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Overwatch Update March 2019: Full Patch Notes for Baptiste release today

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UPDATE ONE: The new Overwatch update for March 2019 is now available to download on PS4 and Xbox One.

This new patch includes Baptiste, a battle-hardened combat medic who wields an assortment of experimental devices and weaponry to keep allies alive.

Full patch notes for today’s update on PS4 and Xbox One can be found below.

ORIGINAL: The star of today’s Overwatch update will be Baptiste, the newest hero being launched by Blizzard in March 2019.

The support-class medic wields an assortment of experimental devices, all of which have been being tested out on the game’s PTR.

This has seen Baptiste get some tweaks to his various abilities in a bid to avoid any major balancing issues when he hits the live servers.

This should be happening in the next few hours, with Blizzard usually releasing new patches between 5pm and 7pm, GMT.

Early patch notes have also been shared by Blizzard, following the testing on the Overwatch PTR servers.

These are changes that have been made during the testing period and they also include tweaks to other parts of the game.

Some of these changes may have been reverted or removed since they were first posted at the start of the month.

However, they give players the clearest idea on what is being added to the game next on PS4, Xbox One and PC.

From what has been posted, Baptiste’s Biotic Launcher has undergone some changes since first launched on the PTR.

Junkrat also appears to have received a few nerfs to help stop his ultimate building too quickly during matches.

The full early patch notes can be found below, however, it should be noted that the full update notes will likely contain a lot more information.

We will post these when Blizzard shares them after they have released their new Overwatch update today.

PATCH NOTES FOR NEW OVERWATCH UPDATE

GENERAL UPDATES

Armour

Developer Comments: The damage taken by armour 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.

  • Beam-type damage is now reduced by 20% when hitting armour
    • Mei: Primary Fire
    • Moira: Alternate Fire, Coalescence
    • Symmetra: Primary Fire, Sentry Turret
    • Winston: Primary Fire
    • Zarya: Primary Fire
  • Damage over time effects are no longer mitigated by armour
    • Ana: Primary Fire
    • Ashe: Dynamite
    • Hanzo: Dragonstrike
    • Mei: Blizzard
    • Moira: Biotic Orb
    • Widowmaker: Venom Mine
    • Zarya: Graviton Surge

DAMAGE BOOST

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.

  • Damage boost is now applied when a projectile is fired rather than when it hits a target

KNOCKBACK

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.

  • Knockback distance is now more consistent
  • Heroes that are flying can now be knocked back and slowed

SOUND

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.

  • 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

HERO UPDATES

ANA

  • Developer Comments: Giving Nano Boost an instant heal effect enabled players to survive longer and made Ana’s ultimate valuable. However, it was a bit too strong when healing heroes with large health pools.
  • NANO BOOST
  • Heal reduced from 300 to 250

DOOMFIST

  • Developer Comments: Reducing the downtime of Doomfist’s abilities will give him some power back and make his gameplay feel more fluid.
  • RISING UPPERCUT
  • Cooldown reduced from 7 to 6 seconds
  • SEISMIC SLAM
  • Cooldown reduced from 7 to 6 seconds

HANZO

  • 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.
  • SONIC ARROW
  • Detection radius increased from 7 to 9 meters

JUNKRAT

  • 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 130, up from 120. Since we increased Frag Launcher’s damage output, Junkrat builds his ultimate too quickly. We’re increasing the cost of his ultimate to balance this change with his increased damage-dealing capabilities.
  • FRAG LAUNCHER
  • Impact damage increased from 40 to 50
  • RIP-TIRE
  • Cost increased by 10%

LÚCIO

  • 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.
  • AMP IT UP
  • Speed Boost’s amplification reduced from 70% to 50%
  • CROSS FADE
  • Speed Boost’s effect reduced from 30% to 20%
  • SONIC AMPLIFIER
  • Soundwave now counts towards Offensive Assists
  • WALL RIDER
  • Speed buff increased from 20% to 40%

MCCREE

  • 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.
  • 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

MEI

  • 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.
  • 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

MOIRA

  • Developer Comments: These minor changes make Moira’s passive healing effect on Biotic Grasp slightly more effective when topping off an ally’s health.
  • BIOTIC GRASP
  • Heal over time duration increased from 3 to 4 seconds
  • Total healing increased from 50 to 65

ORISA

  • 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.
  • FUSION DRIVER
  • Movement speed penalty while firing reduced from 50% to 30%

PHARAH

  • 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.
  • ROCKET LAUNCHER
  • Minimum explosion damage increased from 16.25 to 20

REAPER

  • 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.
  • THE REAPING
  • Healing received from dealing damage reduced from 50% to 40%

SOLDIER: 76

  • 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.
  • PULSE RILE
  • 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

SOMBRA

  • 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.
  • HACK
  • Cooldown is reduced by half when hacking a health pack
  • Changed the visual appearance to more clearly indicate when something has been hacked

SYMMETRA

  • Developer Comments: This will allow Symmetra to more consistently reach peak damage output from her Photon Projector.
  • PHOTON PROJECTOR
  • Primary Fire’s damage ramps up 20% faster

TORBJÖRN

  • Developer Comments: Torbjörn’s survivability was a bit low, so we’ve shifted some power from his Overload ability to his base health.
  • GENERAL
  • Base health increased by 50 armor (250 maximum health)
  • OVERLOAD
  • Armor gain reduced from 150 to 100

WIDOWMAKER

  • 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.
  • INFRA-SIGHT
  • Reveals enemy health bars
  • Now canceled on death

WRECKING BALL

  • Developer Comments: This will make Adaptive Shield a more powerful survival tool, since being forced out of Roll mode left Wrecking Ball more susceptible to fire.

ADAPTIVE SHIELD

No longer cancels Roll mode

ZARYA

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.

  • PARTICLE CANNON
  • Alternative Fire’s explosion radius changed to 2 meters, regardless of energy level

ZENYATTA

  • 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.
  • ORB OF DESTRUCTION
  • Damage increased from 46 to 48
  • ORB OF DISCORD
  • Effect reduced from 30% to 25%
source: express.co.uk