Thoughts on the PTR Changes and How They Affect the Meta

Disclaimer: this article represents the opinion of the writer and not that of Team Dignitas.

With the PTR being available for a week now, I have played enough games to generally speak on how effective the heroes will be after these changes.  None of these changes are final, but last time all of the changes on the PTR went through except for one that was quickly patched out of even the PTR.  I hope this will get you ready for Season 2, and you go into it ready to do well in your placements.  I will go over each individual change, and then give an overall assessment of picks in each role.

General

- Ultimates that consume the ultimate meter when activated will now drain the meter more quickly (.25 second instead of 1 second)

- Reverted a recent change to reduce size of heroes' projectiles

Opinion: The ultimate change will make it feel better when you counter someone's ultimate, but is not a huge change for character selection.  The projectile buff will be nice for several heroes including Hanzo who is getting individual buffs as well.

D.Va

- After being activated, Defense Matrix will begin regenerating following a 1-second delay (formerly .5 seconds)

Opinion: Makes D.Va less oppressive during longer fights, but retains its ability to block out large amounts of damage and certain ultimates.  D.Va will get picked slightly less, but retains much of her power.

Hanzo

- Hanzo will now experience a 30% decrease in speed while aiming (formerly 40%)

- Maximum projectile speed has been increased by 30%

- Arrow size has been reduced by 33%

Opinion: This is one of the larger changes, and make a big difference in hero effectiveness.  On the PTR I was doing quite well with him, and I consider myself a terrible Hanzo.  Some of the higher skilled players will be able to be extremely effective with him and I can see him making his way quite nicely in the meta.  The smaller arrow size was a patch in the PTR to mitigate the overall projectile change, which made Hanzo extremely powerful.  The smaller arrows means it takes a bit more skill, but the faster speed more than makes up for it.  While I am still not 100% certain about his viability, you can bet you will see a lot more of him.

Mei

- The Blizzard projectile now pierces barriers

- Radius has been increased from 8 meters to 10 meters

Opinion: This is a decent quality of life improvement due to the ability to know exactly where your Blizzard will land, and the extra size is quite nice.  Enemies that would have escaped will now be frozen, which is pretty good.  Overall she still has many of her downsides and her ultimate is still mainly useful for zoning, so I still see her as a map specific pick (Hanamura mostly).

McCree

- Deadeye now drains over a .25-second period when activated

Opinion: This is a nice improvement when going up against McCree.  Rather than being able to save 50% of his ultimate charge he immediately uses the entire charge.  This lowers his overall zoning potential with it and prevents two Deadeyes in the same fight if he cancelled it early.  McCree is still a force because of his mid-long range damage and Flashbang utility, and will still be the primary DPS character.

Mercy

- Healing-per-second has been increased by 20%

- Resurrected allies will be able to maneuver after 2.25 seconds (reduced from 3 seconds)

Opinion: Mercy is getting some love after being nerfed into oblivion.  This boost solidifies her as the single target healing specialist, with Ana being able to put out more but being skill based.  Whether this change will boost her back to her old status as a must pick is difficult to say.  The actual maximum rate of charge is still a little lower than it was, and the damage your team needs to take to build it up is still as high as in the current patch.  Also the rise of Zenyatta and Ana as both useful picks might help in preventing the pure Mercy meta that once reigned supreme.  This one is hard for me to determine, but I feel as though Mercy is at the very least viable, if not an instalock.

Genji

- Double jump no longer resets when wall climbing

- Swift Strike no longer deals damage to traps like Widowmaker's Venom Mine or Junkrat's Steel Trap, no longer bypasses Junkrat's Steel Trap, no longer interrupts quick melee attacks

- Duration of Genji's ultimate has been reduced from 8 seconds to 6 seconds

Opinion: Genji is one of the heroes getting changed the most.  A lot of these changes will affect the higher tier players more than the mid tier, but the ultimate change is fairly noticeable to all.  This makes him feel less capable of completely dominating a game, which will disappoint quite a few Genji players.  Whether or not he becomes a more niche pick or if the players will learn to adapt to still dominate games I honestly do not know, but I would expect a few players to drop him and learn a more consistent DPS hero so his pick rate may go down a bit.  If Hanzo takes a role as a staple DPS, Genji might have to bow to his brother for a while and see his pick rate fall off a cliff.

Lucio

- The boosting of movement speed has been decreased by 30% (from a 100% increase to a 70% increase)

Opinion: I am very torn on this change.  While it does not sound like that much of a difference it feels completely stifling.  No longer will you get the extremely aggressive initiations or movement through choke points.  His individual escape or surprise boop potential is also much lower.  These changes did make sense however, as Lucio was simply way too strong for a coordinated team to take advantage of.  Lucio will still be highly effective due to AoE healing, smaller but still useful speed boost potential, and Sound Barrier is still a solid support ultimate.

Roadhog

- If the hooked target isn't in Roadhog's line of sight when retracting the hook, they will be moved back to the position where they were originally hooked

Opinion: This is a good quality of life improvement that leads to hooks being much more reliable.  You can still occasionally get the hook into a wall where the enemy does not end up near you, but it is much more rare.  This does not really change the effectiveness of Roadhog, but the Discord Orb nerf will end up making him a much less dangerous pick.  If Zenyatta completely falls off in favor of Mercy, Roadhog could step back up with his pick off potential and high damage to Reinhardt's shield.

Soldier: 76

- Adjusted weapon spread curve

- Increased spread recovery speed

Opinion: Overall I like the change to Soldier which help him be more of his old burst firing self, but I have seen a few mixed reviews of it from better Soldier players than I am.  It generally means that even your initial burst needs to be smaller, but you get larger amounts of reliable bursts more quickly.  I do not think this will do too much for him in terms of pick rate, as McCree is still a more reliable hitscan hero and the extra utility that Soldier brings to a team does not seem to make up for that.  

 

Zenyatta

- The amount of damage amplified by a target with Orb of Discord has been decreased from 50% to 30%

- Orb damage has been increased from 40 to 46

Opinion: This is the true meta defining change of this patch.  This drops Zenyatta from a must pick to a solid pick.  He retains much of his usefulness without being completely overbearing in the damage he brings to the team.  Note that his own personal damage remains mostly the same on a Discorded target, so he will still pack the same punch he always did.  This is a huge survival boost for the tanks, and opens up the support role to other heroes besides Lucio/Zen.

His era of dominance might be over, but Zenyatta still has a place

My Predictions

- Team Composition

I still see 2 DPS/2 Tank/2 Support being the standard go to in most situations.  Pro teams will mess around with a few strange combos in certain situations, and a triple tank meta may emerge on a few maps especially if the Hanzo changes do not seem as helpful as initially thought at the high tier.  If triple tank becomes a thing, expect a DPS to drop off rather than a support.  Having 2 support ultimates simply allows your team to live so much longer that the drop in DPS is worth it.

- DPS Hero Selection

If I had to bet on it, the two most popular DPS heroes will be McCree and Hanzo with the extremely loyal Genjis still being around.  Soldier is still too weak from his spread nerf, so will not make a grand comeback to greatness.  Pharah has a shot at coming back due to the Mercy buff as the Pharah/Mercy combo was always extremely strong, but with McCree still sniping people out of the air with his pistol and potentially Hanzo being able to more reliably shoot her down things are not looking extremely good for her.  Reaper will still have a pretty consistent place, especially on points with tight spaces or flanking routes for a surprise Death Blossom.  My guess is he might substitute in for McCree or Hanzo depending on enemy team composition.

There have been discussions on whether or not Tracer will replace Genji in the flanker role, but I still see her as primarily good for King of the Hill.  On payload maps her mobility does not really make up for her squishiness and she really thrives more on the chaotic nature of King of the Hill fights.  Widow is still reeling from her nerfs, and with Hanzo being more viable it only hurts her more.  The rest of the DPS heroes are fairly niche and good on certain maps or points.  They will retain their spots on those maps, but do not look for a large Junkrat/Mei meta anytime soon.

- Tank Hero Selection

Not too many changes here.  All got an indirect buff because of the changes to Discord Orb, so playing these heroes should feel a little more like a tank than before.  Reinhardt is still a top pick in anything other than King of the Hill because of his shield.  D.Va retains most of her usefulness and can be useful to absorb fire when Reinhardt needs to recharge his shield.  Roadhog will see a bit more use as his pick potential is very hard to ignore, and he is no longer the huge ult battery with Discord on him.  Zarya will continue her immense use because of her ability to take over a game, and combo ultimates for quick team wipes.  Winston will remain the master of King of the Hill and a great option for causing chaos when attacking a point, but may see a bit less use with Genji being picked less.  This will probably be a good patch for tanks, as variety is available and Discord is not so insanely strong to make your HP pool seem small.

- Support Hero Selection

This may finally be a meta without two instalocked support heroes.  Lucio still has much of his utility, but the speed boost nerf will affect higher tiers of play a decent amount.  Zenyatta is still viable but Discord is not a make or break ability for a team anymore.  Mercy has potential to comeback into the meta with her improved healing and faster ultimate charging.  Ana has proven to be useful on offense when Nano Boosting a Genji or a Reinhardt, and while Genji may be picked less lowering her overall power she can still make Reinhardt a juggernaut for 8 seconds.  Symmetra retains her extreme niche pick status, and is overall weaker as a hero than any of the other supports.  This may be the era of 4 different support heroes being potentially very strong picks in the role, which will be a welcome change to how this role has been played in the past with two extremely high tier picks and then everyone else being less desired.

Overall Thoughts

I personally like this patch and like the way that the balance in Overwatch is going.  While they are taking out a lot of high tier potential with animation cancelling and removing unintended power in heroes, they are also trying to make many different heroes more viable.  While they probably still have a lot of work to do, it is a step in the right direction at the very least.  If you have a chance you should go on the PTR and play around with some of these changes to see how your favorite heroes fit into the new patch.

Also you should play a few games on the new map Eichenwalde, which is pretty interesting and a bit different in design than the other maps in Overwatch and may end up with a few of its own strategies for certain parts.  If you do not get a chance, I have a feeling that this patch will go live before the official start of Season 2 on September 6th so you will probably get a chance to play on the patch and get used to the changes before the return of Competitive.

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