Today’s Overwatch PTR update added the Horizon Lunar Colony Assault Map, but Blizzard also surprised players with a number of new features and improvements.
An official note, published by Blizzard, says that apart from the new map, players now have new Legendary skins at their disposal. These include Officer D. Va and Oni Genji, available in the loot boxes.
Previously, these two legendary skins could be unlocked by playing Heroes of the Storm in-game events. However, Overwatch’s director, Jeff Kaplan, promised players that skins would also be accessible by players who do not have an access to Heroes of the Storm on PC. It is also worth mentioning that the cosmetics, earned in the PTR, do not transfer to the base game.
Today’s update also adds new functionalities to the game browser and the custom games. Now, players are enabled to modify their heroes, as well as the jump height, the projective gravity, and the so-called knockback magnitude for weapon selection.
In addition, the new patch arrives with UI changes and bug fixes. One of the fixes eliminates enemies’ advantage of detecting Sombra when they are close enough and her stealth is active. The issue with the weird appearance of Symmetra’s hair with the Vishkar or Architech skins is now resolved.
However, the biggest improvements that captured players’ attention were related to the hero buffs. Blizzard imposed some changes on Reaper, Roadhog and McCree.
The latter is getting a major buff, so that it will be easier to be killed. McCree’s Deadeye ability receives two changes- faster target locking and more damage in the first second. His DPS is kept almost the same.
As for Reaper, Blizzard decided to remove his Health Orbs in an attempt to improve his passive healing skill. The Orbs were replaced by a new system that allows for 20% of all damage done to heroes as health points. According to Blizzard, Reaper’s previous healing passive was beneficial for killing a number of enemies in a row. Therefore, that capability was not useful unless the situation is in player’s favor. The new buff enables Reaper to get an “immediate benefit”, especially when it comes to fighting Tank heroes.
Roadhog’s abnormally large head size was reduced and he got a small nerf. That change was imposed with the aim of improving his “survailability”. His scrap gun damage was decreased.
The new patch is available on PC in the PTR. Expectations are it will be released on Xbox One and PS4 in the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, the Overwatch Anniversary Event is currently going on and Season 5 is starting today.
