I am really liking what I'm seeing so far!

I can't wait to try out D.Va and Zen with the buffs.

Looks great overall but i'm not sure if i am a fan of D.VA being immune to her own Ult.

@solidwolf52: There were times with even 4 seconds it seemed I was barely able to get to cover, especially when you ejected without boosting. With it lowered to 3 it might be too much to get out of many situations.

Finally hero stacking is gone. No more double/triple Toblerone/Bastion/Zarya That alone makes me want to play the game even more.

I’m also all for shortening the Overtime timer, since sometimes those matches could really drag on and on.

The D.Va changes will take some time to actually form an opinion on. So far the shield sounds more useful now and the self-destruct’s reduced timer will make it stronger again, since players by now pretty much always avoid it. That D.Va herself is immune to her ult now seems unnecessary, though.

I’m also liking the Mercy changes. Longer charge up times for her ult will make actually playing her well more challenging, thus weeding out tons of bad Mercy’s. That she can now move while rezzing is huge also.

Zen also finally seems like a more viable pick again.

Overall the changes just seem very neat. Now if they only finally fix the whole leaver exp. thing I’ll happily continue playing this for another 100 hours.

I main D.Va and I am stoked at the new updates. My only concern is that my avg eliminations per match is 22 and my average deaths per match is 4, so I find her to be balanced already and I feel that the new additions will only make her more powerful.

• The new Defense matrix is a step in the right direction. My biggest complaint is that when used you have to dedicate the entire time to using the ability, otherwise you just wasted it. The new tweak allows me to use it for a few seconds during a boost, shoot a few times and then defense matrix when I see the group turning on me and I just need to wait two seconds until D.va's dash has recharged.
• reducing the self-destruct timing to 3 seconds and making D.Va invincible to the blast just somehow seems too convenient. I imagine this adjustment will make it a lot easier to gank people who are trying to control a point.

That D.Va buff isn't what I was expecting, but I like the sound of it. Her actual tanking ability definitely felt very lacking given how short the defensive matrix was actually active. I still wish they would have removed the movement penalty while firing, but I guess they want they want to push her more towards an actual tank than just a tanky and mobile flanker. A legitimately mobile tank still sounds like someone I will want to play.

I didn't consider that at first, but being able to toggle it would definitely make her a much more viable threat even on offense. The problem before is that you could throw it up to block like a Reaper until he was out of ammo, but then you only have a few seconds between reloads to do anything before you're a sitting duck. This could make her much more effective at harassing people, since they can't just wait a few seconds for it to end and go on cooldown.

Really dislike DV.a being immune to her explosion. I can see a lot of cheesy strats involving her stalling an objective during overtime since she can contest for free now completely solo without her team. The Ultimate was already a really strong area denial tool, so I dislike this change. Her Shield changes sound interesting though.

I also don't understand the point of increasing Roadhog's ultimate price. It was already one of the weaker, more situational ultimates in the game.

Mercy changes are good and were much needed. I don't know if the damage boost was completely necessary, but that ultimate cost nerf definitely was.

@_brojangles_: They increased Roadhog's ultimate charge since self-heals now charge your meter.

games getting way too competitive focused now it seems. im probably out now.

@alkusanagi: Ahh, that makes sense. Thanks for the clarification.

I'm not really sure what about this patch would make you say that. These seem like pretty standard balance changes. There is only one change in that whole thing that is specifically catered to competitive mode.

Mercy, Zen and D.VA changes all sound pretty awesome. I wonder if the self-heal ult charge works off Mercy's passive? I would think so since they increased Lucios' ult (but you do have to switch it on).

Either way, I loved Zen before and am pretty happy about that buff. Now with less dying if someone looks at you sideways!

Now if they could somehow buff Symmetra's shield somehow... Heard people say it was too much at 50 in the beta, but I don't know how else it could be improved (aside from a mid-point, 35ish or something). Maybe some kind of healing (but less than say, Lucios).

Also looking forward to trying out Ana. Even though I'm super terrible with Widowmaker.

Edit: The competitive hero stacking thing is interesting. I wonder how swapping heroes will happen, or if it just won't (like if two people want to switch to each others heroes). It will get rid of that amazing/super annoying "everyone go Genji/Tracer/Lucio and contest that fucker for an hour" overtimes. Though the quicker fuse burning might've already taken care of that.

Still, interesting. Not sure how much longer I'd play competitive over quick play anyway, but interesting.

That's what quick play is for

A low hp regen (5hps? Half of Lucio's passive?) along with the shield would be interesting. Probably end up way too powerful though.

I wish they'd made Zen's heal have an aoe component instead of buffing his shields. A Zen with a Symmetra on his team will be a total monster now, not to mention a Sym and a Torb.

if anything I think these changes help keep the quick play vibrant, maybe even more the competitive. I've seen games get ruined over the years by experienced players finding some OP strat and just pounding newbies over and over until no one wants to try the game anymore.

Just try to keep an open mind if you can, I think this kind of tweaking is what keeps casual accessibility feasible.

The Zenyatta buff is nice, he's been garbage since launch because he has no HP pool for absolutely no reason. Nothing about him is strong enough that he needs the drawback of "lowest HP in the game and lots of moves one-shot him". His complete lack of mobility as a low HP character is also a huge liability, and "moves slightly faster during ult" is hardly much of an improvement.

I want that character to be good, but I hate how underpowered he feels whenever I use him. Mercy and Lucio are so objectively better. Maybe they'll eventually fix the bug where Symmetra is listed as a support instead of defense.

Zen and D.Va are literally my two most played characters, so I am liking the look of some of these changes.
Actually looking forward to that speed increase for Zen's *ahem* buff/debuff balls (4 times as fast, what the hell). Nice QoL change that will make it far easier to react to situations.
D.Va's immunity from her own explosion damage seems like a super unnecessary change. You could have not done that change and had a nicely balanced character. Now her ult will almost certainly be hit with the nerf stick.

If they had really wanted to prevent character stacking, the limit should have been two, and not one.

Right now, I literally only want to play Amari because of the Wadjet's/Wasteland skins, starting at :41.

Holy crap. D Vas ult doesn't kill her anymore. This really opens a lot of doors for her. Allows her to actually get kills with her pistol with it as people are running away as opposed to just getting a free escape and health reset. The reduced explosion time might actually be a bit of a nerf in light of this new side of the ult. Really neat stuff, makes it more of a tool to make big plays as opposed to something to kill people not paying attention or get about 4 seconds of area denial.

I understand people thinking it is OP but when you consider D Va is kind of the weakest tank in terms of damage ( winston slightly weaker now that I think on it, but his weapon's seeking/shield pen utility makes it much stronger), soaking potential and CC she kind of needs a powerful ult to make up for her deficiencies. Her mobility isn't really enough to make her a good choice in competitive and Winston's mobility isn't that much worse then hers anyway.

@adequatelyprepared: Now I definitely have to play her. Those skins are fantastic.

Well she is a tank. The fact she can get into a firefight and not be forced to run away as soon as her defense matrix is on cooldown is still a pretty notable buff to her offensive capabilities though.

Edited thread title to reflect that these are PTR patch notes and are not live or final.

Those Mercy and Zenyatta changes are really good, but I think the Overtime "nerf" is the real highlight here. Previously Control felt basically meaningless because of how generous it was. Also, Ana's Epic skins are actually really good.

I haven't played since beta but dva was one of my favorites. She def eas a shitty tank though as i used her more for infiltration and diatraction, also her human form did surprising damage and moved well. Really want to hop back in but im a gamepad player without playstation plus so it would he over a 100 bux to play. Even dan seems to have moved from gamepad to m/kb on pc

Single hero limit is a huge mistake. There's a lot of depth in the picking and countering of heroes. I could see a 2 max limit, but I'm very disappointed that they're going this route. Takes a lot of strategy and coordination out of the game.

As far as the balance changes go...seems like a lot all at once. I'm really worried that Blizzard is going to find themselves in a never ending loop of buffing and nerfing heroes because of previous buffs/nerfs. For example, after the Mccree/Widow nerfs, the heroes they were good against were indirectly buffed. It works both ways, and causes a lot of stir with the balance of the meta. I hope they slow down on the changes and keep them somewhat small. The new heroes are going to mix things up a lot as it is.

If you're playing on PC you're simply at a disadvantage by playing with a gamepad vs everyone else with a m/kb. Everyone is on the same playing field on console.

@_brojangles_: This is probably what they had in mind for the ability in the first place. a brief burst (3 seconds) of area denial/stalling with a potential for some kills under the right circumstances. Currently it can kill people who aren't paying attention, be launched from orbit wistfully hoping to land on the enemy team before they can react, be used as a health pack or be used to scare people off a portion of the map for about 4 seconds. It's better then nothing but it's also one of the weakest ultimates in the game for an already very niche pick.

This is just PTR but I think it's a good idea. Gives teams a reason to pick her over other tanks.

@zeik: yeah but its just too much to pay 60 plus the psn money right now, especially when its cheaper on pc and runs better. Buying a good m/kb set up would probably cost me even more lol, I'll probably just have to pass on this as much as i enjoyed my time with it.

Been playing some on the PTR and I very much like the changes to D.V.A's defense matrix, she's finally approachable for me to use and doesn't just feel like a worse version of Winston. It's been a lot easier to get in and be annoying, or to just get in front to cover your allies from some shots without losing the ability and become a sitting duck at range for 12 seconds, or however much it was, afterward. It might even be too good in it's current state, I dunno, but if it stays like this I'm cool with it.

Making her immune to her Self-Destruct doesn't sit well with me from a thematic perspective, and I'm a bit worried that it moves the Ultimate from being in the generally underwhelming territory, into the way too powerful one. I guess time will tell.

I suck at playing snipers but have had some fun with Ana in the chaos of the Public Test Realm. Well, on those few occasions when I could play as her in a semi-balanced team that wasn't just ALL ANA AND MAYBE A REINHARDT. And sometimes that Reinhardt was me because everyone going Ana just doesn't work.

I've already put a lot of time into the rest of the support characters, save Zenyatta, so I welcome this additional, possibly fun and interesting, playstyle.

Well I'm sure it will go on sale before too long, and you don't need to buy a full year of PS+. I've always found the 3 month sub to be the best value as someone who only subscribes when there is a reason.

Patch seems to have gone live on PC now.

D.va is my favorite character and I am happy with her changes. I hated finally getting Meka after taking pot-shots and getting back in the fight only to have it destroyed like 2 seconds later.

Now her ult will actually be effective. The worst was stacking ults with Zarya or Rien only to have the one end and everyone still get out in time.

Looks like it's now live on PS4 as well.

Yep, patch is live on ps4. Played one game of competative this morning. There was an Ana character on either side, lol. Also i played against a really good D.va player. She would use her boost to get right up to my Torbjorn turret as I was setting it up and destroy it before I could get it to level 2, the use her defence matrix back out. There was also a really big dickhead on my team. We lost one round and he was giving it all "Jesus guys get on the point!" And "how long can one guy hold the point!? Where is everyone!", and my personal favorite "you guys need to sort your lives out". We won the game and I went 42 for 3. That guy defiantly didn't get my vote at the end of the game.

I still want them to do more with Bastion. I saw somewhere someone suggested simply giving him a 30 degree blindspot behind him so that characters who properly flank him can actually get the kill before he turns around and instakills them.

I don't know, Bastion has turned into a hero tag doesn't get picked all that often any more, since he already has so many good counters.

Zen has turned into an absolute beast. Gone from a poor pick to being viable as single healer. Probably still not as useful as Lucio if running single support, but double support he's almost a must it seems.