New patch notes

Since nobody else is posting them…

OVERWATCH 2 X PORSCHE

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COMPETITIVE PLAY UPDATES

Demotion Protection Modifier

  • The Demotion Protection modifier has been moved from below the Rank Progress bar into the bar itself to improve visibility when a player is in a Demotion Protection state.
  • When Demotion Protection occurs, you will not be told when your progress is below that skill division’s range. If you lose your Demotion match, the Skill Rank adjustment will show only the adjustment from that match, instead of the net total of that match and the adjustment of the previous match.

New - Pressure Competitive Modifier

  • This rank modifier appears for players who are at the far ends of the overall skill distribution.
  • For players who are very high ranked (like Champion), this modifier will show when you don’t earn as much progress from winning a match or drop more progress for losing a match.
  • For players who are very low ranked (like low Bronze), this modifier will show when you earn more progress for winning a match or drop less progress for losing a match.

Developer comments: This new modifier was added to show how our highest and lowest-skill players are being pushed toward a more average Rank. Competitive Play already calculates this Modifier to your Skill Rank adjustment, but it wasn’t visible until now. Very high or very low-ranked players will see this Modifier after every match while they continue to maintain a Rank at the outer limits of the ranked spectrum. Climbing to the highest skill tiers like Grand Masters or Champions is not intended to be easy, and overcoming Pressure to reach the top is no longer a hidden challenge that players must face.

Grouping Restrictions

The Skill Tier legend was updated to show the changes to grouping restrictions that were applied in a previous update. The grouping restriction changes we applied are the following:

  • Grand Master can now group within 3 divisions to be considered a narrow group.
  • Champion can now group within 1 division to be considered a narrow group.

Developer comment: While the Season 10 changes to grouping up with friends have contributed to a large improvement in match quality for most players, we’re still looking to reduce queue times for players and groups, especially for higher ranks.

MATCHMAKING UPDATES

  • When a player is currently on a loss streak, the matchmaker will try to avoid putting the player on a team that is statistically calculated to have a lower chance of winning.

Developer comments: Loss streaks never feel good. Before each match, we make a prediction about which team will win the game, based on the information we have about the players on both teams. This is how modifiers such as Consolation, Reversal, Uphill Battle, and Expected give or take additional Rank Progress after each Competitive Play match. Since most matches will have a team that has a slightly higher chance of winning, placing a player on the team with the higher chance who is currently on a losing streak is aimed at helping them have a fair chance of breaking that streak. While this won’t guarantee they’ll win, it does provide a helping advantage.

HERO UPDATES

GENERAL

  • Armor health has been reverted to provide a flat damage reduction of 5 per projectile, up to a maximum of 50% damage reduction.
  • Out-of-combat health regeneration changed from 20 health per second to 10 health per second + 5% of maximum health.

Developer comment: Armor is being reverted to its original functionality to better resistance rapid fire damage and shotgun-type weapons. Out-of-combat health regeneration has been a positive but subtle addition to the game, but had a much smaller impact for tank heroes due to their massive health pools, so we’re adjusting it to heal for a percentage of maximum health.

TANKS

Role Passive

  • Tanks now have 25% damage reduction against critical headshot damage.
  • Knockback resistance increased from 30% to 50%

Developer Comment: Although armor health will now be more effective in some of the more difficult matchups, it will also be losing potency against the typically slower, higher damage instances. To help reduce the feeling of tanks being taken out too quickly by high bursts of damage, the role-wide passive now provides improved defense against critical headshot damage.

Junker Queen

Commanding Shout

  • Can now be activated while using other abilities.
  • Cooldown reduced from 14 to 12 seconds.

Developer Comment: Junker Queen being able to activate Commanding Shout while swinging her axe or during her Ultimate ability will make it more responsive for when an additional burst of health or movement speed is needed.

Sigma

Gravitic Flux

  • No longer requires line of sight to the center of the effect.

Developer Comment: Similar to how Graviton Surge functions, Gravitic Flux no longer needs line of sight to affect enemy targets in its area. There are a fair amount of counterplay options to deal with this ultimate so we’re making it more reliable to grab enemy targets within its area of effect.

Wrecking Ball

Grappling Claw

  • Impact damage increased from 50 to 60.

Piledriver

  • Movement lockout duration for enemies increased from 0.5 to 0.75 seconds.

Minefield

  • Damage increased from 130 to 165.
  • Explosion knockback increased from 5 to 10.

Developer Comment: Wrecking Ball has been performing much better after his recent update and these tuning changes will help his abilities feel more impactful.

Zarya

Graviton Surge

  • Radius increased from 6 to 7 meters.
  • Duration increased from 3.5 to 4 seconds

Developer Comment: We have been increasing the value of some tank ultimate abilities to account for the increased health pools and it helps to make the decision of when to counter-swap more of an interesting tradeoff. Graviton Surge was still very useful to set up combos with other ultimate abilities but we want to makes sure it’s powerful enough on its own.

DAMAGE

Junkrat

Frag Launcher

  • Impact damage increased from 40 to 45 (Total damage increased from 120 to 125).

Developer Comment: Junkrat’s weapon has great damage output but is unreliable outside of close range due to its slow projectile speed, which is an intended drawback to its high output. The Season 9 health changes affected Junkrat more than most other heroes since it now requires one more shot to secure an elimination. We’re increasing the damage on direct impacts to return to 2 direct hits for an elimination, without making his combo with Concussion Mine as deadly as before since that one is much easier to execute.

Echo

Duplicate

  • Ultimate gain multiplier while transformed increased from 4 to 4.5.

Developer Comment: While the main benefit of Duplicate is a second health pool and the utility of another hero’s abilities, it was often too difficult to charge an ultimate in the Duplicate time limit so we’re increasing the bonus multiplier slightly.

Hanzo

Dragonstrike

  • Speed increased from 12 to 15 meters per second.

Developer Comment: The Dragonstrike ultimate hasn’t been very effective outside of being used in a combo with other abilities that restrict enemy movement, so we’re increasing its speed to help position it as less of a zoning tool and more likely to deal some damage.

SUPPORT

Brigitte

Rally

  • Now resets Shield Bash cooldown upon activation.

Developer Comment: Resetting the Shield Bash cooldown on ultimate activation was too much potential burst damage for Brigitte when the average maximum health of everyone was lower, but it’s much more reasonable now that it won’t be as lethal.

BUG FIXES

GENERAL

  • Fixed a bug with Mirrorwatch not generating stats in Game Reports.
  • Fixed a bug with Competitive Progress not incrementing correctly.

MAPS

  • General bug fixes and improvements were performed on multiple maps.

Eichenwalde

  • Fixed an area that could cause players to temporarily become stuck.

Samoa

  • Fixed a spot on the map that players could become temporarily stuck in .

Shambali

  • Fixed a location where players could become stuck for a period of time.

HEROES

Mercy

  • Vengeance Skin - Fixed a bug with the feathers on the skin not being properly aligned.

Venture

  • Fixed a bug with Tectonic Shock that counted turrets and other non-player targets as valid for the Excavation Annihilation challenge.
  • Fixed an issue that could occur with Burrow where Venture could remain burrowed above the ground.

All I have to say is…

22 Likes

And symmetra and reaper waltz into the grave while junkrat escapes

16 Likes

Brig ult buff. God is real TT

8 Likes

Lets just wait and see. For all we know, this might be a replay of sym where it gets reverted next week.

If it doesn’t, umm… can sym get her 2 tap back?

1 Like

We’ll carry on fighting for you guys as well :saluting_face: Buff Sym and Reaper you cowards.

12 Likes

lol at the support changes.

You can really tell what roles are the priority.

16 Likes

Lol the devs finally acknowledge it

1 Like

Coming soon to an Overwatch match near you :smirk:

3 Likes

Orisa will be SUPER OP AF now, it will be even more oppressive

While the hitscans continue to dance on said grave

2 Likes

And Hanzo retreats even deeper into his own grave with a new Dragon nerf.

2 Likes

Glad they finally gave him his 2-tap back, now if they could just give Sym’s Secondary Fire 2-tap again as well and stop giving her the :poop:-end of the stick. :blush:

1 Like

This is such bad overengineering of their MM system. This type of thing is never good. Just give us the match with the other people closest to rank in the queue as possible and leave it alone. Otherwise what’s the point of ranks.

9 Likes

Thanks, couldn’t find where people were reading it so this helps a lot.

Edit: And after two seconds of skimming, I can already tell that it is not worth my time to read. No compensation buffs for Reaper after killing his character.

I will be waiting with confetti and party poppers for the day Alec loses his job

5 Likes

Mhmm, cool, now do Mei’s ult pls. :slightly_smiling_face:

Should definitely help with high end Junkrat play. Won’t help the low rank spammy rats much though. Good solution that’s been requested by Junkrat mains since season 9.

Can already hear the anti-Junkrat brigade sharpening their pitchforks…

:smile:

1 Like

Junkrat’s direct hit buff is cool all-in-all, but hear me out.

They once again buffed spam thinking it was a skilled option.

Out of touch devs smh.

Also Hanzo’s buff is a nerf, and was uncalled for and even more out of touch.

2 Likes

The buffs to ball is going to make all those crybabies about orisa going to wish she wasnt nerfed.

Also, lol, buffing the spam on junkrat, prepare for the malding. I will enjoy the junkrat OP low skill ruining the game threads.

1 Like

Will Orisa be OP? I imagine she loses out with the armour nerfs. The headshot dampening helps her relatively less since she has outright headshot immunity during Fortify anyway.

When I get into the game, my first pick is going to be Zarya unless I end up in some hellhole like CR or Havana.

cries in Lucio boop

2 Likes