Overwatch Reaper Buff: Everything You Need to Know

Overwatch Reaper Buff makes Reaper's Shadow Step teleportation ability much more useful.

Overwatch Reaper Buff: Everything You Need to Know

This buff appeared in patch 2.62 and was released as part of the Storm Rising Archives event. Junkrat saw some tweaks to his grenade launcher, but Reaper's Shadow Step had some significant changes.

The official word about the Shadow Step patch is:

• Can now be used in air
• Time to exit Shadow Step reduced from 1.0 second to 0.5 of a second
• Reaper is now invisible for the entire time it takes to exit shadow step
• Railings and other breakable objects no longer block teleporting
• Disabled by Zarya’s Graviton Surge and Junkrat’s Steel Trap

According to the developers, Shadow Step was originally created to be used out of combat so that Reaper could set up his signature flanks. Wraith Form was the other mobile ability Reaper had to quickly escape a sticky situation. As a result, many players considered Shadow Step among the worse abilities in the game because of how seldom it was used. The above changes will make it possible to use this tool in combat to navigate the battlefield.

From personal testing, being able to teleport in midair and decreased decloaking time are the most useful parts of this patch. However, despite being invisible when exiting Shadow Step, there is still a dark aura around Reaper so players can still see approximately where Reaper is. Teleporting in mid air seems to make Reaper fall slower for a little while too, which could make him a vulnerable target in that brief window.

Photo courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment