If you’ve been playing Overwatch during the last couple of weeks, you’ve likely been haunted by the sound of a pair of small thruster engines followed by a squeaky “meow” serving as a precursor to your chosen hero’s face being scratched to death. Well, in order to soften this horror, Blizzard has released a hotfix attempting to address the terror that is Jet Pack Cat.
The patch, released on February 24, applies the following nerfs for the supposed support character — not to her healing capabilities, nor her core offensive skills, but to the perks that lead to her becoming a killing machine.
These include her minor perk, Claws Out, having its cooldown increased from 6 to 8 seconds, meaning you’ll at least feel the pointy end of her paws a little less frequently. Also listed is a significant reduction to the major perk, Territorial, which sees the damage dealt reduced to 33% from 50%. Interestingly, there is no mention of any planned tweaks to her Ultimate ability, which effectively guarantees an enemy elimination due to its pick-up-and-drop nature. Cats don’t like wells, unless they’re lobbing you into one, it seems.
It will come as no small irony to long-term Overwatch players that the owner of this feline friend, Brigitte, also pretty much broke the game upon her introduction back in 2018, which led to a fair few weeks of her being practically unkillable before her loadout was addressed. While Jet Pack Cat is nowhere near as powerful as the Swedish support hero was, there’s no denying that they were a nuisance that needed to be tweaked. We’ll see if these fixes have the desired effect over the coming days, but as is the case with any online multiplayer game, adjustments always need to be made, especially when introducing five brand new characters in one go.
Speaking of those other additions, they’ve also received a mixture of buffs and nerfs to their kit and cooldowns. Fellow healer, Mizuki, has seen the duration of his ultimate, Kenkai Sanctuary, increased from 6 to 7 seconds. DPS hero Emre’s burst rifle has had its damage increased from 20 to 22, and flaming fan-wielder Anran has seen the cooldown of her Inferno Rush ability reduced from 8.5 to 8 seconds, as well as an increase to the distance you can move while Dancing Blaze is active to 2.25 meters from 1.5.
While not as new as Emre or Anran, fellow walking weapon Vendetta has seen the damage of her overhead sword swing reduced from 130 to 120, as well as a bug fix allowing for that move to now be affected by horizontal knockbacks. Then there’s Domina, my dear beloved — you can read all about how much I enjoy her here. The destructive tank has, thankfully, only received a minor nerf, with the cost of her ultimate increasing by 12%. I’ll still be able to have my fun.
What do you make of each of the five new heroes that have made their way into Overwatch ever since it ditched the “2”? Let us know in the comments. Be sure to keep it locked to IGN for all future updates on Overwatch, including if and when we see an updated look for Anran now that the backlash to her appearance has been recognised by Blizzard.
