Overwatch artwork showcasing Sigma

[Update #2]: Parts of this PTR update have now already made their way to the live version of Overwatch. Unfortunately, 'thicc' McCree has not been one of them.

[Update]: Blizzard has now addressed the recent rumors about hero bans, as well as further explained their plans for Overwatch's future.

A little while ago Blizzard released an update that directly nerfed Hanzo, Mei, Baptiste and a couple of other problematic heroes. Usually this would be pretty much everything we'd hear from the Overwatch team for the foreseeable future, though this time around they have not only upped the amount of community interaction, but also released yet another major PTR balance update!

This one is mostly focused on reducing the power creep that appeared over the past few year as heroes were heavily buffed to combat the incredibly powerful GOATs composition (three tanks and three supports). As such, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise to hear that Hanzo, Reaper and Orisa are among the nerfed heroes. Here's the full list of changes:

Hanzo

 Storm Arrows

- Damage reduced from 70 to 60

McCree

General

- Base health increased from 200 to 250

 Peacekeeper (Primary Fire)

- Recovery time increased from 0.42 to 0.5 seconds

 Deadeye

- Firing Deadeye no longer locks the player’s aim

Reaper

 The Reaping (Passive)

- Healing amount reduced from 40% to 30% of damage dealt

Orisa

 Fusion Driver (Primary Fire)

- Damage reduced from 11 to 9

 Fortify

Cooldown increased from 8 to 10 seconds

 Halt!

- Snare duration reduced from 1 to 0.65 seconds

Sigma

 Hyperspheres (Primary Fire)

- Range reduced from 22 to 20 meters

 Gravitic Flux

- Can now be interrupted before targets begin falling
- Impact slow duration reduced from 0.9 to 0.6 seconds

 Accretion

- Explosion damage reduced from 60 to 40

Baptiste

 Biotic Launcher (Primary Fire)

- Recovery time increased from 0.36 to 0.45 sec

 Biotic Launcher (Secondary Fire)

- Heal explosion reduced from 60 to 50

Personally, I am incredibly happy with these recent patches as Blizzard really seems intent on slowing down the power creep and bringing back a real sense of balance to Overwatch. It's been so long since heroes like Soldier 76 have been truly useful, and all of it is because of how ridiculously powerful new heroes have been, as well as how strong buffs have made some of the older ones. So to tone all of that down, to bring everything back to normality and hopefully make it so tanks don't melt within seconds, brings me a great deal of joy!

I can only hope that whatever the big announcement is, it'll continue on with this trend and really shake up the Overwatch meta! Until then, you can learn more about this update, as well as take it for a spin yourself, by visiting the official website. Have fun!