Tag: eSports

Overwatch PTR 1.8 and team comp!

Overwatch PTR 1.8 and team comp!

Header Photo Credit: CreativeOllie ESWC OpTic Gaming via photopin (license)

As revealed on the Overwatch PTR update that released a few days ago, Bastion, D.Va, and Mercy got massively buffed. These changes (especially to Bastion) could drastically affect the team compositions pro-players decide to use. Today, we’re going to analyze how each of these changes could affect the frequency and the situations these heroes will be used in.

First of all, as stated before, the changes to Bastion are a massive net buff. While his Sentry mode’s cannon got a net nerf, his Recon, self-heal, and Tank mode all got a buff. With Bastion’s recon weapon becoming similar in spread to Soldier 76’s with extremely similar damage and a shield-busting sentry mode (which could affect how much Reinhardt is chosen against an enemy Bastion,) we could see a shift in the pro meta that reduces the amount of Soldier picks and drastically increases the number of Bastion picks.

Second off, D.Va’s Defense Matrix was buffed to reduce the distance an object needed to travel in order to be neutralized. It’s now more on-par with the abilities of Reinhardt’s shield, as it’s able to get rid of Roadhog hooks and Tracer’s pulse bombs. While she may not be a dedicated tank like Reinhardt, she’s becoming a much more viable backup when Reinhardt’s shield goes down. In combination with the Bastion buff, we could see a higher amount of D.Va picks rather than Roadhog, or the return of the Triple Tank meta.

Mercy also got a buff, in that she now becomes invincible like the rest of her teammates when using her Resurrection ultimate. The developers of Overwatch stated that the reason for doing this was that Mercy usually died immediately after using her ultimate in a useful way. They wanted to make sure that Mercy was able to stay in the fight after using her ultimate so any team that had her would have a higher chance of winning. However, we don’t think it’s enough to put her back in the meta.

But, what do you think of the recent PTR release? Do your expected changes in the meta differ from ours? Leave a comment below telling us what you expect and why.

Also, sorry for missing our Wednesday post, but we didn’t want to release any bad training tips for our viewers.