Blizzard is spreading some love to the support role by rebalancing all of the support champions. Some supports got buffs while other got nerfs but Blizzard is trying to level the playing field for the supports so that they might all see play. Only Zenyatta has been left untouched in this support patch as Blizzard thinks he’s already in a great spot. All of the changes are just small tweaks to damage/healing numbers or cooldowns so don’t expect any big reworks this time around.
Let’s start off with the heroes that received buffs.
Ana has received a buff to her ultimate as it will now instantly heal the targeted hero for a whopping 300 health. This change is big for Ana as it allows her to instantly heal an ally on the brink of death, as well as top off nano-boosted targets that will have to dash into the fray. If combined with her Bionic grenade she can heal tanks up to full health in a flash. The change is made so that you’re not always forced to use Nano Boost on a Genji or Reinhardt but now have some more opti ons available.
Lucio has received a buff to his crossfade aura, increasing it from 10 meters to 12. This means that Lucio has more freedom to roam while his support songs still affect his teammates. Lucio will also receive a buff to his ultimate, Sound Barrier. All enemies inside the Sound Barrier radius will now receive a shield that can absorb 750 damage. The duration that the shield is on allies remains the same though.
Moira‘s resource base regen rate is been increased by 20%. Blizzard thinks that Moira is relatively strong now but runs into issues in long-range fights as there are no enemies for her to drain resources from. This change is supposed to help her out in those kinds of situations.
Now the heroes that were nerfed.
Brigitte will receive a minor nerf to her Shieldbash ability, increasing the cooldown from 6 seconds to 7 seconds. Blizzard acknowledges that she is by far the strongest support right now but does not want to nerf her too hard to avoid destroying her hero identity as this tanky support hero. With the slight nerf to the ability it will come up less during fights enabling you to play around it more.
Mercy has received a nerf to the amount of raw healing she can output. She will now heal for 50 health per second instead of 60. She is meant to consistently output the most healing out of all supports, however, she is currently too good at her job meaning that the other supports she relatively little play compared to her. This nerf is meant to let her maintain her identity but also lets other heroes compete with her for a spot on the team.
The changes will be introduced on the PTR before coming to the live servers. As always, Blizzard is keeping a close eye on how the changes affect the heroes to make sure that they haven’t overdone anything.
