'Overwatch' Ana Nerf PTR Changes: Several characters tweaked in new patch update

Sorry, Ana mains. The hero around which high-level Overwatch competitive play has revolved for months is getting even more nerfs in the latest patch to hit the public test realm.

The patch update also tweaks Orisa — a new hero who's going through the final testing phase before going live — as well as Winston, Zenyatta, Junkrat and Sombra.

Read on for the full patch notes.

Overwatch PTR patch notes: Nerfs for Ana and Orisa, buffs for others

Here are the full patch notes from Blizzard's site:

Ana

Of course, the biggest changes are hitting Ana — which will reduce both her damage and healing output quite significantly — but the buffs to other heroes are worth noting, too. They seem to be part of an ongoing effort to shake up the Overwatch meta game, in which certain characters are considered unequivocally "good" and others "bad."

Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan has previously been quick to caution players against this type of rigid thinking, emphasizing that the "actual" meta differs significantly from the "perceived" meta — but it's undeniable that this latest round of updates targets heroes who have been perceived as nonviable in competitive play.

For example, Winston should now be able to deploy his barrier much more frequently. This will bring him in line with Orisa — whose barrier functions the same way — but it will also make him a bit tougher overall, addressing player concerns that he's too weak in comparison to other tanks.

It's possible that Blizzard will still make further tweaks to the PTR before pushing these changes live in a week or so, but it's not very likely. Whenever the changes go live, we'll let you know.

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