An update for Overwatch's Public Test Region (PTR) has shook up a number of the game's heroes as well added a new map, an improved user interface, a pair of legendary skins that were once exclusive to Heroes of the Storm players, and a handful of bug fixes. For more information on the lunar map look here.
The heroes facing a change include McCree, Roadhog, and Reaper, and for the most part are likely to increase their overall effectiveness. McCree's ultimate has been modified to make it less of a suicidal hope-for-the-best tactic and instead a more robust and deadly ability.
Reaper has seen a change to his passive healing ability, no longer requiring the player to be on a killing spree to actually see its benefits. Rather than collect health orbs on the elimination of an enemy, Reaper will instead receive 20% of all damage done to heroes as health. Even if you aren't doing a whole lot of killing, you can still keep your health topped up with smart play.
The alterations for Roadhog are less of a clear cut buff though the reduction of his head size will make him just a little harder to snipe. His scrap gun now has 1 more shot and a greater rate of fire but it comes at the cost of a third of its damage – great news for those who hate the hook combo, bad news for those who like easy kills.
Though the update currently only applies for PC players on the PTR servers, console players and regular PC players can expect to have their hands on the latest version before too long. For a full list of changes in the PTR, look below for Blizzard's patch notes.
PATCH HIGHLIGHTS
New Assault Map: Horizon Lunar Colony
Built as a first step towards humanity's renewed exploration of space, the Horizon Lunar Colony’s goal was to examine the effects of prolonged extraterrestrial habitation—on human and ape alike. The scientists’ research proved incredibly promising…until, suddenly, all contact and communications with the base were lost.
New Legendary Skins
- Oni Genji and Officer D.Va have been added to classic loot boxes
CUSTOM GAMES AND GAME BROWSER
- Player gravity and projectile gravity can now be modified
- Knockback magnitude can now be modified on any weapons or abilities that have a knockback effect
- Jump height can now be modified
HERO UPDATES
McCree
- Deadeye
- Targets now begin locking on after 0.2 seconds, instead of 0.8 seconds
- Damage accumulated over the first 1.0 seconds increased from 20 to 80 (damage per second after the first 1.0 seconds is unchanged)
Developer Comment: McCree’s ultimate can deal a lot of damage if it has a lot of time to build up, but it was often too difficult to get even a small amount of damage out before being stopped or killed. These changes make it more flexible and powerful.
Reaper
- The Reaping (Passive)
- Removed health orbs
- Now regains 20% of all damage done to heroes as health
Developer Comment: Reaper’s old healing passive was useful if you could kill a bunch of enemies in a row. But since enemies needed to be dead for it to work, it wasn’t very helpful unless the situation was already in your favor. His new passive lets him get immediate benefit from it, especially when fighting Tank heroes, which tend to be larger targets that deal lower damage.
Roadhog
- Head hitbox size reduced by 20%
- Scrap Gun
- Bullet damage decreased by 33%
- Fire rate increased by 30%
- Clip size increased from 4 to 5
Developer Comment: Roadhog’s head was abnormally large compared to similarly-sized characters, so we’re reducing its size to increase his survivability. The Scrap Gun changes reduce the power of his hook combo and alternate fire burst damage potential while still keeping his DPS roughly the same.
USER INTERFACE UPDATES
- A quick summary of each player's most-played heroes is now available by highlighting the player in the Groups section of the Social menu (statistics displayed will dynamically change based on the mode/ruleset)
- A new "All Modes" option has been added to the Career Profile that allows players to view combined stats from all game modes
- A new "All Competitive Seasons" option has been added to the Career Profile that allows players to view combined stats from all Completive Play seasons
- The “Damage Done” statistic has been replaced with “Hero Damage Done” in multiple locations
- A new “Barrier Damage Done” statistic has been added to the Statistics section of the Career Profile, as well as an “All Damage Done” statistic, which combines damage done to barriers and heroes
- Averages are now calculated in 10-minute slices, rather than by the number of games played
- “Rate This Match” option no longer appears at the end of a match
Developer Comment: The new “Hero Damage Done” statistic is the same as the old “Damage Done” statistic, but it doesn’t include damage done to barriers, only damage against heroes and placed objects (e.g. Torbjörn’s turret). That number can be found in the new “Barrier Damage Done” or “All Damage Done” statistics. However, since “Hero Damage Done” and “Barrier Damage Done” are brand new, their averages will only be based on time played since they were added.
Also, the old statistics were calculated by taking total damage inflicted and dividing it by the number of games played. This resulted in an average that didn’t accurately reflect the underlying performance, because it didn't take into account the length of the games. The new averages are calculated in 10-minute slices.
BUG FIXES
General
- Fixed an issue causing players to lose progress on their On Fire meter, after the meter had been completely filled
Arcade
- Fixed a bug that could cause the announcer's “select your hero” voice line to play during the end-of-match screen after Elimination games
- Fixed a bug that prevented the Z’s from appearing above a sleeping enemy during Elimination games
Competitive Play
- Fixed a bug that caused your first win to appear as a loss in your Career Profile
Custom Games and Game Browser
- Fixed a bug that prevented some settings from being properly displayed in the summary when viewing 3v3 Elimination presets
- Clarified an error message that appears when a player attempts to exit the Settings page with an invalid combination of settings
- Fixed a bug that caused the lighting from health packs to appear on Capture the Flag and Elimination maps even after health packs had been disabled
- Fixed a bug that allowed Torbjörn’s Armor Pack ability to function even after being disabled in custom settings
Heroes
- Fixed a bug that prevented players from hearing the voice line that typically accompanies their ultimate if they executed the ultimate after being stunned
- Fixed a bug that could cause D.Va to become stuck if her mech was killed just as she summoned it
- Fixed a bug preventing Genji’s sound effects from playing if he used his primary attack immediately after a Swift Strike
- Fixed a typo in Orisa’s “Satisfied with Protection” voice line
- Fixed a bug that prevented Orisa’s Supercharger from being destroyed if run over by the payload
- Fixed a typo in the description on Roadhog’s Junkenstein skin
- Fixed a bug that allowed enemy players to detect Sombra (while Stealth was active) if they were within a certain distance
- Fixed a bug causing Symmetra’s hair to take on an unnatural appearance when her Vishkar or Architech skins were equipped
- Fixed a bug with how Widowmaker’s Grappling Hook interacts with the flying drones on Oasis
Maps
- Fixed a bug on Volskaya Industries that prevented the ice from appearing broken when players fell off a ledge to their death
User Interface
- Fixed a bug that caused the Heroes of the Storm promotional portraits to appear locked, even after being unlocked
- Fixed a bug that could cause an error message in chat if you attempted to spectate a new player while already spectating another player
- Fixed a bug that could cause the chat window to be placed too high on the main menu, blocking menu options
- Fixed a bug that prevented text from wrapping in the Report Player text box
