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 his damage was increased to 25, he has felt incredibly frustrating to go against and has been referred to as the "Soldier: 76" of the support role. Since 24 felt too weak, I decreased his damage to 24.5 to address his overtuned damage to a level where he isn't super strong but can still put out reliable damage in a fight. Regenerative Burst has also been a huge complaint in his kit, so I decreased the actual burst healing it deals as thats where the frustration in the ability stems from. 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.

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. Swift Step is basically just a better Guardian Angel, and a lot of times it is way more frustrating since Kiriko is given invulnerability frames and can teleport through walls. Instead of making her feel clunky cooldown wise, I decided to aim directly at the range she can teleport to and from. I'm reducing the range that the ability has in-order to target the frustrations that players have with the ability, while also making it less of a get-out-of-jail free card. 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. I removed one aspect from it to make it much more tolerable to play against, while still keeping the utility aspect of it intact.

Lifeweaver is an incredibly difficult hero to balance, since his design is mostly based off of Mecy 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 the speed Thorn Volley's pellets travel at to make his damage much more reliable, so switching to thorns should feel more necessary. 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. Rejuvenating Dash also feels a bit clunky, so I reduced its cooldown but also reduced the healing it gives him to not make him feel too survivable to play into. 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 small balance overhaul should make him feel way better both as, against, and with.

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 shift her main playstyle from a pocket support to a main support. The overall TTK has been raised, specifically from the global health increase, so Mercy's healing has become lackluster especially because of the dps passive. I returned the triage-healer changes she had before, but I made it less effective to help boost her healing without making it over the top. My goal with Angelic Devotion is to allow for more playmaking potential in team fights by giving her a form of burst healing along with a good amount of utility for her to feel impactful without Resurrect hindering her power potential. I locked Resurrect 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. 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, while also giving it utility by reducing incoming healing for enemies hit by the beam. This should help Moira by giving her a bit of utility while also addressing issues with her damage.

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.