Overwatch's Jetpack Cat - the new hero that, as you might have guessed, is a cat in a jetpack - is already being subjected to nerfs next week and in a mid-season update because Blizzard Entertainment's slightly worried about the flying feline's flanking capabilities.
Overwatch associate game director Alec Dawson spilled the beans in a lengthy interview with streamer Deemzies. "So perks come more at the end of a hero's lifespan in terms of when we're developing them," Dawson says. "I think the thing we want to do with Jetpack Cat in particular is actually take a look at her perks because the perks that people are picking the most and are actually the most proficient are going to be the two aggressive ones."
Jetpack Cat players have likely already figured out her ideal build, but for those outside her grip, the hero's essential perks are Claws Out and Territorial. The first makes Jetpack Cat's melee deal damage over time, and the latter makes her area-of-effect healing ability Purr also attack nearby enemies. Together, they turn Jetpack Cat into an absolute self-sustaining menace during 1v1 fights, capable of escaping encounters just as quickly as she enters them.
"So we're going to be nerfing both of those [Claws Out and Territorial] sometime early next week and then in the mid-season we're looking at actually adding a new perk and getting rid of the Territorial perk as well," Dawson continues. "The amount of aggression she has right now, you know, she can kind of fight someone, use the claws, press the E, and she can be very, very lethal in a pretty short window there. We want to pull that out just a tad from her."
As much as I personally love running an Assassin Cat build, the aggressive perks were never going to be sustainable for a support hero who has more flanking capability than most of the DPS roster. Even Blizzard was begging folks to stop banning the damn cat, and those bans have only become more common in the days since her launch, at least in the low Diamond ranks I'm permanently stuck in.
