Torbjörn, the most controversial 'Overwatch' hero, is getting fixed
Overwatch hero Torbjörnwill be a little less deadly next month when his turrets get a 30% reduction in damage.
Confirmation of a "mid to late July" deployment for the patch comes from the game's director, Jeff Kaplan, in a Reddit comment. He was responding to a post with the title, "Torbjörn is utterly ruining this game on PS4."
Feedback doesn't get much more blunt than that.
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Spend five minutes browsing Blizzard's forums or the Overwatch subreddit and you'll see a recurring sentiment: Torbjörn is overpowered. The Swedish dwarf specializes in building turrets, but those AI-controlled guns are a little too effective at finding targets and bringing them down.
It's less of an issue in the PC version of the game, where mouse and keyboard controls offer finer pinpoint accuracy than console gamepads. The turrets find their targets very quickly, and players can respond faster aiming with a mouse than they can with a thumbstick. That's why the patch is only coming to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of the game.
The reduction in damage is aimed at keeping Torbjörn competitive while offering a more effective way to counter him. His turrets are meant to be powerful support tools, but a spread of them shouldn't control the battlefield the way it does now.
Currently, it's possible for five- and six-strong teams of Torbjörns to dominate most attackers in "defend the point" matches. This has led to a lengthy lineup of GIFs and videos featuring victorious all-Torbjörn teams.
The turrets are so powerful right now that they can be a game-breaking nuisance when it's just one Torbjörn. The dwarf can repair a damaged turret when he's near, but the turrets are currently so powerful that they can often pick off multiple aggressors before repairs are needed.
Just like the all-Torbjörn team videos, the internet is riddled with "Play of the Game" GIFs and video in which a dead Torbjörn racks up multiple kills while waiting to respawn.
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Kaplan didn't comment on why the turret damage would be nerfed when the patch could have tweaked the turret lock-on time instead. It's likely meant to establish armor-heavy heroes like D.Va as a more specific Torbjörn turret counter, since armor provides damage mitigation.
Blizzard has already patched or addressed the need for patches with heroes like D.va and McCree, but Kaplan's Reddit comment is the first substantive confirmation that Torbjörn is due for a nerf.
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Topics Blizzard Entertainment Esports Gaming
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
