For years, Overwatch has delivered plenty of buffs and nerfs to its roster of heroes in order to continuously balance the game for players. Some changes have had better results than others, such as the buff for Orisa in February which made her overpowered in certain ways.
This hasn't stopped Blizzard from working to even out Overwatch's gameplay. The patch notes for the March 11, 2021 update show that there will be buffs applied to various heroes in the game. The full list of heroes receiving buffs includes Genji, Mei, Pharah, Reaper, Sigma, and Zarya. The patch will be going live today for Overwatch on PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
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According to the patch notes, some of the changes to the heroes will be applied to specific abilities and weapons while others will have changes to some of their general abilities. Blizzard also added developer comments to go along with each hero update and explain the reasoning for some of the changes it's making. Genji's Shuriken ability will have an increased fire rate to give him more of an impact beyond his ultimate, for example, and Genji's Dragonblade Ultimate will have a higher cost to account for its increased damage potential.
Blizzard is increasing the healing rate of Mei's Cryo-Freeze ability so that she has a better chance of healing herself when separated from allies by her own Ice Wall ability. Pharah's Hover Jets will have a higher regeneration rate that reasonably lets her maintain a high altitude but doesn't let her reach the extreme heights that certain maps allow. Blizzard also slightly increased the damage per projectile for Reaper's Hellfire Shotguns.
Sigma's Experimental Barrier ability will be receiving a cooldown reduction to coincide with the increase from a previous update for the character, and Zarya will be getting an increased energy drain rate. Blizzard commented that Zarya has been over performing in various team compositions, so the new adjustment will slightly bring her average energy level down between engagements.
By now, the changes from the latest patch should already be in the game. Going by the developer comments, Blizzard made most of the changes to balance out the characters' abilities, while some were made to even out unintended effects from prior updates for characters like Reaper, Sigma, and Zarya. Players will be able to test out the new changes to these heroes and see if they change Overwatch's gameplay for the better.
Overwatch is available now on PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
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Source: Blizzard