All Overwatch Live Client Patch Notes - 2019

All the Overwatch Patch Notes released by Blizzard on the live client in 2019.

More updates

• PTR patches - 2019

• Hero balance changes

• Previous patches

• New patches

Click a date to reveal the patch notes.

December 10

Overwatch Patch Notes - December 10, 2019

WINTER WONDERLAND 2019

‘Tis the season to get merry!

Overwatch is getting into the holiday spirit for the next three weeks! Expand your collection and enjoy three winter brawls: Yeti Hunter, Mei’s Snowball Offensive, and the brand-new Snowball Deathmatch! Visit Blizzard World to watch the snow fall, admire its twinkling nighttime lights, and savor the sight of confectionary-inspired décor.

Of course, we have new presents for you to unwrap from our Winter Loot Boxes! Unlock new seasonal items—including legendary skins like Rime Sigma, Jötunn Doomfist, Rat King Reaper, and more. Overcome weekly challenges with wins in Quick Play, Competitive Play, or Arcade to earn a series of festive rewards. And don’t forget to collect three special Yule Log sprays just by logging in!

Learn more about Winter Wonderland here.

GENERAL UPDATES

New Feature: “While You Wait”

In this patch, we’re replacing our “Skirmish” mode with a brand-new feature called “While You Wait!” Now you can choose between a variety of game modes to play while you queue for a match

When in queue, players will now be prompted to pick from the following game modes:

• Practice Range – Practice your skills—solo or in a group—against training bots

• Skirmish - Spar with other players without keeping score

• Deathmatch - Compete for the top place on the scoreboard

• Custom Game – Select a custom game from the Custom Game Browser or create your own. (If you want your custom game to be available for everyone to play, make sure to choose the setting: "Allow players who are matchmaking.”)

All While You Wait game modes are optional and can be accessed by a single player or as a group. Only your group leader can select the mode for their team.

Note: You don't have to leave your queue after a match ends to play another While You Wait mode. In order to access the While You Wait menu, click on the game mode you’re queued for and choose a While You Wait option from there.

WORKSHOP UPDATES

• Custom Games - Practice Range Mode

• New Workshop Values

  • Game Mode

  • Current Game Mode

• New Workshop setting

  • “Allow players who are matchmaking”: allows players who are matchmaking to participate in the Custom Game created

HERO UPDATES

General

• Armor damage reduction increased from 3 to 5

Orisa

• Base armor increased from 200 to 250

• Protective Barrier health reduced from 900 to 600

• Fortify cooldown decreased from 10 seconds to 8 seconds

Sigma

Experimental Barrier

• Health reduced from 1500 to 900

• Barrier health regeneration rate reduced from 150 to 120 health per second

Kinetic Grasp

• Cooldown reduced from 13 seconds to 10 seconds

• Damage-to-shield gain ratio increased from 40% to 60%

Reinhardt

Barrier Field

• Health reduced from 2000 to 1600

• Movement speed penalty reduced from 50% to 30%

Steadfast

• Passive knockback resistance increased from 30% to 50%

Developer Comment: The above changes to armor, Orisa, Sigma, and Reinhardt are aimed at decreasing the overall amount time players spend damaging barriers while improving the individual heroes in other areas. This is a significant change to the pace of the game and we’ll be monitoring these heroes closely to ensure they retain impactful gameplay in the tank role.

Moira

Biotic Grasp healing reduced from 4 to 3.25 (80 HP/s to 65 HP/s)

Developer Comment: Moira’s primary heal has proven to be too potent, largely due to its ability to heal multiple targets.

D.Va

Defense Matrix cooldown decreased from 2 seconds to 1.5 seconds

Developer Comment: With role locks in place there is some room to improve D.Va’s impact as a tank, so we’re partially reverting a previous change which increased Defense Matrix’s cooldown.

Widowmaker

Grappling Hook cooldown increased from 10 to 12 seconds

Developer Comment: With barriers having less uptime, Widowmaker will be even more effective at locking down long sight lines. This change weakens her mobility so she can still be reasonably countered.

Torbjörn

Overload cooldown decreased from 12 to 10 seconds

Developer Comment: Torbjörn has difficulty in extended team fights once his turret is eliminated and Overload has been used. This change allows Torbjörn to be able to rely on his Overload more often.

Genji

Ammo increased from 24 to 30

Developer Comment: As average hero survivability has gone up over time, Genji can sometimes have difficulty finishing off his targets. Loosening his ammunition constraints will help give him a small boost.

Zarya

Particle Cannon (Secondary Fire)

• Explosion radius increased from 2 to 2.5 meters

• Ammo cost decreased from 25 to 20

Developer Comment: Zarya’s overall damage output is in a good spot but the secondary fire was left feeling a little too weak after the last set of changes.

BUG FIXES

General

• Fixed a bug that caused players spectating teammates during killcam to be unable to rotate the camera

• Fixed a bug that caused the "Prepare Your Defenses" text to appear for the attacking team when a game starts in Mystery Heroes

• Fixed a bug that could cause a client crash when attempting to spectate a friend at the start of a quickplay game

• Fixed an issue where Max Health granted by heal-over-time abilities was being calculated incorrectly with Gravitic Flux

• Color Blind Mode - Fixed an issue which caused models affected by infra-sight to appear washed out when using colors other than red

• Workshop - Fixed an issue causing map names and dropdowns from being displayed in the incorrect case

• Workshop - Fixed an issue preventing D.Va from being detected in Player Died events

• Workshop - Toggling the custom game lobby hot key while viewing lobby settings should now properly close the screen

• Custom Games - Renamed Assault/Escort to Hybrid

• Fixed a bug that could cause heroes with regenerating health/shields to not take full damage when damaged while at full health

• Various hero abilities (e.g. Symmetra's Turrest, Roadhog's Hook, Sigma's Accretion, Orisa's Halt, etc) will now respect the collision boxes on vending machines and other such props

• Fixed a bug that caused High Precision Mouse Input to cause toggle crouch to behave inconsistently

Maps

• Black Forest (1v1) - Fixed a bug that allowed Reaper to Shadow Step through the breakable doors

Heroes

Doomfist

• The default circle is now hidden when using advanced reticle settings

• Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented the sound effect of Doomfist's Rising Uppercut from playing

• Fixed a bug where Seismic Slam could land on an enemy's head while playing FFA modes

Junkrat

• Fixed a bug where Junkrat grenades would not explode when slowly rolling down steep inclines

Lucio

• Fixed a bug that caused the audio visualization effect on Lucio's glasses to disappear

Orisa

• Fixed an issue where Orisa's halt projectile could sometimes appear to go through the ground when viewed in 3rd person

Reaper

• Fixed a bug allowing a player to swap heroes while using Shadowstep

Roadhog

• Fixed a bug that prevented Roadhog's hook from damaging turrets and barriers

Sigma

• Fixed a bug that caused Sigma's primary fire not to function if he was hacked while deploying experimental barrier

Widowmaker

• Turning off the toggle zoom control option for Widowmaker while zoomed in no longer remains stuck in the zoomed state

November 5

Overwatch Patch Notes - November 5, 2019

GENERAL UPDATES

New Gameplay Option: High Precision Mouse Input

Enabling this option will allow Overwatch to use your mouse's native polling rate when determining exactly where to shoot. Note: There may be a slight performance cost to enabling this option. More details can be found here.

COMPETITIVE PLAY UPDATES

General Updates

• Starting with Season 19, we are moving the beginning (and end) of competitive play seasons from the 1st of every other month, to the first Thursday of every other month. We will also be starting the season later in the day to better correspond with developer availability during the day. Season 19 now starts on November 7, at 18:00 UTC (10:00 PST, 13:00 EST).

• We will also be introducing a rotating, seasonal Map Pool to competitive play starting with Season 19. The initial map pool for Season 19 has 12 maps, with 3 of each game mode. Future competitive seasons will see maps rotating in and out of the pool, providing each season with a different experience and identity. Information about the current maps available in the map pool is available by opening the information panel of the Competitive Play card.

Season 19 Map Pool:

• Assault: Hanamura, Temple of Anubis, Volskaya Industries

• Hybrid: Hollywood, King's Row, Eichenwald

• Control: Nepal, Lijiang Tower, Busan

• Escort: Dorado, Watchpoint: Gibraltar, Havana

WORKSHOP UPDATES

New Workshop Features:

• Variable Renaming

• Increased number of allowed variables up to 128

• Autosave Preset

New Workshop Values:

• Custom String

• All Tank Heroes

• All Support Heroes

• All Damage Heroes

• Map

• Current Map

HERO UPDATES

General

• Mei's Icewall, Baptiste's Immortality Field, and Sigma's Gravitic Flux will now more heavily prefer edges over placing as far away as possible

Baptiste

Biotic Launcher

• Recovery decreased from 0.45 to 0.36 seconds

• Random spread removed

• Damage falloff range now begins at 25 meters, up from 20

Torbjörn

Molten Core

• Cost reduced 10%

BUG FIXES

General

• Fixed a bug that made it not possible to bind Left-Click to forward movement

• An appropriate error now appears when trying to accept a friend request after you have reached your limit

• Fixed a bug with spectating that caused "Next Player" and "Previous Player" controls to be reversed when using a controller

• Fixed a bug where sometimes explosion effects would not play for projectiles (like Pharah Rockets or Junkrat Grenades)

Workshop

• Fixed an issue preventing the Balanced Mystery Heroes preset from including Sigma

• Fixed issues preventing Dummy Bots from being used in Elimination

• Fixed an issue preventing the Communicate action from working on Dummy Bots

• “Is Dummy Bot” now returns the correct value when given an argument other than “Event Player”

• Fixed an issue preventing ray casts from colliding with certain objects

• Fixed issues with certain colors not working properly with HUD Text, In-World Text, and Create Icon

• Fixed an issue preventing Set Objective Description from working

• Fixed some discrepancies with Point Capture Percentage between certain modes

• Fixed an issue preventing rules from being properly disabled if the player target was a hero

• Fixed an issue preventing Soldier: 76 dummy bots from being able to Sprint

• Fixed an issue preventing null entities returned from Ray Cast Hit Player from being equivalent to null

• Fixed an issue preventing Disallow Button from disabling the Interact Button

• Fixed a bug where accessing other menus while in the Workshop caused any recent unsaved changes to be lost

Maps

• Volskaya - Removed a gap in the walls near point B that allowed D.Va bombs to kill players behind walls

• Nepal: Sanctum - Removed a tiny gap in the windows near the capture point on Nepal: Sanctum that allowed D.Va bombs to kill players behind walls

Heroes

Ana

• Fixed a bug that caused Ana's legs to twitch when her Pharaoh skin is equipped

• Fixed a bug where the syringe would be visually missing in her Sleep Dart pistol after the first use

Doomfist

• Fixed a bug where Seismic Slam's damage indicator was overlapping the reticle if a custom reticle was being used

D.Va

• Fixed a bug that could cause the wrong icon to display in the kill feed when D.Va denies an enemy's ultimate with her Defense Matrix

Moira

• Fixed a bug that could cause Moira's Right-Click sound to be behind you rather than in front

Roadhog

• Fixed a bug where Chain Hook could sometimes incorrectly connect with Symmetra's Teleporter, Ashe's Dynamite, and Junkrat's Steel Trap and Concussion Mine

Sombra

• Fixed a bug where Sombra rarely would not properly translocate to a payload

October 24

Overwatch Patch Notes - October 24, 2019

GENERAL UPDATES

Warcraft III: Reforged Spoils of War Edition – Battle-Wrought Rewards

If you’ve purchased the Warcraft III: Reforged Spoils of War Edition, a flurry of new rewards will be available to you!

• Player Icons - 5 Unique player icons, each one inspired by the classic box covers of Warcraft III

• Sprays - 4 Unique, animated sprays, each one inspired by the base unit for each race

BUG FIXES

General

• Made stability improvements

• Fixed some bugs that could cause sounds to play incorrectly on dual-core PCs

Heroes

Ashe

• Warlock Skin - Adjusted Ashe's weapon sight visual to make it less obtrusive

Orisa

• Fixed a bug that where hacking Orisa's Supercharger twice in a row caused it to become unhacked

October 15

Overwatch Patch Notes - October 15, 2019

HALLOWEEN TERROR 2019

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 gear and relive the chilling tale of Junkenstein's Revenge in our limited-time PvE brawl. Overcome weekly challenges with wins in Quick Play, Competitive Play, or Arcade to earn a series of uniquely chilling rewards!

You'll also be able to unlock new seasonal items—including new legendary skins like Pharaoh Ana, Warlock Ashe, and Will-o’-Wisp Tracer—to add to our growing collection from previous years.

Learn more about Halloween Terror here.

GENERAL UPDATES

The Arcade has been expanded to 7 cards, to better handle its increasing variety of game modes.

COMPETITIVE UPDATES

Season 2 of Competitive 3v3 Lockout Elimination has begun.

BLIZZCON SKINS

We’re celebrating 25 years of Azeroth’s past at this year’s BlizzCon—and to mark this legendary occasion, we’ve created a pair legendary Overwatch skins representing two iconic Warcraft heroes. Prepare to seek vengeance against your opponents with Illidan Genji, and call upon the power of the (hard-)light of Elune as Tyrande Symmetra! These new Legendary Overwatch skins are available to BlizzCon attendees and BlizzCon Virtual Ticket holders.

HERO UPDATES

D.Va

Defense Matrix

• Regeneration rate increased from 12.5% to 16% per second

• Delay before regeneration begins lowered from 1 second to 0.75 seconds

Developer Comment: This change will allow D.Va to absorb more damage over time, while still keeping the maximum duration she can absorb at one time the same.

Orisa

Protective Barrier

• Cooldown increased from 9 to 10 seconds

Developer Comment: Orisa’s barrier is often too difficult to deal with. This increased cooldown will make it more reasonable to destroy it before she can place another one.

Roadhog

Scrap Gun

• Ammunition increased from 5 to 6.

Developer Comment: Roadhog is one of the best heroes at breaking down barriers quickly, but often he would be out of ammo and unable to capitalize on a barrier being destroyed. This change gives him more opportunities to poke at these high health targets and still having extra shots to threaten the enemy.

Sigma

Kinetic Grasp

• No longer blocks Chain Hook and Whip Shot

Gravitic Flux

• High gravity effect duration reduced from 1.2 to 0.9 seconds

Experimental Barrier

• Regeneration rate reduced from 175 to 150 per second

• Now has a 1 second cooldown after recalling the barrier

• Initial 0.2 second cast time removed

Developer Comment: Sigma can often feel difficult to counter since he can so quickly reposition his shield and use Kinetic Grasp to block from other directions. We’re opening up some weaknesses in these abilities to allow for more counter play from his enemies.

Winston

Barrier Projector

• Duration increased from 6 to 9 seconds

• Health increased from 600 to 700

Developer Comment: Winston’s barrier often feels unreliable as a protection tool since it can be destroyed so quickly. Raising the health and duration should allow for him to apply pressure and protect his team more consistently.

Baptiste

Immortality Field

• Health decreased from 250 to 200

Developer Comment: Immortality Field is a very strong ability with its weakness being that it is destroyable. We’re lowered the health of the device so that its can be countered more easily.

Lucio

Crossfade

• Speed boost's effect increased from 20% to 25%

Amp It Up

• Speed boost's amplification increased from 50% to 60%

Wall Ride

• Speed buff reduced from 40% to 30%

Developer Comment: Lucio has had previous reductions to his speed that were put in place to reduce his effectiveness when boosting more than 2 tanks. Now that this is no longer possible, he is gaining some of his speed back. The Wall Ride change is there to counteract the increase in speed, so it should feel the same as it did before the change.

Mercy

Valkyrie

• The extra beams created by Valkyrie now ignore enemy barriers

Developer Comment: This change will make Valkyrie makes Mercy’s beams consistent with how they work outside of the ultimate.

Moira

Biotic Grasp

• Self-healing reduced from 30 to 20 health per second

Developer Comment: Moira’s dueling capability is a bit too strong, so we’re reducing the self-healing gain from her Biotic Grasp to make it more reasonable to fight against her alone.

Doomfist

Rocket Punch

• Time to reach max charge increased from 1 to 1.4 seconds

The Best Defense…

• Shield health gained per hit reduced from 35 to 30

Developer Comment: We’re increasing Doomfist’s charge time for Rocket Punch to give players more warning when he is charging this powerful ability. We’re also reducing the shield health gain from his passive ability to weaken how much damage he can soak while dishing out his own.

Sombra

Translocator

• Cooldown increased from 4 to 6 seconds

• Cooldown now begins immediately upon deploying the beacon or if it is killed by an enemy

Developer Comment: Having the Translocator cooldown begin right when it is thrown allows Sombra more flexibility in how she can use it. For example, she can now often redeploy it instantly after teleporting to it, or quickly destroy and reposition it while sneaking around. The cooldown has been increased to compensate for this change.

Symmetra

Photon Barrier

• Duration reduced from 15 to 12 seconds

• Health reduced from 5000 to 4000

Sentry Turret

• Damage per second reduced from 50 to 40

Photon Projector

• Players impacted by the primary fire beam should now hear a louder impact sound

Developer Comment: The duration of Photon Barrier was too high considering its impact on a battle. Recent changes have seen large increases in Symmetra’s overall damage output, so we’re reducing her turret damage in lieu of making further damage adjustments to her Photon Projector.

Tracer

Pulse Pistols

• Damage falloff now starts at 13 meters, up from 10 meters

Developer Comment: This change will allow Tracer to play from slightly further away from her targets, allowing her to stay safer while still keeping pressure on her enemies.

BUG FIXES

General

• Fixed a player profile issue preventing hero win percentages from being displayed for competitive arcade mode seasons

Heroes

Brigitte

• Fixed a bug with Brigitte's Rally checking line of sight from her feet instead of from her head

• Fixed a bug with Inspire's position being affected by the player’s aim pitch

Doomfist

• Fixed a bug that could cause Doomfist's Rocket Punch to not travel forward if he was sliding along a wall while airborne

• Fixed a bug that caused Rocket Punch to briefly stop all movement on a Fortified Orisa

• Fixed a bug that allowed Doomfist to use Meteor Strike before taking impact damage from Sigma’s Gravitic Flux

Sigma

• Fixed a bug that allowed Sigma's Gravitic Flux to ignore line of sight through some ceilings

Sombra

• Fixed a bug with EMP's position being affected by player’s aim pitch

Winston

• Fixed a bug that caused Winston’s Barrier Projector to not consistently play its destroyed visual effects

September 24

Overwatch Patch Notes - September 24, 2019

HERO UPDATES

General

• Reverted edge-placement change for ground targeted abilities (Reaper's Shadowstep, Mei's Icewall, Symmetra's Teleporter, etc)

BUG FIXES

General

• Made changes to improve game stability

Maps

• Paris - Fixed a bug that allowed players to shoot through one of the spawn doors

Heroes

Bastion

• Brick Bastion Skin – Updated muzzle flash VFX

September 17

Overwatch Patch Notes - September 17, 2019

PATCH HIGHLIGHTS

Bastion’s Brick Challenge

Get ready to play with Bastion’s Brick Challenge and some special, unlockable in-game content! Wins in Quick Play, Competitive Play, or Arcade will earn you themed sprays, player icons, and a new legendary skin: Brick Bastion!

Tune in to participating Twitch broadcasters while they’re playing Overwatch any time through 9/30 to earn a total of seven Bastion’s Brick Challenge sprays and icons!

To learn more about Bastion’s Brick Challenge, click here.

HERO UPDATES

General

• Ground targeted abilities (Reaper’s Shadowstep, Mei’s Icewall, Synnetra’s Teleporter, etc) will now more heavily prefer edges over placing as far away as possible.

Bastion

Self-repair

• Self-repair no longer consumes resource while Bastion is at full health

• Bastion now correctly initiates 0.25 sec of recovery time when canceling Self-Repair by firing

Symmetra

Primary Fire

• Beam width lowered from 0.3 meters to 0.2

• Beam DPS per level lowered from 65/130/195 to 60/120/180

Zarya

Primary Fire

• Beam width is now 0.15 meters and no longer scales with energy

• Max Beam DPS lowered from 190 to 170

Sigma

Hyper Spheres

• Explosion damaged reduced from 35 to 30

Experimental Barrier

• Added a toggle option for deploying Sigma’s Experimental Barrier

• Being hacked by Sombra will now recall his barrier if it is deployed. (EMP will still destroy the barrier first if both are in range)

Accretion

• Explosion damage increased from 50 to 60

Gravitic Flux

• Intro cast time increased from 0.4 seconds to 0.6

WORKSHOP UPDATES

New Workshop actions:

• Create Dummy Bot

  • Creates a dummy bot, which is a full player that has no human or AI controlling it. Using other Workshop actions, dummy bots can move, aim, press buttons, and do most things that human players can do.

• Destroy Dummy Bot

  • Destroys a dummy bot.

• Start Throttle In Direction

  • Either sets or modifies the throttle (directional movement input) for a given player (human, AI bot, or dummy bot).

• Stop Throttle In Direction

  • Stops the change to throttle being caused by Start Throttle In Direction.

• Create Beam Effect

  • Creates a beam effect between two positions (either or both of which may be a player).

New parameters to existing Workshop actions:

• Create HUD Text

  • New SpectatorVisibility option for defining when spectators can see the text.

  • New colors have been added to Text Color.

• Create In-World Text

  • New SpectatorVisibility option for defining when spectators can see the text.

  • New colors have been added to Text Color.

• Create Effect and Play Effect

  • New colors have been added.

New Workshop value:

• Is Dummy Bot

  • Whether a given player is a dummy bot.

New Workshop Inspector features:

• Copy current variables to CSV [PC-Only] :

  • Copies the currently visible variables to the system clipboard in CSV format. These can be pasted into text and spreadsheet applications.

• Copy all variables to CSV [PC-Only] :

  • Copies all variables throughout the Inspector history for the currently selected entity to the system clipboard in CSV format. These can be pasted into text and spreadsheet applications.

• Copy current variables as actions:

  • Copies the currently visible variables to the clipboard in Workshop text format. These can be pasted back into a Workshop action list.

BUG FIXES

General

• Workshop - Fixed a bug that caused the "Enable Workshop Inspector" option not to reset when using Restore Defaults

• Workshop - The "Is Firing Primary" Workshop value now correctly reports whether Sigma is using his Hyperspheres

• Fixed an issue where killing D.Va's mech via Environment kill would not always grant the full amount of ult charge

• Fixed an issue where knockbacks would sometimes be shorter than intended if the target was moving down an incline

• Players should no longer get stuck inviting players when using 'Stay As Team' feature

• Attempting to save a highlight without sufficient disk space now displays an appropriate error message

• Fixed an issue where the first person camera would be incorrectly offset when switching heroes in some workshop scenarios

• Competitive arcade season ratings now display a skill rating in the career profile

• Season 1 competitive end ratings now show correctly in leaderboards

Maps

Paris

• Fixed a bug that allowed Moira's Biotic Orb to pass through the attacker's spawn door

Heroes

Ashe

• Improved the ability for B.O.B. to get through doorways and more consistently make it to where he was launched towards

Bastion

• Fixed a bug where Bastion was not entering a recovery state when immediately firing weapons after Self-Repair is used

Brigitte

• Fixed a bug with Brigitte’s Repair Pack cooldown scalar not working in custom games

D.Va

• Fixed a bug that allowed D.Va's mech to block Earthshatter briefly during the destruction animation

Hanzo

• Fixed a bug that caused Hanzo's bow to flicker when switching to Sonic Arrow, when certain skins were equipped

Lucio

• Fixed an issue where knockbacks applied to enemies moving down ramps would not knock back as far as intended.

Mercy

• Fixed a bug where Mercy could sometimes mispredict being able to Guardian Angel to a teammate who had died behind a wall.

Orisa

• Fixed a bug that caused players to be thrown further than intended when escaping the pulling effect of Orisa's Halt

Sigma

• Fixed a bug that caused the first-person animations for Kinetic Grasp, Accretion, Experimental Barrier return/retract, and primary fire not to play correctly when used immediately after being frozen

• Fixed a bug that caused Hyperspheres to appear without any VFX or animation after letting the cast timer on Gravitic Flux expire

• Fixed a bug that incorrectly allowed Sigma to gain shields after absorbing a healing orb from Moira with his Kinetic Grasp

• Corrected various Sigma team color visual effects

• Fixed a bug with Sigma’s Damage Blocked average per 10 min not appearing in career profile

Sombra

• Fixed a bug with Sombra detection radius being affected by player aim pitch

Wrecking Ball

• Fixed an issue preventing Wrecking Ball specific stats from showing up in the Career Profile

• Fixed a bug with adaptive shields area being affected by aim pitch

Zenyatta

• Fixed a bug that prevented Zenyatta from using a Teleporter while Transcendence is active

August 27

Overwatch Patch Notes - August 27, 2019

PATCH HIGHLIGHTS

New Feature: Hotfixing

With this patch, the Overwatch client on all platforms can now automatically receive minor updates (hotfixes) without needing to be restarted. Hotfixes require online connectivity, access to disk, and sufficient disk space. In the event a hotfix can’t be received, you may encounter a message you can resolve via one of the following platform-specific support articles:

PC Articles

• Overwatch Error: Unable to Install or Patch (PC)

• Overwatch Error: Insufficient Disk Space (PC)

• Overwatch Error: Insufficient Write Permissions (PC)

• Overwatch Error: Unable to download data (PC)

New Feature: Shared Install (PTR and Live)

The PTR and Live Overwatch PC clients can now share storage when installed to the same file path on disk. This should reduce the disk space required to install and update multiple clients. As a result, today’s PTR client should require only ~1.2GB of additional disk storage. Players with previous Overwatch PTR clients installed can uninstall and reinstall to a common disk location to benefit from this feature.

Note: Overwatch League Replay Viewer also supports shared installation with the PTR and Live clients.

BUG FIXES

General

• Custom Game - Fixed an issue where presets saved with Symmetra's "Teleportation Duration" were being flagged as invalid

• Role Queue Beta Season - Fixed a bug that prevented players from earning achievements when playing in the Role Queue Beta

• Role Queue Beta Season - Fixed a bug that could cause players not to receive an SR update when the entire opposing team left the match

• Fixed a bug that incorrectly applied Role Queue restrictions to vs. A.I. games

• Fixed a bug that prevented players from selecting roles in Quick Play LFGs

• Workshop - fixed an issue with "unknown error" preventing players from loading certain Custom Game presets

• Fixed a bug that could cause status effect toasts (stunned, slept, resurrected, hacked, detected, etc.) to get stuck on screen

Heroes

Brigitte

• Fixed a bug with Brigitte's Repair Pack granting defensive assist credit anytime after a target was healed

• Fixed a bug with Brigitte's Repair Pack not playing a sound effect for the receiving player

August 13

Overwatch Patch Notes - August 13, 2019

PATCH HIGHLIGHTS

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 games. In Competitive 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 heroes to play within their chosen roles. At the end of a match, competitive players will return to the main menu and select their role before queuing into their next game. For more information about Role Queue, read the detailed blog post.

New Hero: Sigma (Tank)

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. Sigma uses Accretion to gather a mass of debris, then flings it at an enemy, knocking 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

Endorsements

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

  • Mystery Heroes

  • No Limits

  • Deathmatch

  • Total Mayhem

  • Low Grav

  • All PvE Event game modes (Uprising, Retribution, Storm Rising)

Game Modes

• 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 administrator-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.

HERO UPDATES

General

• Global ultimate cost increased 12%.

Developer Comment: Considering how high impact they are, ultimates are coming up too often. We are reducing how quickly they charge so fewer fights will be determined by ultimate usage.

• Slowing Effects: Instead of stacking together, friendly and hostile slowing effects are now separate, and movement speed will be determined by whichever is slower.

Developer Comment: This change will mostly impact heroes who slow themselves, such as when Widowmaker scopes or Reinhardt puts up his barrier. In these cases, hostile slowing effects, such as Symmetra’s turrets or Mei’s freezing will not hinder these heroes unless they stop slowing themselves or the hostile effect’s slow value surpasses their own.

• Fixed a bug in which full damage was not dealt by abilities that rapidly gain/lose targets, such as fast-tracking with Zarya's 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 to make sure they don’t end up too strong.

Ashe

• Reload time per round decreased from 0.3 to 0.25 seconds.

Developer Comment: Ashe's full reload time felt overly restrictive. However, a long reload time is intended to balance out the power of her gun, so we want to be careful not to eliminate that completely.

Brigitte

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 only one of two support heroes for your team, it is important that she can provide enough healing to be valuable in that role.

D.Va

Call Mech

• Pilot ultimate cost reduced by 12%

Developer Comment: This change is just meant to counteract the global increase in ultimate cost. The time it takes to generate a D.Va’s ultimate when out of her mech should remain the same as it was before this update.

Doomfist

Melee

• Quick melee no longer pauses ammo reload.

Developer Comment: This is a quality of life change which allows Doomfist to more freely 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.

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 to 5 seconds

EMP

• Activation time increased from 0.2 to 0.35 seconds

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

• Maximum range increased from 25 to 30 meters

• Teleporter is destroyed if the entrance is more than 40 meters from the exit

Developer Comment: Symmetra’s Teleporter is an interesting tool but often felt too restricting to use. Making the Teleporter last indefinitely 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 12, causing the mines to spread out more

• Reduced the activation time from 0.25 to 0.1 seconds

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

BUG FIXES

General

• Fixed a bug that prevented subtitles from displaying when spectating while waiting to respawn

• Fixed a bug that caused charging heroes (Reinhardt, Doomfist, Brigitte) to inconsistently knock each other down when colliding

• Fixed a bug so that some abilities (Hanzo’s Dragon Strike and Roadhog’s Chain Hook) will appear smoother when time is slowed down (end of round or custom game)

• Fixed a bug that caused the Presets UI in Custom Game to be displayed in the wrong order

• Fixed a bug so that placement previews (Reaper’s Shadow Step, Mei’s Ice Wall) should now be much smoother

• Fixed a bug so that placement previews will now hold their position after clicking, until they’ve been confirmed by the server

• Fixed a bug where orientation toggles for placement previews could flicker at higher latencies (Mei’s Ice Wall, Baptiste’s Amplification Matrix, Symmetra’s Photon Barrier)

Maps

Route 66

• Fixed a bug that allowed attackers to leave the spawn room before the round starts

Heroes

Ashe

• Fixed a bug that caused her gun to clip into the camera slightly when jumping while shooting down sights

Doomfist

• Fixed an issue that enables Doomfist to get through doorways while using Rocket Punch and clipping the corner

• Fixed a bug that prevented Rocket Punch from consistently destroying Sombra’s Translocator and not being stopped by it, similar to Symmetra’s turrets

• Fixed an issue so that targets hit by Rocket Punch will now go directly backwards, instead of maintaining any lateral momentum they had

• Fixed an issue so that targets that are immune to stun but not immune to knockback (Zarya's Particle Barrier, Zenyatta during Transcendence) are no longer able to affect knockback trajectory

• Fixed a bug that caused Doomfist to move more slowly for the duration of Meteor Strike when using it while crouched

• Fixed a bug that caused Doomfist to move backwards slightly slower during Meteor Strike

D.Va

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

Lúcio

• Fixed an issue that caused false positives with Lúcio’s animation landing prediction when wall riding

Orisa

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

Reinhardt

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

Wrecking Ball

• Fixed a bug that caused Wrecking Ball to get stuck in his slam animation if he landed on very flat, slippery surfaces

• Fixed a bug that caused Wrecking Ball to be temporarily stuck when using Piledriver on slippery surfaces

• Fixed a bug that caused Wrecking Ball to gain an incorrect amount of shields when using Adaptive Shield

Zarya

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

Zenyatta

• Fixed a bug that caused a delay in Zenyatta's first person quick melee animation when interrupting his primary fire

July 25

Overwatch Patch Notes - July 25, 2019

BUG FIXES

General

Fixed a bug that made it possible in rare circumstances to lose ultimate charge.Fixed a bug that prevented Competitive Play groups being found in LFG.Fixed rare instances of "avoid as teammate" not working.

Heroes

Fixed a bug that caused Kendoka Genji to briefly t-pose during the outro for his Meditate emote.

July 18

Overwatch Patch Notes - July 18, 2019

BUG FIXES

General

Fixed a bug that could cause updates to the chat feed to cause hitches in game performance.

July 16

Overwatch Patch Notes - July 16, 2019

PATCH HIGHLIGHTS

Summer Games 2019

The Summer Games are back! Hone your competitive edge with Season 3 of Copa Lúcioball, and beat the heat with legendary skins like Surf ‘n’ Splash Torbjörn, Wave Hanzo, and Kendoka Genji. Unlock these and more, along with seasonal items from previous years!

New Feature: Subtitles

Choose between 3 additive levels of subtitling: Critical Gameplay, Critical Gameplay + Conversations, and Everything.  This new feature was created to improve the gameplay experience for players that are deaf or hard of hearing, and also for players who enjoy reading closed captions.

WORKSHOP UPDATES

General

• Added the ability for scripters to measure the server performance of the current game instance.

  • Three new values make this possible:

    • Server Load - Provides a percentage representing the CPU load of the current game instance.

    • Server Load Average - Provides a percentage representing the average CPU load of the current game instance over the last two seconds.

    • Server Load Peak - Provides a percentage representing the highest CPU load of the current game instance over the last two seconds.

  • As these numbers approach or exceed 100, it becomes increasingly likely that the game instance will be shut down because it is consuming too many resources.

  • A new preset example displays these values as HUD text in the upper-left corner of the screen. The rule in the preset can be copied into other scripts to help identify performance problem areas.

• When a game instance shuts down due to excessive Workshop script load, a new error message is displayed in the chat window (instead of the “unexpected error” message).

• Additional strings added.

BUG FIXES

General

• Fixed a bug that could cause players who have selected a hero during the Hero Select Phase to have their hero deselected when the Setup Phase begins.

• In spectator mode, health and armor types are now properly displayed in the order they are consumed when taking damage.

• Color blind - Fixed a bug that caused incorrect default colors to be applied to the objective UI depending on when you attack or defend while having only 1 color blind color set.

• Orisa's Supercharger, Baptiste's Immortality Field, and Ashe's own Dynamite are now valid targets for aim assist.

Workshop

• Fixed a bug that caused "Set Invisible" to function incorrectly for Reinhardt when using secondary fire while viewing in third person.

• Custom Game: Fixed a bug that could cause AI bots to become stuck on their way to the capture point on the Oasis: University map.

• Fixed the “Disable Built-In Game Mode Respawning” and “Set Respawn Max Time” actions.

• Custom Game: Fixed a bug where Widowmaker's Venom Mine damage wasn't affected by custom game damage scalars.

• Fixed a bug that caused controllers to lose focus when deleting a rule, action, or condition that is not displayed on screen.

• Fixed a bug that caused an "Invalid Options" error message after importing some older workshop share codes.

• Disabling certain actions no longer cause an infinite loop.

Replays

• Fixed a bug that caused the FOV button to not function when watching a replay.

• Fixed a bug that caused player outlines to disappear when skipping or scrubbing while following a player in first person or third person.

• Fixed a bug that caused hero effects to remain on screen when skipping ahead while paused.

Maps

Hanamura

• Fixed a bug that allowed certain heroes to become stuck in the roof outside of Point B.

• Fixed a bug that allowed some heroes to float between building rooftops near the Point A choke.

Havana (PvP)

• Fixed a bug that allowed a defender to enter the attacker's spawn room (left exit, 2nd attack spawn room).

Numbani

• Updated lighting for highlight intros.

Heroes

Baptiste

• Fixed a bug where Baptiste's Amplification Matrix was not boosting healing effects.

Doomfist

• Fixed a bug where Seismic Slam could fail to register.

D.Va

• Fixed a bug where D.Va's Defense Matrix would fail to absorb projectiles around a corner in certain circumstances.

Baptiste

• Fixed a visual inconsistency with Baptiste's head with his Spec Ops skin equipped.

Hanzo

• Fixed a bug that could cause a dead Hanzo's bow to appear floating above the ground, when that Hanzo had his Kabuki skin equipped.

Roadhog

• Fixed a bug where Roadhog's chain would sometimes not render in first person.

Moira

• Fixed a bug where Moira's Coalescence would sometimes not render in first person.

• Fixed a bug where Moira was still briefly visible after using Fade.

Sombra

• Fixed a bug where Sombra's Translocator would be on cooldown after respawning.

• Fixed a bug where an enemy could sometimes use an ability if Sombra hacked them while they were already hacked via EMP.

Torbjörn

• Fixed a bug that made it possible to use Torbjörn's Molten Core and hammer at the same time.

Winston

• Fixed a bug that caused Winston's nameplate and health bar to be covered by his body when he used Primal Rage.

Wrecking Ball

• Fixed a bug that allowed Wrecking Ball's mines to be destroyed by an enemy Wrecking Ball rolling through them without taking damage.

Zenyatta

• Fixed a bug that caused Zenyatta's in-game and highlights portrait to not display his Zen-Nakji skin.

June 18

Overwatch Patch Notes - June 18, 2019

PATCH HIGHLIGHTS

Baptiste's Reunion Challenge

We’re bringing Baptiste's journey in the short story “What You Left Behind” to Overwatch with some special, unlockable in-game content. Wins in Quick Play, Competitive Play, or Arcade will all earn you themed sprays, a player icon, and a new epic skin – MEDIC BAPTISTE!

Tune in to participating Twitch broadcasters while they’re playing Overwatch anytime through July 2 to earn six Baptiste's Reunion Challenge sprays!

To learn more about Baptiste's Reunion Challenge, click here.

New Feature: Replays

Experience your past Overwatch games from a whole new perspective with Replays.  Replays allows you to watch your ten most recent matches from any vantage point.  Whether you want a first-person, third-person, or bird's-eye view, you can see it all with this tool.  Hone your strategies by slowing down or speeding up the game to see exactly how a critical moment played out, get a better view of the action from above, or even turn off the UI completely. 

Learn more about Replays: Blizz.ly/OverwatchReplays

HERO UPDATES

Baptiste

Biotic Launcher

• Increased heal ammo from 10 to 12.

Amplification Matrix

• Ultimate duration increased from 8 seconds to 10 seconds.

Developer Comments: Given the dual nature of Baptiste’s weapon, he ends up having to reload often. We’re increasing the amount of ammo he has to work with so he can get more firing time while healing. Similarly, increasing the duration of Amplification Matrix will allow allies more time to get into position to make use of it.

D.Va

Defense Matrix

• Reduced length of Defense Matrix from 15 meters to 10 meters.

Developer Comments: Defense Matrix is a very powerful defensive ability and can often feel oppressive from far away. Reducing the range on it will require D.Va to position herself more carefully to take advantage of its effects.

McCree

Peacekeeper

• Primary fire recovery reduced from 0.5 seconds to 0.42 seconds.

Developer Comments: On average, McCree’s damage output wasn’t quite making up for the relatively low mobility or utility in his kit. Reducing his weapon’s recovery time improves the potential damage output without affecting the number of successful shots to kill an enemy.

Orisa

Protective Barrier

• Barrier can be deployed without interrupting reload.

Developer Comments: Orisa has one of the longest weapon reloads and interrupting it to deploy a new barrier felt too disruptive to her gameplay. This change allows her to reload as needed while still being able to protect herself and her team.

Symmetra

Teleporter

• Teleporter interact range increased from 1 meter to 1.5 meters.

Developer Comments: This is primarily a quality of life improvement as it was possible to create a teleporter that Symmetra was unable to interact with unless she moved toward it.

Torbjörn

Rivet Gun

• Secondary Fire damage per pellet reduced from 12.5 to 10.5 (105 dmg total per shot).

Developer Comments: The combined damage output of Torbjörn’s secondary fire with his Overload ability was too high given his recently increased survivability.

GAME MODE UPDATES

Assault

• Time awarded for capturing Point A on all Assault maps has been reduced from 4 minutes to 3 minutes.

• Upon losing Point A, any defenders that are dead, or that die shortly thereafter, will have a maximum respawn of 3.5 seconds.

Developer Comments: Assault match lengths are averaging higher than we're happy with, particularly in Competitive where there are multiple rounds. We're also concerned with how often Offense fully captures Point A and Point B. Reducing the round time from 8 to 7 minutes should address both these concerns, as less overall time rewards better Defense.

Additionally, sometimes Defenders fight late with good intentions at Point A and end up staggered from their team when A falls, leaving their team with uneven footing to defend a rush to B. In these situations, temporarily lowering the respawn time to get those Defenders back with their team should be a better match experience and doesn't punish players so harshly for wanting to defend Point A.

WORKSHOP UPDATES

General

• Visual update applied

• Check boxes added to support operations on multiple conditions/actions/rules.

• You can now disable conditions/actions/rules without deleting them.

• (PC) When copying conditions/actions/rules, the contents will also be copied to your clipboard in a text format.

• (PC) When pasting conditions/actions/rules, the editor will use the text from your clipboard.

• Increased maximum number of effects from 64 -> 128.

• Added ‘Modify Global Variable At Index’.

• Added ‘Modify Player Variable At Index’.

BUG FIXES

General

• Communication Wheel: “Acknowledge” pings triggered through the Communication Wheel can now target objectives.

• Fixed a bug where explosions could play in the wrong position if a mispredicted impact happened on the client.

• Fixed an issue where some UI effects weren't being properly colored when color blind settings are set on console.

• Tutorial: Weapon UI is now hidden until your weapon is available.

• Havana PvP – Fixed a bug that could cause the payload to get stuck leaving the Distillery checkpoint.

• Fixed a bug that could cause the Play of the Game animation to be cut off before it ends.

• Fixed a bug that could limit the number of effects displayed on screen at the same time.

Workshop

• Custom Game: Fixed a bug where AI Soldier: 76 wouldn’t fire his Helix Rocket at the same target twice.

• Custom Game: Fixed an issue where ‘Nearest Walkable Position’ would use a location in a spawn room instead of the specified location when the spawn room doors were closed.

• Custom Game: Fixed a bug that could cause AI Soldier: 76 to be unable to use Biotic Field.

• Custom Game: Fixed a bug where disabling primary fire doesn't disable it for transform effects like Hanzo's Storm Arrows, Genji's Dragonblade, Soldier: 76's Tactical Visor, Torbjörn's Molten Core, Bastion's Configuration: Tank, and Winston's Primal Rage.

• Fixed a bug that prevented Sombra and D.Va from using their Ultimate abilities when using the ‘Set Ultimate Charge’ action to grant 100% Ultimate charge.

• Fixed a bug that prevented players from focusing on the Rule checkbox when using a controller.

• Fixed a bug that prevented the "Stop holding button" from clearing the action when using a wait before the action.

• Fixed a bug that caused players to always be returned to the Custom Game Browser when backing out of any game, if the player had been to the Custom Game Browser previously.

• Fixed a bug that forced Console Players to press the button twice when attempting to enter a numerical value when using a controller.  Console Players are now able to bring up the virtual keyboard for manual numerical entry via one button press when using controller.

• Fixed a bug that could cause variable values displayed in the Inspector to fail to update after making changes and restarting the match.

Heroes

Ana

• Anti-Heal will be cleared when Sombra uses her translocator to teleport.

Baptiste

• Fixed a bug that caused Ana's shot sound effects to be played on Baptiste when his Immortality Field is hit by her Primary Fire.

Brigitte

• Enemy barriers now block line-of-sight for Brigitte's Rally.

• Fixed a bug where armor damage mitigation was too effective when multiple instances of armor were stacked on top of each other.

Doomfist

• Fixed a bug that allowed Doomfist to access out-of-bounds areas of the the Havana map during his ultimate.

• Fixed an issue where Doomfist's Rocket Punch would sometimes impact stairs.

• Fixed issue where Doomfist's Seismic Slam was not showing its electricity effect on affected entities.

• Fixed a bug that could result in Seismic Slam not hitting targets when it should.

Genji

• Fixed a bug that prevented Genji’s damage boost from being applied to deflected projectiles.

Hanzo

• Fixed a bug that caused Hanzo's targeting reticle to appear on kill cam for players killed by his Dragonstrike Ultimate.

• Fixed a bug that caused Hanzo's hands to clip into his legs during the Meditate emote on several skins (Cyberninja, Lone Wolf, Scion, Young Master).

Lucio

• Fixed a bug that prevented portions of Lucio's 2019 Pacific All-Stars skin from being visible in highlight and in-game portraits.

Orisa

• Fixed a bug that caused Supercharger to self-destruct when placed in certain locations.

Roadhog

• Fixed a bug that allowed Roadhog's hook to function when he was hacked by Sombra.

Sombra

• Translocator will now escape slippery surfaces more easily and not be able to be stuck to them.

• Fixed an issue where a material effect on Sombra’s hair would cause it to cast a shadow while invisible.

Symmetra

• Resolved an issue where Enemy and Friendly UI color options were incorrectly being applied to Symmetra’s Photon Barrier.

Torbjörn

• Fixed a bug that prevented some of Torbjörn's visual effects from being applied when he used Overload with certain skins equipped.

• Fixed a bug that caused Torbjörn's turret to sometimes destroy itself.

June 3

Overwatch Patch Notes - June 3, 2019

BUG FIXES

General

• Fixed an issue with Deathmatch games that caused matches to be canceled when there were fewer than 7 players remaining.  Deathmatch games will now be canceled when there are fewer than 4 players remaining.

• Quickplay leaver penalty now working as intended for Deathmatch modes.

• Fixed a bug that caused voice lines to stop playing in the Hero Gallery after playing 128 of them.

Localization

• Added remaining Japanese translations for Anniversary unlocks and Workshop content.

Heroes

• D.Va

  • Changed the decal on the Academy D.Va skin from "판결자" to "가디언".

• Torbjorn

  • Fixed a bug that allowed Torbjorn’s turret to shoot through walls in certain locations.

• Ashe

  • Fixed a bug where Ashe wasn't gaining ultimate charge while B.O.B. existed.

• Brigitte

  • Changed Brigitte’s “Take a hike” Anniversary voice line to “Get out of here”.

• Roadhog

  • Changed Roadhog’s “You’re a talker. I don’t like talkers.” Anniversary voice line to “I’m beached as, bro.”

May 21

Overwatch Patch Notes - May 21, 2019

PATCH HIGHLIGHTS

New Seasonal Event: Overwatch Anniversary 2019

Celebrate Overwatch’s third anniversary with brand new items, including Legendary and Epic skins like Riot Police Brigitte, Academy D.Va, Carbon Fiber Doomfist, Honeydew Mei, Orbital Pharah, Gargoyle Winston, and many more! Did you miss any Overwatch festivities over the previous years? Don’t worry—you’ll be able to unlock items from past events using credits (or by opening Loot Boxes!) Relive the thrill of previous seasonal brawls in the Arcade, with a brawl of the day rotating throughout the Anniversary celebration.

Thank you so much for playing Overwatch with us over the past three years! Your continued support and enthusiasm help drive us to keep creating. We look forward to celebrating with you in-game.

Workshop

We’re excited to share a new in-game feature called the Workshop! The Workshop greatly expands the game customization features available in the Game Browser by providing a simplified game scripting system. Enhance the Overwatch game modes you know and love with new game rules, new victory conditions, adjustments to the hero movement and abilities, and much more. Once you’ve designed an awesome new game mode, create a code to share it with your friends or the whole community*! To get started using the Workshop, see our Workshop blog post. We’re excited to see what you come up with!

(* Codes created in China cannot be shared with the rest of the world. Codes created outside of China can’t be used by players in China.)

Note that Workshop is a complex feature that we’re still iterating on, so we may need to adjust or turn it off as we work to improve it. Please post any questions or issues in the Workshop forum.

GENERAL UPDATES

Plays of the Game

• Improved the kill cameras during the Play of the Game replays to better match what happened in-game

HERO UPDATES

Baptiste

• Immortality Field

  • If it lands on a moving platform, it will move along with the platform

Wrecking Ball

• Minefield

  • If a mine lands on a moving platform, it will move along with the platform

BUG FIXES

General

• Fixed a bug that could cause Play of the Game replays to be jittery when played at framerates higher than 60

• Made stability improvements

Heroes

Baptiste

• Fixed a bug where Immortality Field would become stuck under some objects

• Fixed a bug where Immortality Field would behave oddly when placed on a moving platform

• Fixed a bug where a healing grenade would appear in his Biotic Launcher when it is out of ammo

• Fixed a bug where the healing grenades from the Biotic Launcher wouldn’t hit teammates when deflected by Genji’s Deflect

D.Va

• Fixed a bug where D.Va’s speed when using Boosters decreased dramatically when flying over some platforms

Doomfist

• Fixed an issue where Seismic Slam would sometimes not damage people when it should have

Genji

• Fixed a bug where Genji couldn’t climb up certain pillars on the Havana map

Hanzo

• Fixed a bug where Hanzo couldn’t climb up certain pillars on the Havana map

Junkrat

• Fixed a bug where Junkrat would slide off a moving platform when using his ultimate

Moira

• Fixed a bug with Moira’s Scientist skin where her lab coat would clip into itself while using the Erlenmeyer victory pose

Orisa

• Fixed a bug where damage boosting from a teammate’s ability (such as Baptiste’s Amplification Matrix) would count towards Orisa’s damage amplified statistic when using Supercharger

Wrecking Ball

• Fixed a bug where Wrecking Ball could use Piledriver without regard to its ability cooldown in some circumstances

KNOWN ISSUES

Overwatch Anniversary

• Some event rewards (Skins, Icons, etc.) aren’t translated into Japanese. We’re working on finishing up these translations. We’ll add these translations in an upcoming release.

Workshop

• The in-game link to the Workshop Forum will currently send you to the English, Chinese, or Korean forum, depending on your region. This will be fixed in an upcoming release.

• Workshop isn’t completely translated into Japanese. We’re working on finishing up the translations. We’ll add these translations in an upcoming release.

May 7

Overwatch Patch Notes - May 7, 2019

PATCH HIGHLIGHTS

New Map: Havana

Havana, a vibrant, historic port city where the winds of change blow strong, is home to Overwatch’s newest Escort map!

Begin your trip at the Taller de Sebastián, where the classic cars that line Havana’s bustling streets stop for refueling and repair. Escort a truck of rum barrels on the sun-drenched cobblestone roads, fighting off those who try to stop you. As you make your way, duck into a colorful building to escape enemy fire and savor the impressive flavors of Havana at La Cocina de Miranda or Café del Sol. Battle your opponents through the alleys until you reach the Don Rumbotico rum distillery, a once little-known local treasure that has recently earned international acclaim. Finally, guide the jalopy through the distillery to its destination at the Havana Sea Fort, a historical landmark recently purchased by an anonymous financial group and closed to the public.

All-Star Skins

To celebrate the Overwatch League 2019 All-Stars, we’re adding two new Legendary skins— 2019 Atlantic All-Star Mercy and 2019 Pacific All-Star Lúcio! These skins will be available from May 7th to May 22nd.

BUG FIXES

Maps

Havana

• Fixed text errors on Taller de Sebastián and several posters

• Fixed a bug where players would slide along the bottom of the pillars and the wall corners on the second floor of La Euforia

• Fixed an issue where players could become stuck on the Yucca plants

April 16

Overwatch Patch Notes - April 16, 2019

PATCH HIGHLIGHTS

New Seasonal Event: Overwatch Archives 2019 — Storm Rising

Experience a decisive moment in Overwatch’s history during the Overwatch Archives event! Get ready to travel back in time and visit beautiful Havana, Cuba where Overwatch agents are hot on the trail of the notorious businessman and Talon associate Maximilien.

Team up with your friends to capture and interrogate Maximilien—whose knowledge could shape the future of Overwatch. Relive the action of previous Archives events, where you’ll fight off hordes of Talon agents while escaping Rialto and stop an Omnic insurrection in King’s Row.

You’ll earn Archives Loot Boxes as you play, unlocking cosmetics from Overwatch’s past, including Legendary skins like Deadlock McCree, Scientist Moira, Talon Baptiste, Socialite Ashe, and many more!

HERO UPDATES

Junkrat

• Frag Launcher

  • Projectile speed increased from 20 to 25

  • Grenades now bounce less but explode sooner

Developer Comments: With this change, we’re looking to slightly increase the range at which Junkrat can land direct hits. The speed of his bombs has increased, but we tuned it so this wouldn’t affect the arc of his projectile. This means that aiming with it will feel the same. The grenades bounce less and explode sooner, which will allow Junkrat to aim them more deliberately. This will reduce the amount of rolling grenade spam when playing against him.

Reaper

• Shadow Step

  • Can now be used in air

  • Time to exit Shadow Step reduced from 1.0 second to 0.5 of a second

  • Reaper is now invisible for the entire time it takes to exit shadow step

  • Railings and other breakable objects no longer block teleporting

  • Disabled by Zarya’s Graviton Surge and Junkrat’s Steel Trap

Developer Comments: Shadow Step was originally intended to be purely an out-of-combat mobility tool to traverse the map, since Wraith Form was already a great tool for disengaging. However, this made Shadow Step very situational, so we’re increasing its flexibility to make it a better, less niche ability. This will enable Reaper to use Shadow Step in more offensive situations.

Symmetra

• Teleporter

  • Railings and other breakable objects no longer block teleporter placement and teleporting

USER INTERFACE UPDATES

Hero Gallery

• You can now set your Victory Pose choice to random

Social

• There is now an option to set your profile so only your current group can view it

BUG FIXES

General

• Fixed a bug that caused the player’s view to become jittery while standing on certain objects

• Fixed an issue where the camera would be offset slightly when changing rapidly into third person view

• Fixed an issue where players were able to shoot through unintended small gaps on the Ilios, Nepal, and Temple of Anubis maps

• Fixed a bug where your view would become level with the horizon after using Symmetra’s Teleporter

Heroes

Ana

• Fixed an issue with the steam not rising correctly from Ana’s cup in the Tea Time emote

• Fixed a bug where Ana didn’t receive audio or visual cues when a hero she boosted landed a shot

Ashe

• Fixed a bug where the Orb of Discord sound effect would play when Bob was affected by Zenyatta’s Orb of Discord

• Fixed an issue where Bob wouldn’t consistently stop and damage large objects deployed by heroes, like Junkrat’s RIP-Tire or Orisa’s Supercharger, if he encountered them while running

Baptiste

• Fixed a bug where Immortality Field wasn’t immediately destroyed when it is hit by the payload

Bastion

• Fixed a bug where Bastion would take damage while in Sentry Mode if it was hit into a wall by Doomfist’s Rocket Punch

Doomfist

• Fixed a bug where enemies would not collide with walls while being knocked back by Rocket Punch

• Fixed a bug where Seismic Slam wouldn’t break objects that should break

• Fixed an issue where Rocket Punch would knock back Orisa even if she was using Fortify

Mei

• Fixed a bug where Mei could not be healed by other heroes while using Cryo-Freeze

Mercy

• Fixed a bug where Mercy didn’t receive audio or visual cues when a hero she boosted landed a shot

• Fixed a bug where Mercy didn’t receive defensive assist credit from healing beams when using Valkyrie

Orisa

• Fixed a bug where Orisa would take damage while using Fortify if she was hit into a wall by Doomfist’s Rocket Punch

Reinhardt

• Fixed a bug where Reinhardt was unable to raise his shield properly while looking upwards if he had opened his shield while looking downwards

Soldier: 76

• Fixed a bug where his Heroic victory pose didn’t loop properly

Symmetra

• Fixed a bug where Symmetra would gain ultimate charge when her Sentry Turrets were attacking objects deployed by other heroes (Wrecking Ball’s Minefield, Torbjörn’s Deploy Turret, etc.)

Torbjörn

• Fixed a bug where Torbjörn would gain ultimate charge when his Deploy Turret was attacking objects deployed by other heroes (Wrecking Ball’s Minefield, Symmetra’s Sentry Turrets, etc.)

Widowmaker

• Fixed a bug where Widowmaker’s rifle goes into her head and shoulders while walking and aiming her scope, when wearing the Biathalon skin

• Fixed a bug where dying did not cancel Infra-Sight

Maps

Black Forest

• Fixed a bug where flying heroes could get stuck on trees and wall climbing heroes could get stuck on birds’ nests

Busan

• Fixed a bug where flying heroes could get stuck on trees

• Fixed a bug on the Sanctuary map where heroes would bounce when standing on the edge of the first capture point

Castillo

• Fixed a bug where Reaper could Shadow Step to unintended places

Dorado

• Fixed a bug where the spectator camera started at the incorrect position

Horizon Lunar Colony

• Fixed a bug where players could get stuck on top of a worktable

King’s Row

• Fixed a bug where Junkrat’s RIP-Tire could get stuck in the grates on the ground in King’s Row

Oasis

• Fixed a bug on the University map where a hero that touches the enemy team’s spawn room doors will take significant damage

Numbani

• Fixed a bug where D.Va would get stuck behind a desk when using Call Mech

• Fixed a bug where ivy on walls was preventing certain abilities from impacting enemies, like Winston’s Tesla Cannon and Doomfist’s Meteor Strike

Rialto

• Fixed a bug where players killed on a specific bridge would fall through the bridge

• Fixed an issue where players could become stuck between a dolly, the wall, and a counter

Watchpoint: Gibraltar

• Fixed a bug where Wrecking Ball would get stuck on ventilation ducts

March 19

Overwatch Patch Notes - March 19, 2019

PATCH HIGHLIGHTS

New Hero: Baptiste (Support)

Baptiste is battle-hardened combat medic who wields an assortment of experimental devices and weaponry to keep allies alive and eliminate his enemies. Baptiste’s Biotic Launcher fires a three-round-burst that rewards accuracy and recoil control with significant damage output. His alternate fire lobs grenades that heal allies near the point of impact.

With Regenerative Burst, Baptiste activates an intense surge that heals himself and nearby allies over time. When danger is near, Baptiste can toss out his Immortality Field to prevent allies from dying. Baptiste moves around the battlefield with Exo Boots, jumping over obstacles and clearing distances that would stop other heroes. Baptiste deploys his Amplification Matrix as his ultimate, which doubles the damage and healing effects of friendly projectiles.

GENERAL UPDATES

Armor

• Beam-type damage is now reduced by 20% when hitting armor

  • Mei: Primary Fire

  • Moira: Alternate Fire, Coalescence

  • Symmetra: Primary Fire, Sentry Turret

  • Winston: Primary Fire

  • Zarya: Primary Fire

• Damage over time effects are no longer mitigated by armor

  • Ana: Primary Fire

  • Ashe: Dynamite

  • Hanzo: Dragonstrike

  • Mei: Blizzard

  • Moira: Biotic Orb

  • Widowmaker: Venom Mine

  • Zarya: Graviton Surge

Developer Comments: The damage taken by armor from damage over time effects, such as Widowmaker’s Venom Mine, and beam weapons, like Symmetra’s Photon Projector, varied greatly. Now it will be more consistent and predictable.

Damage Boost

• Damage boost is now applied when a projectile is fired rather than when it hits a target

Developer Comments: Previously, the effects of damage boosting were only accounted for if the damage-dealing hero was being boosted as they landed a hit. Now, damage is applied to the projectile as it is fired. This means the damage-dealing hero doesn’t need to be boosted when the projectile hits an enemy for the damage boost to be accounted for.

Knockback

• Knockback distance is now more consistent

• Heroes that are flying can now be knocked back and slowed

Developer Comments: Knockbacks are now less affected by how the enemy was moving when they were hit. Instead of having small or large knockbacks that depend on chance, knockbacks will feel similar regardless of the enemy’s movement leading up to the knockback. Allowing flying heroes, like Mercy when using her Valkyrie ability or D.Va using her Booster ability, to be properly knocked back makes for more fluid, realistic gameplay.

Sound

• A new sound plays when you land a hit while damage boosted

• A new sound plays when you land a hit, but it doesn’t do any damage

Developer Comments: With the addition of Baptiste, we wanted to be sure that you can tell when your hits were being buffed or nullified, regardless of what hero you’re playing.

HERO UPDATES

Ana

• Nano Boost

  • Heal reduced from 300 to 250

Developer Comments: Giving Nano Boost an instant heal effect enabled players to survive longer and made Ana’s ultimate valuable. However, it was a bit too strong when healing heroes with large health pools.

Doomfist

• Rising Uppercut

  • Cooldown reduced from 7 to 6 seconds

• Seismic Slam

  • Cooldown reduced from 7 to 6 seconds

Developer Comments: Reducing the downtime of Doomfist’s abilities will give him some power back and make his gameplay feel more fluid.

Hanzo

• Sonic Arrow

  • Detection radius increased from 7 to 9 meters

Developer Comments: Because of how dense the environment is on some maps, the Sonic Arrow can feel ineffective in some areas. Increasing Sonic Arrow’s detection radius should make it more effective.

Junkrat

• Frag Launcher

  • Impact damage increased from 40 to 50

• RIP-Tire

  • Cost increased by 10%

Developer Comments: Junkrat is one of the best barrier and tank busters in the game, and this change will help solidify this role. This doesn’t change the Frag Launcher’s explosive damage, which remains at 80. The total damage for direct impact is now 130, up from 120. Since we increased Frag Launcher’s damage output, Junkrat builds his ultimate too quickly. We’re increasing the cost of his ultimate to balance this change with his increased damage-dealing capabilities.

Lúcio

• Amp It Up

  • Speed Boost’s amplification reduced from 70% to 50%

• Crossfade

  • Speed Boost’s effect reduced from 30% to 20%

• Sonic Amplifier

  • Soundwave now counts towards Offensive Assists

• Wall Ride

  • Speed buff increased from 20% to 40%

Developer Comments: The knockback on Lúcio's Soundwave is a great tool for pushing enemies into situations that get them killed, so they should be rewarded an offensive assist for doing so. Lúcio’s ability to increase his teammate’s speed was too strong, especially when used on high health/low range heroes. We’re decreasing the overall power of Lúcio's Speed Boost but increasing the speed bonus he gets from using Wall Ride so his mobility isn’t impacted too much.

McCree

• Fan the Hammer

  • Damage reduced from 55 to 50

• Deadeye

  • Damage per second increased from 275 to 550 after locking onto targets for 1.5 seconds

Developer Comments: After reducing armor’s effectiveness for all heroes, Fan the Hammer doesn’t need to deal quite as much damage. Increasing Deadeye’s damage after being locked on for a bit makes it more effective when attacking high health, static targets (like barriers) and heroes with over 250 health. It will not impact how dangerous this is for heroes under 250 health.

Mei

• Endothermic Blaster

  • Primary fire damage increased from 2.25 to 2.75 (45 to 55 damage per second)

• Ice Wall

  • Health reduced from 500 to 400

Developer Comments: Increasing the damage of Mei’s primary fire should make her Freeze and Icicle move combination more potent. Making the pillars on Mei’s Ice Wall easier to destroy means less waiting for the wall to disappear on its own and more opportunities to counter it.

Moira

• Biotic Grasp

  • Heal over time duration increased from 3 to 4 seconds

  • Total healing increased from 50 to 65

Developer Comments: These minor changes make Moira’s passive healing effect on Biotic Grasp slightly more effective when topping off an ally’s health.

Orisa

• Fusion Driver

  • Movement speed penalty while firing reduced from 50% to 30%

Developer Comments: As a defensive tank, Orisa can have trouble pushing forward with the team. Allowing Orisa to move faster while firing should make it easier to apply pressure on the enemy team and use her barrier in proactive ways.

Pharah

• Rocket Launcher

  • Minimum explosion damage increased from 16.25 to 20

Developer Comments: This change sets the Rocket Launcher’s minimum damage to where it was before we rebalanced its direct impact and explosive damage in a recent patch.

Reaper

• The Reaping

  • Healing received from dealing damage reduced from 50% to 40%

Developer Comments: A recent change that increased Reaper’s healing while he dealt damage was a bit too strong, sometimes making opponents feel like Reaper was unstoppable.

Soldier: 76

• Pulse Rifle

  • Damage increased from 19 to 20

• Sprint

  • Delay before you can fire the weapon after using Sprint reduced from .5 to .3 seconds

• Tactical Visor

  • Can target RIP-Tire and Immortality Field

Developer Comments: This change should potentially allow Soldier: 76 to kill an enemy hero one shot sooner. Reducing the time between when you use Sprint and when you can fire should make the ability more fluid and responsive. Giving Tactical Visor the ability to target Junkrat’s RIP-Tire and Baptiste’s Immortality Field drone is a quality of life improvement, since these are both critical targets.

Sombra

• Hack

  • Cooldown is reduced by half when hacking a health pack

  • Changed the visual appearance to more clearly indicate when something has been hacked

Developer Comments: The cooldown on Hack often made it feel less effective to target health packs instead of players. This will make both health packs and players viable targets for hacking.

Symmetra

• Photon Projector

  • Primary Fire’s damage ramps up 20% faster

Developer Comments: This will allow Symmetra to more consistently reach peak damage output from her Photon Projector.

Torbjörn

• Base health increased by 50 armor (250 maximum health)

• Overload

  • Armor gain reduced from 150 to 100

Developer Comments: Torbjörn’s survivability was a bit low, so we’ve shifted some power from his Overload ability to his base health.

Widowmaker

• Infra-Sight

  • Reveals enemy health bars

  • Now canceled on death

Developer Comments: Infra-Sight had no counter to its effect, so it now ends when Widowmaker dies. To balance out its higher risk of use, Infra-Sight now reveals enemy health bars to Widowmaker’s team.

Wrecking Ball

• Adaptive Shield

  • No longer cancels Roll mode

Developer Comments: This will make Adaptive Shield a more powerful survival tool, since being forced out of Roll mode left Wrecking Ball more susceptible to fire.

Zarya

• Particle Cannon

  • Alternative Fire’s explosion radius changed to 2 meters, regardless of energy level

Developer Comments: Zarya’s damage greatly increases when at high energy, while also gaining increased beam size and a larger explosion radius. This often allowed Zarya to deal too much damage and made the explosions from the Alternate Fire on her Particle Cannon nearly impossible to avoid. This change will still allow Zarya to deal a lot of damage, but makes it more difficult to actually apply the damage.

Zenyatta

• Orb of Destruction

  • Damage increased from 46 to 48

• Orb of Discord

  • Effect reduced from 30% to 25%

Developer Comments: Zenyatta’s Orb of Discord makes him a nearly irreplaceable support hero on your team. We’re reducing its impact for Zenyatta’s team, but increasing the potency of the Orb of Destruction to compensate for its lesser effect.

BUG FIXES

Callouts

• Fixed a bug where the “Need Healing” callout wouldn’t display in chat if the hero you targeted didn’t have healing abilities

Camera

• Fixed a bug where, when playing certain heroes, the camera would clip into the hero when looking straight upwards

Career Stats Menu

• Fixed a bug where the season labels for Competitive CTF and Competitive 6v6 Elimination didn’t display

General

• Fixed a bug where damage boost stat tracking was incorrect in some circumstances

Hero Gallery

• Fixed a bug where, if switching between Junkrat Skins, one of the bombs on his vest would spin

Heroes

Ana

• Fixed a bug where Ana’s clothes would clip into her hip pouch while doing the Yut Nori emote

Ashe

• Fixed a bug that prevented audio feedback from playing to indicate ammo was low on Ashe’s rifle if it had three or fewer bullets

Doomfist

• Fixed a bug where Seismic Slam didn’t pull in enemies as intended

D.Va

• Fixed a bug that made D.Va very difficult to knock back while she was firing her Fusion Cannons

Genji

• Fixed a bug that caused Genji’s Dragonblade to end before the deflect duration was complete

• Fixed a bug where Genji would be knocked back unusually far when using Swift Strike to hit Doomfist’s Rocket Punch

Hanzo

• Fixed a bug where Hanzo’s leg would visibly move while he was in his Meditate pose

Mercy

• Fixed a bug where Mercy’s left knee would bend unnaturally when stunned by McCree’s Flashbang

Orisa

• Fixed a bug that made Orisa very difficult to knock back while she was firing her Fusion Driver

Reaper

• Fixed a bug where a button on the shoulder of Reaper’s Lu Bu skin appeared to be floating

Reinhardt

• Fixed a bug where a piece on Reinhardt’s back displayed incorrectly while using the Guan Yu skin in the Hammer Down highlight intro

• Fixed an issue that allowed Reinhardt’s Earthshatter to hit people further off the ground than intended in specific circumstances

Sombra

• Fixed a bug where Sombra’s stealth exiting sound effect wouldn’t play if an emote was used to exit stealth mode

• Fixed a bug where Sombra couldn’t quick melee while using her Hack ability

Symmetra

• Fixed a bug where Symmetra would gain ultimate charge while casting Photon Barrier

Torbjörn

• Fixed a bug that prevented Torbjörn from using Molten Core in custom games if Ability 2 was disabled

Widowmaker

• Fixed a bug that prevented Widowmaker’s Venom Mine from damaging a hero if they triggered it at the edge of its trigger radius

Maps

• Hollywood

  • Fixed a bug where the winning team’s hero lineup wouldn’t display correctly

• Horizon Lunar Colony

  • Fixed a bug that caused the hanging tires near the first point to rotate a Self Destructing D.Va mech

• Paris

  • Fixed a bug where the sounds coming from the Nous vous surveillons apartment weren’t playing

Overwatch League Skins

• Fixed issues with the colors of skins for new Overwatch League teams

February 19

Overwatch Patch Notes - February 19, 2019

PATCH HIGHLIGHTS

New Map – Paris

Paris, an elegant city of art and romance, is the home of our newest Assault map.

Begin your journey at the Cabaret Luna, where the velvety alto voice of preeminent diva Luna charms movie stars, revolutionaries, locals, and tourists alike. After the encore, step outside to see the sights and seize victory. Artisanal shops line the streets as you approach the first point, so duck in to sample a macaron or escape enemy fire. Battle through alleys and corridors before clashing with your foes on the banks of the Seine. Once you establish dominance over your adversaries, make your way to Maison Marat and deliver the coup-de-grâce.

HERO UPDATES

General

• Non-recoverable health, shields, and armor are now consumed before recoverable health, shields, and armor

  • Previous priority order: non-recoverable shields, recoverable shields, non-recoverable armor, recoverable armor, non-recoverable health, and recoverable health

  • New priority order: non-recoverable shields, non-recoverable armor, non-recoverable health, recoverable shields, recoverable armor, and recoverable health

Developer Comments: In Overwatch, a health type order determines the prioritization of subtracting health, shield, or armor types when a hero takes damage. For example, if a hero has recoverable shields and takes damage, the damage taken will diminish the recoverable shield before it subtracts from their recoverable health. Previously, it was possible for heroes’ recoverable shields to be prioritized for damage and regeneration, allowing their non-recoverable armor to persist. With the order adjustment, heroes who have been granted non-recoverable armor or shields will now consume those resources before recoverable health, armor, or shields.

GAME BROWSER AND CUSTOM GAMES UPDATES

General

• Players can appoint lobby ownership to other players in custom games

BUG FIXES

Arcade

• Fixed a bug in Mystery Heroes that caused the HUD to display an “Unspecified” notification when transitioning from Skirmish to a match

Heroes

General

• Fixed a bug that caused heroes to use the “Behind You” voice line if affected by a damage over time ability

Ashe

• Fixed a bug that prevented the lit fuse on Ashe's dynamite from being visible if it was deflected by Genji

• Fixed a bug that caused Mercy or Ana to see a skull hit marker on their screen if they were healing Ashe when she detonated her dynamite

• Fixed a bug that caused the lever on Ashe’s rifle to slip out of her hands when she used her Flourish emote

• Fixed a bug that caused Ashe's rifle to glow significantly brighter when hit with Ana's Nano Boost

• Fixed a bug that caused Ashe’s reload to cancel if she used the “Hello” emote

D.Va

• Fixed a bug that prevented D.Va from being visible to teammates if her Junker or Scavenger skins were equipped

• Fixed a bug that prevented the flags on D.Va’s mech from animating during her Lying Around highlight intro if her Junker or Scavenger skins were equipped

Hanzo

• Fixed a bug that caused the arrow arcs of Hanzo's Storm Arrow ability to be visually incorrect

Junkrat

• Fixed a bug with Junkrat's Mine Like a Steel Trap achievement that prevented Ashe's Bob from counting as a valid target

• Fixed a bug that caused the tail on Junkrat’s Krampus skin to clip into the ground during his Shot Put highlight intro

Mei

• Fixed a bug that caused Mei's hat to fold into itself when she used Cryo-Freeze with the Mei-rry skin equipped

• Fixed a bug that caused Bob to stop attacking Mei if she used Cyro-Freeze on top of his head

Reaper

• Fixed a bug that caused Reaper’s shoulder to clip through his collar during the Executioner highlight intro if his Lü Bu skin was equipped

Reinhardt

• Fixed a bug that prevented Reinhardt's Earthshatter from hitting an enemy if they were pinned by his charge but survived after traveling the maximum distance

• Fixed a bug that caused Reinhardt’s Rocket Hammer to make a hammer sound rather a blade impact sound if his Guan Yu skin was equipped

Soldier: 76

• Fixed a bug that caused the visual effects for Soldier: 76's Tactical Visor to persist after the ability ended if the Ultimate Duration slider was set above 100% in a custom game

Symmetra

• Fixed a bug where Symmetra's teleporter could be used to reach unintended locations

• Fixed a bug that caused Symmetra’s turrets to float in midair after being teleported onto a moving object

Hero Gallery

• Fixed a bug that prevented players from previewing Orisa's Supercharger in the Hero Gallery

• Fixed a bug that prevented players from rotating hero models in the Hero Gallery if the Mouse 1 button was bound to a keybind in the Miscellaneous section

• Fixed a bug that prevented the Owned and Unowned filters from displaying accurate results in the Hero Gallery

Game Browser and Custom Games

• Fixed a bug that prevented players from using the word "support" in the Game Browser

• Fixed a bug that caused a backfill player to become a spectator if a group leader rejoined the match after leaving

Maps

• Fixed a bug that allowed Sombra to throw her Translocator to unintended locations in Blizzard World

• Fixed a bug that caused heroes to clip into a railing when spawning in Château Guillard

• Fixed a bug that allowed Sombra to throw her Translocator through a certain wall in Dorado

• Fixed a bug that caused Symmetra’s turrets to attach to the wall behind her rather than the intended target in Numbani

• Fixed a bug that caused Ashe's Bob to instantly break destructible tiles on Petra

Social

• Fixed a bug that prevented an accurate error message from appearing when a player tried to accept a friend invite if their friend list was full

UI

• Fixed a bug that caused performance issues whenever the kill feed updated

• Fixed a bug that caused Doomfist’s ultimate indicator to float in the spectator UI when Meteor Strike was fully charged

• Fixed a bug that prevented Quick Melee icons from displaying in the kill feed

• Fixed a bug that prevented the “Draw” notification from displaying color blind colors

• Fixed a bug that prevented the melee icon from appearing in the kill feed after eliminating training bots, Torbjörn’s turret, Orisa’s Supercharger, D.Va’s mech, and Ashe’s Bob

January 24

Overwatch Patch Notes - January 24, 2019

PATCH HIGHLIGHTS

New Seasonal Event: Lunar New Year 2019

Get ready to ring in the Year of the Pig!

We’re celebrating the 2019 Lunar New Year with a festive Capture the Flag version of the Busan map, Season 2 of Competitive Capture the Flag, and a load of loot! Unlock new seasonal items, including legendary skins for Huang Zhong Hanzo, Lü Bu Reaper, Guan Yu Reinhardt, Zhang Fei Torbjörn, Hong Gildong Tracer, and Zhuge Liang Zenyatta.

To learn more about Overwatch Lunar New Year, click here.

HERO UPDATES

General

• Armor

  • Damage reduction from armor reduced from -5 to -3

Developer Comments: Before this change, armor reduced all incoming damage by up to 5, maxing at half of the normal amount. This change reduces the damage reduction to 3, while still capping at half. This change will be most noticeable for heroes who fire quickly or in bursts, such as shotguns, and do more than 6 damage per shot. For example, Soldier: 76’s Heavy Pulse Rifle will now do 16 damage per shot to armored opponents, up from 14 (an increase close to 15%).

Armor was a bit too strong overall, especially when heroes were being healed quickly and often. This change will help more heroes fight against higher-armored enemies.

Brigitte

• Rally

  • Now has a maximum duration of 30 seconds

Developer Comments: Sometimes Rally could cause a snowballing effect, making it too difficult to deal with the increased health of Brigitte’s allies before she built up another one. This change limits how long Rally’s effect lasts after its initial cast, to make it a bit more manageable in those situations.

D.Va

• Defense Matrix

  • Cooldown increased from 1 second to 2 seconds

Developer Comments: This change allows D.Va’s enemies to play around her Defense Matrix by increasing its downtime between uses.

Reaper

• The Reaping

  • Life steal increased from 30% to 50% of damage dealt

Developer Comments: Reaper’s passive enables him to play aggressively when near enemies. This change allows him to keep the pressure up while he’s dishing damage to his enemies. The added life steal is particularly effective against tanks, as they tend to do less damage than other heroes, and also take more damage from his Hellfire Shotguns due to their larger hit volumes.

BUG FIXES

Heroes

Tracer

• Fixed a bug that caused Tracer’s Pulse Bomb to detonate on the wrong side of Orisa’s Protective Barrier when it was placed on the front

Wrecking Ball

• Fixed a bug that prevented Wrecking Ball’s proximity mines from being disabled by Sombra’s EMP

Competitive Play

• Fixed a bug in Competitive Play that prevented the team color on the payload progress bar from switching after a round transition

Maps

Nepal

• Fixed a bug that allowed players to capture or contest the point from its exterior on Nepal’s Shrine stage

January 8

Overwatch Patch Notes - January 8, 2019

PATCH HIGHLIGHTS

Ana’s Bastet Challenge

We’re bringing Ana's journey in the short story “Bastet” to Overwatch with some special, unlockable in-game content. Wins in Quick Play, Competitive Play, or Arcade will all earn you a limited-time player icon, victory pose, and a new epic skin: BASTET ANA!

Tune in to participating Twitch broadcasters while they’re playing Overwatch anytime through January 21 to earn five Ana's Bastet Challenge sprays!

To learn more about Ana’s Bastet Challenge, click here.

Overwatch League 2019 Season Skins

Team uniforms come to life as in-game skins! Skin are now ready to equip in-game for the eight new Overwatch League 2019 teams: Atlanta Reign, Chengdu Hunters, Guangzhou Charge, Hangzhou Spark, Paris Eternal, Toronto Defiant, Vancouver Titans, and Washington Justice. Represent your favorite team (or teams) in-game with skins for every hero.

Learn more about the Overwatch League here.

GAME BROWSER AND CUSTOM GAME UPDATES

Spectating

• Status effect icons now display on the afflicted heroes’ portraits

• An option to toggle an over-the-shoulder spectator camera is now available. This feature can be found under Options > Gameplay > Use Simple 3P Spectator Camera

• An option to mute voice lines while spectating is now available. This feature can be found under Options > Gameplay > Enable Voice Lines While Spectating

Developer Comments: These quality of life changes mirror some of the functionality available to professional broadcasters. By bringing these features in-game, we aim to provide players with a seamless spectator experience between streamed professional play and in-game matches with their peers.

BUG FIXES

General

• Fixed a bug that prevented the title text for Ana’s Bastet Challenge from displaying

Heroes

Ashe

• Fixed a bug that caused Ashe’s scoped view to stutter when playing with a high framerate

Brigitte

• Fixed a bug that caused Brigitte to pivot when exiting third-person view after lowering her Barrier Shield

McCree

• Fixed a bug that caused McCree’s model to distort if he used Combat Roll to the right with the Sherlock skin equipped

Reinhardt

• Fixed a bug that caused Reinhardt’s Earthshatter to not be visible to other players if he used it while recovering from a stun

• Fixed a bug that caused Reinhardt to pivot when exiting third-person view after lowering his Barrier Field

Torbjörn

• Fixed a bug that caused Torbjörn’s turret to be built at an extreme angle if it landed on the edge of an object

Winston

• Fixed a bug that prevented Winston from dealing damage when landing at the maximum range of Jump Pack

Arcade

• Fixed a bug that prevented players’ Competitive Points deduction from visually updating after purchasing a golden weapon

Maps

Blizzard World

• Fixed a bug that allowed players to stand on the chimney above the attacker’s initial spawn room

Busan

• Fixed a bug that prevented the blast shields from moving in MEKA Base while in a skirmish match

Hollywood

• Fixed a bug that caused the railing above the first objective to block projectiles after being destroyed

King's Row

• Fixed a bug that allowed players to stand on top of the sign for Moriarty’s Fine Books behind the first objective