Blizzard is releasing a significant expansion for their hit team shooter, which includes the 28th hero for the game.
The new Overwatch update is now live and adds Hammond’s Wrecking Ball to live servers.
Wrecking Ball is a new rolling mech weapon controlled by a sentient hamster and is making its debut today.
Like in the past, there will be a delay for Hammond’s release in competitive mode, which is something done with most character launches.
And fans won’t have to wait long to try out the new fuzzy hero.
Blizzard released the new Overwatch update at around 7pm, BST, July 24.
The development team didn’t provide a direct timeline on when they planned to launch the new patch.
However, based on how things have been done in the past, an evening launch seemed like the most likely choice.
UPDATE: Overwatch patch notes from today’s big update has been released by Blizzard and are available to view at the bottom of this article.
The new Overwatch update will include a number of other changes to the game, which will be listed in the official patch notes.
There have not been released yet, but are expected to arrive shortly after the new Overwatch update.
Several heroes will see a rebalancing done, with Bastion, McCree, Mei and Soldier 76 all expected to see changes.
Bigger tweaks are on the way for Sombra and Hanzo, although it’s unclear if they will be released with today’s launch.
The new update will also include the usual mix of bugfixes and map tweaks, which will all be listed later in this article.
It’s currently unclear just how big today’s update will be, or if it will include the start of the new Summer Games for 2018.
Rumours also suggest that Wrecking Ball will launch with the Summer Games event for 2018.
That’s based on a recent tweet that showed Hammond running on his weaponised wrecking ball suit.
Interestingly, the backdrop of the video appears to be the same used for last year’s Summer Games event. This has led to speculation that the 2018 Summer Games event will launch on the same day as Hammond.
For a look at the returning Summer Games skins, check out the gallery further down the page…
According to Overwatch lore, Hammond was part of the same Horizon Lunar Colony experiments that gave rise to Winston.
“As an unexpected side effect, several of them exhibited exceptional growth in physical size and brain function,” reads a Blizzard post.
“While most of the test subjects were gorillas or other primates, there were some exceptions, including a hamster named Hammond.”
Hammond would escape the colony by attaching a makeshift capsule to Winston’s escape pod.
PATCH NOTES
GENERAL
- Added a note to Sombra’s Hero Information page about her ability to remove her own Translocator
- Removed the Shield Generators Destroyed statistic from players’ Career Profiles
LOOKING FOR GROUP
- Added a button that allows you to queue into the selected game mode once the group becomes full
- Added a button to relist groups in the LFG browser when the group has empty role slots
HERO UPDATES
- Developer Comments: The goal of these changes is to slightly reduce the impact of damage falloff on mid-range weapons. While assessing falloff mechanics across the board, weapons intended primarily for close-range combat benefited too greatly from lowering their falloff restrictions. We also normalized a couple of outliers in that Mei had a long-range travel time projectile with falloff applied and Widowmaker’s automatic fire did not have any.
GENERAL
Several heroes have received major changes to their damage falloff:
Bastion
- Configuration: Sentry and Configuration: Recon – Minimum damage at max range increased from 30% to 50%.
McCree
- Peacekeeper – Minimum damage at max range increased from 30% to 50%
Mei
- Endothermic Blaster – Removed all damage falloff from her secondary fire projectile
Soldier: 76
- Heavy Pulse Rifle – Minimum damage at max range increased from 30% to 50%
Widowmaker
- Widow’s Kiss – Now has damage falloff applied on her automatic primary fire (50% at max range)
HANZO
- Developer Comments Hanzo’s new kit has proven to be a bit too powerful, especially his new Storm Arrows ability. We’re lowering the frequency that he can have this ability available to make it more reasonable to play around.
STORM ARROWS
- Duration reduced from 6 to 5 seconds
- Cooldown increased from 8 to 10 seconds
SOMBRA
- Developer Comments These changes allow Sombra to more easily play as an infiltrator and scout for her team, as well as give her time to pick and choose when to reveal herself to ambush her enemies.
STEALTH
- Now lasts indefinitely
- No longer can contest objectives while invisible
- Enemy detection radius increased from 2 meters to 4 meters
- Movement speed buff decreased from +70% to +50%
TRANSLOCATOR
- Now lasts indefinitely
- No longer can contest objectives while invisible
- Enemy detection radius increased from 2 meters to 4 meters
- Movement speed buff decreased from +70% to +50%
MAP UPDATES
GENERAL
- Developer Comments: In a previous patch we added a system to adjust the respawn rate of defenders in situations where attackers have a prolonged advantage in fights on final objectives. We’re just making this system a bit more aggressive to further reduce the duration of the long, drawn out fights that can occur when the defender spawns are so close to the action.
ASSAULT MAPS
Developer Comments: We have reduced the overall game time for Assault maps in Quickplay and Arcade Modes. Players now have four minutes to capture each point instead of the current five minutes per point. In some games, Point A would be captured rather quickly resulting in what could be lengthy battle over Point B. Point B is typically more defendable than Point A and, in some games, defenders were able to hold for the entire duration of remaining time which could potentially be 8 minutes or more. We felt that in these instances the overall time was simply too long for either team, with attackers unable to take the point and defenders having to hold. The reduction in time is now consistent with the Competitive Play times which provides an ample amount of time for both attackers and defenders, but hopefully removes the occasional game where it feels like you are playing against the timer and not the other team.
- When final objectives on non-control maps are contested for extended amounts of time and attackers have an advantage in numbers, the respawn time for defenders now increases even faster
- Objective time reduced from 5 minutes to 4 minutes per control point in Quick Play and Arcade modes