Overwatch PTR patch buffs Ana, nerfs Mercy

Blizzard has changed up the Overwatch support meta once again, rebalancing Ana and Mercy.

Blizzard has been talking about introducing a nerf to Overwatch's Mercy, and a buff to Ana for a little while now. Game director Jeff Kaplan spoke about it recently, and it looks like the changes have finally gone in effect.

That's at least as far as the PTR is concerned, though, since changes this big often take their time on test servers before they're made available to the wider audience later.

Ana's Biotic Rifle damage was increased to allow her to reclaim her place among support heroes. As for Mercy, the hero was nerfed on several counts. First, the patch increased the cast time of her resurrect ability, and reduced her movement speed by 75% while casting it. What's more, resurrect can be interrupted when Mercy is knocked back, stunned, or hacked.

See all the patch notes below:

Hero updates

-Ana

• Biotic Rifle damage increased from 60 to 70

-Mercy

• Resurrect cast time increased from 0 seconds to 1.75 seconds
• Mercy’s movement speed is now reduced by 75% while casting, and can now be interrupted when Mercy is knocked back, stunned, or hacked
• When Valkyrie is activated, resurrection no longer has a cast time

Bug fixes

• Fixed several issues that prevented the announcer voice lines from playing correctly in Competitive, Elimination, and Capture the Flag game modes
• Fixed an issue causing Roadhog’s Chain Hook to latch on to enemy players for longer than intended