We wanted to share a little bit about the big changes coming to everyone’s favorite weapons designer in this patch. So, we’ve gone and completely reforged Torbjörn with the aim of improving his playstyle and making him more adaptable to the needs of his team.
When we redesign a hero, we define the gameplay problems we’re aiming to solve, how our solutions can fit within the hero’s constraints, and what existing elements are core to the hero’s identity that we should definitely keep as part of their kit. In Torbjörn’s case, we identified his automated turret as one of those key elements. First, instead of having to stand next to a turret to build it, Torbjörn can now throw the turret out, so he can more effectively contest points and set up flanks on the fly. We’ve also given him a self-buff, Overload, which grants Torbjörn 150 armor and a 30% increase to his attack, movement, and reload speeds, so he can spend less time building and more time shooting. Last but certainly not least, we’ve given his ultimate ability Molten Core a complete overhaul.
We explored eight different iterations of Molten Core before we landed on the current design and moved it onto the next stage of production—giving it proper art, animations, and visual effects. The new Molten Core almost didn’t make it due to technical performance concerns, but fortunately, our artists and engineers came up with some clever solutions.
Molten Core now allows Torbjörn to spray pools of magma on the ground that do a ton of sustained damage (plus bonus damage to armor), but its true strength is denying the enemy team the ability to move through key locations or closing out a game in overtime by restricting the space around the objective.
Be sure to try out the new Torbjörn and the other updated heroes this patch and let us know what you think!
—Joshua Noh, Associate Game Designer
PATCH HIGHLIGHTS
New Seasonal Event: Halloween Terror 2018
The fright for the future returns!
We’re celebrating the scariest time of the year with a seasonal event: Overwatch Halloween Terror! Expand your collection of spooky seasonal items and relive the chilling tale of Junkenstein's Revenge in our PvE brawl. This year we’ve added two new heroes to the fray: Brigitte and Tracer!
In addition to playing the limited-time brawl, you'll also be able to unlock new seasonal items—including six new legendary skins like Banshee Moira, Jack-o’-lantern Wrecking Ball, and Enchanted Armor Pharah—alongside our growing collection of bone-chilling gear from previous years.
Customize how team colors are displayed in your user interface (e.g. nameplates, HUD, health bars, and hero outlines) with a set of nine different colorblind-friendly colors to choose from. You can also colorize enemy and friendly UI separately. These options can be found under Options > Video > Color Blind Options. All changes made will be saved and ready for you to see in the next match you play!
GENERAL UPDATES
General
Updated the audio mix to add more clarity and dynamic range for all sounds in the game
Developer Comments: Developer Comments: We’ve added more heroes and features to the game, so the audio mix has become more complex, which required us to rebalance sounds across the game. In this update, we extended the range of third-person weapon sounds, increased the range of first-person weapon impacts in the world, and generally balanced third-person footsteps and ability sounds.
HERO UPDATES
General
Updated visuals for all shields and barriers to increase readability
Enemies’ health bars will now become visible to players if an entity they create deals damage to an enemy
Brigitte
Developer Comments The health of Brigitte’s barrier was extremely difficult for most heroes to deal with, especially as she closes the distance to her targets. This change still provides Brigitte with substantial survivability but should also be more rewarding for opponents who pressure her.
Barrier Shield
Shield health reduced from 600 to 500
Doomfist
Developer Comments Doomfist is all about getting up close and personal with his enemies, but his Hand Cannon's spread was tight enough to do surprising amounts of damage at longer ranges, especially against bigger targets. This change brings his weapon in line with other shotgun-style weapons by making its damage fall off beyond 15 meters.
Hand Cannon
Damage falloff now starts at 15 meters
McCree
Developer Comments: Previously, McCree’s Combat Roll cooldown felt too restrictive, which sometimes prohibited players from using it. The new, faster cooldown allows for more flexibility when choosing between using it for mobility or an instant reload.
Combat Roll
Cooldown reduced from 8 to 6 seconds
Pharah
Developer Comments: We wanted to increase how responsive Pharah’s Rocket Launcher felt, because a full second of recovery between shots made it feel sluggish. To balance out the improved recovery time, we shifted some damage from the rocket's explosion to the direct impact damage. The overall damage potential is now increased when landing direct hits and decreased slightly when only dealing explosive damage. We reduced the amount of knockback each explosion causes, as it made it very difficult to aim at Pharah with rockets coming in at a faster pace. The Concussive Blast cooldown reduction should allow the ability to sync up more closely with the Jump Jet cooldown when used for mobility.
Concussive Blast
Cooldown reduced from 12 to 9 seconds
Rocket Launcher
Attack speed increased
Lowered recovery time between shots from 0.9 to 0.75 seconds
Damage redistributed between explosion and impact
Explosion damage reduced from 80 to 65
Impact damage increased from 40 to 55
Explosion knock back reduced by 20%
Self-knockback amount increased by 25%
Mei
General
Updated visual effects for all abilities
Orisa
Developer Comments Orisa spends a significant amount of time firing her Fusion Driver from a relatively stationary location. The weapon's spread value caused it to feel too random when leading targets at a distance, considering the projectiles' travel time. We’ve tightened the spread slightly, which should leave her close- and mid-range damage potential largely unchanged, while making it feel better when hitting targets at longer ranges.
Fusion Driver
Maximum spread reduced by 20%
Soldier: 76
Developer Comments Soldier: 76’s damage output was a bit low, but not too far off from where we felt it should be. Making it take a few more shots to reach max spread smooths out the weapon spread curve and should make his damage more consistent.
Heavy Pulse Rifle
Number of shots until reaching maximum spread increased from 6 to 9
Torbjörn
Developer Comments Torbjörn was initially designed to be a specialized hero, intended to be a strong defensive option due to his armor-generating capabilities and ability to control areas with his turret. However, the scrap collecting and Armor Pack mechanics have proven to cause problematic gameplay issues because of their feast or famine nature. To make him more flexible in a wide variety of situations, we’ve removed the scrap system, made the turret much easier to deploy, replaced the Armor Pack ability with Overload—a powerful self-buff—and transformed Molten Core into a powerful new area denial ultimate ability.
General
Reduced the size of Torbjörn’s head hit volume by 10%
Rivet Gun
Primary Fire
Projectile speed increased from 60 to 70 per second
Reload time reduced from 2.2 to 2 seconds
Turret targets enemy hit by primary fire
Alternate Fire
Recovery lowered from 0.8 to 0.6 seconds
Damage per shot lowered from 150 to 125
Reload time reduced from 2.2 to 2 seconds
Spread randomization readjusted
Forge Hammer
Radius increased to align with Quick Melee
Deploy Turret
Turret is now a thrown projectile
Automatically builds over three seconds
No longer has different levels
Same damage output as previous level 2 turret
Maximum health reduced from 300 to 250
Now incurs a 5 second cooldown when deployed
Now incurs a 10 second cooldown when destroyed in combat
No longer able to deploy a new turret if it’s in combat
While the turret is firing
If the turret has taken damage within three seconds
Can now be destroyed using the Interact input
Completes self-building once deployed, even if Torbjörn is eliminated
New Ability: Overload
Replaces Armor Pack
Lasts for 5 seconds
Cooldown is 12 seconds
Temporarily grants 150 armor
Increases attack, movement, and reload speeds by 30%
New Ultimate: Molten Core
Switches weapon from Rivet Gun to his claw arm
Lasts 6 seconds
Fire up to 10 molten globules that create damage pools where they land for 10 seconds
Globules bounce off walls and ceilings until they hit the ground
Base damage is 130
Damage increases from 130 to 190 against enemies who have armor
Heroes who can grant armor to their allies: Brigitte
Please note that Torbjörn will be unavailable in Competitive Play for two weeks.
MAP UPDATES
General
Reduced the setup timer for Assault, Escort, and Assault/Escort maps from 1 minute to 45 seconds
Assemble Your Team timer increased from 10 to 25 seconds in the second round on Assault, Assault/Escort, and Escort maps
USER INTERFACE UPDATES
General
A slider to change Player Outline Strength has been added under Options > Gameplay
BUG FIXES
Heroes
Bastion
Fixed a bug that caused the roll bar on Bastion’s Dune Buggy skin to obscure its view when backing up or firing in Tank configuration
D.Va
Fixed a bug that prevented some glowing effects from appearing on D.Va’s Nano Cola skin
Fixed a bug that prevented D.Va from fully appearing when viewing her MEKA Activated highlight intro in the Hero Gallery
Hanzo
Fixed a bug that caused Hanzo’s Storm Bow reticle to be visible while emoting
Mei
Fixed a bug that prevented Mei’s Blizzard from freezing enemies when cast in areas with low ceilings
Reinhardt
Fixed a bug that caused the player’s reticle to pitch up after using Earthshatter
Fixed a bug that caused Reinhardt’s Earthshatter animations to play if used while he was juggled in the air by knockback abilities
Fixed a bug that caused Reinhardt’s Rocket Hammer to knock enemies back further than intended
Fixed a bug that sometimes caused Reinhardt’s Charge to knock back the target rather than pinning them
Fixed a bug that would let Reinhardt immediately pin an enemy after a knock back close to a wall
Fixed a bug that allowed area affect abilities to hit Reinhardt’s Barrier Field from further than intended (e.g. Reinhardt’s Rocket Hammer and Junkrat’s Concussion Mines)
Sombra
Fixed an issue that caused Sombra to change the direction she was facing when using her Translocator to teleport
Fixed a bug that sometimes allowed Sombra’s Translocator to reach unintended places
Fixed a bug that prevented some abilities from being able to destroy Sombra’s Translocator if it was placed in certain locations
Symmetra
Fixed a bug that caused Symmetra to have a chance of playing inaccurate voice lines when placing turrets
Fixed a bug that caused Symmetra’s alternate fire to appear to detonate after missing a target
Torbjörn
Fixed a bug that prevented Torbjörn’s medal from appearing in his Medal victory pose
Zarya
Fixed a bug that caused Zarya’s Particle Cannon reticle to be visible while emoting
Maps
Busan
Fixed a bug that allowed players to stand on some prohibited rooftops in Downtown
Fixed a bug that prevented sprays from displaying on glass windows in MEKA Base
Volskaya Industries
Fixed a bug that prevented players from receiving capture credit if they dropped onto the point from one of the moving platforms
Game Browser and Custom Games
Deathmatch
Fixed a bug that prevented the “your team has lost” or “your team has taken the lead” voice lines from playing when the score swap happens due to self-inflicted deaths
VS AI
Fixed a bug that prevented players from receiving an “unable to join” error message if they attempted to spectate a Player vs AI match when all spectator slots were full
SEPTEMBER 11, 2018
Pick your heroes and pack your bags—we’re traveling to Busan!
In our newest map, heroes will fight in the heart of South Korea, home to former professional gamer and famed MEKA pilot, D.Va. Over the past six months, I’ve worked on creating the environment and buildings within each of Busan’s three stages: Sanctuary, Downtown, and MEKA Base.
We released this map alongside our latest cinematic short featuring D.Va, Shooting Star. Because of this, we worked closely with the cinematics department to recreate the MEKA Base as closely as possible. We wanted players to feel like they’re in the film as soon as they load into the map. This is the first time we’ve done this kind of collaboration, and we think it was a success! The way the map looks in game and in the short are much more similar than our previous attempts.
That said, it’s not a straight one-to-one. In the game, in addition to looking great, a map needs to be playable and—most importantly—fun. As such, we expanded and built out parts of the MEKA Base that made it intuitive for players to understand the space they’re in and to offer unique gameplay moments. You can see one of these changes on the control point in the MEKA Base. There are three blast shields that go up and down, providing cover from enemy fire. An alarm accompanied by a flashing light and steam indicates when the shields will rise from the ground, signaling to the team that it is safe to attack the point. This is the first time we’ve intentionally designed moving terrain as part of a map’s strategy.
The whole team poured a lot of love and effort into capturing the likeness of Busan and building out the story of D.Va and South Korea. You may notice that D.Va’s room inside the MEKA Base is full of trophies she won as a professional gamer, along with a top-of-the-line gaming rig—and even a couple of cans of Nano Cola.
We really do hope that you will love playing on this map, and we’re looking forward to reading and hearing what you have to say about it!
—Simon Fuchs, Senior Environment Artist
PATCH HIGHLIGHTS
NEW MAP – BUSAN
Travel to Busan, South Korea and battle for control across three distinct locales within one map: Sanctuary, Downtown, and MEKA Base.
Explore the serene setting of the Sanctuary, surrounded by an ancient temple, beautiful gardens, and historic architecture. Clash in the bustling metropolis of Downtown, where players will fight across a busy PC bang, flashy karaoke bar, and central light rail station (just watch out for the train). Contest for position in MEKA Base—home of South Korea’s frontline defense against the gwishin omnic attacks: D.Va and the rest of the MEKA squad.
HERO GALLERY – FILTER
View all of the cosmetics Overwatch has to offer with our new Filter feature in the Hero Gallery. Customize your search for cosmetics by category (including seasonal events or whether they're from the Overwatch League), rarity, and whether they are unlocked or waiting to be collected.
GENERAL UPDATES
General
Added visual outlines to make allies visible through walls
HERO UPDATES
General
Developer Comments While this is a bug fix, we wanted to highlight this change as it can affect gameplay by changing the damage output of the affected heroes in certain situations. After this fix, weapons with spread should now correctly calculate critical damage for each individual pellet that lands in a critical region (e.g. a headshot). The end result of this change is that it should be significantly easier to deal critical damage with any weapon that fires multiple shots simultaneously, such as Reaper’s Hellfire Shotguns and D.Va’s Fusion Cannons. In addition, we’ve changed the logic for when these weapons display a critical marker on your screen. It now requires 30% of your shots to be critical, rather than displaying it if a single pellet hits critically.
Fixed a bug that would cause some weapons that fired multiple shots at once to inconsistently deal critical damage (e.g. Doomfist’s Hand Cannon, D.Va’s Fusion Cannons, Genji’s Shurikens, Reaper’s Hellfire Shotguns, Roadhog's Scrap Gun, and Torbjörn’s Rivet Gun)
Ana
Biotic Rifle
Increased the precision of the Relative Aim Sensitivity While Zoomed slider. This can be found under Options > Controls > Hero > Ana
Brigitte
Developer Comments Currently, when two charging targets hit each other, they both fall down and are briefly stunned. You can see this interaction with Doomfist’s Rocket Punch and Reinhardt’s Charge abilities. Brigitte’s Shield Bash previously wasn’t included in this group, which meant that if she used Shield Bash against these other abilities, she would generally stun them and not be affected herself. This change makes it so if she uses Shield Bash against Charge or Rocket Punch, both players will be knocked down.
Shield Bash
Now knocks down and gets knocked down by other charging targets (e.g Reinhardt and Doomfist)
Reinhardt
Developer Comments We’ve given Earthshatter a complete overhaul to combat inconsistencies with its performance. These changes will make Earthshatter’s behavior more predictable and effective.
Earthshatter
Now consistently hits enemies near walls
No longer hits enemies that enter the damage cone after the “wave” has passed that area
No longer damages enemies behind barriers blocking it, even if the barrier is later dropped or destroyed
Always travels up inclines and around the payload
Roadhog
Developer Comments Previously, Roadhog’s Scrap Gun alternate fire didn’t have damage falloff which sometimes made it too powerful against far away targets. To balance out a slight power decrease, especially against barriers, we decided to push his overall weapon’s effective range out bit further before damage falloff begins to take effect. Note: The alternate fire falloff begins from where the scrap projectiles are formed, not from Roadhog’s firing position.
Scrap Gun
Primary fire falloff range changed from 10-20 meters to 15-30 meters
Alternate fire now has damage falloff, which is the same as the new primary fire falloff (15-30 meters)
Widowmaker
Grappling Hook
Now retains momentum when used on environments or structures without a ledge (e.g. walls)
Widow's Kiss
Increased the precision of the Relative Aim Sensitivity While Zoomed slider. This can be found under Options > Controls > Hero > Widowmaker
COMPETITIVE PLAY UPDATES
General
Grand Master players can now group with players within 350 Skill Rating, up from 250 Skill Rating
GAME BROWSER AND CUSTOM GAMES
General
Modified the Respawn Time Scalar custom game option to prevent respawn times longer than the default
FFA Deathmatch
Mercy now begins the match with her Caduceus Blaster equipped
Blizzard World is now available to play in Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch
1v1 Mystery Heroes
Mercy now begins the match with her Caduceus Blaster equipped
MAP UPDATES
Rialto
Payload travel speed has been slightly increased
Amount of time the payload pauses at checkpoints has been reduced
BUG FIXES
General
Fixed a bug that caused players to sometimes slip off railings
Fixed a bug that prevented Torbjörn Armor Packs Created statistic from updating if the ability landed directly on a friendly target
Communication Wheel
Fixed a bug that caused a delay in selecting options on the Communication Wheel when cycling left using a mouse
Heroes
Brigitte
Fixed a bug that caused Brigitte’s Shield Bash movement to be interrupted when she impacted Symmetra’s turrets
Doomfist
Fixed a bug that caused Doomfist’s Seismic Slam to cancel when using Symmetra’s Teleporter
D.Va
Fixed a bug that allowed D.Va to escape the map if she used Call Mech while standing on Mei’s Ice Wall
Hanzo
Fixed a bug that caused the Dragonstrike arrow's size to be larger than his other arrows
Mei
Fixed a bug that caused Mei’s Cryo-freeze to block the line of sight for Mei’s Blizzard
Mercy
Fixed a bug that allowed Mercy to gain ultimate charge from using her damage beam on attacks that cannot be damage boosted
Reaper
Fixed a bug that prevented Reaper’s Shadow Step from going on cooldown if he was interrupted
Reinhardt
Fixed a bug that allowed Reinhardt to pin targets that were behind him when using Charge
Fixed a bug that prevented Reinhardt from pinning some targets when he turned during Charge
Fixed a bug that allowed Reinhardt to use Earthshatter while standing on an enemy’s head
Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented Reinhardt’s Earthshatter from hitting enemies standing on a payload
Fixed a bug that prevented Reinhardt’s Earthshatter from traveling up certain inclines
Roadhog
Fixed a bug that sometimes caused Roadhog’s Chain Hook to break after hitting an enemy while maintaining line of sight
Fixed a bug that prevented Roadhog’s alternate fire from calculating falloff damage correctly
Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented Reinhardt’s Earthshatter from landing if he was launched into the air while activating it
Sombra
Fixed a bug that prevented Sombra from translocating to a moving platform
Fixed a bug that prevented Sombra from destroying her Translocator if she was stunned or hacked
Fixed a bug that prevented Sombra’s Translocator from accurately indicating where Sombra would arrive when the ability was used
Symmetra
Fixed a bug that prevented Sombra’s Hack from canceling Symmetra’s Photon Barrier placement
Fixed a bug that caused Symmetra’s teleport UI to persist after being eliminated
Widowmaker
Fixed a bug that prevented Widowmaker’s Grappling Hook from connecting to some ledges
Fixed a bug that caused Widowmaker’s scoped shots on hero placed objects to count against her Scoped Weapon Accuracy statistic (e.g. Symmetra’s Teleporter, Torbjörn’s autocannon)
Wrecking Ball
Fixed a bug that prevented Wrecking Ball’s Piledriver from dealing falloff damage
Fixed a bug that allowed Wrecking Ball’s Piledriver to deal damage twice if he slid off the environment during its duration
Fixed a bug that allowed Wrecking Ball’s primary fire to continue working even if it was disabled in custom game
AUGUST 28, 2018
PATCH HIGHLIGHTS
D.Va’s Nano Cola Challenge
We’re celebrating the release of D.Va’s action-packed animated “Shooting Star” short by making some special content available to unlock in-game. For a limited time, your wins in Quick Play, Competitive Play, or Arcade will all earn you additional D.Va sprays, a player icon, and a new epic skin: NANO COLA D.VA!
When you’re not playing to win, you can watch sponsored Twitch broadcasters to unlock even more D.Va-themed sprays!
To learn more about D.Va’s Nano Cola Challenge, click here.
BUG FIXES
Hero Gallery
Fixed a bug that prevented flavor descriptions from displaying when a skin was selected
Fixed a bug that prevented hero descriptions from displaying in the Hero Gallery
Fixed a bug that prevented cosmetics’ unlock requirements from displaying in the Hero Gallery
Heroes
Fixed a bug that prevented some of Roadhog’s voice lines from playing with his Lacrosse skin equipped
Fixed a bug that caused Symmetra’s Sentry Turrets to fall through the environment when thrown into a Teleporter
Fixed a bug that allowed Symmetra to teleport players into certain vehicles on King’s Row and Numbani
Fixed a bug that caused Winston’s Jump Pack damage to not falloff properly
Sound
Fixed an issue that prevented sound from playing after a memory-intensive team fight
AUGUST 9, 2018
Get ready to kick it, the Summer Games are back!
This year Lúcioball makes its way to Busan Stadium, and your heroes are ready to soak in the sun with some new skins! Over the last few months I’ve had the pleasure of working with professional artists around the world to bring these seasonal skins to life.
It’s a really fun process. It starts with our concept artists sharing their ideas early, which helps hype us up as we start to think of all of the possibilities and details we can add to the models and textures for the final skins, such as making the propellers on the back of D.Va’s Waverunner mech spin faster when she uses her Boosters ability. The 3D artists then choose which skins they want to create and are encouraged to voice their opinions and ideas during the development process so we can help them turn their vision into a reality. Once they have collaborated with us on the digital sculpture and the final in-game model, we then finalize the skins and give them an extra coat of polish in-house with our rigging and skinning, visual effects, audio, and quality assurance testing teams to make sure that they work in-game. The entire effort can take weeks to create a legendary skin, but the end result is always worth it!
This event was especially memorable for me since I got to work with and help train a new artist on our art pipeline. In addition to keeping the process organized and efficient, I also got to get my hands dirty by creating Hana’s model for the D.Va Waveracer skin.
Part of the excitement during the creation process is imagining how fans will receive our artwork—we really hope that you love these skins, and we’re looking forward to reading and hearing what you have to say about them and Summer Games!
—John Gotch, Senior Character Artist Supervisor
PATCH HIGHLIGHTS
Summer Games 2018
The Summer Games return for more fun in the sun! This year, we're celebrating the spirit of competition with a new Lúcioball arena, Season 2 of Copa Lúcioball, and a smörgåsbord of loot. Unlock over 50 new seasonal items—including legendary skins like Waveracer D.Va, Fastball Zenyatta, and Cabana Ana—alongside our growing collection of summer gear from previous years.
Developer Comments These changes help Ana’s Nano Boost be usable in more situations. Previously it was almost entirely used to combo with other allies’ ultimates, just before they use them. With this change Nano Boost can now alternatively be used to save an ally from near death in the middle of a big fight.
Nano Boost
Now also instantly heals the target for 300 health
Range increased from 30 to 40 meters
Brigitte
Developer Comments Brigitte’s Shield Bash is one of her strongest abilities, and its short cooldown can make it difficult to play against. Slightly increasing its cooldown will give her opponents more opportunity to play around it. We’ve also added an option to control Brigitte’s Repair Pack targeting sensitivity which will allow players to reduce the width of the search angle for the ability. This is useful for trying to target specific allies in the middle of a fight at the cost of making it a bit harder to target allies in general.
Shield Bash
Cooldown increased from 6 to 7 seconds
Repair Pack
An option to control Brigitte’s Repair Pack targeting sensitivity has been added under Options > Controls > Brigitte
Doomfist
Developer Comments These changes are just quality of life improvements for how Doomfist interacts with Symmetra’s placed objects.
Rocket Punch
No longer impacts Symmetra’s teleporter
Now destroys Symmetra’s sentry turrets without stopping his movement
Hanzo
Developer Comments Hanzo’s Lunge ability allows him to be a bit too evasive, so we’re increasing the cooldown to make him easier to catch.
Lunge
Cooldown increased from 4 to 5 seconds
Lúcio
Developer Comments Increasing the amount of shield health gained from Lúcio’s Sound Barrier should make it more effective against incoming burst damage. As part of his last rework, Crossfade’s radius was heavily reduced, but its potency was increased to compensate. While the change was better for him overall, the radius was small enough that it was often difficult to keep his allies in range during a fight, even if they felt reasonably close together. The increased radius should help in these situations.
Crossfade
Aura radius increase from 10 to 12 meters
Sound Barrier
Temporary shields granted increased from 500 to 750
Mercy
Developer Comments Mercy’s previous healing output made her nearly irreplaceable in any team composition. Even after this change she will still be able to deliver more healing over the course of a match than any other support hero, but it should allow for other healers to be more viable.
Caduceus Staff
Healing beam reduced from 60 healing per second to 50 healing per second
Moira
Developer Comments This change should help Moira in situations where there are no enemies within reach but your team still requires a lot of healing. She will still need to drain enemies to be fully effective, but this just helps her a bit in the rare cases where there is an extended long-range fight that she can’t reasonably take part in.
Biotic Grasp
Passive energy regeneration rate increased from 2 per second to 2.4 per second
Reinhardt
Developer Comments By smoothing out Reinhardt’s Barrier Field, he now will be able to consistently block enemy abilities and projectiles that could sometimes unintentionally sneak through (e.g. Junkrat’s grenades).
Barrier Field
Decorative insignia no longer protrudes from the shield’s surface
Sombra
Developer Comments The head changes are mostly a bug fix, as her head hit volume was abnormally large, especially from behind. Previously if you fired at her from behind near her upper spine, you could land a head shot. Now her head volume is much more accurate.
General
Reduced the size of Sombra’s head hit volume
Symmetra
Developer Comments Symmetra’s primary fire has huge damage potential but it is too difficult to charge because of its low range and slow charge rate. We’re increasing the range to see how it plays out, giving her more opportunities to use it, especially against enemy barriers.
Photon Projector
Primary fire range increased from 10 to 12
Widowmaker
Developer Comments The increased cooldown of Widowmaker's Grappling Hook will slightly reduce the frequency that she can reposition herself. This allows her to be threatened more easily by agile enemy heroes such as Winston and Genji.
Grappling Hook
Cooldown increased from 8 seconds to 10 seconds
Zarya
Developer Comments The smaller radius on Graviton Surge makes it more reasonable for her enemies to try countering it by staying spread out, as well as putting more focus on Zarya to position the ultimate correctly to impact the most players possible. However, the intent of these changes isn’t to lessen Zarya’s overall power significantly so we’re reducing her energy drain rate, which should keep her energy higher on average resulting in more damage and quicker ultimate charge times. Overall, this takes some power out of her ultimate and distributes it else ware to add more counter play against her.
Energy
Drain rate reduced from 2 energy per second to 1.6 energy per second
Graviton Surge
Radius reduced from 8 to 6 meters
GAME BROWSER AND CUSTOM GAMES
Heroes
Brigitte’s Repair Pack now has a minimum cooldown time of 1.5 seconds regardless of custom game settings
BUG FIXES
General
Fixed a bug that displayed an inaccurate AFK countdown timer before removing players from a match if they were flagged as AFK more than once
Fixed a bug that caused the player camera to display an odd location before switching to the first-person view of the selected hero after Assemble Your Team phase ends
AI
Fixed a bug that caused Torbjörn bot to fire his gun endlessly if his turret is teleported by a Symmetra player
Competitive Play
Fixed a bug that could cause players to lose an endorsement level if they exited before a match completes, but after the return timer for a leaving player has expired
Heroes
Brigitte
Fixed a bug that allowed projectiles and splash damage to penetrate Brigitte’s Barrier Shield while dashing with the ability
D.Va
Fixed a bug that caused D.Va’s Light Gun to disappear if Roadhog used Chain Hook on her while she used an emote
Genji
Fixed a visual issue that prevented Genji’s Shuriken ammunition from displaying the correct number briefly after activating Dragonblade
Fixed a bug that caused Genji’s arms to detach from his body if he looked straight down a wall while climbing over edges
Hanzo
Fixed a bug that caused Hanzo’s arms to detach from his body if he looked straight down a wall while climbing over edges
Junkrat
Fixed a bug that refilled Junkrat’s ammo if RIP-Tire failed to cast
Fixed a bug that refilled Junkrat's ammo if he attempted to use RIP-Tire while airborne
Lúcio
Fixed a bug that allowed Lúcio to gain ultimate charge while Sound Barrier was active if he got hacked
Orisa
Fixed a bug that caused the health bar on Orisa’s Protective Barrier to disappear when she used Supercharger
Reinhardt
Fixed a bug that prevented cracks from appearing on Reinhardt’s Overwatch League Away skins when his Barrier Field takes damage
Roadhog
Fixed a bug that prevented Roadhog’s Chain Hook from retracting to his hand if he is interrupted mid-cast
Sombra
Fixed a bug that caused Sombra’s visual effects to display darker than intended
Fixed a bug that allowed Sombra to destroy her Translocator after teleporting to it
Fixed a bug that caused Sombra’s Translocator to bleed when struck by enemy players
Tracer
Fixed a bug that caused Tracer’s Pulse Bombs to stick onto the wrong side of shields when the targeted enemy moved quickly
Wrecking Ball
Fixed a bug that prevented Wrecking Ball from using sprays when in Roll form
Fixed a bug that allowed Piledriver to displace Mei while she is in Cryo-freeze
Zarya
Fixed a bug that caused Zarya’s Graviton Surge visual effects to extend beyond the ability’s radius
Hero Gallery
Fixed a bug that prevented rotating hero models while viewed in the Hero Gallery when equipped with Overwatch League skins
Fixed a bug that prevented the Communication Wheel from functioning when equipping a spray, voice line, or emote from a Loot Box
Looking for Group
Fixed a bug that caused some groups to be unable to queue for a game mode
Maps
Eichenwalde
Fixed a bug that caused Eichenwalde’s castle gate to falls into the ground when destroyed by the payload
JULY 24, 2018
Look out world, Wrecking Ball’s here!
Our smallest hero has become one of our team's biggest achievements. When we first introduced Wrecking Ball to the team, making the hamster hero fit in the Overwatch lineup presented an exciting challenge.
Exploration is the key to animation, so we tried many different personality iterations for the hamster. At first, we made him maniacal, but he felt too evil, so we tried instead to highlight the difference between Hammond the critter—cute, cuddly, mischievous—and the Wrecking Ball mech—powerful, imposing, cold, and impersonal. Our eureka moment was nailing his “Relaxed” emote; I feel like it captures Hammond’s character and personality perfectly. He exudes confidence with the way he shifts his weight in the seat to get comfortable, then throws a cheese puff into the air and catches it in his mouth. After seeing it, we knew we has something special.
Wrecking Ball is one of our most agile tank heroes so far and has unique mechanics that I haven’t seen in other games. It was so exciting to see how much people loved him when we finally announced him. Be sure to roll into a match as Wrecking Ball and, while you’re at it, check out how he uses his trackball to pilot the mech!
—Ryan Denniston, Lead Animator
PATCH HIGHLIGHTS
New Hero: Wrecking Ball (Tank):
Wrecking Ball’s tinkering capabilities and iron-clad mech make him a formidable tank hero, capable of bowling through the front line of the opposition and causing mayhem in the back line. His primary weapon, Quad Cannons, are two sets of twin machine guns that shred enemies caught in their crosshairs. No team is too much for Wrecking Ball to engage against with his Adaptive Shield, which generates more health based on the number of enemies nearby. This shield makes him incredibly difficult to kill when he bulldozes into the fray and, once he starts to get low on health, also provides him the endurance to escape. The Roll ability allows Wrecking Ball to withdraw the mech’s robotic limbs, transforming it into a ball with increased movement speed. No obstacle can stand in Wrecking Ball’s way when he uses Grappling Claw, a short-range ability that grips the environment, letting him swing across terrain gaps or around corners to smash enemies. Grappling Claw also allows Wrecking Ball to reach top speed and ram into foes, dealing destructive damage and knocking them back. While airborne, the mech’s Piledriver ability causes Wrecking Ball to slam down from the air and knock his enemies off their feet.
When Wrecking Ball is at his strongest, he can use Minefield which flings mines onto the ground that deal a considerable amount of damage to enemies unfortunate enough to trigger them.
To learn more about Wrecking Ball, click here.
As with all new heroes, please note that Wrecking Ball's release in Competitive Play will be delayed by two weeks.
GENERAL UPDATES
General
Added a note to Sombra’s Hero Information page about her ability to remove her own Translocator
Removed the Shield Generators Destroyed statistic from players’ Career Profiles
Looking for Group
Added a button that allows you to queue into the selected game mode once the group becomes full
Added a button to relist groups in the LFG browser when the group has empty role slots
HERO UPDATES
Developer Comments: The goal of these changes is to slightly reduce the impact of damage falloff on mid-range weapons. While assessing falloff mechanics across the board, weapons intended primarily for close-range combat benefited too greatly from lowering their falloff restrictions. We also normalized a couple of outliers in that Mei had a long-range travel time projectile with falloff applied and Widowmaker's automatic fire did not have any.
General
Several heroes have received major changes to their damage falloff:
Bastion
Configuration: Sentry and Configuration: Recon - Minimum damage at max range increased from 30% to 50%.
McCree
Peacekeeper - Minimum damage at max range increased from 30% to 50%
Mei
Endothermic Blaster - Removed all damage falloff from her secondary fire projectile
Soldier: 76
Heavy Pulse Rifle - Minimum damage at max range increased from 30% to 50%
Widowmaker
Widow's Kiss - Now has damage falloff applied on her automatic primary fire (50% at max range)
Hanzo
Developer Comments Hanzo’s new kit has proven to be a bit too powerful, especially his new Storm Arrows ability. We’re lowering the frequency that he can have this ability available to make it more reasonable to play around.
Storm Arrows
Duration reduced from 6 to 5 seconds
Cooldown increased from 8 to 10 seconds
Sombra
Developer Comments These changes allow Sombra to more easily play as an infiltrator and scout for her team, as well as give her time to pick and choose when to reveal herself to ambush her enemies.
Stealth
Now lasts indefinitely
No longer can contest objectives while invisible
Movement speed buff decreased from +70% to +50%
Translocator
Now lasts indefinitely
Can now be destroyed (has 5 health)
Radius reduced
MAP UPDATES
MAP UPDATES
General
Developer Comments: In a previous patch we added a system to adjust the respawn rate of defenders in situations where attackers have a prolonged advantage in fights on final objectives. We’re just making this system a bit more aggressive to further reduce the duration of the long, drawn out fights that can occur when the defender spawns are so close to the action.
When final objectives on non-control maps are contested for extended amounts of time and attackers have an advantage in numbers, the respawn time for defenders now increases even faster
Assault Maps
Developer Comments: We have reduced the overall game time for Assault maps in Quickplay and Arcade Modes. Players now have four minutes to capture each point instead of the current five minutes per point. In some games, Point A would be captured rather quickly resulting in what could be lengthy battle over Point B. Point B is typically more defendable than Point A and, in some games, defenders were able to hold for the entire duration of remaining time which could potentially be 8 minutes or more. We felt that in these instances the overall time was simply too long for either team, with attackers unable to take the point and defenders having to hold. The reduction in time is now consistent with the Competitive Play times which provides an ample amount of time for both attackers and defenders, but hopefully removes the occasional game where it feels like you are playing against the timer and not the other team.
Objective time reduced from 5 minutes to 4 minutes per control point in Quick Play and Arcade modes
BUG FIXES
General
Fixed a bug that caused the group leader’s UI to appear that they’re canceling or leaving Waiting for Players when using a controller
Fixed a bug that prevented players from receiving an AFK warning for not moving after receiving the No XP warning for not being in combat
Fixed a bug that caused Competitive Elimination to display as your last match played in the Recent Players menu
Fixed a bug that prevented players added to Avoid as Teammate from being removed if that player was added to their friends list
AI
Fixed a bug that caused Torbjörn bot to continuously try upgrading his turret when placed in an inaccessible location
Custom Game
Fixed a bug that prevented groups electing to spectate from being placed into the Spectator section of the Custom Game they’re trying to watch
Endorsements
Fixed a bug that caused the Team Information screen to display an Endorsement level of a player who left the game
Fixed a bug that prevented the Endorsement input from opening the Endorsement tray if it shared that input with another input
Fixed a bug that prevented the Nearby Players menu from displaying Endorsement levels
Fixed a bug that caused the text for the Sportsmanship Endorsement to bleed outside the chat box
Game Browser & Custom Games
Fixed a bug that allowed heroes to deploy multiple barriers or turrets when a decreased cooldown modifier was applied in a Custom Game
Fixed a bug that caused players to sometimes spawn into a wall or floor when playing a Deathmatch Custom Game with Respawn as Random Hero enabled
Heroes
General
Fixed a bug that prevented heroes from playing a hit reaction animation when shot
Ana
Fixed a bug that prevented Ana’s Naptime achievement from being granted when interrupting Moira’s Coalescence
Fixed a bug that caused Ana’s Sleep Dart effect to persist on afflicted targets after changing heroes
Brigitte
Fixed a bug that prevented Brigitte from dashing forward when using Shield Bash if she was airborne due to Doomfist’s Rising Uppercut
Fixed a bug that caused Brigitte’s portrait to show a non-existent ponytail with her Shieldmaiden skin equipped
Doomfist
Fixed a bug that caused Doomfist’s Rocket Punch to stop if he hit Symmetra’s Turret when it was in midair
Fixed a bug that prevented Doomfist’s Meteor Strike from hitting Reinhardt if he faced his Field Barrier upward
Fixed a bug with Doomfist’s Rocket Punch that prevented it from canceling Genji’s Cyber-agility, Lúcio’s Wall Ride, or Hanzo’s Wall Climb on impact
Fixed a bug that prevented Doomfist’s Meteor Strike impact visual effect from occurring
Fixed a bug that caused Doomfist to plummet to his death if he used Meter Strike in the basement of the Château Guillard Deathmatch map
D.Va
Fixed a bug that prevented D.Va’s mech rear hatch from connecting to her mech when viewing D.Va’s Peace Victory Pose.
Genji
Fixed a bug that caused Genji’s kneepad to clip into his legs when wearing his Classic skin
Fixed a bug that caused Genji’s knees to pop while shifting his weight during his idle animation in the Hero Gallery
Hanzo
Fixed a bug that sometimes caused Hanzo’s Dragonstrike projectile to fire backward
Junkrat
Fixed a bug that prevented Junkrat’s Frag Launcher grenades from dealing the correct amount of damage on direct hits
Fixed a bug that allowed Junkrat to set multiple Steel Traps in Custom Games
Fixed a bug that prevented teammates from viewing Junkrat’s respawn timer if he died while piloting RIP-Tire
Fixed a bug that allowed the player to move the camera when Junkrat’s RIP-Tire was frozen
Fixed a bug that caused Junkrat’s Frag Launcher grenades to get stuck in certain terrain
Mei
Fixed a bug that caused Mei’s Ice Wall to be destroyed if Sombra hacked her
Mercy
Fixed a bug that caused Mercy's Cadeceus Staff and Cadeceus Blaster to appear missing when using quick melee and weapon swap simultaneously
Fixed a bug that allowed Mercy to damage boost certain abilities (e.g. Hanzo’s Dragonstrike, D.Va’s Self-Destruct, and Junkrat’s Steel Trap)
Moira
Fixed a bug that prevented Moira’s Healing Orb from healing friendly training bots in the Practice Range
Fixed a bug that prevented Moira’s Biotic Orbs from trigging controller vibration when using a controller
Reinhardt
Fixed a bug that prevented Reinhardt’s Charge from propelling him forward if he was airborne due to Doomfist’s Rising Uppercut
Roadhog
Fixed a bug that allowed Roadhog’s Chain Hook target to be pulled to his new location when he used Symmetra’s Teleporter
Sombra
Fixed a bug that allowed Sombra to push and contest payloads while invisible
Fixed a bug that caused parts of Sombra’s Translocator to be invulnerable
Fixed a bug that allowed Sombra to reach unintended locations
Symmetra
Fixed a bug that prevented Symmetra’s Turrets from displaying a red outline when viewed by the enemy team
Fixed a bug that caused Reinhardt’s Earthshatter to sometimes go through Symmetra’s Photon Barrier
Fixed a bug that prevented Symmetra’s Teleporter from using visual effects with her Oasis skin equipped
Fixed a bug that allowed Symmetra to receive credit toward her Huge Success achievement if she teleported her Sentry Turrets
Fixed a bug that prevented Symmetra’s Photon Barrier from destroying existing ones when placing a new one in Deathmatch
Fixed a bug that allowed Symmetra’s Sentry Turrets to shoot enemies through walls when placed on uneven surfaces
Fixed a bug that caused Symmetra’s Teleport telegraph to cancel if she fell off a ledge while placing it
Tracer
Fixed a bug that allowed Tracer to gain capture point progress during her Recall ability
Zarya
Fixed a bug that prevented Zarya’s Particle Cannon from gaining energy when attacked by an enemy Symmetra or Zarya if they were too close to her when she used Particle Barrier
Widowmaker
Fixed a bug that prevented Widowmaker from grappling to some walls
Looking for Group
Fixed a bug that caused all game modes to be selectable when adding a player to a group
Fixed a bug that prevented the Choose Roles menu from offering a default role when accessed
Fixed a bug that prevented players from receiving messaging notifying them why they were unable to change a Looking for Group title if they were suspended from changing Custom Game names
Fixed a bug that prevented role icons from displaying on hero portraits
Fixed a bug that allowed two players were able to queue for the same Looking for Group spot
Maps
Junkertown
Fixed a bug that prevented Junker Queen’s voice lines from playing
