[Update]: The experimental update has now gone live, though the Baptiste 'HD Screen' buff has been pushed back until the next patch due to animation problems.
For as long as Overwatch has existed, Blizzard has tried to keep things nice, tidy and easily recognizable for even new players. Because of this Blizzard has never changed health in increments lower than 50, as anything below that is a bit tricky to figure out at a glance, especially in the middle of a massive teamfight.
However, with the Overwatch team now heavily focused on balance above all else, that rule has finally been broken. As such, the newest experimental update has not only brought some nice changes to Baptiste and Mei, but also tweaked a bunch of heroes by raising or lowering their health by 25! Here's what they're currently testing:
Baptiste
• Primary Fire
- Recovery time reduced from 0.45 to 0.38 seconds
- Damage reduced from 25 to 24• Secondary Fire
- Recovery increased from 0.8 to 0.9 seconds
- Healing increased from 50 to 60• Amplification Matrix
- Width increased from 5 to 9 meters
We're trying out some adjustments to Baptiste's Biotic Launcher firing cadence that will make dealing damage quicker and landing a healing grenade more impactful. His Amplification Matrix was sometimes difficult to utilize for his allies without gathering very closely together so we've made it much wider.
Brigitte
• Base health increased from 150 to 175
McCree
• Base health increased from 200 to 225
• Reload time reduced from 1.5 to 1.2 seconds
Mei
• Cryo-Freeze
- Now restores 15 ammo per second
• Ice Wall
- Cooldown lowered from 13 to 12 seconds
Since we previously made Mei's primary fire relatively more expensive, she spends more time out of ammo and this was particularly noticeable when unable to reload while in Cryo-Freeze. To help smooth out this gameplay she now regains some ammo during Cryo-Freeze.
Symmetra
• Base shields increased from 100 to 125
Widowmaker
• Base health reduced from 200 to 175
Personally, I'm a big fan of the direction these changes are going in, doubly so when it comes to handling nerfs. After all, it's better to nerf heroes like Widowmaker by making them more vulnerable and thus easier to counter, than it is to simply reduce their power level and make them unsatisfying to play. So if this is going to be the method used by Blizzard moving forward, I think Overwatch is going to be in a pretty darn good place by the time Overwatch 2 comes to mix things up even further!
Whether you agree or not, I'd highly recommend trying out the experimental update in-game and giving Blizzard some much-needed feedback. Enjoy!