January 28 Overwatch patch nerfs Baptiste, Sigma and more – Patch Notes

Bill Cooney

A new Overwatch update went live on January 28 nerfing Sigma, Orisa and more and, surprisingly enough, didn’t include the health buffs to McCree that caught the community’s attention when they first came to the PTR.

The current Overwatch patch only hit the PTR on January 23, just five days before the majority of the changes went live.

This patch will also be the one that Overwatch League teams play on when their season begins on February 8, giving them just under two weeks to practice with the new changes.

Blizzard EntertainmentAlmost all of Orisa’s kit is nerfed in the Jan. 28 update, including her Halt! ability.

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The heroes that see the most significant changes in this patch are Orisa, Sigma, and Baptiste, who all have significant nerfs aimed at making them less of a “must-pick” in games.

Orisa saw only her primary fire damage reduced from 11 to 10 (previously 11 down to 9 damage on the PTR), her Fortify cooldown increased from eight to 10 seconds, and the number of time enemies that are trapped by her Halt! move was reduced from one full second to 0.85.

Sigma received significant nerfs to his ultimate in the update, as it can now be interrupted before his targets start falling, and the number of time enemies that are slowed after being slammed down was reduced from 0.9 seconds to 0.6.

It is worth noting, however, that the nerf, which reduced the range of Sigma’s primary fire on the PTR, was not included in the live patch.

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For Baptiste, the recovery time in between healing grenade shots was increased from 0.35 to 0.45 seconds and the healing dealt by his alternate reduced from 60 to 50.

The January 28 patch didn’t include some of the most publicized changes from the PTR update, however, including the McCree buff that raised his health from 200 to 250.

McCree did receive the buff that unlocks player’s aim during Deadeye allowing him to hit more targets, but it’s currently unknown why his health buff (and the nerf to his fire rate) didn’t go through.

Blizzard EntertainmentMcCree got a slight buff in the Jan. 28 patch, but not the one players were expecting.

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As we mentioned above, this will be the first patch that OWL teams play on in Season 3, and it will be interesting to see what they do with the changes.

You can check out the full patch notes for this update below.


Overwatch Retail Patch Notes – January 28, 2020

A new patch is now live on Windows PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. Read below to learn more about the latest changes.

Hanzo

Storm Arrows

  • Damage reduced from 70 to 60

McCree

Deadeye

  • Firing Deadeye no longer locks the player’s aim

Reaper

The Reaping (Passive)

  • Healing amount reduced from 40% to 30% of damage dealt

Orisa

Fusion Driver (Primary Fire)

  • Damage reduced from 11 to 10

Fortify

  • Cooldown increased from 8 to 10 seconds

Halt!

  • Snare duration reduced from 1 to 0.65 seconds

Sigma

Gravitic Flux

  • Can now be interrupted before targets begin falling
  • Impact slow duration reduced from 0.9 to 0.6 seconds

Accretion

  • Explosion damage reduced from 60 to 40

Baptiste

Biotic Launcher (Primary Fire)

  • Recovery time increased from 0.35 to 0.45 seconds

Biotic Launcher (Secondary Fire)

  • Heal explosion reduced from 60 to 50

About The Author

Bill is a former writer at Dexerto based in Iowa, who covered esports, gaming and online entertainment for more than two years. With the US team, Bill covered Overwatch, CSGO, Influencer culture, and everything in between.