Posted in: Games, Video Games | Tagged: Ana, blizzard, cheating, experience, farming, loot boxes, Orisa, overwatch

The World Of 'Overwatch' Is Getting Hectic With Character Nerfing & XP Farming

Apparently in Overwatch, there's just no way to please the fans anymore, either by updates or by gameplay. Today we're looking at two of the important stories coming out of the community this week revolving around nerfing and farming. First, the nerfing, as we've learned that Ana is going to have her abilities messed with. The healer/sniper is getting the damage from her rifle and grenades reduced, as well as the amount of impact healing. Meaning you're now going to be doing double the work you used to. Another character getting changes is Orisa. Not even two weeks in PTR and she's getting some modifications from her fusion driver. Below is a complete list of debuffs and changes coming.

Ana
Biotic Rifle: Damage decreased from 80 to 60
Biotic Grenade: Impact damage reduced from 60 to 30, Impact healing reduced from 100 to 50

Junkrat
No longer hurts himself from his own explosions. (Effect added to current passive: Total Mayhem)

Orisa
Fusion Driver: Magazine size lowered from 200 to 150
Supercharger: Cost increased by 15%

Sombra
Stealth: Sound effects and VO distance for entering and exiting Stealth reduced to 15 meters.
Translocator: Cooldown reduced from 6s to 4s

Winston
Barrier Projector: Cooldown now starts when the barrier is placed, instead of when it ends

Zenyatta
Orb of Destruction: Alternate fire recovery reduced from 1s to 0.6s
Orb of Discord: Can now target enemies through barriers

Meanwhile, PC fans are abusing the hell out of the custom games system to earn experience and score loot boxes, which is something Blizzard doesn't seem to be curbing at the moment. In a story from Kotaku, players are setting up lobbies where all you need to do is show up, select a different character once every couple of minutes, and do nothing. Instant experience, levels and loot boxes without all the mess and the hassle of actually playing the damn game. And players aren't even hiding what it is, check out the screenshot below from Kotaku's Nathan Grayson who did a simple search of the word "farm" in the lobbies, as dozens of choices come up to choose from with nearly all of them filled. All that's missing is a connection to players hiring overseas players to sit around and do it for them 24/7. It would be cheating if not for the fact that they're simply exploiting a flaw in the system that Blizzard added themselves.

As of when we're posting this, Blizzard has yet to come forward and respond to the criticism filling their own forums and other message boards about what's happening. If I were a betting man… I don't think this is a mistake. I think Blizzard is testing the community's restraints and collecting data on everyone who both starts lobbies and joins them, as well as how much loot they collected from boxes. Remember, Blizzard does keep tabs on their servers looking for bots and scripting to catch and prevent cheating, which means somewhere that company has a terminal with access to every game being played within a specific period of time that logs players and stats. Don't be shocked if sometime this week you see a press release from the company about the issue, followed by thousands of angry venting players who just got banned or had all their fabulous loot and rankings taken away.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!