It’s been hinted at for a couple weeks, but now it’s finally here: Overwatch‘s first big post-launch balance update. Blizzard has looked in the general direction of McCree and Widowmaker and uttered those fateful words: “It’s hiiiiiiiigh noon.”
For now the patch is only out on PC. These changes will be included in a larger console patch at a later date. Here are the biggies:
McCree
Peacekeeper
Alternate Fire
-Recovery time (i.e. the amount of time before McCree starts reloading) decreased from 0.75 seconds to 0.3 seconds
-Bullet damage decreased from 70 to 45
Developer Comments: McCree was performing too well against all targets, making him feel like a must-pick in many situations. By reducing the damage of his alternate fire, McCree is now significantly weaker against tanks like Roadhog and Reinhardt, but still maintains his lethality against smaller targets like Tracer and Genji.
Widowmaker
Widow’s Kiss
-Alternate Fire (Scoped Shot)Base damage decreased from 15 to 12Note: Scoped shot damage multiplier remains unchanged
-Headshot damage multiplier increased from 2x to 2.5x
-Players must now wait for the unscoping animation to completely finish before scoping
Infra-Sight
-Ultimate cost increased by 10%
Developer Comments: In the right hands, Widowmaker can often feel unstoppable — even when just landing body shots instead of critical heads shots. The changes to her alternate fire weaken body shot damage while leaving her headshot damage unchanged. Additionally, we felt her Ultimate ability, Infra-Sight, was coming up a little too frequently, especially considering its impact on the game.
So basically, McCree doesn’t hit quite as hard anymore (especially against characters he wasn’t supposed to be so viable against), and Widowmaker players need to start aiming for the head, not the body.
Looks like this patch was aimed at injecting a bit more skill into the proceedings all around. I haven’t gotten to try it out yet, but I’m planning to play some matches as soon as I’ve got a spare second. Part of me is gonna miss being — shall we say — unrealistically effective as Widowmaker, but I realise that this is all for the best.
But you guys I had the best game this weekend where I one-shotted the other team’s Widowmaker at every turn until I’m certain they were ready to snipe the wall with their entire keyboard and it was terrific.
Oh well, guess I’ll just have to git gud. Until then, I’ll always have my memories.
Comments
42 responses to “Overwatch Update Nerfs McCree And Widowmaker”
If Widowmakers infra-sight was coming up too frequently then how come I rarely saw it happening, even in a team of 3 Widowmakers?
easy: you were 3 bad snipers, just like 95% of the pubbies who refuse to change off widow/hanzo
I actually find Hanzo hard :\ prefer support
shitty team
Most likely they weren’t very good Widowmakers. I tried her out in a match for the first time yesterday and I am definitely not good with her but I got 2 of her ults in a short period of time.
i agree with all the changes, especially the widow ULT changes, it felt like it was permanently up with 2 widows on a team.
Now just bring on my D.Va Buff 😀
Damn right! D.va is my main gremlin and she’s so much fun to play as. I feel like i’m part of NERV (without the tiger-dad). She holds her own as is but sure, buff away, make me unstoppable!!
Doritos, Mountain dew, Sunless room. Buff enough..
Then both of you will be really happy. D.Va, in classic Blizzard overcompensation, has been buffed in both damage and defence so much that D.Va is now a required component to every map. Her invulnerability to explosives means that previous balance picks like Junkrat are useless.
Yeah the McCree nerfs hit me pretty hard he was fast becoming one of my favourite heroes now that they added a lot more situational and skill to the mix I’m starting to wonder if its even worth the exertion. A friend told me to stick it with him a little longer before I main again so I’ll give it some time.
isn’t that the problem.. you need to not “main” a toon..
instead pick one that is right for the situation.. this is why the McCree nerfs are warranted.
Main in this context is just another way of saying what you would do with a free pick, sure he excelled in every field which got him nerfed but at the same time his no longer a safe pick for coming out the gate the first time.
Edit: Also as quick-play stands its still a uncoordinated mess, so you can understand peoples inclinations to try for mastery instead.
Ehhh he was pretty poor in any medium to long range engagements. He was just strong at short range. I’ve played since early beta and never thought he was too strong except when his damage had no drop off (he was pretty much a snipe without a scope).
Normally you would create those situations by skulking hallways or doors or trying to flank, not like your team is doing anything cohesive.
I suppose that’s the difference. I only really play in full groups vs other full groups.
i see your point.. and you are right in people’s inclination to master a toon before trying a different one.
Blizzard has made it clear that you should try new heroes when your current strat doesnt work though. Which i guess is why the nerfs are made.
Still if you really want a safe pick in a free pick, it should be soldier76.
Yeah, I’ve seen so many clutch matches swing either way because one of the teams was too slow in adapting and changing the toons to suit the situation. I’ve been guilty of this… there’s that gnawing desperation as u get towards 80% of the ult charge to just stick with it and use it. But those valuable seconds may be what matter when it’s on the line.
news flash, you weren’t skillful using mcree, you camped corners and pressed E to get a free kill and if you messed up your fan you press shift got a free instant reload to try again, you also hid behind the payload and pressed Q
Ya pretty much, it was a ton of fun. usually the case with fotm when did I say I was skilled at him?
“Main”? As him? Ahh so you’re one of those guys that just picks the same character every match regardless of what the team needs…
No? just a favourite pick at the selection screen when offence was open.
Widowmaker shouldn’t be nerfed on console. Headshots… lol. Lucky to even get body shots most of the time. Case in point. Last night I was playing Genji on King’s Row attack. A Widowmaker had set up shop on the middle window of the building behind the Point A and I had just come around the balcony and buildings on the right, and was just near the health pack that is up the stairs there. So we were pretty much directly across from each other. I thought I’d be tricky and try and deflect a scoped shot back onto Widowmaker but every time I edged out she kept on missing. It took her about 4 tries to finally hit me with a shot, which I was too slow to deflect (it’s hitscan anyway so I was really gambling with luck and lag). Point of the story is that most Widowmakers on console that I’ve run into have a hard time hitting moving targets at all, let alone headshotting them.
Must be a bad shot then because I’ve seen a well situated single widowmaker land enough head shots and put enough fear into opponents to pin down 3+ characters around a corner.
Must be a wizard or playing on PC (or one of those KB adapters for console).
If the controls and aim assists are anywhere near as good as Halo then it shouldn’t be hard to aim on console.
Not hard to aim per se, but when you are trying to hit moving targets that suddenly appear and disappear just as suddenly, the aim assist is not that helpful. It’s really only sniping that’s the problem. If you turned down the sensitivity a bit you could probably snipe better, but then you’d be screwed on movement. I wonder if the sensitivity can be adjusted on a per character basis…
My friend told me that you can, at least on PC. Also worth noting is that with top console shooters the sensitivity is lowered whenever you scope in. Not sure if OverWatch does that
Wow, that would be sweet. I’m going to test it tonight!
100% correct. Prey needs to be stationary for 20 seconds for a viable headshot with Widow. Doing the Mystery Heroes playlist last week, whenever I’d get Widow I “forgot” to use her scope and got killed less for it.
Hanzo on the other hand…
Hanzo has a barn door to aim at.
perfect!
I tellya, if they buff Bastion I might actually buy the game. 😀
You monster.
I could almost forgive the #teamyen stuff, but this? Oh god.
fite me
IRLonline in Stellaris bro.(For my justification I will cite the hurt feelings I experienced when I received a rejection notice for what I thought was a very generous trade deal, until I realized it was when you had disconnected and the AI for the Trump Collective haaaaaaaates me so much it won’t even accept hand-outs.)
I was hoping they would nerf the flashbang rather than fan the hammer. I always felt it was the stun that really made it cheap.
Anything that causes you to lose control of your character doesn’t belong in a competitive game.
Roadhogs, reels you in for a shotgun at roadhogs preferred range, mais’ freeze leaves you helpless. Its not just mccrees FB that is the only thing that sets up a hero for a simple kill
He’s meant to bang genji and tracer, not destroy a roadhog or rein in sub two seconds.
I seriously don’t get the widowmaler nerf and I say that as a tracer who can always be one spotted by her… Here’s an idea players how about you try and not get killed by her by learning her weaknesses and keeping an eye out. But no it’s just easier for devs to give you things easier. Half the things in game can one shot me, she was the least of my problems.
Get back to me when you have done something about turret spam and/or cheese (ps I know how to kill a turret easy)
In regards to play of the game.
If you change character halfway through the match does that negate any play of the game plays u had with the former character?
no. if you made an worth PoTG on the previous character, it will show… but PoTG selection algorithm is Bastion biased so.. whatever
Watching McCree 3 shot Rheinhart was ridiculous. No point playing tank if first McCree to get behind you can drop you before you can turn around.
Blizzard has also done a lot of “shadow buffs and nerfs” to other characters. D.Va got damage and defence buffs to the point where she is unstoppable. The McCree nerfs are a lot more than a drop in damage, making him practically unplayable. Mei’s icicle shot’s hit box has doubled in size (no need to aim anymore, headshots are easy mode). Hanzo still can hit players through walls to the point where blind firing is common place. Junkrat’s mine and RIP-Tyre can hit most characters in the face and do no damage. Widowmaker’s headshot hit box has been reduced to the point that headshots are near impossible.
The game has become unplayable on PC at the moment, and players have noticed. PC wait times have gone from 10-15 seconds to upwards of a minute to 3 minutes. There’s an exodus of players after this patch because people do not agree with “Blizzard Balance” being brought into the game
Not sure if consoles are the same but I just finished a natch where junkrats mine will kill the more sqishy classes in one hit so not sure what’s going on there. And hanzo can shoot through walls?
He’s just salty and making stuff up because he mained widow, mcree and cancer-rat. Widow hitbox is still massive to the point where you can still hit people behind walls, junkrats tire still 1 shots almost everyone at short/mes range and mcree can still do 540dmg in 2 seconds with fan reset.