competitive for the first two weeks of the season that they’re released in to give the devs time to make sure there are no outstanding bugs with the hero.
