Doomfist nerfed, Zarya and Reinhardt buffed on PTR

The current Public Test Realm patch is already chock full of goodies, including our new hero Doomfist, the highlight overhaul, and better loot boxes. It looks like we have a few other bonuses heading our way in the form of balance changes. If you’re a tank main who’s felt a little downcast over the last few weeks, we think Blizzard’s latest changes will put some pep back into your step. McCree and Reaper also pick up some buffs — nothing fancy, but something that should jive nicely with their recent buffs to Deadeye and The Reaping respectively. Let’s take a look at what changes we’re being treated to:

Zarya

Graviton Surge

Now disables all movement abilities of affect targets. This is similar to how Junkrat's trap affects abilities.

Zarya’s buff is subtle, but it’ll add up to a lot. No more mobility effects mean that a well placed Graviton Surge can utterly destroy a team with no real way to fight back. Zarya is also anticipated to be an incredibly good hero to pair with Doomfist, thanks to her shield, so we might be heading into a golden age of Zarya.

Reinhardt

Hammer

Swing speed increased by ~10%. On top of the swing speed increase, we've gone through and tweaked many timings and other things about the Hammer to make it more responsive. Overall it should feel a lot better to swing and make contact with enemies.

Charge

Impacting another charging hero (Doomfist or Reinhardt) no longer deals damage to both characters, but still causes a knockdown on both.

The Reinhardt buffs are pretty substantial, but they’re something the old crusader has desperately needed. The current dive meta in pro play has not been kind to him, since shielding your team in a choke point doesn’t do too much when the enemy team is heading around it and flanking you. He’s still the best hero at shielding, but now he has a little more to do when he can’t shield, and he can turn into a deadly bruiser if his team is endangered.

Doomfist

Rocket Punch

Total distance traveled reduced by about 20% (This change has been on the PTR for a little while now)

Seismic Slam

Added a new UI indicator to show how much damage it will deal, and how much it dealt. Previously this was only indicated by the default crosshair filling in, but this is only visible when using the default crosshair. The new indicator should always be visible, regardless of any crosshair changes. Also, targeting this ability while in the air is now restricted to locations lower than your current height.

Doomfist is getting some nerfs to make sure he’ll feel fair on live. Rocket punch doesn’t carry quite as far, and he loses some of his vertical mobility. On the plus side, he should be a little easier to pilot.

McCree

Flashbang

Now slows targets significantly when they are stunned. This makes them less likely to slide away around a corner or something similar once they are stunned.

Reaper

Shadow Step

VO and SFX distance dramatically reduced.

Finally, McCree and Reaper get quality of life improvements. Flashbang is a little harder of a CC, and Shadow Step’s a little tougher to see coming.

These changes might just be what is needed to shake the meta up. While Zarya, McCree, and Reaper all benefit, the biggest change here is definitely going to be Reinhardt. According to Jeff Kaplan, we’ll see some further changes to Reinhardt’s hammer in the following patch, so the crusader should hopefully have his day in the sun soon.