All Overwatch PTR Patch Notes - 2019
All the Overwatch PTR Patch Notes released by Blizzard in 2019.
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December 11
Overwatch PTR Patch Notes – December 11, 2019
INTRODUCING: PARTY FLEX FOR ROLE QUEUE
Unsure of which role you want to play? Now, party members who queue for any game mode with Role Queue enabled can select multiple roles, indicating what they're willing to play in the next game.
Your other party members' role choices and Competitive Play skill ratings may affect which roles you are eligible to choose, or which role you can play. For example, if you selected all three roles (Tank, Damage, Healing) to indicate your willingness to play any of them, and then two other party members choose Support, you will not get to play Support in the next game.
SPECTATE AND REPLAY UPDATES
Added a new hotkey, "Spectate toggle 3P camera side", which changes the shoulder you're looking over for the player you're spectating while using the simple third-person spectator camera option
Added a new hotkey, "Toggle normal / simple 3P spectator camera", which toggles between the two third-person camera modes while spectating
Updated the death camera to quickly shift from where you were looking to where your killer is, to make it easier to see if you were killed by someone behind you or to your side
Updated the simple third-person spectator camera position for several heroes to have them cover less of the screen
Fixed an issue that caused zooming in and out while in the simple third-person camera to appear choppy
Transitioning into or out of first person no longer causes the camera to clip inside the hero's head
Fixed several camera smoothness and popping issues
BUG FIXES
General
Fixed a bug that caused toggle crouch to work inconsistently when high precision mouse input is enabled
Workshop
Fixed an issue preventing Go To Assemble Heroes from working in Assault and Hybrid
Fixed an issue preventing Sombra Dummy Bots from being able to hack health packs
Maps
Temple of Anubis - Fixed a bug where some heroes could get stuck behind one of the rocks outside of point B
Eichenwalde - Fixed a bug that could cause Wrecking Ball to become temporarily stuck when using his Piledriver in a specific location
Junkertown - Fixed a bug that allowed some players to stand on a wall near the final checkpoint
Junkertown - Fixed a bug that allowed Sombra's Translocator and Baptiste's Immortality Field to land in an unintended place between the stairs and wall near point A
Dorado - Fixed a bug that caused the ivy growing on the wall between points A and B to block projectiles
Rialto - Fixed a bug that could cause Winston and Sigma to become stuck between the wall, bridge, and gondola outside of Point A
Watchpoint: Gibraltor - Fixed a bug that caused Baptiste's Immortality Field to disappear when thrown in a specific spot outside of the first Attacker's spawn
Heroes
Baptiste
Fixed a bug that could cause Immortality Field to not deploy or get destroyed while deploying in some situations
Mercy
Fixed a bug that caused Mercy's gold staff and pistol to disappear while using Valkyrie when viewing in 3rd person
Tracer
Fixed a bug allowing players to swap heroes while using Recall
Novembre 13
Overwatch PTR Patch Notes – November 13, 2019
INTRODUCING “WHILE YOU WAIT”
Coming with this patch, we will be removing the current “Skirmish” feature that allowed you to spar while waiting to start a game and replacing it with a brand new option called “While You Wait”.
When in queue, players will now be prompted to pick, if they want to, between the following game modes:
Practice Range - Now available to be entered as a group
Skirmish - Spar freely with other players without keeping track of score
Deathmatch - Compete for the top place on the scoreboard
Custom Game - Pick a custom game from the Custom Game Browser or create your own game mode
Note that Custom Game will have to have the new setting "Allow players who are matchmaking" available in order to be selected
All “While You Wait” game modes are optional and can be accessed by a single player or as a group, but only the group leader can decide which mode to pick.
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
General
Base armor increased from 200 to 250
Fusion Driver
Movement speed penalty reduced from 30% to 20%
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 25%
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
Shuriken
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
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
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 Turrets, 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
Orisa
Fixed an issue where Orisa’s halt projectile could sometimes appear to go through the ground when viewed in 3rd person.
Roadhog
Fixed a bug that prevented Roadhog’s hook from damaging turrets and barriers
Widowmaker
Turning off the toggle zoom control option for Widowmaker while zoomed in no longer remains stuck in the zoomed state
October 23
Overwatch PTR Patch Notes – October 23, 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.
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
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
Moria
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
September 24
Overwatch PTR Patch Notes – September 24, 2019
Announcement
Patch 1.41 is a remaster and will require a relatively large download for all platforms.
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
Orisa
Protective Barrier
Cooldown increased from 9 to 10 seconds
Roadhog
Scrap Gun
Ammunition increased from 5 to 6.
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
Winston
Barrier Projector
Duration increased from 6 to 9 seconds
Health increased from 600 to 700
Baptiste
Immortality Field
Health decreased from 250 to 200
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%
Mercy
Valkyrie
The extra beams created by Valkyrie now ignore enemy barriers
Moira
Biotic Grasp
Self-healing reduced from 30 to 20 health per second
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
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
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
Tracer
Pulse Pistols
Damage falloff now starts at 13 meters, up from 10 meters
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 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
August 22
Overwatch PTR Patch Notes – August 22, 2019
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.
HERO UPDATES
Bastion
Self-repair
Self-repair no longer consumes resource while Bastion is at full health.
Bastion now correctly initiates .25 sec of recovery time when canceling Self-repair with weapon fire.
Symmetra
Primary Fire
Beam width lowered from 0.3 meters to 0.15
Beam DPS per level lowered from 65/130/195 to 60/120/180
Zarya
Primary Fire
Beam width no longer scales with energy (from 0.1 to 0.2) and is now always 0.15.
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
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
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 Bob to get through doorways and more consistently make it to where he was launched towards
D.Va
Fixed a bug that allowed D.Va's mech to block Earthshatter briefly during the destruction animation
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
Wrecking Ball
Fixed an issue preventing Wrecking Ball specific stats from showing up in the Career Profile
Zenyatta
Fixed a bug that prevented Zenyatta from using a Teleporter while Transcendence is active
August 1
Overwatch PTR Patch Notes – August 1, 2019
HERO UPDATES
Sigma
Sigma’s cosmetic progression content is now available to view and unlock.
BUG FIXES
General
Fixed a bug that could cause players to appear invisible in-game when certain skins were equipped (PTR only).
July 31
Overwatch PTR Patch Notes – July 31, 2019
HERO UPDATES
Sigma
Kinetic Grasp
Can now be cancelled by Accretion.
Experimental Barrier
Can now be recalled while Kinetic Grasp or Accretion are in use.
BUG FIXES
General
Placement previews should now be much smoother (Reaper Shadowstep, Mei Ice Wall, etc).
Placement previews will now hold their position after clicking, until they’ve been confirmed by the server.
Fixed a bug where first person animations sometimes wouldn’t play when abilities were used immediately after being frozen.
Fixed a bug where orientation toggles for placements could flicker at higher latencies (Ice Wall, Amplification Matrix, Photon Barrier).
Workshop - 'Set Max Health' now functions as intended.
Heroes
Reinhardt
Fixed a bug that caused charge knockback to be applied multiple times.
Sigma
Accretion now correctly deals half damage to self.
Accretion projectile no longer gets destroyed when impacting Symmetra turrets.
Gravitic Flux can now move Pharah during Rocket Barrage.
Fixed a bug where victims of Gravitic Flux could get stuck on slippery rooftops.
Fixed a bug where Gravitic Flux would fail to work on Dropship doors.
Fixed a bug that allowed Sigma to avoid an enemy's Gravitic Flux effect by activating his ultimate.
Fixed a bug that allowed Sigma to retain some of his movement ability when he was incapacitated (stunned, slept, etc) during his Gravitic Flux.
Fixed a bug which caused Gravitic Flux to not be cancelled if you switch to another hero while it is active.
Sombra
Fixed a bug where Sombra couldn't gain ultimate charge for one second after EMP hack auras end on targets.
Wrecking Ball
Fixed a bug that could cause Wrecking Ball to be temporarily stuck when using Piledriver on a slippery terrain.
July 25
Overwatch PTR Patch Notes – July 25, 2019
GENERAL UPDATES
Practice Range
Practice Range has been re-enabled.
HERO UPDATES
Moira
Fade
No longer usable while stunned.
Sigma
Kinetic Grasp
Cooldown reduced from 15 to 13 seconds
Shield per damage conversation increased from 0.33 to 0.40
BUG FIXES
Heroes
Ashe
Fixed a bug where jumping while scoped shooting could cause the gun to clip into the camera slightly.
Wrecking Ball
Fixed a bug where Wrecking Ball could get stuck in his slam animation if landing on very flat slippery surfaces.
July 24
Overwatch PTR Patch Notes – July 24, 2019
GENERAL UPDATES
Practice Range
Practice Range has been temporarily disabled on PTR-only. For players looking to try out Sigma’s abilities in a solo setting, private Custom Games can still be made in the Game Browser.
Role Queue
Fixed a bug that caused the Ready button to be displayed when no roles had been selected, when using a controller.
Fixed a bug that could cause players to be on multiple regional leaderboards at the same time.
Fixed a bug that could cause players to appear on the Top 500 All leaderboard when 1 or more roles are still in placement matches.
Fixed a bug that caused players who allow the "Waiting on you to select role" timer to expire, to get into an unusable state if they were grouped in LFG.
Fixed a bug that prevented players from interacting with the role selection invite using a gamepad if inside the Play menu.
Fixed a bug where queue time wasn't displayed properly while in skirmish.
HERO UPDATES
D.Va
D.Va Pilot ultimate cost reduced by 12%
Sombra
EMP
(Reworded from previous patch notes for clarity) Activation time increased from 0.2 to 0.35 seconds.
Symmetra
Teleporter
Cooldown decreased from 15 seconds to 12 seconds
Teleport re-use time decreased from 1.5 seconds to 1 second
Wrecking Ball
Minefield
Decreased projectile speed from 13 to 12.
BUG FIXES
General
Fixed a bug that prevented Competitive groups being found in LFG
Fix rare instances of 'avoid as teammate' not working
Heroes
Sigma
Fixed a bug where Gravitic Flux would do ground impact damage to training bots before they hit the ground.
Fixed a bug that allowed Sigma to fire more than two Hyperspheres at once.
Fixed a bug that cause Sigma's "Hello" voice line to not play.
July 23
Overwatch PTR Patch Notes – July 23, 2019
PATCH HIGHLIGHTS
New Hero: Sigma
Sigma is an eccentric astrophysicist and volatile tank who gained the power to control gravity in an orbital experiment gone wrong. Manipulated by Talon and deployed as a living weapon, Sigma’s presence on the battlefield cannot be ignored. Sigma launches two Hyperspheres (gravitic charges), which bounce off walls and implode after a short duration, damaging enemies within a sizable radius. Using Experimental Barrier, he propels a floating barrier to a location of his choosing and he can dismiss the barrier at any time. With Kinetic Grasp Sigma freezes incoming projectiles in midair, converting them into shields. Accretion allows Sigma to gather a mass of debris and flings it at an enemy to knock them down. Unleashing his full powers with Gravitic Flux, Sigma takes flight, lifts enemies in a targeted area, and launches them into the sky before slamming them back down. Learn more about Sigma on his hero page.
GENERAL UPDATES
Role Queue
Updated the end of match screen so that players are sorted by role.
Fixed a bug that made it difficult to see which Role Card was in focus when using a controller.
Quick Play (with Role Queue Enabled)
Feature Update: Endorsements
Players can now endorse each other in the following game modes:
Mystery Heroes
No Limits
Deathmatch
Total Mayhem
Low Grav
All the PVE Event game modes (Uprising, Retribution, Storm Rising)
Game Mode
Mystery Heroes - On Control maps, Heroes are now reset between rounds.
Workshop
New Events:
Player Dealt Healing
Player Received Healing
Player Joined Match
Player Left Match
New Actions:
Start Transforming Throttle
Stop Transforming Throttle
New Values:
Healer
Healee
Event Healing
Host Player
Developer Comment: A commonly requested feature for the Workshop is the ability to track healing, so we’ve added two new Event types and three new Values to make this possible. We’ve also added Events to make it easier to detect players joining and leaving matches. To support the creation of admin-style privileges for custom games, the owner of the game can now be detected using Host Player. Finally, we’ve added the ability to scale, invert, and rotate a player’s input throttle to make controlling characters in third person easier.
BUG FIXES
General
Custom Game: The Presets UI in Custom Game is now displayed in the proper order.
Heroes
Brigitte
Fix for Brigitte heal throws that were too loud.
Zenyatta
Fixed a delay in Zenyatta's first person quick melee animation when interrupting primary fire.
Orisa
Fixed a bug that caused some VFX to stop playing upon successive viewings of Orisa's "Oh!" highlight intro in Hero Gallery.
Genji
Fixed a bug where Genji could fail to deal damage if he rapidly used Swift Strike on a single target (PTR bug only).
Sombra
Fixed an animation issue with EMP (PTR bug only).
July 18
Overwatch PTR Patch Notes – July 18, 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 their games. In Competitive Play and Quick Play, players choose their role before finding a game. The matchmaking system will create a team that is comprised of two tanks, two supports, and two damage heroes. Upon entering the match, players select desired heroes to play within their chosen roles. At the end of a match, players will return to the main menu and select their role before queuing into the next game. For more information about Role Queue, read the detailed blog post.
For the time being, we’ve only enabled Competitive Play for 1.39 PTR. Stay tuned for updates.
HERO UPDATES
General
Global ultimate cost increased 12%
Slowing Effects: Instead of stacking together, friendly and enemy slowing effects are now separate and movement speed will be reduced by whichever is slower.
Developer Comment: Ultimates are coming up too often considering how high impact they are. We are reducing how quickly they are built so less fights will be determined by ultimate usage. The slows change will mostly impact heroes which can slow themselves, such as Widowmaker while scoping, or Reinhardt while holding his shield. In these cases, enemy slows such as Symmetra turrets or Mei’s freeze will not hinder these heroes unless they stop slowing themselves or the enemy slow value passes their own slow value.
Ashe
Reload Time per round decreased from 0.3 seconds to 0.25
Developer Comment: Ashe’s time to fully reload felt overly restrictive. However, a long reload time is an intended downside 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%
Doomfist
Melee
Quick melee no longer pauses ammo reload.
Hanzo
Storm Arrows
Storm Arrows ammo reduced from 6 to 5
Developer Comment: The overall damage output of Storm Arrows was too high so we’re reducing the maximum number of shots.
Moira
Fade
Can now be used while stunned.
Developer Comment: Moira has always been good at healing and dealing damage, but she offers very little utility compared to the other healers. This change reinforces her evasive nature and allows her potentially save her team from area stuns such as Reinhardt’s Earthshatter.
Orisa
Protective Barrier
Cooldown increased from 8 seconds to 9
Developer Comment: A common point of feedback for playing against Orisa was that it doesn’t feel useful to shoot the barrier as it comes back so quickly. Increasing the cooldown of Protective Barrier will make destroying it more rewarding.
Reinhardt
New Passive: “Steadfast”
Reduces knock back effects by 30%
Developer Comment: As a frontline, melee-range tank Reinhardt was more adversely affected by knock back abilities than most heroes. To reduce some of this frustration and enable Reinhardt to more easily fulfill his role, he is now more resistant to being knocked back.
Sombra
Hack
Duration on enemy players reduced from 6 seconds to 5
EMP
Activation time increased from 0.5 seconds to 0.65
Developer Comment: Hack is a potent disable with a long duration. Reducing the duration slightly will make it feel less oppressive as the hacked player without reducing its effectiveness too greatly. The increased cast time on EMP allows for more time to react and opens up more counterplay for the opposing team.
Symmetra
Teleporter
Now lasts an infinite duration until destroyed
Players can destroy their Teleporter with the ability 2 input
Cooldown now starts when Teleporter is destroyed
Cooldown increased from 12 seconds to 15
Maximum range increased from 25 meters to 30
Teleporter breaks if the entrance is more than 40 meters from the exit.
Teleport re-use time increased from 1 second to 1.5
Developer Comment: Symmetra’s Teleporter is an interesting tool but often felt too restricting to use. Making the Teleporter last forever opens up new opportunities for how Symmetra is used in various maps and group compositions.
Tracer
Pulse Bomb
Damage increased from 300 to 350
Developer Comment: Pulse Bomb was reduced in power some time ago to make sure it was not overly punishing to Tanks, which are much easier to stick the bomb to. While this is still a goal, we’re restoring some of this lost power to help deal with other hefty targets such as Bastion, or enemies with bonus armor from Brigitte.
Wrecking Ball
Minefield
Increased projectile speed from 10 to 13, causing the mines to spread out more. This makes it easier to create a wider minefield, especially from the high in the air.
Reduced the activation time from 0.25 seconds to 0.1
Developer Comment: Wrecking Ball has a very active playstyle, but often it felt difficult to make good use out of his ultimate. This change allows him to spread out his Minefield further if he wants, while still allowing for a tighter cluster if he activates it near the ground.
BUG FIXES
General
Subtitles: Subtitles now display when spectating while waiting to respawn.
Fixed a bug that could cause damage to not be dealt if a damage dealing ability was rapidly gaining/losing targets, like a Zarya trying to track a fast moving hero.
Charging heroes (Reinhardt, Doomfist, Brigitte) should more consistently knock each other down when colliding.
Some abilities will now appear smoother during slowed down time (end of round or custom game), notably Dragon Strike and Roadhog Hook
Heroes
Doomfist
Improved ability for Doomfist to get through doorways while using Rocket Punch and clipping the corner.
Rocket Punch will now consistently destroy translocator and not be stopped by it, similar to Symmetra turrets.
Targets hit by Rocket Punch will now go directly backwards, instead of maintaining any lateral momentum they had.
Targets that are stun immune but not knockback immune (Zarya’s Particle Barrier, Zen during Transcendence ) are no longer able to affect knockback trajectory.
Fixed a bug where if Doomfist used Meteor Strike while crouched he would move slowly for the entirely of the ultimate.
Fixed a bug where Doomfist would move backwards slightly slower during Meteor Strike
D.Va
Fixed a bug that prevented D.Va’s Defense Matrix from pointing down when D.Va was aiming downward while moving.
Lucio
Fixed some false positives with Lucio’s animation land prediction when wallriding.
Zarya
Fixed a bug that caused Zarya’s weapon and arm to animate oddly during her emotes when viewed in third person.
June 24
Overwatch PTR Patch Notes – June 24, 2019
PATCH HIGHLIGHTS
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.
Workshop
Fixed a bug that caused "Set Invisible" to function incorrectly for Reinhardt when using secondary fire while viewing in 3P.
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
Heroes
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
May 31
Overwatch PTR Patch Notes – May 31, 2019
BUG FIXES
General
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.
Workshop
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.
Heroes
Genji
Fixed a bug that prevented Genji’s damage boost from being applied to deflected projectiles.
May 23
Overwatch PTR Patch Notes – May 23, 2019
PATCH HIGHLIGHTS
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.
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 0.4 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.
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.
Tutorial: Weapon UI is now hidden until your weapon is available.
Heroes
Ana
Anti-Heal will be cleared when Sombra uses her translocator to teleport.
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.
Torbjörn
Fixed a bug where Torbjörn’s turret was sometimes able to shoot through walls.
May 9
Overwatch PTR Patch Notes – May 9, 2019
BUG FIXES
Custom Games
When you save a preset, the name now changes to the selected preset.
There is now a key binding for restarting a custom game.
Heroes
Doomfist
Fixed a bug where Seismic Slam could hit enemies that were out of Doomfist’s normal range
Workshop
Fixed multiple bugs with the "Set Max Health" action, particularly with its interaction with barrier health.
Fixed UI and effects not correctly interpreting chased variables whose destinations or rates were player-specific values (such as player variables).
Fixed the "Set Ultimate Charge" and “Start Camera” actions sometimes not correctly reading player-specific values (such as player variables).
Fixed the "Start Holding Button" action not handling the "Interact" button correctly.
Improved stability.
Fixed a bug where the “Team” parameter for an “Ongoing - Each Player” event was not being honored if the “Player” parameter specified a hero.
Fixed a bug where equality between two vectors was sometimes false when it should have been true.
Fixed a bug where the “Start Accelerating” action was not always honoring the “Relative” option.
If the same instance of a “Start Accelerating” action executes multiple times, it will now restart the action with the new values rather than stack an additional copy.
Reenabled script validation.
May 3
Overwatch PTR Patch Notes – May 3, 2019
Workshop
Added Actions:
Set Primary Fire Enabled
Set Secondary Fire Enabled
Lowered minimum Wait time from 0.25 seconds to 0.016 seconds.
Lowered minimum projectile speed and gravity to 0%.
Increased number of entities (icons and effects) from 32 to 64.
Increased significant digits of number entries from 2 to 3.
Because “Team” and “Teams” were accidentally included twice in the list of available strings, one pair has been renamed to “Teammate” and “Teammates”.
If you used the “Team” or “Teams” strings in your scripts, you may need to check them and update them in case they were renamed.
Spectators will now only see what all players can see. This change affects icons, effects, messages, objective descriptions, HUD text, and in-world text.
If only one player has joined the game, then the spectator will see what that player sees (since that one player is “all players” in that circumstance).
The “Play Effect” action will now correctly attach effects to players if a player is provided as a position.
Fixed an issue where presets would not save properly if you had an error in your script.
April 30
Overwatch PTR Patch Notes – April 30, 2019
GENERAL UPDATES
Improved the kill cameras during the Play of the Game replay to better match what happened in-game
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
Doomfist
Fixed an issue where Seismic Slam would sometimes not damage people when it should have
Junkrat
Fixed a bug where Junkrat would slide off a moving platform when using his ultimate
Wrecking Ball
Fixed a bug where Wrecking Ball could use Piledriver without regard to its ability cooldown in some circumstances
April 24
Overwatch PTR Patch Notes – April 24, 2019
PATCH HIGHLIGHTS
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 adding a simplified game scripting system. Enhance the Overwatch game modes you know and love with new game rules, victory conditions, adjustments to the heroes’ movements and abilities, and much more. Once you’ve created an awesome new game, create a code to share it with your friends or the whole community! For information on how to get started using the Workshop, see our Workshop blog post 439. We’re excited to see what you come up with!
Note that this is a test of an in-development feature, so we may need to adjust or turn it off as we work to improve it. Please post any questions or stability issues in the PTR Feedback forum 27.
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
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
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
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
April 18
Overwatch PTR Patch Notes – April 18, 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.
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
March 29
Overwatch PTR Patch Notes – March 29, 2019
BUG FIXES
Heroes
Doomfist
Fixed a bug where targeting Seismic Slam on a surface that inclines or declines, like stairs, would fail if you were looking downwards
Mei
Fixed a bug where placing Ice Wall on a surface that inclines or declines, like stairs, would fail if you were looking downwards
Reaper
Fixed a bug where placing Shadow Step’s target on a surface that inclines or declines, like stairs, would fail if you were looking downwards
Symmetra
Fixed a bug where Teleporter wouldn’t fit in some short windows
Fixed a bug where placing Teleporter on a surface that inclines or declines, like stairs, would fail if you were looking downwards
March 26
Overwatch PTR Patch Notes – March 26, 2019
HERO UPDATES
Doomfist
Seismic Slam
Can now target through railings
Mei
Ice Wall
Easier to place on thin surfaces
Appears less jittery when placing while moving around
Reaper
Shadow Step
Easier to place on thin surfaces
Appears less jittery when placing while moving around
Symmetra
Teleporter
Players that use your Teleporter now continue to look in their current viewing direction
Easier to place on thin surfaces
Appears less jittery when placing while moving around
BUG FIXES
Heroes
General
Fixed a bug where your view would become level with the horizon after using Symmetra’s Teleporter
Doomfist
Fixed a bug where Doomfist would get caught on door frames when impacting a wall
Reaper
Fixed a bug where Shadow Step’s placement target would fall from ledges
Fixed a bug where Reaper was able to gain capture progress on an objective while phased using Shadow Step
Symmetra
Fixed a bug where the Teleporter’s placement target would fall from ledges
March 25
Overwatch PTR Patch Notes – March 25, 2019
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
Can now teleport onto surfaces that would usually break, like railings
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 your view to become jittery if you were 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
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 lands a shot
Ashe
Fixed a bug where the Orb of Discord sound effect would play when B.O.B. was affected by Zenyatta’s Orb of Discord
Baptiste
Fixed a bug where Immortality Field wasn’t immediately destroyed when it is hit by the payload
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
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 lands a shot
Fixed a bug where Mercy didn’t receive defensive assist credit from healing beams when using Valkyrie
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
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 8
Overwatch PTR Patch Notes – March 8, 2019
HERO UPDATES
Baptiste
Made significant visual and audio updates to abilities
BUG FIXES
General
Fixed a bug where damage boost stat tracking was incorrect in some circumstances
Heroes
Ana
Fixed a bug where, when a character boosted by Ana landed a shot, Ana didn't receive audio or visual cues
Ashe
Fixed a bug where Dynamite’s damage over time was not being damage boosted
Baptiste
Fixed a bug where his Amplification Matrix was boosting enemy damage
Fixed a bug where the healing done by the grenades from his Biotic Launcher was not boosted by the Amplification Matrix
Brigitte
Fixed a bug where her Barrier Shield would not regenerate after being destroyed
D.Va
Fixed a bug where D.Va’s mech would destroy itself sooner than intended
Mercy
Fixed a bug where Mercy was only gaining ultimate charge if she was boosting a hero while their projectile did damage, not when the hero shot the projectile
Fixed a bug where, when a character boosted by Mercy landed a shot, Mercy didn't receive audio or visual cues
Fixed a bug where Mercy gained more ultimate charge than intended while damage boosting an ally who was also being damage boosted by someone else
Moira
Fixed a bug where Moira’s healing Biotic Orb would not run out of resources
March 6
Overwatch PTR Patch Notes – March 6, 2019
HERO UPDATES
Baptiste
Biotic Launcher
Can now be stopped from automatically reloading by switching the Automatic Reload option to OFF. This option defaults to ON
Immortality Field
Made significant changes to its visual appearance and sounds
Junkrat
Frag Launcher
Impact damage changed from 60 to 50
RIP-Tire
Cost increased by 10%
Developer Comments: Since the recent increase of Frag Launcher’s damage output, Junkrat has been building his ultimate too quickly. We’re increasing the cost of his ultimate to balance this change with his increased damage-dealing capabilities.
Zarya
Particle Cannon
Alternative Fire’s explosion radius changed to 2 meters, regardless of energy level
BUG FIXES
Heroes
Baptiste
Fixed a bug that allowed Baptiste’s Immortality Field to be placed under a payload
Fixed a bug where Baptiste’s Immortality Field was not destroyed when run over by the payload
Fixed a bug where Baptiste’s Immortality Field prevented death in out of bounds areas
Fixed a bug that allowed Baptiste’s Biotic Launcher to heal through barriers
Doomfist
Fixed a bug that caused Doomfist to not lose his upward jumping movement when using Rocket Punch while in the air
Fixed a bug that caused Doomfist to not move while using Rocket Punch if he was recently knocked backed
Junkrat
Fixed a bug where Junkrat’s Steel Trap didn’t make a sound when it landed
Lúcio
Fixed a bug where Lúcio’s wall jump speed was lower than expected
March 1
Overwatch PTR Patch Notes – March 1, 2019
HERO UPDATES
Baptiste
Amplification Matrix
Made significant changes to its appearance
Developer Comments: When we originally released Amplification Matrix, we felt like it looked a little too much like a shield. These changes will make it clear that this is a field and not a shield.
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.
BUG FIXES
Heroes
Baptiste
Fixed a bug that allowed Baptiste to gain ultimate charge by healing heroes after they were damaged by passing cars on Oasis
Doomfist
Fixed a bug where Seismic Slam didn’t pull in enemies as intended
Maps
Horizon Lunar Colony
Fixed a bug that caused the hanging tires near the first point to rotate a Self Destructing D.Va mech
User Interface
Fixed a bug where the destruction of Baptiste’s Immortality Field generator wouldn’t display on the kill feed
February 28
Overwatch PTR Patch Notes – February 28, 2019
Hero updates
Junkrat
Frag Launcher
Impact damage increased from 40 to 60
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 140, up from 120.
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.
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.
Zarya
Particle Cannon
Alternative Fire’s explosion radius reduced from 2 meters – 3 meters to 1 meter – 2 meters based on 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
Heroes
D.Va
Fixed a bug that made D.Va not get knocked back properly by Doomfist’s Rocket Punch
Lúcio
Fixed a bug where using Lúcio’s Dance Party emote would crash everyone out of the game
Fixed a bug where Lúcio’s Speed Boost song dramatically affected D.Va when using Boosters or Mercy when using Valkyrie
Mercy
Fixed a bug where Mercy’s speed wasn’t reduced while resurrecting when using Valkyrie
Orisa
Fixed a bug that made Orisa not get knocked back properly by Doomfist’s Rocket Punch
February 26
Overwatch PTR Patch Notes – February 26, 2019
PATCH HIGHLIGHTS
New Hero: Baptiste (Support)
Baptiste is a 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
Damage over time effects are no longer mitigated by armor
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 needs to be slightly less effective for refilling 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 should 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.
Lúcio
Sonic Amplifier
Soundwave now counts towards Offensive Assists
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.
McCree
Fan the Hammer
Damage reduced from 55 to 50
Deadeye
Damage per second increased from 275 to 550 after locking onto targets for 2.5 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 600 health. It will not impact how dangerous this is for heroes under 600 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.
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
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.
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 Shields a more powerful survival tool, since being forced out of Roll mode left Wrecking Ball more susceptible to fire.
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
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
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
Paris
Fixed a bug where the sounds coming from the Nous vous surveillons apartment weren’t playing
January 31
Overwatch PTR Patch Notes – January 31, 2019
GENERAL
Added fixes for improving stability
BUG FIXES
Maps
Fixed a bug that prevented navigation lines leading to capture points from displaying in Paris
Fixed a bug that caused placeholder art for Paris to display on its Arcade card
Fixed a bug that caused placeholder text to display in the map description for Paris
Fixed a bug that caused Busan car textures to display in the Paris map
January 30
Overwatch PTR Patch Notes – January 30, 2019
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 recoverable health.
Previously, it was possible for heroes’ recoverable shields to be prioritized for damage and regenerate, 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
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
D.Va
Fixed a bug that prevented D.Va from being visible to teammates 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
Mei
Fixed a bug that caused Mei’s hat to fold into itself when she used Cryo-Freeze with the Mei-rry skin 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
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
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
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 caused Symmetra’s turrets to attach to the wall behind her rather than the intended target in Numbani
Fixed a bug that allowed Sombra to throw her Translocator to unintended locations in Blizzard World
Fixed a bug that caused Ashe’s Bob to instantly break destructible tiles on Petra
Fixed a bug that caused heroes to clip into a railing when spawning in Château Guillard
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
January 7
Overwatch PTR Patch Notes – January 7, 2019
HERO UPDATES
General
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 mostly noticeable on heroes that fire quickly or in a burst of shots (such as shotguns), and which do more than 6 damage per shot.
For example, Soldier: 76’s Heavy Pulse Rifle will now do 16 damage per shot to armor, up from 14, an increase of 15%. Armor was a bit too strong overall, especially when 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 where it was too difficult to deal with the increased health of Brigitte’s allies before she built up another one. This change puts a cap on how long her Rally effect can last 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 try 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 is one of the main tools he has which allow him to play aggressively when near his enemies. This change allows him to keep the pressure up as long as he can stay near his enemies enough to keep dealing damage. This change is particularly effective versus tanks, as they tend to do less damage than damage heroes, and also take more damage from his Hellfire Shotguns due to their larger hit volumes.
