Blizzard released the new Overwatch patch today, launching on PS4, Xbox One and PC.
And as fans who have seen the official updates notes will know, there’s been some major tinkering.
Blizzard say that on the hero balance front, D.Va’s Defense Matrix uptime had proven to be too strong, but simply reducing it without making other changes would make her too weak.
So instead, the development team have added a new ability, giving her the ability to fire while flying.
Blizzard say these these changes give D.Va new options while maintaining Defense Matrix’s ability to shut down big enemy attacks.
Mercy is another Overwatch character seeing some major updating, with her Ultimate now functioning in a much low level way.
Mercy’s old Ult apparently incentivised players to hide away from important battles, instead of taking part in them.
This Overwatch update turns Resurrect into a single target ability. It’s still an important part of Mercy’s kit, but plays much better for both Mercy players and her enemies.
Valkyrie, her new Ultimate, gives her the opportunity for big game-making plays and opens a number of new options for her.
There’s also the new Junkertown map, which allows players to explore a whole new level while moving the payload.
“Junkertown is located in the harsh and unforgiving Australian Outback,” Blizzard explain.
“Constructed from the remains of a destroyed omnium, it’s now the home to a band of lawless scavengers known as the Junkers, led by their cutthroat Queen.
“When they aren’t pillaging the omnium’s skeleton for anything of value, the Junkers blow off steam in the Scrapyard—a massive gladiatorial arena whose combatants fight for glory, riches… and to survive.”
Other major Overwatch patch notes can be found below
GENERAL UPDATES
General
- [XB1] Players whose Xbox Live reputation has been downgraded to “Avoid Me”
- will remain in the same matchmaking pool as other Overwatch players. Howevers, they will no longer be able to use the in-game voice communication
Mystery Heroes
- Players will no longer see the Assemble Your Team screen at the beginning of a game
- Players who purposefully kill themselves will no longer respawn as a new hero. However, their Ultimate ability will reset and anything that’s been placed (i.e. Torbjörn’s turret) will despawn
- Players will no longer be respawned as the same hero
- These changes also apply to any custom games where the “Respawn as Random Hero” option has been enabled.
User Interface Updates
- The skull icons that indicate where teammates were killed throughout the map have been replaced with hero portrait icons
- Third person camera view will now frame the action automatically when spectating or waiting to respawn