[Update #2]: Overwatch will be adding Ashe’s Deadlock Challenge on June 22, 2021.
[Update]: Overwatch will soon be adding cross-play between PC and consoles.
Even though they are currently in the process of redesigning the PvP modes from the ground up for Overwatch 2, I'm happy to say Blizzard has not forgotten about the original Overwatch. In fact, they have just issued a small balance update that's mostly here to tone down some of the overperforming heroes like McCree and Baptiste, as well as to give a slight nudge forward to Reaper and Moira.
You can check out the exact changes, as well as the developer commentary for each one, in brief list down below. Have a gander, it's quite an interesting bunch of tweaks:
Baptiste
Though it felt better to use, the previous reduction to the Exo Boots charge time resulted in Baptiste becoming much more evasive against some heroes. Since he already has strong defensive ability options in Regenerative Burst and Immortality Field, we're reverting how quickly he can charge the Exo Boots jump.
• Exo-Boots
- Charge time increased from 0.7 to 1 second
Echo
The Duplicate ultimate has proven to be more impactful than expected and was coming up quickly due to Echo's high damage output.
• Duplicate
- Ultimate cost increased by 15%
McCree
Much of McCree's recent success can be attributed to his increased maximum health and we think that aspect is working well to help solidify a close-to-mid-range role for him. We're reverting the Combat Roll distance and Peacekeeper reload times as they lead to longer distance Flashbang initiations and made the burst damage from 'Fan the Hammer' less of a costly investment.
• Peacekeeper
- Reload time increased from 1.2 to 1.5 seconds
• Combat Roll
- Distance reduced by 20%
Moira
Many channeled ultimate abilities automatically reload the heroes weapon as they're locked out from reloading for a short time. The new regeneration rate will refill about half of Moira's Biotic energy resource over the full duration of Coalescence. This doesn't fully refill Moira's energy from empty as it would be unfortunate to lose that portion of her gameplay if players were able to fully cycle between ultimates with healing alone.
• Biotic Grasp
- Resource regeneration is now three times higher while channeling Coalescence
• Coalescence
- Ultimate cost increased by 17%
Reaper
This adjustment brings Reaper's self-healing with his Hellfire Shotguns back to about where it was before the recent weapon tuning changes.
• The Reaping
- Life Steal amount increased from 30% to 35%
Zarya
Zarya's base damage wasn't adjusted after the beam hit detection changes awhile back but she wasn't seeing much use at the time either. Now that she has a more dominant presence in a variety of team compositions, we're looking at reducing her beams average damage, though the same maximum damage is still achievable.
• Particle Cannon
- Beam damage now scales from 75-170 damage-per-second, down from 95-170
Unlike some of the previous updates, I don't think there is even a single questionable change here. Overrepresented heroes like McCree, Baptiste and Zarya have received their much-needed nerfs, yet the changes aren't even remotely bad enough to make them non-viable or simply unfun to play as. So while there might not be any new content coming for quite a while, at least we can enjoy some pretty diverse and balanced matches!
Once Blizzard releases the next update, and ideally more information about Overwatch 2, I'll make sure to let you know. Until then, good luck in Competitive Play!