Note: Due to limitations of the Workshop, I could not recreate specific damage or healing number modifications exactly, so I eyeballed some numbers which I believe will, on average, feel and play about the same overall.
In addition, not every change was possible to recreate, but I think I got pretty darn close. Finally, if a hero doesn't have any listed changes, that means their strongest state is right now! With that in mind, let's begin!
While D.Va's strongest state had less armor and less mobility, she was far more lethal with her increased burst damage and had a larger defense matrix. Unfortunately, the Workshop is not really able to elegantly increase the size of Defense Matrix, so that part had to be left out.
Fusion Cannons
- Move speed penalty while firing increased from 40% to 50%
Boosters
- Impact damage increased from 10 to 25
- Cooldown increased from 4 to 5 seconds
Micro Missiles
- Missile damage increased by 37%
Self-Destruct
- Cost decreased from 1540 to 1375
Call Mech
- Damage decreased from 250 to 50
- Cost decreased from 320 to 300
Unfortunately arguably the biggest defining factor of Orisa's most powerful state, her much stronger shield, was not quite able to be replicated in the Workshop. In addition, her Halt!'s original behavior was not possible to replicate either, hence the cooldown not being bumped back to the original 8 seconds.
Protective Barrier
- Cooldown reduced from 10 to 8 seconds
Fortify
- Damage reduction increased from 40% to 50%
Supercharger
- Cost reduced from 1680 to 1500
While Overwatch 2's Reinhardt sports many changes to his kit, arguably the best state Reinhardt has been in only includes bumping his base armor pool up a notch. At least, according to KarQ.
General
- Base armor health increased from 200 to 250
Arguably the most prominent feature of Sigma's broken state was, again, his barrier's overall power. While the Workshop can't increase the health of deployable barriers, his insta-deploy barrier is back. In addition, it's not really possible to granularly alter the way Flux works, so the uninterruptability and extra high-gravity linger aren't back either.
Hyperspheres
- Damage increased from 55 to 60
Accretion
- Damage increased from 70 to 80
- Stun duration now scales from 0.5 to 3s over 45 meters
Experimental Barrier
- Cooldown upon recalling barrier reduced from 2 to 0.25 seconds
Gravitic Flux
- Cost increased from 1960 to 2170
Wrecking Ball has no singular thing that made him super strong in his prime, but the extra health and extra knockback certain didn't hurt.
Grappling Claw
- Knockback increased by 30%
Adaptive Shield
- Shields gained on activation increased from 100 + 75/enemy to 100 + 100 + 100/enemy
A lot of what made Zarya good is not possible to recreate in Workshop. For example, Zarya's strongest state was mostly a function of her increased energy gain per bubble, which is not really possible to recreate with Workshop. That being said, Zarya also had some other
Particle Cannon
- Primary fire damage increased by 15%
Graviton Surge
- Cost decreased from 2100 to 1500
Much of what made Ashe so scary in her peak state was the global state of hitscan falloff. However, her increased scope damage and 50% stronger initial dynamite burst didn't hurt either.
The Viper
- Scoped damage increased from 75 to 85.
Dynamite
- Initial explosion burst increased from 50 to 75 damage
- Cooldown decreased from 12 to 10 seconds
The Omnic Crisis of Season 5 is a meta most would rather sooner forget, but this was, nevertheless, Bastion's strongest state. His 35% Ironclad passive was the most notable part, but more Self-Repair juice certain didn't hurt.
Ironclad
- Damage reduction increased from 20% to 35%
Configuration: Recon
- Ammo reduced from 35 to 25
Self-Repair
- Healing per second decreased from 90 to 75
- Maximum duration increased from 3.33 to 4 seconds
Configuration: Tank
- Cost decreased from 2310 to 2075
As with Ashe, Cassidy's peak state was bolstered by the global hitscan falloff being weaker back then, which isn't so easy to reverse in Workshop. However, his faster reload and longer roll are all nice additions to the cowboy regardless.
Peacekeeper
- Reload time decreased from 1.5 to 1.2 seconds
Combat Roll
- Distance increased from 6 to 7.2 meters
The terror of supports everywhere in his peak state, Doomfist has since received a number of nerfs. In this case, his Rising Uppercut air lock duration and Meteor Strike damage are the biggest ones to look out for, with the rest of his peak state being fairly impossible to remake.
Rising Uppercut
- Mid-air loss of control duration increased from 0.6 to 3 seconds
- Cooldown increased from 6 to 7 seconds
Meteor Strike
- Outer ring damage increased from 15-200 to 22.5-300
- Cost decreased from 1680 to 1500
Much of what made Echo such a menace in her peak state was her Focusing Beam's longer duration and range, both of which are sadly not possible to recreate in the Workshop. However, extra Tri-Shot ammo and a genuine full restore in the form of her Duplicate were definitely not unwelcome changes for the Echo mains out there.
Tri-Shot
- Ammo increased from 12 to 15
Duplicate
- Cost decreased from 2254 to 1960
- Minimum health upon Duplicate's completion increased from 100 to 200
Release Genji was arguably the strongest state of Genji due to his insane Dragonblade duration. Triple jump as originally introduced probably wasn't a huge part of that, but I thought I'd include it regardless. A slower secondary fire was also part of this older iteration, but due to the potential for bugs, I decided not to include it.
Shuriken
- Ammo decreased from 30 to 24
Cyber-Agility
- Double-jump resets after climbing a wall
Dragonblade
- Duration increased from 6 to 8 seconds
- Cost decreased from 1932 to 1200
A lot of what made Hanzo such a menace in his peak state was his Storm Arrow damage and capacity. Tanks beware!
Lunge
- Cooldown reduced from 5 to 4 seconds
Storm Arrows
- Cooldown reduced from 10 to 8 seconds
- Damage per arrow increased from 70 to 80
- Ammo increased from 5 to 6
Dragonstrike
- Cost decreased from 1680 to 1500
There was only one change which Junkrat needed to return to his peak state, and that was a damage buff to his direct nades
Frag Launcher
- Direct damage increased from 120 to 130
2019 Mei was a menace, boasting more sustained freeze potential and a longer freeze stun, not to mention a faster recharge on Ice Wall, which made the life of any tank completely miserable.
Endothermic Blaster
- Initial movement slow increased from 20% to 30%
- Freeze stun increased from 1.3 to 1.5 seconds
- Ammo increased from 120 to 200
Icicle
- Ammo cost per shot increased from 10 to 20
Ice Wall
- Cooldown decreased from 12 to 10
As with most other hitscans, Soldier benefitted a great deal from the global hitscan falloff being less punishing in the past, which unfortunately has not been implemented in this project. However, he does have a higher base damage stat to compensate somewhat for this issue, so the only change is a small one to his Biotic Field.
Biotic Field
- Healing per second increased from 35 to 40
Sombra has alternated between terrorizing OWL and ranked lobbies, and being a borderline throw pick. Her strongest state was arguably in 2019, when EMP was almost instantaneous to cast, and Hack generally lasted longer. Unfortunately, EMP's cast time is not modifiable in the Workshop, so that could not be brought back. In addition, with Sombra's nerfs since then, she has received other buffs which are being rolled back to rewind to her 2019 state.
Stealth
- Move speed bonus decreased from +65% to +50%
Hack
- Duration increased from 5 to 6
EMP
- Cost decreased from 1400 to 1250
- Hack duration increased from 5 to 6
The mean beam machine of 2019 lasted only a month, but in that time, Symmetra undoubtedly microwaved away many ranked players' SR. While the beam width, higher sentry turret damage, and increased Photon Barrier health and duration are not recoverable via Workshop, the ridiculous damage output certain is.
Photon Projector
- Base damage increased from 60 to 65 (Level 2 and 3 damage still double and triple beam damage output)
Teleporter
- Cooldown increased from 10 to 12
Tracer is one of the least balanced heroes in Overwatch 1 history. Thus, the only changes required were a revert on Pulse Bomb's damage. While technically her falloff range has also changed with time, it has only been improved, and even that only marginally, so I felt comfortable not tweaking the falloff there.
Pulse Bomb
- Cost decreased from 1260 to 900
- Damage increased from 350 to 400
Release Widowmaker was an absolute beast, with 150 damage bodyshots and 10 scoped shots per magazine instead of today's 7. Her rifle also charged faster, but that's not really possible to recreate in the Workshop. Finally, as with every other ultimate over time, it has become more costly to earn Infra-Sight as the years have passed, so that's been reverted to rewind us all the way back to 2016 for the final damage hero in the list.
Widow's Kiss
- Base damage increased from 12 to 15
- Critical hit multiplier decreased from 2.5 to 2
- Ammo decreased from 35 to 30
- Ammo cost per shot decreased from 5 to 3
Infra-Sight
- Cost decreased from 1540 to 1100
Shortly after her release in 2016, Ana got a round of buffs which brought her into the meta spotlight for the first time. Every single one of her abilities was stronger then, but unfortunately the effects of old Biotic Grenade are not really possible to recreate nicely in Workshop. In addition, the old "pre-heal" made possible by shots passing through full HP allies is similarly impossible to bring back via Workshop.
Nevertheless, Ana mains rejoice! The 30% move speed buff from Nanoboost is back*! Along with that, Sleep's original 6 second duration and Biotic Rifle's beefier impact in both the healing and damage department have returned.
Biotic Rifle
- Damage increased from 70 to 80
- Healing increased from 70 to 75
- Ammo decreased from 12 to 10
Sleep Dart
- Sleep stun duration increased from 5 to 6 seconds
Nano Boost
- Now grants 30% move speed bonus to target*
- Cost decreased from 2100 to 1300 points
* If the nanoboost target is anti-healed, the Workshop cannot easily find the recipient of Nano Boost. Therefore, the 30% move speed bonus will not apply.
Unfortunately a lot of what made Baptiste so good in his peak state during 2019 is difficult to recover in Workshop. In particular, Immortality Field is almost completely unmodifiable in its specific mechanics. However, Baptiste player should expect to enjoy more healing ammo, better self-healing via Regenerative Burst, and a faster-building Amplification Matrix.
Biotic Launcher
- Healing projectile ammo increased from 10 to 12
Regenerative Burst
- 50% self-healing penalty removed
- Cooldown increased from 13 to 15 seconds
Immortality Field
- Cooldown decreased from 25 to 20
Amplification Matrix
- Cost decreased from 2310 to 1750
Ahhh, release Brig. How (almost) none miss thee.
Infamously busted at launch, Brigitte has received (say it with me) 16 nerfs since then, most of which were possible to somewhat roll back with Workshop. Enjoy the chaos.
Inspire
- Healing increased from 15 to 16
- Duration decreased from 6 to 5 seconds
- Refresh cooldown increased from 1 to 1.5 seconds
Barrier Shield
- Barrier health increased from 250 to 600 (slightly bugged to show 599 in-game)
- Cooldown upon destruction decreased from 5 to 3
Shield Bash
- Damage increased from 5 to 50
- Stun duration increased from 0.75 to 1 seconds
- Cooldown decreased from 7 to 5 seconds
Repair Pack
- Charges reduced from 3 to 1
- Healing changed from 110 over 2s to 150 instantaneously
- Now grants up to 75 armor based on amount of overhealing provided
Rally
- Cost decreased from 2800 to 2250
Lúcio used to speed people around a bit faster, but recreating that in the Workshop is error-prone, and I opted not to go for that with less than a week of Overwatch 1 remaining. However, a faster building Sound Barrier is certainly not something I think any Lúcio player will complain about.
Sound Barrier
- Cost decreased from 2940 to 2625
Way back in 2017, a large rework which the community would dub Mercy 2.0 came through. It quickly became apparent that Moth Mercy (another community nickname) was extremely powerful, and looking back it's not hard to see why.
Stronger staff healing, instant resurrect, and Valkyrie providing a whole host of benefits, not the least of which was Resurrect coming off cooldown 3 times as fast, all these benefits were subsequently sized down over the next few months. While the Valkyrie duration and instant rez were not quite possible to bring back, everything is is back as it was.
There is no escape from the Moth. I'm not sorry.
Caduceus Staff
- Healing per second increased from 55 to 60
Valkyrie
- Cost decreased from 1820 to 1625
- Resets Resurrect cooldown upon activation
- Resurrect cooldown decreased from 30 to 10 while Valkyrie is active.
At her peak in 2019, Moira was a healing machine with her more potent and longer duration Biotic Grasp healing, and faster Biotic Orb healing. However, she was not able to jump very high during Fade during that time, which I have also brought back.
Biotic Grasp (Primary Fire)
- Healing increased from 70 to 80
- Energy ("juice") max increased by 12%
- Passive regeneration rate decreased by 12.5%
Biotic Grasp (Secondary Fire)
- Self healing increased from 24 to 30 per second
Fade
- No longer grants increased jump height
Biotic Orb
- Healing per second increased from 65 to 75 per second
- Cooldown increased from 8 to 10
The only change that could really be implemented to bring Zenyatta back to his most powerful state in 2016 was a cost decrease on Transcendence. Everything else was not possible to implement.
Transcendence
- Cost decreased from 2310 to 1650