(Blizzard)
In an attempt to further balance their hit FPS game Overwatch, developer Blizzard has released the latest notes for their upcoming patch that will certainly shake up the current meta. While we’ve known that characters such as Zenyatta and Mercy were going to receive some adjustments, players will be surprised to hear that they aren’t the only characters going through some changes. One of Overwatch’s most popular characters, Genji, got hit the hardest with an almost complete restructuring of his abilities. Other heroes such as Lucio, the games most picked character for eSports, also received some changes that could affect how future games play out.
This patch will also roll out all of the changes for the second season of Competitive Mode, which we have already detailed here. Other adjusts come to maps, bugs, and various glitches throughout the game that were causing some players trouble.
Here are the full patch notes:
Characters
General Update:
- Ultimates that consume the ultimate meter when activated will now drain the meter more quickly (.25 second instead of 1 second)
- Reverted projectile size reduction
D.Va
- Defense Matrix will now begin regenerating after a 1-second delay.
Genji
- Double jump no longer resets when wall climbing
- Dash
- No longer deals damage to traps like Widowmaker’s Venom Mine or Junkrat’s Steel Trap
- No longer bypasses Junkrat’s Steel Trap
- Swift Strike
- No longer interrupts quick melee attacks
- Dragonblade
- Duration of Genji’s ultimate has been reduced from 8 seconds to 6 seconds
Hanzo
- Speed decreased while aiming changed from 40% to 30%
- Maximum projectile speed increased by 30%
Lucio
- The boosting of movement speed has been decreased by 30% (from a 100% increase to a 70% increase)
Mei
- Blizzard projectile now pierces barriers and it’s radius has been increased from 8 meters to 10 meters.
McCree
- Deadeye now drains over a .25 second period instead of simply going down to 50% when used and 0% when activated.
Mercy
- Healing-per-second increased by 20%
- Resurrected Allies will be able to move after 2.25 seconds as opposed to the current 3 second wait time.
Roadhog
- Chain Hook
- If the hooked target isn’t in Roadhog’s line of sight when retracting the hook, they will be moved back to the position where they were originally hooked
Zenyatta
- Orb of Discord
- The amount of damage amplified by a target with Orb of Discord has been decreased from 50% to 30%
- Orb of Destruction
- Damage has been increased from 40 to 46
User Interface Changes
- A new “Allied Health Bars” option has been added (Options > Controls)
- Contextual menus have been added on the hero selection screen, giving players the ability to report or group up with other players
- Matchmaking UI is now purple in the Competitive Play queue
- Made several minor adjustments to typography in the Spectator UI
Bugs
General
- Fixed a bug that allowed the kill participation metric to go above 100 percent
- Fixed a bug in the Custom Game settings preventing the Ability Cooldown modifier from affecting Ana
- Fixed a bug that caused heroes to die when first spawned in a custom game if Health and Damage modifiers were used simultaneously
- Fixed a bug preventing the hero list in Custom Game settings from being organized alphabetically
- The spectate option now becomes unavailable (the button will be greyed out) when all spectator slots have been filled in a Custom Game lobby
- Fixed an issue causing in-game statistics to run off the edge of the screen in 16:10 aspect ratio
AI
- Fixed a bug that caused Bastion to become stuck, continuously healing himself in the spawn area
Heroes
- Appropriate sound effects now play when Ana shoots barriers, shields, and armor
- D.Va no longer communicates her ultimate status for Self-Destruct while charging her Call Mech ultimate
- Hanzo’s Spirit Dragon voice line now plays when using his Okami and Lone Wolf skins
- Fixed various issues with Junkrat’s emote and highlight animations
- Fixed an issue causing Mei’s Ice Wall to push herself to the side when cast at her feet
- Fixed a bug preventing Mei’s Ice Wall from being destroyed by a moving payload
- Fixed a bug that prevented Mei’s Ice Wall from appearing at the target location when cast
- Fixed a bug allowing Reaper to reach unintended map locations using Shadow Step
- Fixed a bug causing Reinhardt’s shield to jitter when turning in third person
- Fixed an issue that prevented Roadhog’s chain from displaying correctly in some situations
- Fixed several issues with Symmetra’s emotes and highlight intros
- The scarf on Tracer’s Slipstream skin is no longer stiff in the Hurdle highlight intro
- Fixed a bug preventing overtime from being triggered while Zenyatta is using Transcendence
- The names of Tracer’s Sprinter and Track and Field skins now display correctly
Maps
- Fixed an issue preventing Genji and Hanzo from reliably climbing a specific crate on Watchpoint: Gibraltar
In addition to all these changes the map Watchpoint: Gibraltar will have its first checkpoint removed. All of the current changes are live in the Overwatch Public Test Regions and players can expect these adjustments to roll out within the coming weeks. These are all subject to change, so make sure to check back with us once the patch goes live across all platforms.
