Blizzard is bringing back Overwatch's Experimental Card in-game, the temporary game mode that allows the development team to try out radical changes to the game without breaking everything. This Experimental Card is special, however. In the latest Experimental Card, Blizzard is handing off design to three different Overwatch content creators. Three Twitch streamers, Violet, Flats, and Somjuu, will be updating Support, Tank, and DPS Heroes respectively. Needless to say, Overwatch players can expect some radical changes.
As expected, the creators' changes buff every hero significantly. There's perhaps no better example of this than Flats' Tank changes. Zarya, for example, has her Barriers increased from 200 to 250 health though with their size increased 50%, while her alt-fire explosions no longer hurt herself and have 150% increased knockback. That's increased power and utility. Similarly, Wrecking Ball's Roll jump height is increased 100%, Winston's Jump Pack is faster, Roadhog's Chain Hook is on a lower cooldown, D.VA boosts faster and longer, and Reinhardt can cancel his charges.
Somjuu's DPS changes are surprisingly straightforward, but do stay true to character. Ashe now has two charges for her Coach Gun and takes only a 10% movement penalty when aiming-down-sights, Cassidy can roll mid-air, Genji's wall-climb speed is 50% faster and refunds Double Jump, Reaper moves 40% faster after using Shadow Step, and Tracer gets her Blink back after Recalling, to name a few key changes. Somjuu clearly wants DPS to do more of their cool non-DPS abilities.
The support changes from Violet are simple, but much more experimental than expected. Ana can reset her Sleep Dart cooldown if she kills her sleeping target, Baptiste's Regenerative Burst now damages enemies instead of healing allies, Lucio's Sound Barrier does "massive damage" if it lands on an enemy, Moira can use Biotic Grasp even when out of energy at the expense of her own health, and Zenyatta's Transcendence applies Discord automatically to nearby enemies. Suffice to say, Violet wants supports to be more aggressive.
There are significantly more changes than those referenced, of course. All characters have had their health, damage, or cooldowns adjusted some small amount so as to better balance the character for their more radical changes. Blizzard is comfortable allowing the creators to bend Overwatch's balance, but not break it.
It's interesting to see how each creator's chosen to redesign Overwatch's Heroes. Violet's fundamentally changing the ways many of the Heroes are played, Flats is focusing on the fun, while erasing many frustrating tank limitations, and Somjuu just wants to be able to do more of what DPS Heroes are already doing. Needless to say, the new Overwatch Experimental Card will let players get to see if some of the changes they've wanted truly feel good in motion.
Overwatch is available now on PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.