A bunch of Overwatch heroes were nerfed and buffed with the Summer Games update

Lots of hero changes were uploaded to Overwatch with the new patch.

Image via Blizzard Entertainment

Overwatch’s Summer Games are here.

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One of the more popular seasonal Overwatch events, Summer Games brings a wealth of fun skins and the return of Lúcioball for another year. Blizzard’s 2018 Summer Games event kicked off at 1pm CT on Aug. 9, just as promised. But beyond the summer activities, Blizzard also tweaked a bunch of Overwatch’s supports—everyone except Zenyatta.

Related: The state of Overwatch’s support heroes

The changes have been in testing on Overwatch’s PTR since mid-July. It’s essentially a bunch of changes designed to bring Overwatch’s healers more in-line with one another. They’re mostly small tweaks, but all-together, they’re very important to understand. Here’s the breakdown.

Ana

Nano Boost

  • Instantly heals a target for 300 health
  • Range increased from 30 to 40 meters

Blizzard added this change in an effort to give Ana a bit more flexibility in how her ultimate ability is used. Generally, this should make Ana more “usable,” Blizzard said.

Brigitte

Image via Blizzard Entertainment

Shield Bash

  • Cool down increased from six to seven seconds

Repair Pack

  • An option to control Brigitte’s Repair Pack targeting sensitivity has been added under Options > Controls > Brigitte

Shield Bash is one of the more powerful abilities in the game, and Blizzard made this adjustment to give enemies more of a chance to play around the ability.

Moira

Biotic Grasp

  • Passive energy regeneration rate increased from two per second to 2.4 per second

Moira will be able to heal more in situations where there aren’t any enemies to draw energy from.

Lúcio

Crossfade

  • Aura radius increased from 10 meters to 12 meters

Sound Barrier

  • Temporary shields granted increased from 500 to 750

Lúcio needs to be a bit more reliable in his healing range, allowing more allies to stay within his area-of-effect. His shield increase is to make Sound Barrier more effective against burst damage, like Junkrat’s RIP-Tire.

Mercy

Caduceus Staff

  • Healing beam reduced from 60 healing per second to 50 healing per second

Mercy used to be a must-pick in most Overwatch matches, and Blizzard decided to nerf her healing output to give other heroes a chance.


Beyond support hero tweaks, Blizzard made a lot more adjustments to Overwatch characters. This patch is a doozy. The rest of the changes are as follows, straight from Blizzard.

Doomfist

Image via Blizzard Entertainment

Rocket Punch

  • No longer impacts Symmetra’s Teleporter
  • Now destroys Symmetra’s Sentry Turrets without stopping his movement

Hanzo

Lunge

  • Cool down increased from four to five seconds

Sombra

General

  • Reduced the size of Sombra’s head hit volume

Reinhardt

Barrier Field

  • Decorative insignia no longer protrudes from the shield’s surface

Widowmaker

Image via Blizzard Entertainment

Grappling Hook

  • Cool down increased from eight seconds to 10 seconds

Zarya

Energy

  • Drain rate reduced from two per second to 1.6 per second

Graviton Surge

  • Radius reduced from eight to six meters

Symmetra

Photon Projector

  • Primary fire range increased from 10 to 12

General

Channeled and transformation ultimate abilities now restore ammunition after completion for some heroes

  • Channeled abilities affected: Junkrat’s RIP-Tire, Pharah’s Barrage, Roadhog’s Whole Hog, and Zenyatta’s Transcendence
  • Transformation abilities affected: Genji’s Dragonblade, Winston’s Primal Rage
Author
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Nicole Carpenter
Nicole Carpenter is a reporter for Dot Esports. She lives in Massachusetts with her cat, Puppy, and dog, Major. She's a Zenyatta main who'd rather be playing D.Va.