Along with the launch of Monitor 2of the second season, developer Blizzard Entertainment is rolling out a series of seasonal balance changes in hopes of addressing gameplay issues from the game’s inaugural season. Some oft-requested nerfs and buffs are included in Tuesday’s patch, bringing much-needed boosts to Doomfist and Junker Queen, with a decrease in the overall power of heroes like Sojourn and Kiriko. Smaller adjustments are now live Surveillance 2 for heroes like Bastion, Symmetra, Ana and Mercy – who strength just be a little more combat capable now.
There’s also a role-wide change for Damage heroes. Previously, all heroes in this category received a bonus movement speed, but as Blizzard points out in their patch notes, “While the extra movement speed was a useful indicator that the passive was active, we have seen a change in speed negatively affect the ability to aim accurately.” Damage heroes will instead receive bonus reload speed, increased from 25% to 35%.
As for Doomfist, he’s getting a ton of changes designed to “increase his presence as a brawler-style disruptor tank.” A buff to his passive ability “will help him stay in the fight longer, especially when hitting multiple enemies with his abilities,” Blizzard says.
Bastion’s ultimate becomes deadlier, while Kiriko’s becomes less powerful. Sojourn’s railgun is less of a point and kill weapon, while Mercy gets a little more weapon proficiency. Here’s the full list of hero changes coming with Tuesday’s patch:
Doom Fist
rocket shot
- Impact damage range (minimum-maximum) increased from 15-30 to 25-50 damage
- Wall slam damage range (minimum-maximum) reduced from 20-40 to 10-30 damage
- Reinforced Rocket Punch wall hit stun duration range reduced from 0.5-1 to 0.25-0.75 seconds
- Unreinforced Rocket Punch now stuns for a minimum of 0.25 seconds on wall slam
- Rocket Punch enhanced knockback radius reduced from 4m to 3m
- Minimum time before cancel option becomes available reduced from 0.25 to 0.12 seconds
- Cooldown reduced from 4 to 3 seconds
- This has been around since its redesign but hasn’t been mentioned
power block
- Cooldown reduced from 8 to 7 seconds
- Duration increased from 2 to 2.5 seconds
- Attenuated minimum damage required to buff Rocket Punch reduced from 90 to 80 damage
weather strike
- Now boosts Rocket Punch on landing
- Enemy slow duration increased from 2 seconds to 3 seconds
‘The best defense…’ Passive
- Maximum temporary health increased from 150 to 200 health
- Temporary health gained per target hit with abilities increased from 30 to 40 health
Junker Queen
- Head and chest hit volume size increased by 12%
Carnage
- Wound duration reduced from 5 to 4.5 seconds
- Ultimate cost reduced by 10%
Commander shout
- Cooldown reduced from 15 to 14 seconds
‘Adrenaline’ Passive
- Adrenaline passive heal multiplier increased from 1 to 1.25 times damage dealt by wounds
Bastion
Artillery Setup
- Delay before falling projectiles reduced from 1 to 0.6 seconds
- Explosion damage reduced from 300 to 250
- No longer deals explosion damage to itself
- Minimum delay between hit placement reduced by 20%
reconfigure
- Cooldown reduced from 12 to 10 seconds
Stay
Railgun
- Energy delay before drain reduced from 8 to 5 seconds
- Secondary fire damage falloff starting range reduced from 70m to 40m
- Secondary fire critical damage multiplier reduced from 2 to 1.5
- Secondary fire damage now scales linearly with energy from 30 to 130 damage (1 energy converts to 1 added damage)
- Primary fire damage per projectile increased from 9 to 10
- Overclock energy charge rate increased by 20%
Symmeter
photon projector
- Charge rate and beam decay rate increased by 20%
- Main fire ammo consumption rate increased from 7 to 10 per second
- Primary fire again gains ammo by damaging barriers
Tracer
Impulse Pistols
- Damage increased from 5 to 6
Anna
Sleep Dart
- Cooldown reduced from 15 to 14 seconds
Kiriko
- Arm slam volume width reduced by 15%
- Added auto escalation hero option
kitsune Rush
- Ultimate cost increased by 10%
- Movement speed bonus reduced from 50% to 30%
- Reload time reduced from 3 to 2 times faster
Suzuki Protection
- Casting time reduced from 0.15 to 0.1 seconds
Kunai
- Ammo increased from 12 to 15
Not fast
- Ability input can now be held to activate
Mercy
- Weapon swap time reduced from 0.5 to 0.35 seconds
Caduceus Blaster
- Ammo increased from 20 to 25
