Experimental

Experimental is a temporary game mode in Overwatch that allows the development team to experiment with changes outside of the monthly patch cycles. The changes are not necessarily related to hero balancing, and entire game modes may be reworked.

Experimental changes can be applied to Custom Games, under the "Lobby" settings.

Differences from the PTR
Unlike the PTR, Experimental is available in the live version of the game, meaning players in all platforms can use it, and players can level up their accounts while playing it. Furthermore, the main purpose of the PTR is to test stability and bugs; any balance changes on the PTR are intended to go live and modification of the changes, while possible, are usually minor. On the other hand, Experimental tests more radical changes that the team is unsure of and allows players to offer direct feedback; the changes are not guaranteed to go live in any shape or form.

Some changes are impossible to implement on Experimental (i.e. it involves more than changing number values), so the PTR will still used for balance changes. Experimental does not replace the PTR.

While a new PTR patch is generally available within 1 or 2 weeks of a new live patch and lasts for roughly 3 or 4 weeks, the Experimental card comes abruptly and arbitrarily, usually without warning, and only lasts a few days. The Experimental mode rolls out changes server-side, removing the need for a patch to be downloaded. This also, in turn, allows changes to be released on console simultaneously and without affecting PC release scheduling, due to not needing to wait for certification from Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo. This makes it behave more like an Arcade mode, rather than a large update.

Current Experiment
This experimental card became publicly available on March 22, 2021.

This experiment is intended for use during the Overwatch League Experimental Card Tournament and for you to try out these player-suggested changes yourselves – there are no plans to implement these changes outside of this experimental card.

Ana


 * Biotic Rifle
 * Ammo increased from 12 to 14
 * Nano Boost
 * Can now be self-cast on Ana by using the interact key

Ashe


 * Dynamite
 * Damage reduced from 100 to 90

Baptiste


 * Regenerative Burst
 * Healing reduced from 75 to 65
 * Immortality Field
 * Now protects teammates to a minimum health threshold of 1 health, down from 20% of maximum

Bastion


 * Self-Repair
 * Now increases movement speed increased by 25% while repairing

Brigitte


 * Inspire
 * Healing removed from teammates when Brigitte is eliminated

D.Va


 * Boosters
 * Duration increased from 2 to 3 seconds

Echo


 * Duplicate
 * When Duplicate ends, Echo will return to the health value she had prior to activating the ability, or to 100 health, whichever is higher

Genji


 * Shuriken Secondary Fire
 * Spread reduced from 9 to 8 meters
 * Dragonblade
 * Duration increased by 1 second for each kill while active

Hanzo


 * Dragonstrike
 * Travel speed increased by 20%
 * Damage increased by 20%
 * Distance before the dragon forms from the arrow shot reduced from 10 to 5 meters

Junkrat


 * Concussion Mine
 * Minimum damage increased from 30 to 35

Lúcio


 * Soundwave
 * Cooldown increased from 4 to 6 seconds
 * Crossfade
 * Radius increased by 50%
 * Effectiveness increased by 20% at close range, falling off to -50% at maximum range

Mei


 * Endothermic Blaster
 * Ammo increased from 120 to 140

Mercy


 * Guardian Angel
 * Getting a killing blow will reset the cooldown

Orisa


 * Protective Barrier
 * Health increased from 600 to 700
 * Cooldown increased from 10 to 11 seconds

Pharah


 * New Passive: Damage taken while airborne decreased by 5% and damage taken while grounded increased by 10%

Reaper


 * Shadow Step
 * Removed voice line triggered upon arrival

Reinhardt


 * Earthshatter
 * Stuns closer targets for up to 3 seconds. Targets at maximum range are stunned for the standard 2.5 seconds

Soldier: 76


 * Helix Rockets
 * Now has two charges
 * Damage reduced from 40 impact + 80 explosive to 30 impact + 50 explosive
 * Self-damage scalar reduced from 50% to 40%

Sombra


 * Hack
 * Activation time increased from 0.65 seconds to 1.15 seconds
 * Duration increased from 5 to 6 seconds
 * Translocator
 * Cooldown is now triggered when the translocator used or destroyed, instead of immediately after placement
 * Cooldown reduced from 6 to 5 seconds

Symmetra


 * Sentry Turret
 * Placement travel speed increased from 15 to 20 meters per second

Torbjörn


 * Deploy Turret
 * Now has two charges
 * Damage reduced by 40%
 * Health reduced by 40%

Tracer


 * Base health increased from 150 to 175
 * Recall
 * Cooldown increased from 12 to 14 seconds

Widowmaker


 * Venom Mine
 * Damage increased from 75 to 120
 * Damage over time duration increased from 5 to 6 seconds
 * Trigger radius increased from 3 to 4 meters

Winston


 * Health/Armor redistributed from 350/150 to 335/165

Wrecking Ball


 * Size reduced by 15%
 * Quad Cannons
 * Ammo reduced from 80 to 70
 * Grappling Claw
 * Cooldown increased from 5 to 7 seconds
 * Adaptive Shield
 * No longer prevents enemies from generating ultimate charge

Zarya


 * Projected Barrier
 * Range increased from 30 to 34 meters

Zenyatta


 * Transcendence
 * Movement speed multiplier increased from 2x to 2.3x

Hero Balancing - March 4th, 2021, to March 8th, 2021
Hero changes were experimented on. All of the changes came live.

Hero Balancing - February 11th, 2021, to February 16th, 2021
Hero changes were experimented on. All of the changes came live, though Reaper's damage was further reduced.

Hero Balancing - January 21st, 2021, to January 25th, 2021
Hero changes were experimented on. All of the changes came live.

Hero Balancing - January 7th, 2021, to January 12th, 2021
Hero changes were experimented on. All of the changes came live.

Hero Balancing - December 3rd, 2020, to December 7th, 2020
Hero changes were experimented on. All of the changes came live.

Hero Balancing - November 12th, 2020, to November 16th, 2020
Hero changes were experimented on. All of the changes came live.

Hero balancing and adjusting HP by 25 - October 22nd, 2020, to October 27th, 2020
Hero changes were experimented on. Notably, many heroes' HP were adjusted by 25 instead of the usual 50 for the first time, to better fine tune them. All of the changes came live, though the changes to were delayed by a patch.

Soldier: 76 changes - October 3rd, 2020, to October 7th, 2020
Soldier: 76 changes were experimented on. All the changes came live; however, it was proven to be too strong so he also received a small damage nerf.

Hero Balancing - September 18th, 2020, to September 22nd, 2020
Hero changes were experimented on. Most of the changes came live, with the exception of using in the air.

Hero Balancing - September 4th, 2020, to September 9th, 2020
Hero changes were experimented on. All of the changes came live.

Scaling Down Power - August 24th, 2020, to August 28th, 2020
Hero changes were experimented on to scale down damage and healing. All of the changes came live.

Moira Changes - August 18th, 2020, to August 21st, 2020
Moira changes were experimented on. Phasing was also changed, which indirectly nerfed Reaper. None of the changes came live.

Hero Balancing - August 6th, 2020, to August 13th, 2020
Hero changes were experimented on. Most of the changes came live, with the exception of the increase to 's primary fire charge uptime.

Failed Assault Rework - July 30th, 2020, to August 4th, 2020
The Assault game mode was reworked. This was advertised as a failed experiment, meaning it was never intended go live.

Hero Balancing - July 23rd, 2020, to July 28th, 2020
Hero changes were experimented on. The changes to Genji came live; the changes to Moira did not.

Hero Balancing - June 23rd, 2020, to June 26th, 2020
Hero changes were experimented on. All of the changes came live.

Hero Balancing - June 2nd, 2020, to June 5th, 2020
Hero changes were experimented on. Most of the changes came live, with the exception of the adjustments to.

Hero Balancing - May 12th, 2020, to May 19th, 2020
Hero changes were experimented on. All of the changes came live.

Crowd Control Reduction - April 23rd, 2020, to April 29th, 2020
Multiple Crowd Control effects were toned down, also got buffed. Most of the changes came live, with the exception of the reduction to.

Hero Balancing - April 1st, 2020, to April 6th, 2020
Hero changes were experimented on. All of the changes came live.

Hero Balancing - March 5th, 2020, to March 12th, 2020
Hero changes were experimented on. Most of the changes came live, with the exception of 's immunity to.

Triple Damage - February 25th, 2020, to March 3rd, 2020
Introduced alongside Experimental, "triple damage" changed the role queue system from 2 tanks, 2 damage, and 2 support to 1 tank, 3 damage, and 2 supports. Many heroes in the tank role received significant balance changes to accommodate being the only tank. None of the changes came live.

Trivia

 * Experimental is one of the few ideas that the development team unanimously agreed upon after the initial pitch.