[Update]: Overwatch's February 2022 update has added a Reaper themed event alongside a short story.

While the actual content updates are rapidly becoming smaller and smaller, there is at least one good thing about the Overwatch team being so preoccupied with the sequel - they are far more willing to let the community experiment with their own balance changes. The first of these ridiculously over-the-top experimental patches launched back in December, and while many of the tweaks ended up being scrapped, some of them were actually good enough that they ended up being adopted into Overwatch proper.

As such, I'm excited to say that the second major experimental update has now arrived with a whole bunch of wacky changes! Orisa has been reworked into a fast-moving duelist, Genji has received two swift strikes in exchange for a significantly weaker dragonblade, while Mercy's mass-resurrection ultimate has been brought back from the dead!

All of this is just the tip of the iceberg, so if you're interested in all of the changes and additions you can find the full patch notes over at the Overwatch website. Needless to say, none of these are guaranteed to make it into the actual game, so don't stress too much about the details.

Personally, I'm not the biggest fan of some of the tank changes since reducing their damage output just makes them even more painful to play on disorganized teams. On the other hand, I'm absolutely in favor of slightly reworking heroes like Genji or Hanzo in order to make them less one-dimensional. Whether these changes in specific are what's needed, however, that still remains to be seen.

What I do know is that this whole experiment is a brilliant idea, and one that I can only hope Blizzard will continue into Overwatch 2 as well. Even if none of the changes make it to the live servers, it's still a nice way for the community to tell Blizzard just what kind of direction they want to take their favorite characters in.

Once the follow-up update goes live, most likely in a few months, I'll make sure to let you know. Until then, have fun with the experiment!