Overwatch March 5 update patch notes: Dva nerfed, Sombra buffed, more

Michael Gwilliam

A new Overwatch patch has gone live on PC, PS4, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch that’s added many whopping balance changes as part of the new Experimental Mode.

While not all of these changes may make it to the live version of the game, some have already been tested in the Public Test Realm such as Soldier 76’s reduced cooldown on Helix Rocket and D.va’s cooldown on her boosters being increased by one second.

Some of the more unique buffs include making Ashe’s Ultimate B.O.B immune to Ana’s sleep, the damage on Orisa’s Fusion Driver increased by one, and Sombra’s primary fire spread decreased by 10%.

Ana players can’t sleep B.O.B.

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It will be interesting to see just how many of these changes end up being added to the competitive ruleset instead of just being used for testing in the Experimental Mode.

The last Experimental Mode, Triple Damage, lasted about a week on the live client before being taken offline so it’s possible these changes could be moved to the standard game types by next week.

Sadly, with these changes still in the testing stages, players excited to try out these buffs and nerfs in competitive with Hero Pools will need to wait. As Dexerto previously reported, Season 21 went live earlier in the day and took Orisa, Hanzo, Mei and Baptiste out of commission for a week.

Hero pools went live on March 5.

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Overwatch March 5 update patch notes

Here are the full patch notes for this update, as provided by Blizzard in their latest forum post.

EXPERIMENTAL MODE

The next experiment begins! This time we’re hoping to get your feedback on some balance updates. We’re using the 2-2-2 Role Queue ruleset so that you can get a feel for how these balance changes might affect the live game.

HERO UPDATES (ONLY IN EXPERIMENTAL)

Ashe

B.O.B.

  • B.O.B. is now immune to Sleep

Baptiste

Exo Boots

  • Charge time reduced from 1 to 0.7 seconds

Regenerative Burst

  • Cooldown lowered from 15 to 13 seconds
Baptiste’s Exo Boots were nerfed.

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D.Va

Boosters

  • Cooldown increased from 3 to 4 seconds

Mei

Ice Wall

  • Cooldown increased from 10 to 13 seconds

Orisa

Fusion Driver (Primary Fire)

  • Damage increased from 10 to 11

Sigma

Gravitic Flux

  • Ultimate cost reduced 10%
  • Flight speed increased 30%

Soldier: 76

Helix Rockets

  • Cooldown reduced from 8 to 6 seconds

Sombra

Machine Pistol (Primary Fire)

  • Spread decreased by 10%

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About The Author

Michael Gwilliam is a senior writer at Dexerto based in Ontario, Canada. He specializes in Overwatch, Smash, influencers, and Twitch culture. Gwilliam has written for sites across Canada including the Toronto Sun. You can contact him at michael.gwilliam@dexerto.com or on Twitter @TheGwilliam