Overwatch PTR Update Brings Major Hero Changes

Blizzard has released Overwatch's latest update to the PTR servers, and with it, some pretty major changes to Roadhog, Mccree, and Reaper. These changes could mostly be described as buffs, except for the sake of Roadhog's tweaks. The community is torn between whether Roadhog's changes are a buff or a nerf. Overall, the changes make Roadhog a more fast-paced, but less powerful tank, who now is more effective against other tanks then he is an assassin, capable of one-shotting squishy heroes with his look like he used to do. 

Mccree got a much-needed buff to his ultimate, and Reaper finally got a more meaningful healing passive ability that gets rid of his old orb-reliant passive. Check out the full patch notes here.

HERO UPDATES

McCree:

• Deadeye:
• Targets now begin locking on after 0.2 seconds, instead of 0.8 seconds
• Damage accumulated over the first 1.0 seconds increased from 20 to 80 (damage per second after the first 1.0 seconds is unchanged)
• Developer Comment: McCrees ultimate can deal a lot of damage if it has a lot of time to build up, but it was often too difficult to get even a small amount of damage out before being stopped or killed. These changes make it more flexible and powerful.

Reaper:

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• The Reaping (Passive):
• Removed health orbs
• Now regains 20% of all damage done to heroes as health
• Developer Comment: Reapers old healing passive was useful if you could kill a bunch of enemies in a row. But since enemies needed to be dead for it to work, it wasnt very helpful unless the situation was already in your favor. His new passive lets him get immediate benefit from it, especially when fighting Tank heroes, which tend to be larger targets that deal lower damage.

Roadhog:

• Head hitbox size reduced by 20%
• Scrap Gun:
• Bullet damage decreased by 33%
• Fire rate increased by 30%
• Clip size increased from 4 to 5

Developer Comment: Roadhogs head was abnormally large compared to similarly-sized characters, so were reducing its size to increase his survivability. The Scrap Gun changes reduce the power of his hook combo and alternate fire burst damage potential while still keeping his DPS roughly the same.