Overwatch April 6 patch buffs Pharah and Ashe, nerfs Mei & more
Blizzard EntertainmentA new patch has been taken live in Overwatch that brings the updates from last week’s Experimental card update into the live game.
The patch is basically a carbon copy of what was introduced in the April 1 Experimental mode patch, with a nice buff for Ashe players, nerfs for Reinhardt, Mei, and more updates.
Apparently, developers decided that a week was long enough for the changes to marinate in the quasi-PTR mode and brought them to the main game with a patch on April 6.
Blizzard Entertainment
Ashe sees the magazine size of her Viper Rifle increased from 12 to 15 rounds, along with the maximum spread of unscoped shots going from four to six.
Players will also find it quicker to shoot unscoped after looking through the sights with the patch, and the ability to reload much quicker following a focused shot.
Pharah’s also getting a pretty significant buff, which is actually a revert of a previous nerf developers handed to her.
The direct impact damage from her rockets has been reduced from 55 to 40, but, the explosion, or AOE damage, is increased from 65 to 80 – letting players rely less on precise aiming.
Blizzard EntertainmentGenji’s gets a buff to his secondary fire cooldown, which launches three shurikens at once, and is reduced from 0.75 to 0.65, which means he can spam it even quicker now.
Reinhardt’s nerf is also relatively simple, his passive ability that prevents knockback is reduced from 50% reduction to just 30%, which means he’ll fly a little farther.
Unfortunately for Mei players, the April 1 update was a dark omen for their favorite hero, as her ammo pool has been reduced from 200 to just 120 in the main game now.
However, the ammo cost for her secondary fire icicles has been reduced from 20 to 10, so while you’ll still be able to deal damage with those, the amount of enemies she can freeze on one clip has been drastically reduced.
Blizzard EntertainmentIt seems we were right on the money when we predicted the Experimental changes would last around a week before heading into the main game, but at this point there’s no sign when we might see more updates tested out with the mode.
The full, April 6 patch notes are listed below:
Overwatch Retail Patch Notes – April 6, 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.
HERO UPDATES
Ashe
The Viper
- Magazine size increased from 12 to 15
- Shots no longer queue up the next shot if pressed slightly before recovery has finished
- Unscoped shots to reach maximum spread increased from 4 to 6
- Unscoped shots can now be fired much more quickly after firing a scoped shot
- You can now start reloading much more quickly after firing a scoped shot
Genji
Shuriken (Secondary Fire)
- Recovery lowered from 0.75 to 0.65 seconds
Mei
Endothermic Blaster (Primary Fire)
- Maximum ammo reduced from 200 to 120
Endothermic Blaster (Secondary Fire)
- Ammo cost reduced from 20 to 10
Pharah
Rocket Launcher
- Explosion damage increased from 65 to 80
- Impact damage decreased from 55 to 40
Reinhardt
General
- Steadfast passive knockback resistance reduced from 50% to 30%
BUG FIXES
Heroes
Ashe
- Fixed a bug that caused Ashe’s unscoped fire to become unusable
- Fixed a bug that caused Ashe’s weapon to appear incorrectly in the Kill Feed