Overwatch

GENERAL UPDATES

General

• When activating the "Ultimate Status" communication, Symmetra now reports the number of charges left on her teleporter
• When activating the "Needs healing" communication while targeting a teammate, Ana, Lúcio, Mercy, and Zenyatta will now tell allies to group up to receive healing. A marker will appear above the player's head, allowing teammates to locate the healer more quickly
• Added Torbjörn as an AI-controlled hero in Practice vs. AI, Play vs. AI, and Custom Game modes
• Sit and laugh emotes are now unlockable for all heroes

HERO BALANCE UPDATES

General

• Ultimates that consume the ultimate meter when activated will now drain the meter more quickly (.25 second instead of 1 second)
• Reverted a recent change to reduce size of heroes' projectiles

D.Va

• Defense Matrix
  • After being activated, Defense Matrix will begin regenerating following a 1-second delay (formerly .5 seconds)

Hanzo

• Hanzo will now experience a 30% decrease in speed while aiming (formerly 40%)
• Maximum projectile speed has been increased by 30%

Mei

• Blizzard
  • The Blizzard projectile now pierces barriers
  • Radius has been increased from 8 meters to 10 meters

McCree

• Deadeye
  • Now drains over a .25-second period (instead of displaying a 50% reduction on the ultimate meter when activated and 0% when confirmed)

Mercy

• Caduceus Staff
  • Healing Beam
  • Healing-per-second has been increased by 20%
• Resurrect
  • Resurrected allies will be able to maneuver after 2.25 seconds (reduced from 3 seconds)

Genji

• Double jump no longer resets when wall climbing
• Dash
  • No longer deals damage to traps like Widowmaker's Venom Mine or Junkrat's Steel Trap
  • No longer bypasses Junkrat's Steel Trap
• Swift Strike
  • No longer interrupts quick melee attacks
• Dragonblade
  • Duration of Genji's ultimate has been reduced from 8 seconds to 6 seconds

Lúcio

• Amp It Up
  • The boosting of movement speed has been decreased by 30% (from a 100% increase to a 70% increase)

Roadhog

• Chain Hook
  • If the hooked target isn't in Roadhog's line of sight when retracting the hook, they will be moved back to the position where they were originally hooked

Zenyatta

• Orb of Discord
  • The amount of damage amplified by a target with Orb of Discord has been decreased from 50% to 30%
• Orb of Destruction
  • Damage has been increased from 40 to 46

MAP BALANCE CHANGES

Watchpoint: Gibraltar

• Watchpoint: Gibraltar’s first checkpoint has been removed

Developer Comments: The balance changes that were implemented in previous patches have eliminated the need for Watchpoint: Gibraltar to have an extra checkpoint.

USER INTERFACE UPDATES

General

• A new "Allied Health Bars" option has been added (Options > Controls)
• Contextual menus have been added on the hero selection screen, giving players the ability to report or group up with other players
• Matchmaking UI is now purple in the Competitive Play queue
• Made several minor adjustments to typography in the Spectator UI

BUG FIXES

General

• Fixed a bug that allowed the kill participation metric to go above 100 percent
• Fixed a bug in the Custom Game settings preventing the Ability Cooldown modifier from affecting Ana
• Fixed a bug that caused heroes to die when first spawned in a custom game if Health and Damage modifiers were used simultaneously
• Fixed a bug preventing the hero list in Custom Game settings from being organized alphabetically
• The spectate option now becomes unavailable (the button will be greyed out) when all spectator slots have been filled in a Custom Game lobby
• Fixed an issue causing in-game statistics to run off the edge of the screen in 16:10 aspect ratio

AI

• Fixed a bug that caused Bastion to become stuck, continuously healing himself in the spawn area

Heroes

• Appropriate sound effects now play when Ana shoots barriers, shields, and armor
• D.Va no longer communicates her ultimate status for Self-Destruct while charging her Call Mech ultimate
• Hanzo's Spirit Dragon voice line now plays when using his Okami and Lone Wolf skins
• Fixed various issues with Junkrat's emote and highlight animations
• Fixed an issue causing Mei's Ice Wall to push herself to the side when cast at her feet
• Fixed a bug preventing Mei's Ice Wall from being destroyed by a moving payload
• Fixed a bug that prevented Mei's Ice Wall from appearing at the target location when cast
• Fixed a bug allowing Reaper to reach unintended map locations using Shadow Step
• Fixed a bug causing Reinhardt's shield to jitter when turning in third person
• Fixed an issue that prevented Roadhog's chain from displaying correctly in some situations
• Fixed several issues with Symmetra's emotes and highlight intros
• The scarf on Tracer's Slipstream skin is no longer stiff in the Hurdle highlight intro
• Fixed a bug preventing overtime from being triggered while Zenyatta is using Transcendence
• The names of Tracer's Sprinter and Track and Field skins now display correctly

Maps

• Fixed an issue preventing Genji and Hanzo from reliably climbing a specific crate on Watchpoint: Gibraltar

Competitive Play

• Skill rating is now measured on a 1-5000 scale instead of the former 1-100 scale
• Skill Rating Tiers
  • Players will now be assigned to a tier, depending on their skill rating
    • Bronze - 1-1499
    • Silver - 1500-1999
    • Gold - 2000-2499
    • Platinum - 2500-2999
    • Diamond - 3000-3499
    • Master - 3500-3999
    • Grandmaster - 4000-5000
  • In Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond tiers, a player will not drop out of their tier even if their skill rating falls below the cutoff
  • In Master and Grandmaster tiers, a player whose skill rating falls below the tier's minimum
• Skill Rating Decay
  • Players in Diamond, Master, and Grandmaster tiers that haven't participated in a competitive match for 7 days will lose skill rating
  • Players with a skill rating above 3000 (Diamond tier or higher) will lose 50 rating points every 24 hours, but their rating will not fall below 3000
  • Competing in a single match will halt skill rating decay
  • Players that haven't participated in a competitive match for 7 days will immediately drop out of the top 500
• Map Changes
  • Several refinements have been made to the time bank system for Hanamura, Temple of Anubis, and Volskaya Industries
  • The time bank system has been added to Dorado, Hollywood, King's Row, Numbani, Route 66, and Watchpoint: Gibraltar
  • Time granted for taking objectives on Dorado, Hanamura, Hollywood, King's Row, Numbani, Route 66, Temple of Anubis, Volskaya Industries, and Watchpoint: Gibraltar has been reduced from 5 minutes to 4
• Competitive Points
  • Existing competitive points saved from Season 1 will be multiplied by 10
  • After winning a competitive match, players will now receive 10 competitive points (instead of 1)
  • Players will now receive 3 competitive points for a draw
  • The cost of golden weapons has also been multipled by 10 from 300 to 3000
  • A soft cap is being placed on the number of competitive points that can be saved
    • Players with more than 6000 points at the start of season 2 will no longer accrue points by playing competitive matches
    • End-of-season rewards will still be granted to players at the soft cap
• Instead of going into sudden death, tied competitive matches will now result in a draw
• Players must now win at least 50 competitive matches to be eligible for a spot in the top 500
• Players must now complete more matches to clear their penalty status for leaving a competitive match early
• Players of drastically different skill ratings (more than 500) will no longer be able to group together in competitive matches