On January 5, 2017, Blizzard released a new patch on the PTR (Public Test Region/Realm) that made balance changes to a couple of heroes in the game. Those include Ana, Roadhog, D.Va, and Sombra. Changes can be seen here.

Three of the four heroes that are being changed are involved in the recent “Tank Meta” that I talked about in another post.

It’s quite obvious what Blizzard are trying to accomplish in these changes, stabilizing the meta is the goal and nerfing the main culprits is the best way to achieve that goal.

For Ana, they decreased the healing from her biotic grenade by 50%.

For Roadhog, they changed his hook so that a line of sight is required for his hook to register.

For D.Va, they switched her health pool around so that she has less armor, which allows her take damage quicker.

Question is, will this affect the meta along with the professional scene? My answer is yes. Ana was the main reason why the tank meta was so prominent and her nerf will guarantee change the casual meta. This will also affect the professional level of Overwatch, because players are constantly running numbers on hero lineups and any update will always change these lineups.

One change that’s being overlooked is Sombra’s buff. Her hacking ability time has been changed from 1 second to 0.8 seconds allowing her to hack opponents at a much faster rate. This seems like a tiny and insignificant change, and yes it is, but there’s something more low key about this. Since the release of Sombra, in both casual and professional scenes, she hasn’t been very successful, and my opinion the tank meta is why she was so underpowered. So along with these tank nerfs and her slight buff, you can see Blizzard shoving Sombra into the meta. Who knows maybe season 4 will be the age of Sombra.