And more updates on Overwatch patch 1.26.03
Tank mains, rejoice! With today’s patch, Wrecking Ball a.k.a. Hammond is now on the live servers. Although he is only available in Quick Play and Arcade at the moment, you can now start training with him.
Don’t let the cute hamster deceive you, Wrecking Ball promises to destroy the meta in ways that we don’t even expect. Given the recent Brigitte nerfs, it is very likely that Dive comp will finally make a comeback. For the uninitiated, Dive is a team composition that relies on coordinated strikes or jumps (called dives in the game, hence the name) on enemy heroes. High mobility heroes such as Genji, Tracer, Winston and D.Va are mainstays of the composition. Hammond’s grappling hook allows him to traverse large portions of the map quickly, get the jump on enemies, or even control zones by becoming a literal wrecking ball. Give it a few more weeks and I assure you that people will start posting crazy plays using Hammond dives.
Dive comp saw a massive decline in popularity following the introduction of Brigitte and Hanzo. Although the composition was still viable in certain situations, high mechanical skill was necessary to make it work most of the time. This made it so that old-timers Reinhardt and Zarya saw more play, especially with the dreaded Zarya-Hanzo combo.
D.Va move aside, there’s a new tank in town
Today’s patch brings other changes to the meta. McCree, Bastion, and Soldier all received buffs to their fall-off damage, which will reduce Pharah’s time in the air. Mei also has no fall-off damage on her secondary projectile (Welcome back Sniper Mei!). Sombra now has indefinite invisibility, at the cost of being able to contest the point while stealthed. Her translocator is also infinite now, but if an enemy spots it, they can destroy it. The new changes will surely mesh together to create a new meta.
If you want more thoughts on why it is important to keep the meta fresh, make sure to give this article a read.
There are still a couple of weeks before Hammond is made available in competitive play, but rest assured players will be hard at work trying to find out how he fits into the meta. Until then, stay tuned for more updates.
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