Overwatch: Patch 1.39, Update 2.72, Role queue, hero balancing, bugfixes

Overwatch is at a turning point in its history with this patch, released on the PTR on Thursday July 18, and updated on July 23 with the arrival of Sigma. By connecting to the PTR, you will have the opportunity to test the new hero, the Role Queue, but also the many modifications made to the heroes to adapt to this new ranking mode.

Overwatch Patch Notes – August 13, 2019

HERO UPDATE

Sigma

Kinetic Grasp

• Can now be cancelled by Accretion.

Experimental Barrier

• Can now be recalled while Kinetic Grasp or Accretion are in use.

BUG FIXES

General

• Placement previews should now be much smoother (Reaper Shadowstep, Mei Ice Wall, etc).
• Placement previews will now hold their position after clicking, until they’ve been confirmed by the server.
• Fixed a bug where first person animations sometimes wouldn’t play when abilities were used immediately after being frozen.
• Fixed a bug where orientation toggles for placements could flicker at higher latencies (Ice Wall, Amplification Matrix, Photon Barrier).
• Workshop - 'Set Max Health' now functions as intended.

Heroes

Reinhardt

• Fixed a bug that caused charge knockback to be applied multiple times.

Sigma

• Accretion now correctly deals half damage to self.
• Accretion projectile no longer gets destroyed when impacting Symmetra turrets.
• Gravitic Flux can now move Pharah during Rocket Barrage.
• Fixed a bug where victims of Gravitic Flux could get stuck on slippery rooftops.
• Fixed a bug where Gravitic Flux would fail to work on Dropship doors.
• Fixed a bug that allowed Sigma to avoid an enemy's Gravitic Flux effect by activating his ultimate.
• Fixed a bug that allowed Sigma to retain some of his movement ability when he was incapacitated (stunned, slept, etc) during his Gravitic Flux.
• Fixed a bug which caused Gravitic Flux to not be cancelled if you switch to another hero while it is active.

Sombra

• Fixed a bug where Sombra couldn't gain ultimate charge for one second after EMP hack auras end on targets.

Wrecking Ball

• Fixed a bug that could cause Wrecking Ball to be temporarily stuck when using Piledriver on a slippery terrain.

Overwatch PTR Patch Notes – July 24-25, 2019

Role Queue

• Fixed a bug that caused the Ready button to be displayed when no roles had been selected, when using a controller.
• Fixed a bug that could cause players to be on multiple regional leaderboards at the same time.
• Fixed a bug that could cause players to appear on the Top 500 All leaderboard when 1 or more roles are still in placement matches.
• Fixed a bug that caused players who allow the "Waiting on you to select role" timer to expire, to get into an unusable state if they were grouped in LFG.
• Fixed a bug that prevented players from interacting with the role selection invite using a gamepad if inside the Play menu.
• Fixed a bug where queue time wasn't displayed properly while in skirmish.

HERO UPDATES

D.Va

• D.Va Pilot ultimate cost reduced by 12%

Sombra

• EMP : (Reworded from previous patch notes for clarity) Activation time increased from 0.2 to 0.35 seconds.

Symmetra

Teleporter :

• Cooldown decreased from 15 seconds to 12 seconds
• Teleport re-use time decreased from 1.5 seconds to 1 second

Wrecking Ball

Minefield : Decreased projectile speed from 13 to 12.

Moira

• No longer usable while stunned.

Sigma

Kinetic Grasp

• Cooldown reduced from 15 to 13 seconds
• Shield per damage conversation increased from 0.33 to 0.40

BUG FIXES

General

• Fixed a bug that prevented Competitive groups being found in LFG
• Fix rare instances of 'avoid as teammate' not working

Heroes

Sigma

• Fixed a bug where Gravitic Flux would do ground impact damage to training bots before they hit the ground.
• Fixed a bug that allowed Sigma to fire more than two Hyperspheres at once.
• Fixed a bug that cause Sigma's "Hello" voice line to not play

Ashe

• Fixed a bug where jumping while scoped shooting could cause the gun to clip into the camera slightly.

Wrecking Ball

• Fixed a bug where Wrecking Ball could get stuck in his slam animation if landing on very flat slippery surfaces.

Overwatch PTR Patch Notes – July 23, 2019

New Hero: Sigma

Sigma is an eccentric astrophysicist and volatile tank who gained the power to control gravity in an orbital experiment gone wrong. Manipulated by Talon and deployed as a living weapon, Sigma’s presence on the battlefield cannot be ignored. Sigma launches two Hyperspheres (gravitic charges), which bounce off walls and implode after a short duration, damaging enemies within a sizable radius. Using Experimental Barrier, he propels a floating barrier to a location of his choosing and he can dismiss the barrier at any time. With Kinetic Grasp Sigma freezes incoming projectiles in midair, converting them into shields. Accretion allows Sigma to gather a mass of debris and flings it at an enemy to knock them down. Unleashing his full powers with Gravitic Flux, Sigma takes flight, lifts enemies in a targeted area, and launches them into the sky before slamming them back down.

General Updates

Role Queue

• Updated the end of match screen so that players are sorted by role.
• Fixed a bug that made it difficult to see which Role Card was in focus when using a controller.
• Fixed a bug that made it difficult to see which Role Card was in focus when using a controller.

Feature Update: Endorsements

Players can now endorse each other in the following game modes :

• Mystery Heroes
• No Limits
• Deathmatch
• Total Mayhem
• Low Grav
• All the PVE Event game modes (Uprising, Retribution, Storm Rising)

Game Mode

• Mystery Heroes - On Control maps, Heroes are now reset between rounds.

Workshop

New Events:

• Player Dealt Healing
• Player Received Healing
• Player Joined Match
• Player Left Match

New Actions:

• Start Transforming Throttle
• Stop Transforming Throttle

New Values:

• Healer
• Healee
• Event Healing
• Host Player

Developer Comment: A commonly requested feature for the Workshop is the ability to track healing, so we’ve added two new Event types and three new Values to make this possible. We’ve also added Events to make it easier to detect players joining and leaving matches. To support the creation of admin-style privileges for custom games, the owner of the game can now be detected using Host Player. Finally, we’ve added the ability to scale, invert, and rotate a player’s input throttle to make controlling characters in third person easier.

Bug Fixes

General

• Custom Game: The Presets UI in Custom Game is now displayed in the proper order.

Heroes

Brigitte

• Fix for Brigitte heal throws that were too loud.

Zenyatta

• Fixed a delay in Zenyatta's first person quick melee animation when interrupting primary fire.

Orisa

• Fixed a bug that caused some VFX to stop playing upon successive viewings of Orisa's "Oh!" highlight intro in Hero Gallery.

Genji

• Fixed a bug where Genji could fail to deal damage if he rapidly used Swift Strike on a single target (PTR bug only).

Sombra

• Fixed an animation issue with EMP (PTR bug only).

Overwatch PTR Patch Notes - July 18, 2019

New Feature: Role Queue

Role Queue is an update to Overwatch’s matchmaking and queuing system that gives players the power to choose which role they play in their games. In Competitive Play and Quick Play, players choose their role before finding a game. The matchmaking system will create a team that is comprised of two tanks, two supports, and two damage heroes. Upon entering the match, players select desired heroes to play within their chosen roles. At the end of a match, players will return to the main menu and select their role before queuing into the next game.

For the time being, we've only enabled Competitive Play for 1.39 PTR. Usual penalties for leaving competitive matches will be enforced on PTR. Stay tuned for updates.

HERO UPDATES

General

• Global ultimate cost increased 12%

Developer Comment: Ultimates are coming up too often considering how high impact they are. We are reducing how quickly they are built so less fights will be determined by ultimate usage. The slows change will mostly impact heroes which can slow themselves, such as Widowmaker while scoping, or Reinhardt while holding his shield. In these cases, enemy slows such as Symmetra turrets or Mei’s freeze will not hinder these heroes unless they stop slowing themselves or the enemy slow value passes their own slow value.

• Slowing Effects: Instead of stacking together, friendly and enemy slowing effects are now separate and movement speed will be reduced by whichever is slower.
• Fixed a bug in which full damage was not dealt by abilities that rapidly gain/lose targets, such as fast-tracking with Zarya and Symmetra's primary fire beams.
• Developer Comment: This is a fairly significant bug fix that can cause beam weapons to do much more damage in certain situations. In particular, Zarya and Symmetra will sometimes feel much more powerful as a result of this bug fix. We'll be keeping a close eye on these heroes after this fix to make sure they don't end up too strong.

Ashe

Inspire (Passive):

• Healing amount increased from 100 to 130
• Self-healing from Inspire is now halved

Repair Pack:

• Now has 3 charges
• Healing amount changed from 150 to 120
• Now heals over 2 seconds instead of instantly
• If you throw multiple packs at the same person, the current duration will be extended by 2 seconds

Whip Shot:

• Out-going velocity increased from 60 to 80
• Retracting time reduced from 0.6 seconds to 0.3

Barrier Shield:

• Barrier health reduced from 500 to 200

Shield Bash:

• Stun duration reduced from 0.9 seconds to 0.75

Rally:

• Ultimate cost increased 10%

Developer Comment: The goal of these changes is to make Brigitte more of a primary healer for your team, at the cost of weakening her survivability. Since Brigitte will now be required to fill one of only two Support slots for your team, it is important that she can provide enough healing to be valuable to her team in that role.

Doomfist

Melee:

• Quick melee no longer pauses ammo reload.

Developer Comment: This change is mostly just a quality of life change which allows Doomfist to more freely be able to use Quick Melee as part of his combos, without feeling punished for it.

Hanzo

Storm Arrows:

• Storm Arrows ammo reduced from 6 to 5

Developer Comment: The overall damage output of Storm Arrows was too high so we’re reducing the maximum number of shots.

Moira

Fade:

• Can now be used while stunned.

Developer Comment: Moira has always been good at healing and dealing damage, but she offers very little utility compared to the other healers. This change reinforces her evasive nature and allows her potentially save her team from area stuns such as Reinhardt’s Earthshatter.

Orisa

Protective Barrier:

• Cooldown increased from 8 seconds to 9

Developer Comment: A common point of feedback for playing against Orisa was that it doesn’t feel useful to shoot the barrier as it comes back so quickly. Increasing the cooldown of Protective Barrier will make destroying it more rewarding.

Reinhardt

New Passive: “Steadfast”

• Reduces knock back effects by 30%

Developer Comment: As a frontline, melee-range tank Reinhardt was more adversely affected by knock back abilities than most heroes. To reduce some of this frustration and enable Reinhardt to more easily fulfill his role, he is now more resistant to being knocked back.

Sombra

Hack:

• Duration on enemy players reduced from 6 seconds to 5

EMP:

• Activation time increased from 0.5 seconds to 0.65

Developer Comment: Hack is a potent disable with a long duration. Reducing the duration slightly will make it feel less oppressive as the hacked player without reducing its effectiveness too greatly. The increased cast time on EMP allows for more time to react and opens up more counterplay for the opposing team.

Symmetra

Teleporter:

• Now lasts an infinite duration until destroyed
• Players can destroy their Teleporter with the ability 2 input
• Cooldown now starts when Teleporter is destroyed
• Cooldown increased from 12 seconds to 15
• Maximum range increased from 25 meters to 30
• Teleporter breaks if the entrance is more than 40 meters from the exit.
• Teleport re-use time increased from 1 second to 1.5

Developer Comment: Symmetra’s Teleporter is an interesting tool but often felt too restricting to use. Making the Teleporter last forever opens up new opportunities for how Symmetra is used in various maps and group compositions.

Tracer

Pulse Bomb:

• Damage increased from 300 to 350

Developer Comment: Pulse Bomb was reduced in power some time ago to make sure it was not overly punishing to Tanks, which are much easier to stick the bomb to. While this is still a goal, we’re restoring some of this lost power to help deal with other hefty targets such as Bastion, or enemies with bonus armor from Brigitte.

Wrecking Ball

Minefield:

• Increased projectile speed from 10 to 13, causing the mines to spread out more. This makes it easier to create a wider minefield, especially from the high in the air.
• Reduced the deploy time from 0.25 seconds to 0.1 seconds.

Developer Comment: Wrecking Ball has a very active playstyle, but often it felt difficult to make good use out of his ultimate. This change allows him to spread out his Minefield further if he wants, while still allowing for a tighter cluster if he activates it near the ground.

BUG FIXES

General

• Subtitles: Subtitles now display when spectating while waiting to respawn.
• Fixed a bug that could cause damage to not be dealt if a damage dealing ability was rapidly gaining/losing targets, like a Zarya trying to track a fast moving hero.
• Charging heroes (Reinhardt, Doomfist, Brigitte) should more consistently knock each other down when colliding.
• Some abilities will now appear smoother during slowed down time (end of round or custom game), notably Dragon Strike and Roadhog Hook

Heroes

Doomfist

• Improved ability for Doomfist to get through doorways while using Rocket Punch and clipping the corner.
• Rocket Punch will now consistently destroy translocator and not be stopped by it, similar to Symmetra turrets.
• Targets hit by Rocket Punch will now go directly backwards, instead of maintaining any lateral momentum they had.
• Targets that are stun immune but not knockback immune (Zarya's Particle Barrier, Zen during Transcendence ) are no longer able to affect knockback trajectory.
• Fixed a bug where if Doomfist used Meteor Strike while crouched he would move slowly for the entirely of the ultimate.
• Fixed a bug where Doomfist would move backwards slightly slower during Meteor Strike

D.Va

• Fixed a bug that prevented D.Va's Defense Matrix from pointing down when D.Va was aiming downward while moving.

Lucio

• Fixed some false positives with Lucio's animation land prediction when wallriding.

Zarya

• Fixed a bug that caused Zarya's weapon and arm to animate oddly during her emotes when viewed in third person.