It’s time to fiddle with the cowboy and the mommy.
Developer Blizzard is following up the release of the first new hero in Overwatch with another patch that improves some of her abilities. The update is live now on PC. The studio is increasing the rate of fire and magazine size for support sniper Ana. Blizzard is also taking this opportunity to nerf McCree, the bionic cowboy, who turned into one of the multiplayer shooter’s most dangerous long-range threats in the last couple of weeks. These balance tweaks should ensure that both characters are competitive.
Here’s what’s different.
Ana
Biotic Rifle
- Can fire 20 percent faster
- Holds 10 rounds instead of 8
“While Ana has been very well received, she was showing to be a little bit weaker overall,” reads a note from Blizzard. “In addition to helping her feel better to play, these changes should also increase her healing and damage output.”
McCree
Peacemaker
- Primary fire now doesn’t do as much damage from more than 10 meters
- Alternate fire fires 15 percent faster
Flashbang
- McCree now recovers from throwing his flashbang grenade in 0.35 seconds instead of half a second.
“McCree’s latest range increase helped him quite a bit, but it was a bit too much in the right hands,” reads Blizzard’s notes. “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.”
As before, this patch will likely filter out to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One soon.