OWL Vice President confirms meta changing patch will be used for playoffs

As the Overwatch League is nearing playoffs, both fans and players alike are excited at the possibility of a new meta taking place and developing in the final stretch of competition.

For months, the dreaded double shield composition has been a staple of competitive Overwatch, with heroes like Orisa and Sigma simply proving too valuable. Hero Pools (and map rotations) were introduced to add variety, however, it seems Blizzard has decided to directly address the issue with big balance changes making their way to the live servers.

(Photo: Blizzard Entertainment)

These changes that see the aforementioned characters plus controversial hero Brigitte take substantial nerfs, are confirmed to be part of the last round of balance changes Overwatch League will use as they move to the playoffs phase, confirmed by the League's Vice President, Jon Spector.

"OWL fans - today's Overwatch balance patch will be what OWL teams play on for the 2020 season playoffs. Looking forward to seeing some amazing matches as we start playoffs in just a few weeks!"

Overwatch Patch Notes 13 August 2020

• Read more: Overwatch League change roster rules to help teams during pandemic

Here are the full list of changes for the latest patch available on PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.

Brigitte

  General

• Base health lowered from 200 to 150

Inspire

• Total healing decreased from 130 to 90 (Healing reduced from 21 to 15 health per second)
• Self-healing is no longer reduced by half

 Orisa

 General

• Base armor reduced from 250 to 200

Halt!

• Radius reduced from 7 to 4 meters
• Projectile speed increased from 20 to 30

Pharah

 Hover Jets

• Movement speed increased 20%
• Regeneration rate reduced from 50 to 35 per second

Barrage

• Duration reduced from 3 to 2.5 seconds

 Roadhog

 Scrap Gun

• (General) Ammo reduced from 6 to 5

• (General) Damage per projectile increased from 6 to 7
• (General) Recovery increased from 0.7 to 0.85 seconds

 Sigma

 Experimental Barrier

• Health reduced from 900 to 700
• Regeneration rate reduced from 120 to 80 per second

Kinetic Grasp

• Cooldown increased from 10 to 12 seconds

 Symmetra

 Teleporter

• Cooldown reduced from 12 to 10 seconds

 Zenyatta

 Orb of Destruction

• (Secondary Fire) Charge rate increased 15% (0.6 down to 0.52 seconds per orb)
• (Secondary Fire) Rate of fire increased from 8.5 to 9 shots per second

With two weeks of regular play still remaining, playoffs are set to start next September with the grand finals scheduled to be played a month later, in October.