Blizzard scraps Moira rework plans after Overwatch player backlash

Blizzard has officially scrapped plans to hand Overwatch healer Moira a mini-rework in the title’s next update, following community backlash over the experimental Fade changes that were shipped during a July 23 testing patch.

The Overwatch community has been in an uproar since Blizzard shipped a series of changes for Moira in their latest experimental update. On the Experimental Card, Moira’s Damage Orb dealt a huge 150 damage per second.

The Irish healer’s Fade ability also got a mega-sized buff. Upon activation, Moira’s defensive ability would now cleanse nearby teammates of status effects. Allies would also be immune from all damage for up to one second.

The Overwatch development group, Team 4, has admitted they wanted to push the envelope on the Fade upgrade. To get a proper test, they needed it to “get used… and feel powerful” in the testing realm. Mission accomplished, it seems.

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The buffs ⁠— which some players had already dubbed “the most broken” change in Overwatch history ⁠— won’t make it to live servers, however. Blizzard community manager Molly Fender confirmed they had been scrapped in a July 27 post.

“Sometimes during development, it’s more helpful to test abilities at extremes and fine-tune with balancing after. It’s likely that if we wanted to pursue the Fade ability change further we would adjust the ability’s cooldown,” she explained.

“That being said, we’re not currently planning to move forward with the Moira changes being tested. The team has already been working on a few other tests aimed toward our goals; we have more we’d like to try… with her abilities.”

Though Fender couldn’t offer up an insight into what these new changes might look like, she did reveal the targets Blizzard is aiming to hit with Moira’s updates. They want to dial up the fun for the Overwatch healer, and make her “dynamic.”

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“We have a few main goals for Moira gameplay. We want Moira to be fun to play, we want her to have the opportunity to make big, game-impacting plays and finally we want her gameplay to feel skillful and dynamic,” Fender said.

Moira wasn’t the only Overwatch hero bundled onto the latest Experimental Card either; DPS hero Genji copped some hefty nerfs too. Unfortunately for players who main the edgy ninja, those will be hitting live servers soon.

Fender wrote, “the tested changes to Shuriken are aimed at re-balancing his burst potential. We believe these changes are the right direction for Genji. We’ll be patching these Overwatch changes into live game modes soon.”