Nerfs That Completely Changed Overwatch Characters

Competitive multiplayer games are a constant balancing act for developers. Getting people to play characters requires making them impactful, but pushing a character's abilities too hard can result in an overpowered threat to the health of the game. Weakening characters as a preemptive measure can often dull that hero's debut. Ultimately, though, it seems as though many titles operate under the philosophy of powerful additions first, nerfs (if necessary) later.

Overwatch, for all of its success, has not been immune to periods of balance issues. There have been some incredibly powerful characters in Overwatch's history, and with no other option, Blizzard has had to frequently nerf their effectiveness. Sometimes, a character still plays similarly after a nerf. That doesn't always happen, though, and we've got the data to prove it. Here's our list of nerfs that completely changed the way an Overwatch character was played.

While Blizzard is much better at creating heroes with specific roles now, that hasn't always been the case in Overwatch. Some characters early on were a little too flexible in their utility, and a few of them bordered on being far too good because of it.

If any of them were too good, though, it was likely McCree. McCree was a nightmare in early Overwatch, occupying the role of a pseudo-sniper thanks to his range, while also very good at dismantling tank compositions with his Fan the Hammer attack. His flexibility was completely unlike any other character.

McCree's long distance damage was quickly addressed and didn't make it to Overwatch's full release. However, his ability to quickly burst down tanks and unshielded characters on top of the squishies he was supposed to counter was something that needed work. McCree often outperformed Reaper in dealing with tanks. Reaper was designed to be efficient in that regard while McCree was not; there was obviously a problem.

Blizzard addressed this by changing McCree's bullet damage from Fan the Hammer down to 45 from 70. Essentially, that ability now dealt 270 damage to heroes, which was more than enough to deal with opposing Genjis, Tracers, or other high-mobility but squishy heroes. But Fan the Hammer no longer took out tanks like Reinhardt, which made tanks as a whole much more viable in Overwatch. This patch helped balance the game and helped make playing McCree a more skill-intensive and interesting affair.

Genji is a character that has historically teetered on the edge of needing a nerf for much of his existence. That comes down to his playstyle. When Genji is very good, it can feel like he's doing too much for one character thanks to his combination of speed and damage. As a result, he's received a fair number of tweaks over his time in Overwatch.

Early into the game's existence, though, Genji received a set of nerfs that drastically changed the way players approach him. Before the September 1, 2016 patch, players had begun to unite in their hatred of Genji's ridiculous mobility and overpowered Ultimate. Blizzard addressed this by altering Wall Climb and Swift Strike. Previously, Genji could use Wall Climb to reset his Double Jump, and his Swift Strike could move through Junkrat's Steel Trap and Widowmaker's Venom Mine.

After the patch, though, Genji's insufferable reign as the king of escapes was over. Genji could no longer reset Double Jump after Wall Climb, which meant players couldn't dash away from attacks with the same consistency. The biggest change, though, was to his Ultimate attack Dragonblade. Dragonblade was reduced from an eight-second duration to six, and the two seconds made a huge difference. Genji players suddenly needed to pick their spots, as they didn't have the luxury of a long duration to make up for popping Dragonblade too early.

Roadhog is a little different from the other characters discussed so far. When the January 24, 2017 patch hit, it didn't come at a time when Roadhog was far and away one of the best characters in the game. Roadhog had often found himself in a niche role in Overwatch, and many people who mained the character were perfectly content with him remaining an offbeat choice for online play.

This patch introduced Chain Hook 2.0, however, and Roadhog was suddenly nerfed into oblivion. Hook 1.0 was an admittedly broken ability, as it allowed Roadhog to grab people through walls and obstacles, dragging them across the map to his position. Hook 2.0 was changed to use line of sight checks done from Roadhog's position rather than from the hook's position.

Roadhog could no longer just toss out a chain and hope to grab someone. Chain Hook became difficult to use, especially since the patch also introduced interruptions to the ability should the targeted player leave Roadhog's line of sight. Interestingly, Hook 2.0 was initially embraced as a welcome change to the character that would ultimately improve his viability. That didn't come to pass, though, and one of the biggest appeals to playing Roadhog was suddenly gone, leaving many to relearn the character without his most fun ability.

Bastion was at the center of one of the shortest-lived metas in Overwatch history. It was a wild time spurred on by the introduction of a brand new ability for the character, and it lasted for around a week before Blizzard had to step in and address the issue.

Bastion received changes to his self-repair and passive abilities in early 2017, receiving an entirely new version of the latter. His new passive was called Ironclad and it reduced the damage he took while in Sentry or Tank mode by 35%. Bastion also became able to self-heal while moving and was no longer interrupted by damage.

Those two abilities combined to make Bastion a suffocating presence in online play. Teams became a bunch of shields and a Bastion parked on the payload. Bastion could actually soak up and heal through damage from Genji Blades and Reaper Ultimates during this time, which should give you an idea of just how difficult it was to deal with.

After briefly preaching patience and asking players to adjust and develop new strategies, Blizzard realized the Bastion issue wasn't going to go away. The developer quickly changed Ironclad to reduce incoming damage by 20% instead, and less than a week after Bastion's new passive had been introduced, the end arrived for one of the most frustrating periods of Overwatch play.

Mercy might be the most important character to ever grace Overwatch. As she goes, so too does the meta, and when Mercy is in a healthy spot, it has seemed to produce some good competitive environments.

The first of two major nerfs for Mercy in late 2017 and early 2018 saw her Ultimate ability, Resurrect, get completely restructured as an attempt at nerfing the character. Previously, Mercy could dive in with her Ultimate charged and Resurrect her entire team after a lost fight. The biggest issue with this style was that it promoted Mercy players approaching each game in a similar way regardless of context. Big Resurrects rewarded SR bonuses that online players would chase blindly, sometimes popping Resurrects that would set up their team to get immediately killed again while allowing enemy players to farm Ultimate charge. Obviously, a number of game-winning Resurrects also completely swung games for teams that had just been tactically outmatched.

The changes to Mercy made her play quite differently, as Resurrect now targeted single characters instead. Mercy usage wasn't as widespread, and the game felt like it could breathe a little. For a time, team fights looked quite different and the meta felt healthier — that is, until Mercy got figured out again and required another nerf later on.

Mercy was up to her old tricks prior to the January 30, 2018 Overwatch patch. It took people a little bit of time and testing, but Mercy's recently changed Resurrect once again dominated team fights in competitive play. Teams knew that they could aggressively take small skirmishes because Mercy's Resurrect, when managed properly, would be available at most critical junctures. Mercy's nerfs regarding this new meta actually took Blizzard two tries.

The first nerf tried to punish Mercy for going for risky resurrects, making her wait 1.75 seconds to cast it while also reducing her movement speed and making interrupts possible. Unfortunately, Blizzard also buffed Mercy's new Ultimate, Valkyrie, too much in the same patch. Valkyrie allowed players to ignore Resurrect's cooldown time and to ignore the speed reduction casting Resurrect would cause.

Finally, about six months after the massive changes to Mercy first happened, Mercy received a nerf that removed all the benefits that Resurrect got during Valkyrie. This ended the Mercy meta at long, long last.