A new Overwatch update has just hit the Experimental Mode with some major changes to the controversial support hero Moira, once again reworking her.
The new changes affect three areas of her kit: Biotic Grasp, Damage Orb and Fade. Some elements of the previously tested Fade experiments have continued here, but have been tweaked ever so slightly.
Overwatch Community Manager Molly Fender explained in an official forum post that their intention is to make Moira fun to play, make her skillful, and give her the “opportunity make big game-impacting plays.”
She went on to explain how reducing Biotic Grasp’s angle by 37%, players will need to be a bit more accurate when using her secondary fire.
“Damage Orb will now deal damage by attaching to enemies. This is accompanied by changes that will require the ability to require more accuracy than the current iteration as well,” she continued.
In the patch notes, it’s stated that Damage Orb will deal 60 damage to all enemies per second and will remain stuck on a player for three seconds or until 120 damage has been dealt.
However, it now will only bounce off surfaces one time, no longer passes through barriers, and has its speed increased.
Finally, Fade is getting some changes that will once again let Moira “phase out” allies and make them immune to damage for a moment, however, the ability will no longer allow Moira or allies to escape Zarya’s Graviton Surge or Sigma’s Gravitic Flux.
It should be noted that this change is also being applied to Reaper’s Wraith Form, so he’s getting a bit of a nerf as well assuming these changes go through to the live server.
EXPERIMENTAL MODE
The next experiment begins! This time we’re revisiting Moira and doing some further experimentation on adjusting her abilities. In making these changes, we’re hoping to permit Moira to make bigger plays, while also ensuring that she is both fun to play and fun to play against (may need edits, but good to make notes on what we’re hoping to test). We’re using the 2-2-2 Role Queue ruleset so that you can get a feel for how these balance changes might affect the live game.
HERO UPDATES (ONLY IN EXPERIMENTAL)
Moira
Biotic Grasp
- Attach angle reduced by 37%
Biotic Orb
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- Now sticks to enemies when impacting them, instead of piercing through them
- Only deals damage if stuck to a target
- Now deals a constant 60 DPS to all enemies
- Will remain on a stuck player for 3 seconds or until 120 damage is dealt to that player, whichever happens first
- Only deals damage if stuck to a target
- Now is destroyed if it hits an enemy barrier
- Reduced max number of bounces to 1
- Increased projectile speed from 20 to 25
Fade
- Now phases out all allies within 6 meters (and self) for 1 second after exiting Fade
- No longer frees Moira or allies from Zarya’s Graviton Surge or Sigma’s Gravitic Flux
- Cooldown increased from 6s to 8s
Developer Comments:
This round of changes is an iteration on the first Moira experiment we tested with in July. With these changes, we’ve tried to reduce to overall power level of this new Fade ability, as it was just capable of doing too much in its last form. Now, it cannot cleanse negative effects or easily allow people to escape Sigma or Zarya ultimates, but is still a powerful tool to reduce significant incoming damage if it is timed well. As for the Damage Orb changes, this is a totally new direction to try and accomplish the same goals as before: change the ability from an easy to use but low impact ability, to a more skillful and higher potential impact ability. Landing a Damage Orb is now much more challenging but the reward is also much higher.
This is the kind of iteration we’re constantly doing internally when making changes or designing new heroes. The Experimental card gives us an interesting opportunity to show how things evolve and are tested over time. Keep in mind that these are purely experiment changes and are not likely to go live.
Reaper
Wraith Form
- No longer frees Reaper from Zarya’s Graviton Surge or Sigma’s Gravitic Flux
BUG FIXES
General
- Fixed a bug that caused player names to not appear properly when viewing a replay
- Fixed a bug allowing turrets to get placed in invalid locations
- Fixed an issue with the Union Jack spray appearing incorrectly
Heroes
Genji
- Fixed a bug where Swift Strike would not deal damage if used on a target that is against a wall
Mei
- Fixed a bug that caused Ice Wall to boost characters upwards inconsistently
- Fixed a bug allowing Ice Wall to be placed on top of Mei’s Cryo-Freeze
Mercy
- Fixed a bug that caused yellow orbs to not display over deceased allies
Zenyatta
- Fixed a bug that caused Zenyatta’s melee animation to not appear properly when using melee to cancel out of a secondary fire charge
- Fixed a bug that caused primary and secondary fire to not activate properly after dying, in rare cases
