New Overwatch Patch Buffs Ana and Adjusts McCree Again

A new update for the PC version of Overwatch is now available, and its main components deal with additions and changes from the last patch.

Ana, the game's newest character, receives a small buff in this patch. Specifically, her main weapon, the Biotic Rifle, has been improved: Its fire rate has been increased by 20 percent and its magazine size is now 10 (up from eight). Those might sound like small changes, but keep in mind they allow her to both deal more damage and heal her teammates more.

"While Ana has been very well-received, she was showing to be a little bit weaker overall," Blizzard explained on its forums. "In addition to helping her feel better to play, these changes should also increase her healing and damage output."

The other main change comes to McCree. He was among the first characters in the game to receive a nerf, but the recent patch adding Ana improved the effective range of his gun. That adjustment still doesn't have him where Blizzard wants, so more changes have now been made.

The damage falloff range has been decreased by 10 meters. This doesn't impact the amount of damage falloff, but it means he'll need to be closer to his target to deal full damage. (Blizzard points out that his effective range is still greater than at launch.) Additionally, the rate of fire on his alt-fire has been increased 15 percent, and the amount of time he has to wait before firing after using Flashbang has decreased to 0.35 seconds (from 0.5 seconds).

"McCree's latest range increase helped him quite a bit, but it was a bit too much in the right hands," Blizzard said. "This change weakens his long-range damage somewhat, but still keeps it stronger than it has been in the recent past. The other changes combine to allow him to land more alternate-fire shots on targets that he has hit with Flashbang."

A pair of UI-related bugs are also fixed in this patch, and players put to sleep with Ana's Sleep Dart now take 0.5 seconds to recover after taking damage. Previously, a bug caused them to recover immediately.

The full patch notes follow below. There's no word yet on when this will go live on consoles; Blizzard said "many of these changes will be rolled into a larger patch for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One at a later date."

Overwatch August 26 PC Update Patch Notes:

Hero Balance Updates

Ana

Biotic Rifle

• Rate of fire increased by 20%
• Magazine size increased from 8 to 10

Developer Comments: While Ana has been very well received, she was showing to be a little bit weaker overall. In addition to helping her feel better to play, these changes should also increase her healing and damage output.

McCree

Peacemaker

• Primary Fire
  • Damage falloff range decreased by 10 meters
  • Damage falloff amount is unchanged
  • As a result, even with this change, McCree’s effective range is still higher than it was at launch
• Alternate Fire
  • Rate of fire increased by 15%

Flashbang

• Recovery time (i.e. the amount of time before McCree can fire again) decreased from 0.5 seconds to 0.35 seconds

Developer Comments: McCree's latest range increase helped him quite a bit, but it was a bit too much in the right hands. This change weakens his long range damage somewhat, but still keeps it stronger than it has been in the recent past. The other changes combine to allow him to land more alternate fire shots on targets that he has hit with Flashbang.

Bug Fixes

Heroes

• Targets of Ana’s Sleep Dart will no longer instantly recover when damaged (recovery time is now 0.5 seconds)

User Interface

• Fixed UI compatibility issues for ATI cards
• Fixed a bug that would sometimes cause Lúcio, Mei, and other models to only partially render (or disappear)