Overwatch patch notes v1.31: Brigitte and Doomfist get nerfed

Overwatch patch 1.31 HERO UPDATES

Bastion

Configuration: Recon

• Ammo increased to 35 (from 25)

Configuration: Sentry

• Weapon spread decreased by up to 33% while firing

Developer Comments: Bastion could use a little bit of an offensive boost to balance out how vulnerable Recon’s bulky size and Sentry’s stationary nature make it. To address this, we increased the ammo he receives in Recon mode and gave Bastion a lower spread in Sentry mode to make it more effective at farther ranges than it was previously.

Brigitte

Shield Bash

• Can no longer travel or stun targets through barriers
• Damage reduced to 5 (from 50)

Inspire (passive)

• Cooldown decreased to 1.0s (from 1.5s)
• Duration increased to 6s (from 5s)
• Total healing increased to 100 (from 80)

Developer Comments: Brigitte’s Shield Bash is a strong ability that often feels difficult to counter. [Removing the stun through barriers] will offer new options for counter play, enabling shield tanks to better protect themselves and their teammates. Reducing its damage reduces her total stun combo damage potential while still allowing Whip Shot and her basic melee attacks to retain their full strength.

Brigitte is a hybrid tank/healer, and lately we’ve been reducing her effectiveness by reducing the power of her non-healing functionality, but we want to make sure she is still a viable pick so we’re increasing the uptime of her Inspire passive to help increase her overall healing output.

Doomfist

Rising Uppercut

• Loss of air control duration decreased to 0.6s (from 3s)

Seismic Slam

• Maximum range drecreased to 15m (from 20m)
• Victims no longer lose air control while being pulled in

Meteor Strike

• Inner ring damage radius increased to 2.0m (from 1.5m – this is the ring where Meteor Strike deals its full 300 damage)
• Max damage outside of inner ring decreased to 200 (from 300 – this is the ring where damage falloff happens, which still reduces the damage down to 15 at max range)

Developer Comments: The PTR Doomfist changes are all about trying to give his enemies more opportunities to effectively fight back. 

Doomfist’s high mobility allows him to engage and disengage from extremely long ranges. Decreasing the range of his targeted aerial version of Seismic Slam requires him to get closer before engaging an enemy and makes it slightly harder for him to escape from combat. The loss of air control on Rising Uppercut was a frustrating mechanic for players, but it allowed Doomfist to set up combos. We’ve found a decent middle ground by limiting the time Doomfist has to line up his next move.

The Meteor Strike changes will make it harder to secure a ‘free’ kill on heroes without mobility such as Zenyatta or Ana, while still preserving its max potential damage when aimed well or when combined with other abilities such as Graviton Surge or Sleep Dart.

Overall we’re looking carefully at the amount of crowd control abilities (such as stuns and knockbacks that remove air control) and seeing if we can remove or reduce some of the effectiveness of some of these. 

McCree

Peacekeeper

• Alternate fire damage increased to 55 (from 45)

Developer Comments: McCree’s Fan the Hammer wasn’t as reliable of an option against higher health heroes as it should be. Increasing its damage will make it more potent in close-range engagements where it is intended to be most effective.

Soldier: 76

Tactical Visor

• No longer makes Helix Rockets auto-target enemies

Developer Comments: The intent of Tactical Visor is to make Soldier: 76 unable to miss during its duration. However, Helix Rockets have travel time, so if they were fired directly at an enemy they would often miss a moving target at further ranges. This change allows players to freely aim Helix Rockets while still auto-aiming his primary fire.

Torbjörn

Molten Core

• Damage increased to 160 per second (from 130)

Developer Comments: While the Molten Core damage pools were intended to provide players with tools for area denial, they weren’t proving threatening enough to deter enemies for a significant amount of time because their damage was too low.

Overwatch patch 1.31 GENERAL UPDATES

Audio

• An option to use Windows Spatial Audio is now available on PC.

This feature can be found in the Windows Start Menu under Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Sound > Speaker Device > Spatial Sound

Developer Comments: Since launch, we’ve supported Dolby Atmos for players who use headphones, and we’re now expanding this support to include the Windows 10 implementation for spatial audio. Spatial audio is configured in the Windows 10 sound settings and will take priority over the settings in the game client. This will allow for more options, including settings for Windows Sonic Headphones, Dolby Atmos for Headphones, and Dolby Atmos for Home Theater.