Huge Buffs to McCree, Zarya, and Others Coming to Overwatch on Next Update

So, hey, you know how Overwatch's dive comps have basically taken over the game and it's kinda hard to play anything else? A whole class of heroes were effectively taken out of contention because of the overcentralized focus on divers -- something that Doomfist, recently added, was expected to only exacerbated given that his kit literally demands that you run smack into the middle of the enemy team and start knocking heads around.

If you were also frustrated by it, there's some good news: help is on its way if the latest PTR update's any indicator. Here's Principal Designer Geoff Goodman on what they're experimenting with now:

Doomfist

Rocket Punch

• Total distance traveled reduced by about 20% (This change has been on the PTR for a little while now)

Seismic Slam

• Added a new UI indicator to show how much damage it will deal, and how much it dealt. Previously this was only indicated by the default crosshair filling in, but this is only visible when using the default crosshair. The new indicator should always be visible, regardless of any crosshair changes. Also, targeting this ability while in the air is now restricted to locations lower than your current height.

McCree

Flashbang

• Now slows targets significantly when they are stunned. This makes them less likely to slide away around a corner or something similar once they are stunned.

Reaper

Shadow Step

• VO and SFX distance dramatically reduced.

Reinhardt

Hammer

• Swing speed increased by ~10%. On top of the swing speed increase, we've gone through and tweaked many timings and other things about the Hammer to make it more responsive. Overall it should feel a lot better to swing and make contact with enemies.

Charge

• Impacting another charging hero (Doomfist or Reinhardt) no longer deals damage to both characters, but still causes a knockdown on both.

Zarya

Graviton Surge

• Now disables all movement abilities of affect targets. This is similar to how Junkrat's trap affects abilities.

Yep, McCree now soft-locks a Flashbanged target, and Zarya's the hardest possible counter to a dash-mad, trigger-happy Tracer. Which does make sense! After all, given the theory of relativity, a singularity like the black hole shot out of Zarya's gun should logically screw with time traveling shenanigans too.

Notably absent in this PTR update, though: no Roadhog buffs. While that may yet come -- the Doomfist Patch isn't yet due -- there's currently only idle speculation for what improvements might yet come to Overwatch's bringer of bacon.

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