Crowd controlling abilities are great in Overwatch as the right plays by a player can turn the tides pretty quickly. However, crowd controlling may be out of the meta now that an Overwatch update added tweaks to some abilities.
A recent Overwatch update focuses on some nerfs to crowd control abilities. The changes now were previously made available in the game’s experimental mode, and it seems like some fans aren’t going to be happy with the changes, especially if they love heroes like McCree, Mei, and more.
Affected heroes
Though not all, a lot of heroes are affected by the recent update. Players might not notice the nerf immediately, but the changes could still affect plays if players aren’t aware.
McCree is one of the heroes affected by the Overwatch update. In the new version, his flashbang provides a shorter stun to enemies upon being hit. The same change is made with Reinhardt’s Shatterstrike, which now causes lesser knockdown time for those who are hit.
For Ana users that like putting people to sleep, they should act faster once affecting a hero. Ana’s Sleep Dart now takes quicker to recover from as well.
Perhaps the biggest loser in the update is Mei. Players have long been annoyed by Mei because her basic attack slows and then temporarily freezes enemies. With the new update, Mei will still be capable of doing the same, but the freeze time will be much shorter.
These changes were made as Blizzard, and many fans believe that crowd controlling is being abused in the game. Hopefully, players should now start changing their tactics when having it centered around crowd control is no longer advisable.
What’s next for experimental mode?
The experimental mode in Overwatch gives players a space to try out possible changes being made to the game. When it launched, it introduced three damage, two tanks, and one support team composition. However, fans didn’t like the idea, so the changes weren’t implemented into the full game.
🛑STOP!🛑 These heroes aren't allowed through next week. Echo, on the other hand… 👀 #OWL2020 pic.twitter.com/y4QTe4tdD1
— Overwatch League (@overwatchleague) April 27, 2020
Fans are speculating that the next changes to be made available in the experimental mode might be for hit-scan heroes like Widowmaker and McCree. Both heroes are frequent bans in the hero pool, and it’s obvious that fans want nerfs as quickly as possible.
The Overwatch update featuring the crowd control nerfs is already out. As the update focuses more on tweak and minor adjustments, the file size is relatively small.
Image used courtesy of Blizzard