The Overwatch 2 mid-cycle patch for season five brought about changes for 10 different heroes today, but all eyes were on what was planned for the game’s omnic monk support hero, Zenyatta.
In a developer blog post at the end of June, game director Aaron Keller noted that the team intended to “weaken” Zenyatta’s flagship ability Orb of Discord, but he didn’t provide any specifics, leaving Zen mains everywhere wondering if their favorite hero would end up unplayable.
With the mid-cycle patch now live, Zenyatta players can rest assured knowing that every tank’s worst nightmare is still an effective force to be reckoned with, even though Blizzard tweaked his most important ability.
Related: Incoming nerf to pesky Overwatch 2 hero will have tank players rejoicing
In the patch notes posted to the game’s official website, Blizzard noted that the maximum range for Orb of Discord was reduced by 10 meters down to 30. Meanwhile, the orb wears off after just 1.5 seconds outside of line-of-sight, down from two seconds.
“The combination of these changes will make it riskier for Zenyatta to apply Discord and increase counterplay for the affected target,” the developer comment said.
Zenyatta’s effectiveness has been a bit of a point of contention for some players. While some players on social media have claimed his Orb of Discord is overpowered, others have found that it’s tuned appropriately.
Given how little he’s used in professional play and his pick rate on the competitive ladder, Zenyatta didn’t seem like he was in line for any especially significant changes. Though this change certainly makes Zenyatta less effective, it won’t be nearly as detrimental as other nerfs to Orb of Discord could have been.
For instance, Blizzard could have changed the damage received percentage value associated with the Orb of Discord debuff. They also could have put the ability on a cooldown. Either of those options very likely would have made Zenyatta practically unusable.
