Developers Blizzard have continued their relentless free support for their smash hit title Overwatch with the brand new Patch 1.8.0. Having already been tested on the Public Test Realm, and after taking feedback from the community, this patch is now available on the live game for Windows, Playstation 4 and Xbox One. This patch brings many exciting new features and balancing changes for many heroes.
Game Browser
The first and possibly most exciting new feature of this update is the Game Browser. Browsers are nothing new, but this iteration has a slightly different purpose. Rather than being used for finding official servers, the Game Browser works as an extension of the Custom Game mode, allowing players to create their own unique server, public or private, and change whatever they wish.
Whether this means you simply wish to adjust some damage numbers to make things fairer, or you intend to do something completely ridiculous, the freedom is yours. This feature is bound to breathe life into the criminally underused Custom Game feature, meaning you can expect to see a little bit of everything on the server browser.
Capture the Flag
With the recent appearance of Capture the Rooster as the Chinese New Year seasonal game mode, developers Blizzard have elected to take the opportunity to add this more as a permanent feature in the Arcade menu. Capture the Flag will take place on Nepal, Lijiang Tower, Ilios, and Oasis, giving a total of 12 sub-maps to try this new game mode on.
Hero Changes
There are many hero changes this patch, some for the better, some for the worst. The main focus of this patch seems to be Bastion and Roadhog. Bastion has received a multitude of buffs and changes, including increasing his effectiveness in Recon configuration, his survivability in Sentry mode, and his ability to self-heal. No longer does Bastion need to find a quiet moment on the field to repair himself, he can instead heal whilst moving and/or taking damage, using a new resource meter to limit the heal in a similar way to D.Va's Defence Matrix. Bastion now also has a new passive ability, Ironclad, meaning he will take 35% less damage in Sentry or Tank (ultimate ability) mode.
Roadhog has also received some nerfs to his hook, but with a buff to his gun. After the introduction of Hook 2.0, Roadhog still felt way too powerful to a lot of the community, and it often felt like a cheap and unfair fight when you came up against him. Now, Roadhog's hook will pull chained targets to a location 3.5 metres away from Roadhog, and the cooldown on said hook is increased to 8 seconds from 6. This will hopefully alleviate the reliance on his hook, and also give characters a slight chance to escape. To balance this change, Roadhog's Scrap Gun has had its spread decreased by 20%, meaning grouping of shots is tighter and thus, Roadhog's effective range is extended slightly.
There are many, many more changes to different heroes which can be read on the official blog post. Now that you know what has changed, what are you waiting for? There are flags to be captured!
