Overwatch

Overwatch PTR Patch Notes – February 14, 2018
A new Overwatch patch is currently in development and now available for testing. To share your feedback or report and issue, please post in the PTR Feedback or PTR Bug Report forums.

Please note that the below patch notes only include changes currently available for testing on the PTR. While many of these changes will also be available on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in a future patch, the PTR is PC-only and therefore will only reflect changes coming specifically to that platform.

HERO UPDATES
Doomfist

• Hand Cannon
  • Ammo recovery rate increased from 0.8 seconds to 0.65 seconds per bullet

Developer Comment: This change will help Doomfist more consistently be able to use his weapon as part of his combos.

Mei

• Endothermic Blaster
  • Freeze (slow) duration increased from 1 second to 1.5 seconds
  • Weapon alternate fire ammo cost reduced from 25 to 20

Developer Comment: Increasing Mei’s slow duration helps her freeze targets that are particularly elusive such as Genji or Lúcio. Lowering her alternate fire ammo cost allows her to more safely use it without costing her the ability to freeze enemies.

Sombra

• EMP
  • No longer blocked by small objects (e.g. sign posts)
• Hack
  • No longer gains ultimate charge from health pack healing
  • Cast time reduced from 0.8 seconds to 0.65 seconds
  • Now disables the following abilities:
    • Genji—Cyber-agility
    • Hanzo—Wall Climb
    • Pharah—Hover Jets
    • Lúcio—Healing Boost and Speed Boost (turns off current song entirely), Wall Ride
    • Mercy—Angelic Descent
• Machine Pistol
  • Machine Pistol spread reduced from 3 to 2.7
• Opportunist
  • Now activates when enemies’ health bars are at less than 100%, up from 50% health
• Translocator
  • Duration increased from 15 seconds to 20 seconds

Developer Comment: The goal of these changes for Sombra is to remove the necessity for her teammates to take damage and heal themselves with her hacked heath packs to try to get her ultimate charged up quickly. Her ultimate will now come up less often, but there are more abilities that are disabled by Hack so it is more effective when used. Previously, Opportunist would only activate when an enemy’s health bar dipped below 50% but now the passive will reveal all damaged enemies which should help Sombra identify targets to pick off. Overall these changes should make her more effective and less reliant on her ultimate.

USER INTERFACE UPDATES
Mercy

• Valkyrie
  • No longer shows enemies’ health bars unless they have taken damage

Developer Comment: This helps remove some clutter from Mercy players’ screens when they use her ultimate

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Pyros said:

I think it doesn't have to do with the actual freezing and only the slow that's applied by her mouse1 spray. It lasts longer, making it easier to eventually freeze people even if you don't track properly/you're trying to freeze double jumping retardato genji. Wording is confusing but it wouldn't specify (slow) if it was just the freezing duration.

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Posted by Geoff Goodman
Our patch note for her passive wasn't quite right, we're going to fix it very soon. Let me clarify what exactly is changing with it:

On live, her passive actually does 2 separate things:

1) It lets you see enemies through walls if they are less than half health
2) It lets you see enemy health bars above their heads if they are less than half health (regardless of if you had damaged them or not)

We're changing #2 so she can see health bars if they are injured at all, but #1 (wall hack) still requires <50% health to trigger. This allows her to have more information once she gets behind her enemies to plan the best way to attack. If you notice, this is also something Mercy gets when using Valkyrie and they both work the same way now.

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