Patch 1.5 is finally live almost immediately after the conclusion of the PTR, and, despite early fears that Sombra would be too game-wrecking once released, it's actually D'Va who is coming out on top, finding herself the beneficiary of a series of major buffs.
Buffs and Nerfs
Either haven't figured out how to play Sombra yet, or she is not as game-changing as we all thought. Perhaps it's a little bit of both. While people may not have the coordination in Quick Play or Arcade to really pull off her hack ability to great effect, she also is in desperate need of some more damage, especially if she's going to be billed as an "offense" hero.
Related: Best and Worst Heroes For Overwatch's 3v3 Elimination Mode
Because of a few select buffs, D'Va is actually the main takeaway from Patch 1.5, and she will soon find herself in every gamemode. Her buffs to base health, movement speed and ultimate charge make her nigh unkillable, and of course, they didn't do anything to change the unbelievable "if you can see it, you're dead" range on her ultimate ability. Especially in 3v3, where there are fewer people to damage her, she just can't be killed, being able to waltz directly into the enemy team's personal space, get at least one kill and get out alive.
On the opposite end, Mei has seen her ultimate cost increase by 15 percent. This is probably the right thing to do: it seemed like she always had it up, making it easy to throw away if there was no followup and devastating if there was (like that dasterdly D'Va ult).
False Reporting
What will be most disappointing to some players is that, despite earlier reports that 1.5 would bring at least incremental changes to Overwatch's reporting system, it doesn't appear that it's happened. If it has, Blizzard has said nothing about it, in the patch notes or otherwise.
This became a problem when people abused the reporting system and used it to report people for simply doing something they didn't like, such as picking Symmetra. If you're reported, you have a chance to receive a communication ban even if you didn't do anything wrong. Since this obviously wasn't what they intended, they made it clear that it would be addressed in 1.5.
We have reached out to Blizzard to see if these changes are still forthcoming.
One Like-Hero Per Team
Like it or not, the limitation of one like-hero per team was much needed. Games like Overwatch are always going to be balanced toward competitive play, as it's the only thing that will keep their eSports presence going. But, this could absolutely wreck casual Quick Play games because the people who balance the game never intend for players to be able to hero stack.
Besides that, it sees all the hullabaloo about the change was much ado about nothing. Game director Jeff Kaplan confirmed that No Limits gives the same experience as Quick Play. Given the bonus loot boxes you can earn by playing No Limits, because it's in the Arcade, might even make it a more desirable gamemode.
The only thing the Arcade doesn't have (yet) that Quick Play does, is achievements. Whoopty do!
3v3 Meta Report
While most of my thoughts on the best and worst heroes for 3v3 Elimination (see link above) still stand, I'm coming around to Mercy as a viable pick for one reason, and one reason only: her resurrection is an absolute game-changer.
Since there are no respawns in this gamemode, there are also no respawn timers, so there's no need for Mercy's resurrections to be well-timed. If you are near the spot where a player died at any point in the match – I'll say that again: any. point. in. the. match – you can resurrect them. Pair her with a tank to let her spam healing, and she'll be able to bring people back to life minutes after they died, which can turn the tides of any game mode.
Alternatively, still stay away from a hero link Reinhardt, unless their team is going really heavy on DPS. He's just not good in an open-concept map like this.
