Overwatch 2 Zenyatta mains convinced recent nerfs make him “trash tier”

Zenyatta mains are lamenting recent changes to his Discord Orb, claiming he could now be terrible. 

In Overwatch 2, Zenyatta has always been a tricky hero to balance. He’s the glass cannon of the Support role, able to make players’ lives hell with his Discord Orb, on top of being able to put out a ton of damage if you can hit your shots. However, he’s also very susceptible to being dove on by flankers. This makes him one of the most fragile characters in the game. 

Because of that Blizzard has compromised in a recent patch hitting many supports. Blizzard has given his Healing Orb and overall health a buff, but has placed restrictions on his Discord Orb. Now, once Discord Orb drops off a player, Zenyatta can’t reapply it for seven seconds. 

The patch notes relating to Zenyatta read:

Base Stats

• Base health increased from 50 >>> 75, giving Zenyatta 200 >>> 225 total HP

Harmony Orb

• Time to wear off when not in line-of-sight increased from 3 to 5 seconds.

Orb of Discord

• Can no longer be reapplied to the same target for 7 seconds after the effect has been removed
• Range increased from 30 >>> 40 meters

However, despite the compensatory buffs, some Zenyatta players think the Discord changes could hurt him. 

Zenyatta mains think he could now be “trash tier” after recent nerfs

In a Reddit thread going over the patch changes, Zenyatta players were particularly vocal about their dislike of the changes to their main. One player said: “Well zen mains. This is it I guess.”

Another said: “The Zen nerf has the potential to make him trash tier now”. They continued: “Discord is what his whole kit is about, especially with him being so divable, Tracers/Sombras can bait the discord and 7s is a long time to follow up.” 

Blizzard

Is this a death knell for Zenyatta or are players overreacting?

One player questioned why this nerf couldn’t apply solely to tanks, who felt the power of Discord the most. They said: “The problem with Discord has always been with tanks, this shouldn’t apply to non-tanks, they nerfed Sleep Dart for tanks only, is it so hard to do the same with Discord Orb? I also think he’ll be pretty bad now, 25 extra hp doesn’t seem enough to make up for this absurd discord nerf.”

Of course, it’s still very early days for these changes. It’s hard to say how all of these changes will lie once they’ve had time to seep in. It’d not be the first time Overwatch players overreacted to a change for a hero. We will have to see how Zenyatta ends up faring in the long run.