Re-Balanced Supports

Ana at the moment is still quite strong but not a great choice to pick in multiple situations. Although I don't want her to be a must pick anymore, I still want her to remain impactful. I chose to increase the healing and damage her rifle deals as its very lackluster currently, and while the number change is small, it should still feel noticeable. Sleep Dart still feels incredibly frustrating for everybody but tank heroes, and I feel like the duration needs to be shortened to not feel so disgustingly strong in the current 5v5 format. I reduced its duration but to compensate I decreased its cooldown so Ana is able to fend for herself more often.

Baptiste is the most underrated support, yet one of the very strongest in my opinion. Ever since the beta where Regenerative Burst was given burst healing, it became one of the most incredibly frustrating abilities to face especially paired with his insane damage and utility. I am reducing the burst it has to bring its power in line. Immortality abilities as a whole are unbalanced and unfun, but I can't do much due to workshop limitations. So, I am increasing the cooldown of Immortality Field to force players to use the ability more sparingly. Amplification Matrix also has no reason to be lasting 10 seconds with such a large width, so I reduced the duration slightly to make the ultimate require more of a need to prioritize it in-order to get maximum value.

Brigitte has proven to be an incredibly strong sleeper pick, but there are some issues all around her kit which I want to try fixing. I am redistributing power in her kit by returning some damage in favor of less strong pocket heals, but also touching up some things to improve her gameplay. I increased the size of her Barrier because it often lacks the actual value of protecting both Brigitte and her allies, so I am making it bigger to assist with that issue. I increased the damage of Whipshot to return the original combo she had against Tracer, this should also help Brigitte to fend off flankers for her allies. I also decreased the knockback Whipshot deals due to it feeling way too strong even with the tank passive, so I reduced the knockback it deals to a distance thats still impactful but not too annoying to play against. I changed Rally to be a slow instead of a stun, so I can return some aspects to Rally to make it feel better to use and to go against. The Inspire changes is to allow for a better visual of Inspire and what it does, but also punish players for overextending just to activate Inspire. This should help improve the gameplay of Brigitte for both sides while also making the person playing her able to understand her abilities more easily.

Solar Rifle's Alt-Fire feels clunky to use due to it being used up so quick for weak healing, so I increased its duration and reduced its total time to recharge so it feels up-to-date with the dps passive. A complaint i've noticed about Illari is how Outburst knocks back herself and enemies, I don't think that Outburst needs an applied CC as we have enough in the Support role. The distance she gives herself should be plenty while defending herself against enemies as her Solar Rifle is also pretty strong. Due to the knockback being removed, I decreased its cooldown so it allows her to make riskier plays and survive more often. Healing Pylon's recent changes in the Season 11 patch has made Illari feel more oppressive than Alec Dawson intended, so I am reducing the uptime of Healing Pylon to make it feel more rewarding and punishable to destroy Pylon. I am also reducing the health to allow for more abilities to destroy it in one go (I.x. Firestrike and Virus).

Kiriko is generally a fairly strong hero, but there are still things in her kit that need tuning to make her feel better for both sides. I increased the projectile speed of her Kunai's to make them feel objectively better and more reliable, but I reduced the amount of ammo she has for Kunai's to promote a less spammy playstyle. Kiriko's kit is incredibly bloated, so instead of nerfing the bloat, I want to remove some of the bloat in her kit to make her overall much healthier for the game. My changes to Protection Suzu and Swift Step help solidify my goal. The fact Kiriko can just make multiple positioning mistakes and get off scott free is absolutely ridiculous, so I am reducing her range to make her flanking playstyle more punishable. Protection Suzu is seen as the "do-it-all" ability for any support hero, and subjectively is by far the most overpowered ability introduced in this game. Removing one of the effects it has is near impossible, so I am increasing its cooldown to make it more of a valueable ability and punishes bad Kiriko players.

Lifeweaver is an incredibly difficult hero to balance, since his design is mostly based off of Mercy but also needing to do damage.. but can't and is forced to healbot?? its ridiculous, so I am going to try my best to fix that. I removed the speed penalty Healing Blossom has because it literally punishes him for healing, which is never needed, so I removed it to hopefully make him feel more fluid. I cut his range in general to make his 275 hp make more sense, but also to remove that "backline pocket healer" playstyle that plagues him. I buffed Thorn Volley's pellets travel speed and damage to make swapping to Thorn Volley more reliable, but in return of a reduced ammo capacity to reward good aim. I wanted to redistribute the power his Petal Platform has, so I cut the health a bit but reduced the cooldown to allow for more team utility plays. I wanted to shift his survivability a bit from Rejuvenating Dash and into his actual health, which was the reason for the health pool changes. This should allow him to survive without the need of Rejuvenating Dash. Life Grip is a pretty unpopular ability, but to me, thats because with the playstyle the devs are trying to accomplish with him, Life Grip can't fit into that. So, I am going to make it fit into his kit by redistributing its power entirely. I cut his range on it to allow for less distance required for an enemy to travel back to the gripped enemy, while also forcing Lifeweaver to play more proactively in a fight instead of staying in the backline just healbotting. I decreased the cooldown and gave it more utility to make the ability feel nice, quick, and fit properly into his kit without feeling too frustrating for enemies. This balance overhaul should make him feel way better both as, against, and with.

Lúcio as a whole feels nicely strong, but theres areas in his kit that can be improved as it makes his gameplay feel objectively worse. The changes I'm giving him aim to address that, by putting more power into his skillshots instead of his AoE.

Mercy has become very popular to talk about balance wise, as her kit since the shift to 5v5 has become problematic. So, I decided to give her a rework to allow for more playstyles instead of a forced pocket playstyle. Her healing ever since Season 9 has felt so bad to the point pocketing is her only way of value, so changing how Caduceus Staff's healing works should allow for more flexibility in her gameplay for a lot of heroes. Sympathetic Recovery in all honesty is just given to her out of pity, and eitherway it rewards bad gameplay. I removed it in return for Quick Recovery so it forces players to have good positioning, but in all honesty its really just her old Regeneration passive. I increased the damage of her blaster to update it for the increased healthpools, but I reduced its ammo capacity to reward good aim. For Guardian Angel, I reverted it entirely back to how it worked in Overwatch 1. In this state, Guardian Angel had been balanced for over 7 years, and the rework it had going into Overwatch 2 made its power level busted. This revert will definitely get some getting used to, especially for newer players who never played her in Overwatch 1, but it will make the cooldown feel less clunky and hopefully make Mercy overall more healthier for the game. My goal with Angelic Devotion is to allow for more playmaking potential in team fights by giving her a form of utility outside of damage boost, this way, it should feel more valuable to have a Mercy on your team and help her power level without Resurrect hindering her kit's potential. Speaking of Resurrect, I locked it behind Valkyrie so the ability can be buffed and feel fluid in her kit without being overpowered yet restrictive for the Mercy player. Valkyrie as an ultimate feels both fun yet boring because of the fun mobility but low impact it has on fights, so I redistributed Valkyrie's power by making its healing more impactful, but force the Mercy player to be closer in fights instead of making her too safe by giving her beam a lot of range. Since Valkyrie's healing is increased along with Resurrect being stronger, I cut its duration by a few seconds so its not too unbearable to go against while forcing the Mercy player to make choices fast before the ultimate ends. This rework should make her less dependent on Resurrect while improving the overall effectiveness of her kit by making her feel more fluid and impactful.

Moira has found herself in a very solid spot currently, however there are outliers in her kit that need tuning. Biotic Orb has always felt a little too fast, and people have asked to make it a little bit slower even since Overwatch 1. I chose to do just that, and I decreased the projectile speed of her orb to be in the middle ground of her current speed and her old speed. Fade being useable in Coalescence gives Moira way too much survivability, so I am preventing it from being used in Coalescence. Due to that, I increased the speed she gets in Coalescence to make it feel better to use. These changes should help her orbs flying past allies too quickly, while also returning her risk/reward ratio for Coalescence.

Zenyatta, design wise, takes the role as a glass cannon. He inputs high damage and high utility in return for low healing and low survivability. Because of his hero design, I removed the knockback his melee does as it only makes him feel more uncounterable to play into due to Orb of Discord and the benefits it adds to his survivability. I knew this would impact him a bit, so I wanted to be safe and I returned some shields in his health pool so he's able to recover more of his health when out of cover. Even though his healthpool remains at 250, I believe the shields will be a good benefit to his survivability.