Overwatch Experimental Patch April 22 Nerfs Crowd Control Across Multiple Heroes

Nerfs for many of the crowd control abilities in Overwatch arrived on the Experimental card Wednesday, dropping the duration of stuns, sleeps and freezes alike.

Reinhardt, Sigma, McCree, Mei, Ana and Brigitte all received nerfs in the patch, weakening each of their crowd control abilities by up to a full second.

Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan explained the motivation behind the changes and Blizzard's goals in enacting them.

"In Nverwatch, we need to walk a fine line with crowd control abilities," he wrote on the Blizzard forums. "on the one hand, we are a highly competitive first person shooter. on the other hand, one of the defining things about Overwatch is the fact that our heroes have amazing abilities and mobility."

"So these experiments are [targeted] at certain heroes, specifically at their crowd control abilities, with the intent being that they will affect you less and have a lower overall impact on the game."

Roadhog is the only hero affected in the patch to receive what could be described as a buff, as his ultimate Whole Hog had its knockback increased to 20%. This makes it more effective as an area control ability, but less effective as a source of damage as enemies will be pushed out of the effective range more easily.

"We’ll see how this round goes and we’d love feedback," Kaplan concluded. "Hopefully we can put some of these changes live if the test goes well."

See the full list of changes below:

Overwatch Experimental Patch April 22 Nerfs Crowd Control Across Multiple Heroes

Roadhog

Whole Hog

• Knockback increased 20%

Reinhardt

Earthshatter

• Knockdown duration lowered from three seconds to 2.5

Sigma

Accretion

• Knockdown duration is now a fixed 0.8 seconds instead of scaling with distance
• Cast time reduced from 0.75 seconds to 0.65

McCree

Flashbang

• Stun duration lowered from 0.85 seconds to 0.7

Mei

Endothermic Blaster

• Freeze stun duration lowered from 1.5 seconds to 1.3

Blizzard

• Duration lowered from five seconds to 4.25

Ana

Sleep Dart

• Duration lowered from six seconds to five

Brigitte

Shield Bash

• Stun duration lowered from 0.75 seconds to 0.65