New Overwatch patch balances McCree and Widowmaker for PC

Blizzard has rolled out a new patch for its popular hero-based multiplayer shooter Overwatch, introducing balance changes to two of its popular characters - gun-slinging vigilante McCree and French assassin Widowmaker. The update is currently live only on PC and will be coming to PS4 and Xbox One in a larger patch later.

According to the patch notes posted on the Battle.net forums on 14 June, the update includes the promised nerf to McCree's powerful alternate-fire which allows him to rapidly unload his entire clip against an opponent. McCree's bullet damage has now been decreased from 70 to 45. However, he will start reloading in 0.3 seconds, down from 0.75 seconds.

"McCree was performing too well against all targets, making him feel like a must-pick in many situations," Blizzard said. "By reducing the damage of his alternate fire, McCree is now significantly weaker against tanks like Roadhog and Reinhardt, but still maintains his lethality against smaller targets like Tracer and Genji."

Widowmaker's Widow's Kiss alt-fire scoped shot damage has also been decreased from 15 to 12. The scoped shot damage multiplier, however, will remain the same. The assassin's headshot damage multiplier has been bumped up from two times to 2.5 times, while the cost of her ultimate Infra-Sight ability has been increased by 10%. Players will also have to wait for the unscoping animation to complete before scoping again as well.

"In the right hands, Widowmaker can often feel unstoppable — even when just landing body shots instead of critical heads shots," Blizzard notes. "The changes to her alternate fire weaken body shot damage while leaving her headshot damage unchanged. Additionally, we felt her Ultimate ability, Infra-Sight, was coming up a little too frequently, especially considering its impact on the game."

The PC patch has fixed a few general bugs as well, including improved stability for the High Bandwidth option in custom games and an issue with collision on certain areas of the Dorado map not blocking light of sight. The patch has also fixed a bug that "allowed Mercy to gain Ultimate charge whenever damage boosting an ally who was attacking a barrier or Ice Wall" and another that allowed Reaper to teleport to "unintended locations on certain maps".

Blizzard plans to roll out some balance changes for D.Va soon and bring back Overwatch's Competitive Play mode by the end of June.

Overwatch is available now for Xbox One, PS4 and PC.