Mei

Mei
"Our world is worth fighting for."
Basic Info
Title	Adventuring Climatologist
Role	Tank
Difficulty	Medium
Franchise	Overwatch
Price	750 / 10,000
Release Date	June 23, 2020
Base Stats
Attack Type	Ranged
Health	2625
Health Regen	5.5703
Resource	500 Mana
Unit Radius	0.875
Attack Speed	1.0
Attack Range	4.5
Attack Damage	78
Data Page

Mei-Ling Zhou, Adventuring Climatologist, is a ranged Tank Hero from the Overwatch universe. Lured by her inquisitive nature and a trail of bizarre climate phenomena, world-famous scientist Mei-Ling Zhou stumbled upon the Nexus and was soon enlisted in the fearsome battles that raged within. One of the first agents to rejoin Overwatch, Mei has a strong sense of right and wrong, and she’s determined to stand up for the weak and innocent everywhere, no matter which Realm they hail from. She’s a powerful ally and a spine-shivering foe, with advanced weather-altering technology that shifts the very architecture of the battleground.

Background

This section concerns content exclusive to the Overwatch universe.

Though many blamed the planet's escalating, unexplained climate phenomena on the advent of new technologies, the rapidly growing Omnic population, and drastically increased consumption of resources, the true cause remained unknown. To find a solution, Overwatch established a series of eco-Watchpoints at remote, critical locations worldwide.

Dr. Mei-Ling Zhou (周美灵 Zhōu Měi-líng) was a member of this multiyear initiative. A peerless climatologist, she had introduced cutting-edge innovations in the field of climate manipulation that protected at-risk areas in Asia and beyond. She was assigned to the program's monitoring station at Watchpoint: Antarctica when disaster struck: a sudden, catastrophic polar storm battered the installation and cut it off from the outside world, leaving the facility damaged and the scientists stranded. As their supplies dwindled, they entered cryostasis in a last-ditch effort to survive until a rescue attempt could be made.

But that rescue never came. It was years later when the team's cryogenics chamber was finally discovered. Mei, still in hibernation, was the only survivor. The world Mei awoke to had gone through considerable changes: Overwatch was no more, the serious climate issues had worsened, and none of the eco-Watchpoints were in operation. Any clues that they had uncovered were lost.

Mei has decided to continue her work on her own. Equipped with a portable version of her climate-manipulation technology, she travels around the world, hoping to re-establish the eco-network and track down the causes of the threats to the planet's ecosystem.

Mei received the recall to join the new Overwatch after Winston reinstated the organization, indirectly awakening her from cryostasis. She has since rejoined Overwatch, becoming the second member confirmed to accept the call.

Gameplay

Despite her gentle disposition, Mei is a kind of a bully in the Nexus. Since all her basic abilities offer some amount of slow and an additional form of CC, she can easily control the flow of combat and repeatedly disrupt her enemies. She really wants to get in someone’s face and keep them controlled while her teammates take them down.

Mei is a durable ranged Tank, capable of skating around the battlefield and freezing her opponents. Her active trait is Cryo-Freeze, which encases Mei in a block of ice that temporarily grants a massive shield, makes her Unstoppable, and heals her over time. Her first ability is Snow Blind, lobbing a snowball that damages, slows, and blinds enemies in an area. Her second ability, Blizzard, sends her drone Snowball to an area to slow and damage enemies. When the ability ends, it unleashes a freezing pulse that stuns enemies inside. Her final basic ability is Icing, which coats her boots in frost and allows her to dash forward. At the end of the dash or when Mei reactivates the ability, nearby enemies are knocked away and slowed.

Her first heroic is Avalanche, which launches a massive snowball that rolls across the battlefield, trapping enemy heroes it hits inside. At the end of its path, trapped enemies are released and stunned. Her second heroic, Ice Wall, forms a wall that freezes all enemies in the area in Stasis. The wall lasts for a few seconds before exploding to slow nearby enemies.

Strength

• Crowd control
• Mobility
• Survivability

Weaknesses

• Siege Damage
• Burst Damage

Friends and Foes:

Works Well With:

• Burst Mages

Mei’s ability to slow and disable enemies from long range makes it easier for fragile high-damage mages, such as Tassadar and Kael’thas, to land their big abilities. Additionally, Mei’s disruption effects can keep her fragile backline safe from would-be divers.

• Disabling Heroes

Anyone with area crowd control effects, such as Malfurion, Imperius, or Junkrat, can easily combo their disables with Mei’s Blizzard and Icing, potentially shutting down whole teams for long periods of time.

• Jimmy

Our favorite Renegade Commander, Jimmy Raynor, loves having Mei around for near constant uptime on his Ace in the Hole talent.

Struggles Against:

• Disabling Effects

Outside of Cryo-Freeze, Mei lacks any way to avoid disabling effects, so she is susceptible to being locked down and interrupted by other tank and bruiser Heroes like Muradin or Diablo.

• Solo Engagements

Because of her low damage output, Heroes with smaller health pools don’t have to avoid confronting Mei as they might for some other tanks. Mei is highly dependent on her allies for dishing out damage and serving up killing blows.

• Sustained Damage

Mei lacks sustained healing and damage reduction, so damage dealers can soften her up between teamfights with consistent poke damage.

Abilities

See Data Page for a table of scaled values at key levels.

D

Cryo-Freeze

Cooldown: 40 / 0.5 seconds

Become encased in ice for 3 seconds, gaining a rapidly decaying Shield that absorbs up to 1104 damage. While active, this Shield grants Unstoppable and restores up to 35% of Mei's maximum Health.

---

Type: Healing, Shield, Status effect

Scaling: 4.00%

Affects: Self

Targeting: No target

Properties: Stationary channel, Unstoppable

Cast time: Instant

Tickrate: 8.0 per second (x24)

Healing per tick: 1.46%

Shield decay per tick: 46

Maximum duration: 3.0 seconds

---

• Cryo-Freeze can be reactivated after 0.5 seconds to end its effect early, removing the Shield, healing and Unstoppable.
• The Ability ends immediately if the Shield expires or breaks, removing Unstoppable status and healing.

Q

Snow Blind

35 Mana Cooldown: 10 seconds

Throw a snowball that hits all enemies in an area. Enemies hit take 70 damage, are Slowed by 35%, and are Blinded for 1.75 seconds.

---

Type: Spell Damage, Crowd control

Scaling: 4.00%

Affects: Enemies

Targeting: Point target

Properties: Area of Effect, Blind, Slow

Cast time: 0.125 + 0 seconds

Range: 9.0

Area of Effect: Circle

Radius: 2.25

Missile speed:
- Initial: 21
- Acceleration: -7.0

---

• Slow and Blind are applied after the damage is dealt.

W

Blizzard

70 Mana Cooldown: 14 seconds

Command Snowball to create a blizzard at the target location for 2 seconds. Enemies within the blizzard take 13 damage every 0.25 seconds and are Slowed by 7%, stacking up to 35%. When the blizzard ends, enemies within its area take an additional 75 damage and are Stunned for 1.25 seconds.

---

Type: Spell Damage, Crowd control

Scaling: 4.00%

Affects: Enemies

Targeting: Point target

Properties: Area of Effect, Slow, Stun

Cast time: 0.125 + 0 seconds

Range: 9.0

Area of Effect: Circle

Radius: 4.0

Tickrate: 4.0 per second (x8)

Initial delay: 0.5 seconds

Slow duration: 3.0 seconds

---

• Slow is applied before the periodic damage is dealt.
• Each instance of ramping up the Slow counts as applying it.
• Final damage is dealt in a separate instance on the last tick in addition to the periodic damage.
• Stun is applied after the final damage is dealt.

E

Icing

70 Mana Cooldown: 14 / 0.25 seconds

Slide quickly in the targeted direction. When this effect ends, enemies near Mei are knocked back, take 52 damage, and are Slowed by 80%, rapidly decaying over 1.5 seconds.

---

Type: Spell Damage, Crowd control / Movement: Dash

Scaling: 4.00%

Affects: Enemies / Self

Targeting: Point target

Properties: Area of Effect, Knockback, Slow

Cast time: 0.125 + 0 seconds

Range: 11

Area of Effect: Circle

Radius: 4.0

Missile speed:
- Initial: 0
- Acceleration: 25

Knockback duration: 0.1875 seconds

Knockback speed: 12

---

• Icing can be reactivated after 0.25 seconds to stop the dash and trigger its end effect early.
• Knockback is applied before the damage is dealt.
• Slow is applied as the knockback effect expires.

R

Avalanche

80 Mana Cooldown: 90 seconds

After 0.5 seconds, roll a massive snowball that consumes enemy Heroes in its path. At the end of its path, the snowball crumbles, releasing the consumed Heroes, dealing 220 damage and Stunning them for 0.5 per Hero consumed.

---

Type: Spell Damage, Crowd control, Status effect

Scaling: 4.00%

Affects: Enemy Heroes

Targeting: Point target

Properties: Piercing Skillshot, Channeled cast (stationary), Debuff Stasis, Stun

Cast time: 0.4375 (ch) + 0.0625 seconds

Range: 22

Hitbox: 2.5 x 0.65

Missile speed: 10

---

• Interrupting the Ability during its windup puts it on a 10 second cooldown.
• Enemies inside the snowball are put in hostile Stasis. In addition to usual effects of Stasis, the targets are removed from ground plane (disjoints certain projectiles), have no collision, cannot regenerate Health, Mana, Energy or Shields, cannot be seen on the minimap or revealed and some delayed heals applied beforehand are prevented.

R

Ice Wall

50 Mana Cooldown: 60 seconds

After a 0.75 second delay, create an impassable wall that traps enemy Heroes hit for 2.5 seconds. When the wall expires, trapped Heroes are Slowed by 75% decaying over 3 seconds.

---

Type: Crowd control, Status effect / Pathing blocker

Affects: Enemy Heroes / Enemies

Targeting: Vector Targeting

Properties: Area of Effect, Slow, Time Stop

Cast time: 0.0625 + 0.0625 seconds

Range: 11

Area of Effect: Rectangle ⁽¹

Width: 3.0

Height: 12

---

• ¹⁾ Area consists of 7 overlapping circular pathing blocker units with 1.5 radius.
• The first point of vector targeting determines the initial point and the second the direction.
• Blocker units are spawned at 0.125 second intervals, immediately affecting the units in their respective areas. Regardless, they will all expire at the same moment, as the duration of Ice Wall will not start counting until the wall has been fully formed.
• It is possible to queue Abilities (using the command queue system, Shift button by default) which have 0 cast time early within Ice Wall's duration and have them cast later within the Time Stop.

Talents

1

Heavy Pack

Increases the duration of Snow Blind's Slow by 1.5 seconds. Each time Blizzard damages an enemy Hero, reduce the cooldown of Snow Blind by 0.5 seconds and gain 3 Mana.

Ice Storm

Every 3rd hit of Blizzard against enemy Heroes deals an additional 42 damage. Blizzard's final stun damage is increased by 150% against all enemies.

---

Type: Spell Damage / Offensive damage modifier

Scaling: 4.00%

Affects: Enemy Heroes / Ability

---

• Periodic bonus damage is dealt in a separate instance on the same tick in addition to the periodic damage. This damage instance does not interact with other talents affecting Blizzard.
• Stun damage bonus stacks additively with other offensive damage modifiers that can affect Blizzard's damage.

Heat Transfer

Basic Attacks against Rooted, Stunned, or Slowed Heroes deal 33% more damage. Each time Mei Stuns or Slows an enemy Hero she heals for 16.5 Health.

---

Type: Healing, Offensive damage modifier

Scaling: 4.00%

Affects: Self

Properties: Area of Effect, Attack Modifier

---

• Damage bonus stacks additively with other offensive damage modifiers that can affect Mei's Basic Attack damage.

4

Slushball

Snow Blind deals 75% increased damage and Structures hit are disabled for 3 seconds.

---

Type: Offensive damage modifier / Crowd control

Affects: Ability / Structures

---

• Damage bonus stacks additively with other offensive damage modifiers that can affect Snow Blind's damage.

Cold Front

Reduce the cooldown of Icing by 3 seconds. If Mei enters her own Blizzard while Icing is active, the cooldown of Icing is reduced by 5 seconds and she gains 80 Mana.

Crystallize

Reduce the cooldown of Cryo-Freeze by 10 seconds. Mei gains 40 Spell Armor while Cryo-Freeze is active and for 1 second after.

---

Type: Defensive damage modifier

Affects: Self

Properties: Spell Armor

---

• Spell Armor persists regardless of how Mei exits Cryo-Freeze.
• Does not stack with other positive Spell Armor effects. Other defensive damage modifiers may stack.

7

Induce Hibernation

Enemy Heroes inside of Blizzard's area have their damage dealt reduced by 40%.

When Blizzard ends, enemy Heroes within its area gain this effect for an additional 4 seconds.

---

Type: Offensive damage modifier

Affects: Enemy Heroes

---

• Stacks additively with other offensive damage modifiers.

Skating Away

When Icing ends, grant Mei and nearby allies 20% Movement Speed and 50 Physical Armor for 3 seconds.

---

Type: Defensive damage modifier, Status effect

Affects: Allied Heroes, Self

Properties: Area of Effect, Movement Speed, Physical Armor

Area of Effect: Circle

Radius: 4.0

Backup Battery

Cooldown: 70 seconds
Activate to remove all Roots and Slows and regenerate 20% of maximum Health over 2 seconds. The cooldown of this Ability is reduced by 10 seconds each time Mei picks up a Regeneration Globe.

---

Type: CC removal, Healing

Scaling: -

Affects: Self

Targeting: No target

Properties: Heal over time

Cast time: Instant

Tickrate: 2.0 per second (x4)

Heal per tick: 5.0%

10

Avalanche

Cooldown: 90 seconds
After 0.5 seconds, roll a massive snowball that consumes enemy Heroes in its path. At the end of its path, the snowball crumbles, releasing the consumed Heroes, dealing 220 damage and stunning them for 0.5 per Hero consumed.

Ice Wall

Cooldown: 60 seconds
After a 0.75 second delay, create an impassable wall that traps enemy Heroes hit for 2.5 seconds. When the wall expires, trapped Heroes are slowed by 75% decaying over 3 seconds.

13

Flurry

While in her own Blizzard, Mei gains 50% increased Attack Speed and Blizzard's cooldown refreshes 125% faster. If Mei is in her own Blizzard when it ends, gain these bonuses for 3 additional seconds.

---

Type: Status effect

Affects: Self

Properties: Attack Speed

Cooling Servos

While Cryo-Freeze is active, Mei's Basic Ability cooldowns recover 200% faster.

Passive: Basic Attacks Slow by 20% for 1.5 seconds.

---

Type: Crowd control

Affects: Enemies

Properties: Attack Modifier, Slow

---

• Slow is applied even if the Basic Attack misses due to Mei being Blinded or the target Evading.
• Slow is applied after damage is dealt.
• Each instance counts as applying the Slow.

Polar Vortex

Using an ability causes Mei to deal 24 damage a second to nearby enemies for 4 seconds. Enemy Heroes damaged by this effect also have their Movement and Attack Speed Slowed by 20%.

---

Type: Spell Damage / Crows control, Status effect

Scaling: 4.00%

Affects: Enemies / Enemy Heroes

Properties: Area of Effect, Attack Slow, Slow

Area of Effect: Circle

Radius: 2.5

Tickrate: 2.0 per second (x8)

Damage per tick: 12

Slow duration: 0.5625 seconds

---

• Subsequent applications refresh the duration of the aura.
• Each instance counts as applying the Slow.

16

Fresh Powder

Snow Blind gains an additional charge and its range is increased by 33%.

---

Bonus range: 3.0

Cooldown between charges: 2.0 seconds

Black Ice

Icing's Slow effect no longer decays over its duration. Icing deals 300% more damage to enemies very close to Mei.

---

Type: Offensive damage modifier

Affects: Ability

Radius: 2.0

---

• Damage bonus stacks additively with other damage modifiers that can affect Icing's damage.

Acclimation

Each time Mei Slows or Stuns an enemy Hero, the damage she deals and healing she receives is increased by 1%, stacking up to 20 times. While at maximum stacks, Mei also gains 10 Armor. Lasts 8 seconds.

---

Type: Defensive damage modifier, Healing modifier, Offensive damage modifier

Affects: Self

Properties: Armor

---

• Does not stack with other positive Armor effects. Other defensive damage modifiers may stack.
• Stacks additively with healing modifiers that affect Mei's healing received.
• Damage bonus stacks additively with itself and other offensive damage modifiers.

20

Cascade

While traveling, Avalanche constantly launches a volley of untalented Snow Blind snowballs ahead of itself.

Passive: Reduce the cooldown of Avalanche by 30 seconds.

---

Type: Spell Damage, Crowd control

Scaling: 4.00%

Properties: Area of Effect

Range: 12.5

Area of Effect: Circle

Radius: 2.25

Missile speed: 28

---

• Launches a total of 22 snowballs:
• Immediately after release fires 5 snowballs over 0.375 seconds toward randomly selected 5 out of 7 possible predetermined locations ([x,y] = [0,10], [±2.75, 11], [±2.875, 12], [±2.75, 13]).
• It then continues to launch snowballs to 7 predetermined locations 12.5 units ahead (x = 0, ±2.75, ±3.75, ±4.25) in randomized order, one every 0.125 seconds.
• Upon reaching the end location, 5 more snowballs are released toward 8 possible locations within ~3.5 radius over 0.3125 seconds.

Shatter

When Ice Wall expires, trapped enemy Heroes hit take 210 damage and have their Armor reduced by 25 for 5 seconds.

---

Type: Spell Damage, Defensive damage modifier

Scaling: 4.00%

Affects: Enemy Heroes

Properties: Armor reduction

---

• Armor debuff is applied after damage is dealt.
• Does not stack with other negative Armor effects. Other defensive damage modifiers may stack.
• Armor reduction is not cleansed by Stasis effects.

The Big One

Every 15 seconds, the next Snow Blind you cast has 67% increased area and 200% increased damage.

---

Type: Offensive damage modifier

Affects: Ability

Bonus range: 1.5

---

• Damage bonus stacks additively with other offensive damage modifiers that can affect Snow Blind's damage.

Flash Freeze

When Mei takes fatal damage, she instantly gains Cryo-Freeze. This effect has a 180 second cooldown.

Builds and guides

Icy Veins Mei Guide

Mei Community Build Guides @ HeroesFire

Mei Community Build Guides @ Heroes Hearth

Skins

Mei Skins
/ Adventuring Climatologist
Backstory: A brilliant mind with a sunny disposition, Dr. Mei-Ling Zhou joined Overwatch to help solve the world's growing climate problems. Armed with a host of weather-altering technologies, Mei now fights to protect her friends and secure a future for a troubled world.
750 / 10,000 Adventuring Climatologist	Free Powder Pink	Free Marine	120 / 75 Vanguard	120 / 75 Renowned
Pajama Party
Backstory: Pajamaland's leading climatologist, Mei-Ling Zhou, is concerned with the significant uptick in feather blizzards and snore-nadoes that have struck her realm in recent years.
Notes: This skin theme is part of a shared theme of pajama skins.
350 / 400	350 / 400 Panda	350 / 400 Gnoll

Mei Event Skins
Necrotopologist
Backstory: Mei has dedicated her life's work in climate science to saving her world for future generations. But if she can solve death, she can save everything.
Notes: This skin theme is part of a shared theme of other universes merging into Warcraft skins.
350 / 600	350 / 600 Frostbitten	350 / 600 Devilish

Portraits

Mei Portraits
Carbot Mei120 / 75	Mei Emblem75 / 40	Mei Hero	Mei Mastery

Sprays

Mei Sprays
Carbot Mei120 / 75

Emojis

Mei Pack 1			Mei Pack 2
Emoji	Name	Shortcut	Emoji	Name	Shortcut
	Mei Happy	:meihappy:		Mei Angry	:meiangry:
	Mei ROFL	:meilol: :meirofl:		Mei Cool	:meicool: :cool:
	Mei Sad	:meisad: :sad:		Mei Embarrassed	:meioops: :meiembarrassed:
	Mei Silly	:meisilly: :silly:		Mei in Love	:meilove: :meiinlove:
	Mei Speechless	:meimeh: :meispeechless:		Mei Surprised	:meiwow: :meisurprised:

Quotes

Main article: Mei/Quotes

Development

Brett Crawford said: "We knew that it was about time to add another main Tank to the roster, and given it had been awhile since we brought an Overwatch Hero in, we were discussing the options for heroes that would be a good fit. At that time, we had already begun prototyping a Barrier Field ability to explore the possibility of bringing Reinhardt into the Nexus but were met with some issues. Unfortunately, we were not super-confident in the general direction that was heading, and while we were working through that, another Hero designer chimed in with the thought that he could translate Mei’s Overwatch kit into a Tank role for Heroes.

In Overwatch Mei rests in a unique gameplay niche in between the game's general criteria of a Damage hero and a Tank hero, despite being officially classified as the former. While she technically does have the power to outright kill enemies, her greater strengths are in impairing enemies through unique means. During her development for her inclusion into Heroes of the Storm, Mei was always thought of as a tank since the beginning.

According to Game Designer David Warner: "From the beginning we knew a direct translation of Mei's kit from Overwatch was not going to work for Heroes of the Storm. Being able to attack while moving is already a huge advantage and tacking on crowd control effects would have made her the most frustrating Hero of all time. Looking at the available pieces of her kit, we decided that she was inevitably going to more closely resemble a Tank or Bruiser, as opposed to her more damage-oriented role from Overwatch. Once we made that decision, the rest of her kit very quickly fell into place. We liked how it felt to have Mei as a ranged tank, so we doubled down on that by giving her Snow Blind (Q). Her ultimate in Overwatch, Blizzard (W), was such an iconic part of her Overwatch kit we knew we had to carry it over though it made more sense as a basic ability for our game. We tried a few iterations of Icing (E), but quickly fell in love with its current form because of the natural combo-caster playstyle it created.

The developers didn't feel restricted by her Overwatch kit and didn't mind it not being 1:1. Instead, they wanted her abilities to be inspired from the way she plays. The developers were also inspired by their work with Mal'Ganis to make sure she would not be a bruiser and would work as a main tank. So they gave her a lot of CC instead of raw 1vs1 damage and waveclear.

Trivia

• Mei made her debut in Overwatch (May 2016).
• Mei is voiced by Elise Zhang.
• Mei is the eighty-eighth hero in the game.
  • Mei is also the ninth Overwatch hero in the game.
• Mei is the eleventh tank hero in the game.
  • She is also the second ranged tank, the first being Blaze.
• The Mei spotlight was the first one narrated by Ed Cerrato, one of Blizzard Entertainment's Senior Sound Designers. Ed has been a longtime contributor to both StarCraft II and Heroes of the Storm and most recently created the sounds for the Tassadar rework and the Dark Nexus II skins.
• In Heroes of the Storm, an image of Mei holding a chili pepper appears on Misha's rear-left shoulder pad when wearing the Fire Raider Rexxar skin.
• A few of Mei's talent icons are recycled from other heroes; which happen to specialize in ice abilities.
  • Polar Vortex uses the same icon as Arthas's Frozen Tempest.
  • Acclimation uses the same icon as Jaina's Frost Armor.

Gallery

General

• 

  Mei Key Art

• 

  Snowball

Concept Art

• 

  Mei Pajama Party concept

• 

  Mei Pajama Party concept

• 

  Mei Pajama Party concept

• 

  Necrotopologist Mei Concept Art

Teaser

• 

  Teaser 1

• 

  Teaser 2

Abilities

• 

  D: Cryo-Freeze

• 

  W: Blizzard

• 

  E: Icing

• 

  R1: Avalanche

• 

  R2: Ice Wall

External links

• Mei - Heroes of the Storm
• Heroes of the Storm: Mei Storms the Nexus
• Mei Overwatch Wiki
• Mei Balance Changelog - Heroes Patch Notes