Overwatch May 12 update buffs Mercy, nerfs Moira & more: patch notes

A new Overwatch patch has hit the live servers and with it comes a slew of massive changes to supports and buffs to Bastion.

The big changes on the card come in the form of buffs to Mercy and Zenyatta. Mercy received a straight healing buff – something players have been requesting for quite some time.

Additionally, Zenyatta has had his Discord ability buffed. Now when an enemy is Discorded, they will receive 30% more damage, up from 25%. This completely undos the nerf Zenyatta received back during the GOATs meta where teams would run him alongside two other supports.

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While those buffs will undoubtedly help Zenyatta and Mercy mains, nerfs to Ana’s healing may also assist in upping their meta status.

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With Ana’s healing decreased, this could open up the door for more Mercy play, especially with her pairing so well with Echo. It’s important to note that Ana was one of the best heroes at shutting Echo down, either with sniped shots or by sleeping her when she uses Duplicate.

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Finally, there were some major changes to Bastion and Moira. Bastion sees his spread in Sentry mode reduced and can now heal himself up more, but with greater resource drain. Moira sees her Biotic Orb get nerfed with it lasting seven seconds, down from 10.

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The balance updates were first teased by Overwatch’s Game Director Jeff Kaplan in a developer update on May 11 where he announced that Open Queue would become a permanent addition to the game.

While Open Queue already runs alongside Role Queue in the arcade, come Summer 2020, it will be a full-fledged Competitive mode.

Full patch notes below:

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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)

Ana

Biotic Rifle

• Healing reduced from 75 to 70

Bastion

Configuration: Sentry

• Spread decreased 10%
• Shots until max spread reduction lowered from 60 to 40

Self-Repair

• Resource drain rate increased 20%
• Healing per second increased from 75 to 90

Junkrat

Frag Launcher

• Projectiles maintains slightly more velocity on ricochet

Concussion Mine

• Projectile speed increased from 20 to 25
• Ricochet distance off of enemy players greatly reduced

Total Mayhem

• Bomb detonation time reduced from 1 sec to 0.7
• Bombs spread increased 50%

Mercy

Caduceus Staff

• Healing per second increased from 50 to 55

Moira

Biotic Orb

• Damage radius reduced from 5 to 4 meters
• Projectile speed increased from 16 to 20
• Projectile duration reduced from 10 to 7 seconds

Zenyatta

Orb of Discord

• Damage amplification increased from 25% to 30%