The following Reaper buff in the latest Overwatch PTR patch notes is too big to ignore:

REAPER
- The Reaping (Passive)
- Removed health orbs
- Now regains 20% of all damage done to heroes as health

This change alters Reaper's primary function in Overwatch, encouraging trading damage and allowing a type of initiation that isn't always reliant on flanking the enemy. The old Reaper could only sustain himself after killing an enemy hero, making him best suited in assassinating low HP targets instead of front line Tank busting. This patch changes this, making it less punishing for Reaper to brawl in the frontlines.

The previous patch also buffed Wraith Form (ammo refills after use) in order to make Reaper have "more of a fighting chance" after he uses it to escape. Now, equipped with 20% life steal per shotgun blast, Wraith Form can be aggressively used to ensure as much healing as possible while preventing further damage onto Reaper.

The Numbers

If you were wondering, 28 is the amount of health Reaper can heal if every single pellet of his Hellfire Shotgun's hits a target with no falloff damage. If every pellet hit is a headshot, that number leaps to 70. As Reaper is capable of firing off two shots per second, it's theoretically possible for Reaper to heal himself for 140 health per second.

However, these numbers are only possible in a perfect, no miss scenario. It's much more likely to gain around up to 13-20 Health per direct hit and up to 32-40 per headshot. As expected, it gets much easier to achieve max healing numbers when Reaper is facing Tanks with large hitboxes, which could finally allow Reaper to fulfill his destiny as a Tank-buster in the competitive landscape.

The Anti Winston?

With Winston's new value in the competitive meta becoming more well known, it seems like the perfect timing for Reaper to receive a buff. Reaper will do massive amounts of damage to Winston due to Winston's large size, and now he will be able to easily out-heal Winston's 60 damage-per-second Tesla Cannon. Simply put, Reaper will almost always win the 1v1 against a Winston (or any other Tank) if a Reaper player aims well enough.

Roadhog was also nerfed in this PTR patch, reducing his burst damage in favor of faster shots and a bigger clip size. Not only these nerfs make it much harder for Roadhog to "1-shot" enemy Heroes with Chain Hook, but it also makes him much worse against the newly buffed Reaper - as less burst damage gives Reaper more time to benefit from sustained self-heals.

Reaper's Hellfire Shotguns always preferred firing at Tanks, and with this proposed PTR changed, the reward for doing so has increased significantly. If these changes go live, it may be exactly the change needed to finally make Reaper a competitive mainstay against multiple Tanks.