While the World of Warcraft team is still fumbling through the dark in search of balance, the Overwatch devs have just released a bunch of minor, but extremely welcome changes for a variety of heroes. Hanzo now draws his bow 10% faster and is capable of doing so while wall climbing, Reaper now automatically reloads his guns whenever he uses Wraith Form, Reinhardt's Earthshatter now travels only 2 meters up into the air meaning its possible to actually dodge, and Soldier has finally received his long-awaited damage nerf!

You can find the full patch notes over at the official website, but if you're just looking for the important changes I'll post them right below. Before I do that, however, it is worth mentioning that Roadhog's hook has finally been fixed, even though this isn't in the patch notes. Heroes you hook will now arrive exactly where you are looking, rather than slightly above or below like what happens currently on the live servers. That pig-shaped diversion aside, here are the patch notes:

Genji

• Removed the attack cooldown from Genji’s wall climbing ability, allowing him to engage with enemies immediately after completing a climb

Developer Comments: This is a quality of life change to make wall climbing feel better.

Hanzo

• Removed the attack cooldown from Hanzo’s wall climbing ability, allowing him to engage with enemies immediately after completing a climb

• Storm Bow

- Increased charge speed by 10%

- Charged arrows now maintain their charge after climbing a wall, provided the button is continuously held

Developer Comments: Decreasing Hanzo’s draw time gives him more overall DPS, while also letting him fully charge an arrow and more quickly return to full movement speed when needed. And, like the change to Genji’s wall climbing, this is a quality of life change that will make climbing feel better.

Orisa

• Fusion Driver

- Damage reduced by 15%

• Protective Barrier

- Cooldown reduced from 12 seconds to 8 seconds

Developer Comments: To help Orisa maintain the front line for her team, we’re reducing the cooldown of her Protective Barrier. This change also helps her reposition the barrier more easily when needed. To compensate for this new defensive strength, we're reducing her Fusion Driver's damage, as it felt too high.

Reaper

• Wraith Form

- Ammo is now entirely refilled when Wraith Form is used

Developer Comments: Wraith Form is typically used as an escape ability after firing. This change gives Reaper a fighting chance if an enemy chases him down as he uses it.

Reinhardt

• Earthshatter

- Effective height has been lowered from 3 meters to 2 meters

- The height threshold of objects that Earthshatter can "climb" has been lowered from 3 meters to 2 meters, making Earthshatter less likely to climb tall objects as it "crawls" along the ground.

Developer Comments: Earthshatter tended to climb unexpectedly high, frequently hitting targets that were significantly above the ground. These changes help the ability stay more grounded.

Soldier: 76

• Heavy Pulse Rifle

- Bullet damage decreased from 20 to 19

Developer Comments: Soldier:76 is in a much better place lately, but his damage output was making him a must pick, compared to similar roles.

As someone that's actually insane enough to play Hanzo in competitive, I must say I am beyond ecstatic for these changes. The 10% draw speed might sound insignificant, but its a great buff to any sort of close quarters combat, especially since you don't always need to charge the bow all the way to secure a kill. The same goes for the wall climbing buff as it allows Hanzo so many more avenues of approach, not to mention opportunities for ambushes. Someone chasing you? Run through a door, climb up, and shoot them in the face as they walk by!

The rest of the changes are pretty self-explanatory, though I have to wonder what exactly this means for Orisa. The shield buff is great given how gigantic her head is, but the 15% damage nerf is definitely going to hurt since its already hard enough to kill fast characters with that bullethose of a weapon. But whatever the case may be, its good to see Orisa getting some changes given how rarely she appears in Competitive Play in her current state. Hopefully this will be the big break she needs!