Mei, Doomfist, and Sombra See Changes to How They Play With New Overwatch PTR Update

A brand new update for Overwatch‘s PTR is now available, and it brings with it some rebalancing of some of the heroes available to play in the game. These include changes made to Sombra, which have already been announced previously, as well as changes to Mei and Doomfist.

Mei gets a buff, with changes made to her weapon’s freeze duration making it perceptibly easier for her to freeze up enemies before thy can escape; Doomfist players on the other hand will be encouraged to use the hand cannon more, which sees a bump in its recovery rate. Finally, Sombra does not have to wait for her teammates to pick up her hacked health packs to speed up her ultimate charge any longer.

A video explaining these changes, as well as the full patch notes, are available below; presumably, this update will be pushed to general players soon. Overwatch is available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

Hero updates

Doomfist
-Hand Cannon

• Ammo recovery rate increased from 0.8 seconds to 0.65 seconds per bullet

Mei
-Endothermic Blaster

• Freeze (slow) duration increased from 1 second to 1.5 seconds
• Weapon alternate fire ammo cost reduced from 25 to 20

Sombra
-EMP

• No longer blocked by small objects (e.g. sign posts)

-Hack

• No longer gains ultimate charge from health pack healing
• Cast time reduced from 0.8 seconds to 0.65 seconds
• Now disables the following abilities: Genji—Cyber-agility, Hanzo—Wall Climb, Pharah—Hover Jets, Lúcio—Healing Boost and Speed Boost (turns off current song entirely), Wall Ride, Mercy—Angelic Descent

-Machine Pistol

• Machine Pistol spread reduced from 3 to 2.7

-Opportunist

• Enemy health bars are now visible when health drops below 100% (formerly 50%)
• Her ability to detect enemies through walls at 50% or less remains unchanged

-Translocator

• Duration increased from 15 seconds to 20 seconds

UI updates

Valkyrie

• No longer shows enemies’ health bars unless they have taken damage