The Lunar New Year event is going to be a massive part of today’s Overwatch update on PS4, Xbox One and PC.
However, there have also been early patch notes shared by Blizzard that hint at what might also be included.
The development team have been busy testing out new tweaks to some of their heroes, as well as how some gameplay mechanics work.
These have been available to try out on the game’s PTR servers, which are test servers only available on PC.
The latest PTR 1.32 build concluded testing earlier this week, suggesting it will be ready for today’s big Overwatch update.
The early patch notes confirm a few important hero changes that might be coming to the game today.
This includes Damage reduction from armour reduced from -5 to -3, which sounds like a general nerf to the strength of the game’s general armour rating.
Here’s more from Blizzard, who confirm: “ Before this change armour 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 armour, 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 armoured enemies.”
Other changes noted in the PTR patch notes are relevant to Brigitte D.Va and Reaper and are listed below.
It should be noted that these patch notes only include changes that have been tested on the PTR and will not be the complete list.
There is also the chance that Blizzard has made changes to some of these reworks, with new patch notes expected to be shared later today.
PTR PATCH NOTES
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.