Blizzard Entertainment deployed a new update for Overwatch recently and it brings several buffs for heroes like Sombra, Doomfist and Mei. The most significant change is for Sombra who longer gains Ult charge from hacked health packs.
However, her Hack has been significantly more viable. It now disables basic movement abilities like Pharah’s Hover Jets, Genji’s double jump, Hanzo’s Wall Climb and Lucio’s Healing/Speed Boost along with Wall Ride. Her Machine Pistol’s spread has been slightly reduced from 3 to 2.7 while Translocator duration has been increased from 15 to 20 seconds.
As for Doomfist, Hand Cannon’s ammo recovery rate has been increased from 0.8 to 0.65 seconds per bullet, thus allowing for more consistent usage of it in combos. Mei’s Endothermic Blaster now freezes enemies for 1.5 seconds and her alternate fire ammo cost has been reduced to 20 from 25. Changes have also been made to the locations, sizes and number of health packs on the Blizzard World map. You can also take heart that certain voice announcement lines will now properly trigger on the map.
Check out the full patch notes below and let us know what you think of the buffs to Sombra, Doomfist and Mei.
HERO UPDATES
Doomfist
Hand Cannon
Ammo recovery rate increased from 0.8 seconds to 0.65 seconds per bullet
Developer Comments: This change will help Doomfist more consistently be able to use his weapon as part of his combos.
Mei
Endothermic Blaster
- Freeze (slow) duration increased from 1 second to 1.5 seconds
- Weapon alternate fire ammo cost reduced from 25 to 20
Developer Comment: Increasing Mei’s slow duration helps her freeze targets that are particularly elusive such as Genji or Lúcio. Lowering her alternate fire ammo cost allows her to more safely use it without costing her the ability to freeze enemies.
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
Developer Comment: The goal of these changes for Sombra is to remove the necessity for her teammates to take damage and heal themselves with her hacked heath packs to try to get her ultimate charged up quickly. Her ultimate will now come up less often, but there are more abilities that are disabled by Hack so it is more effective when used. Previously, Opportunist would only activate when an enemy’s health bar dipped below 50% but now the passive will reveal all damaged enemies which should help Sombra identify targets in her line of sight to pick off. Overall these changes should make her more effective and less reliant on her ultimate.
MAP UPDATES
Blizzard World
- Some health pack sizes have been reduced
- Some health pack locations have been changed
- Additional health packs have been added
Developer Comments: Health packs are a valuable resource in Overwatch and positioning around them is key to holding ground on defense or keeping up momentum on offense. We have moved the location of some health packs and included additional ones to improve game play on Blizzard World.
USER INTERFACE UPDATES
Mercy
Valkyrie
No longer shows enemies’ health bars unless they have taken damage
Developer Comment: This helps remove some clutter from Mercy players’ screens when they use her ultimate
BUG FIXES
General
Fixed a bug that prevented Capture the Flag statistics from displaying on the Career Profile if the match was played on Ayuttheya in the Arcade
Maps.
Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented announcement voice lines from triggering on Blizzard World
