Few games have captured the attention and cultural zeitgeist of the video gaming community at large quite like Overwatch. Years after launch the game still sees constant support from Blizzard Entertainment and a fan base that is passionate and vocal about the game, characters, and universe that has been created.

The developers recently announced that the latest patch would alter the minute to minute gameplay drastically for certain characters and specific play styles. The update seems to be geared around the persistent complaints of people playing the tank role in regard to ranked combat with characters Zenyatta, Echo, and Tracer.

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The Overwatch character most impacted by this patch is Zenyatta, as the peaceful Omnic guru will now have his Orb Of Discord nerfed down from 30% to 25%. This theoretically allows tanks to have a greater likelihood in surviving a balanced encounter against the move's inherit damage multiplication and amplification effects. The cybernetic monk will also have his Harmony Orb and Discord projectile speed reduced, translating in a now slower time to get these orbs to the player's teammates or enemies, potentially resulting in less healing mid combat. As a result, Zenyatta's Transcendence Ultimate will be available for use less often for gamers and will not be seeing the same level of damage or healing output.

Echo has also been nerfed in two major areas that will effect gameplay. The character's weapon, the Tri-Shot, has had its ammo reduced from 15 to 12. This should cause players to have to reload the weapon more often, the pauses causing less second to second damage output. The Focus Beam attack has also been nerfed, with the duration of the move dropping from 2.5 seconds to 2. Gamers will want to note that this half second reduction should ultimately effect when the beam is used in relation to how much health the opponent has.

Tracer will now have the character's min-max damage falloff rescaled from 13-23 meters, to 12-20 meters. This new adjustment should cause the damage to scale down more quickly when an opponent is outside of Tracer's optimal distance, thus making her less of a threat at mid range.

First releasing in 2016, Overwatch continues to receive a wide and diverse range of support, from gameplay updates, new maps, and characters. One of the most passionate and outspoken communities in all of video games, fans also contribute to the growth of the franchise with the frequent sharing of lore, theories and even beautiful skin concepts. With over 10 million monthly concurrent players over 4 years after launch, it would appear that this colorful and engaging multiplayer shooter is here to stay.

With Overwatch 2 announced and highly anticipated, it is safe to assume that even with all of the previous success this franchise has had, it is only getting started.  With an active development team and a substantial fanbase, it will be interesting to see if the series can achieve new heights as time marches on.

Overwatch is available now on PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.

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Source: Play Overwatch