Blizzard balancers looking at Overwatch heroes McCree and D. Va

Blizzard appears to be looking at Overwatch heroes McCree and D. Va with regard to making balance changes.

With McCree it's Fan the Hammer that's the issue when used in combination with his stunning Flashbang grenade. Fan the Hammer looses a round of ammo in the blink of an eye and almost always kills a target at close range. And if it doesn't, you can use McCree's Roll ability to automatically reload and then Fan the Hammer again. Chances are if you've played Overwatch then you've been killed this way.

This is what principal designer Geoff Goodman said about McCree (via Reddit): "I've been watching McCree carefully since we've released. McCree's Flashbang plays an important role in being a strong option against very fast/agile teams (Tracers/Genjis/etc). It is also a nice tool to prevent close range devastating abilities and ultimates such as Reaper's Death Blossom.

"That said, it's probably a bit too good at dealing damage to higher health targets such as tanks and barriers. I don't have any concrete changes yet, but I'm going to be testing some things internally to see how he plays."

He later clarified: "By saying 'it's probably a bit too good at dealing damage to higher health targets' I meant his Flash/Fan combo, not the Flash itself. Fan is more likely to see changes than Flash at this point."

McCree Combo would insta kill (pre-nerf)

With D. Va, meanwhile, it's harder to see what Goodman's intentions are. He mentioned her damage being on "the lower side" but then said it was "unlikely" her damage would be increased "significantly".

The main community complaint about D. Va is that she's easy to critical hit - headshot - because her head compartment is on the central part of her big mech body. With every other character you choose between aiming at a bigger torso or a smaller head, but with D. Va they're one and the same thing. She also moves very slowly while firing.

Here's what Goodman said: "D.Va's damage is definitely on the lower side, much like Winston's. They are this way for a similar reason: they are both very mobile and hard to kill. Every character in the game has strengths and weaknesses, it's part of what makes the teamplay work well.

"That said, I do think the is some room for some D. Va improvements, but these are unlikely to take the shape of increasing her damage output significantly."

And then: "Yes she gets taken down quickly if she is fighting multiple targets, unlike Winston/Reinhardt because of their barriers. When I say she is difficult to kill it's speaking from a smaller skirmish standpoint, which she can usually set up due to her Flight ability.

"There was a time, when she was first implemented, where she had more damage than she does now. The way that played out is that she would fly into someone's face, destroy them, and fly away. There was little that person could do because her mobility.

"As I said, I think she can use some help in other areas, but I don't have anything concrete yet. The goal is that she should be a viable aggressive initiation tank, much like Winston can be right now, rather than some sort of beefy flying assassin. So any changes will likely be helping her in that direction."

Over time it's likely all Overwatch heroes will be tweaked this way and that, and that they'll all feel stronger or weaker depending on the different situations you find them in - not to mention the more skilful players, or coordinated teams, found behind them. So if your character - sniff, Zenyatta - isn't particularly strong at the moment, that doesn't mean they will never be.

There's no timeline for any Overwatch balance changes at the moment. We do know, however, that the game's first major content update will arrive mid-to-late July and contain Competitive mode.

Overwatch is out now and we awarded it an Essential in our Overwatch review. If you're taking the plunge you may find our '15 tips to get you started in Overwatch' article handy, as well as our Overwatch guide.

Don't forget there's a story in Overwatch, too - something I got a bit carried away explaining.

How Overwatch's sound design makes you a better player

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