The latest experimental patch in Overwatch is pushing the competitive hero shooter in the right direction, according to Brandon ‘Seagull’ Larned, who now has a new reason to be hopeful for the game’s upcoming sequel.
While Seagull might not be an active competitive in the Overwatch League anymore, he’s still deeply embedded in the Overwatch community. Through major updates and massive balance patches, he’s never shy when it comes to sharing his thoughts on a game he’s dumped thousands of hours into.
Much of his feedback over the past few months has often been quite negative. However, the DPS expert has praised Blizzard for the latest update on August 24. The experimental patch is aimed to address power creep in perhaps the most dramatic way yet.
While almost every hero was nerfed in some way, shape, or form, Seagull believes it’s an “incredible” update. One that could help improve the state of Overwatch as we approach the release of its sequel.
“The latest Overwatch experimental card addressing power creep is incredible,” he tweeted just 24 hours after the changes were deployed. From halving Baptiste’s Regenerative Burst output to implementing damage falloff for Widowmaker, the patch dragged almost every hero down in some way.
Whether you’re a Support main or a Tank veteran, your favorite heroes were likely altered in the experimental card. This was done as a way to “reduce some heroes’ damage and healing outputs,” Blizzard explained.
“I hope the game continues in this direction,” Seagull expressed. Clearly happy with the massive nerfs across the board, he argues the experiment brought most heroes down to “reasonable power levels.”
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This is especially important as we “continue into Overwatch 2,” according to the former pro turned streamer. If Blizzard is looking to recapture some of the balancing magic that attracted pros to the game early on, this seems to be a step in the right direction as far as Seagull is concerned.
The latest OW experimental card addressing power creep is incredible.
I hope the game continues in this direction and actively strives to maintain reasonable power levels for damage/healing in the game, especially as it continues into OW2.
— Brandon Larned (@A_Seagull) August 26, 2020
While these drastic changes aren’t yet on the live servers – and perhaps they won’t be anytime soon – it shows that Blizzard is willing to test extreme measures. Rather than finely tuning certain abilities or doing some minor tweaking of a specific hero, the experiment offset heroes in major ways.
This could be a sign of things to come for Overwatch in the near future. It could also be a great indicator as to where Blizzard is at internally with Overwatch 2 balancing.
Only time will tell as more information comes to light. The developers have been tight-lipped since BlizzCon in 2019, but Seagull is hopeful we see something big during the Gamescom Opening Night Live broadcast on August 27.