The latest Overwatch patch focuses on Ana and McCree

There’s a new update out for Overwatch on PC (console equivalent patches will be out soon I’m sure). It’s packed to the brim with tweaks for the new support sniper, Ana, as well as that oke who keeps yelling the time, McCree.

First up, let’s take a look at what’s changed for Ana. She’s only been around for a week or so, but she’s already received a rather healthy buff thanks to some changes to her primary weapon.

Biotic Rifle

• Rate of fire increased by 20%
• Magazine size increased from 8 to 10

While Ana has been very well received, she was showing to be a little bit weaker overall. In addition to helping her feel better to play, these changes should also increase her healing and damage output.

Look, I love Ana to bits, but I’ve never felt her impact in any of the games I’ve played. Hopefully these improvements will remedy that. Now if only Blizzard could add something of an auto aim so morons like me can play her properly. Have you ever tried shooting both foe and friend in the heat of battle? It’s bloody difficult!

Anyways, let’s move over to McCree, who’s been a bit of a problem child for Blizzard. They’ve given him several changes over the past few weeks, and yet he still hasn’t really settled down. Hopefully these following adjustments put him in the right place.

Peacemaker

Primary Fire

• Damage falloff range decreased by 10 meters
  • Damage falloff amount is unchanged
  • As a result, even with this change, McCree’s effective range is still higher than it was at launch

Alternate Fire

• Rate of fire increased by 15%

Flashbang

• Recovery time (i.e. the amount of time before McCree can fire again) decreased from 0.5 seconds to 0.35 seconds

McCree’s latest range increase helped him quite a bit, but it was a bit too much in the right hands. This change weakens his long range damage somewhat, but still keeps it stronger than it has been in the recent past. The other changes combine to allow him to land more alternate fire shots on targets that he has hit with Flashbang.

Quite a mixed bag of changes, isn’t it? There are a couple of small improvements there thanks to the tweaks to flashbang recovery time and rate of alternate fire. McCree’s long range capabilities have been nerfed however.

I’m quite interested to see how this affects him overall. It really feels like he’s dropped off in popularity, at least in my experience.

That’s it for the latest Overwatch patch! Are you happy with the changes? Do you feel any of the other heroes need attention?

Last Updated: July 27, 2016