Overwatch PTR Update Will Feature “More Significant Hero Changes”

Blizzard Entertainment may be sending Overwatch players off on yet another ARG fest with Sombra but it’s also putting effort into balancing its heroes.

According to designer Geoff Goodman on the Battle.net forums, the Public Test Realm server on PC – used for trying new updates and hero balance changes – will used this time around for more extensive changes.

“This time around, the PTR is likely to be around a bit longer than before, so we’re taking this opportunity to try out some more significant hero changes, and the push more significant iterations throughout this PTR cycle.

“The PTR patch changes you guys see are unlikely to make it through PTR unchanged, unlike previous PTR cycles. We want to try a bunch of things and see whats fun and working, and iterate more quickly from there. In this way, we get to have you guys involved earlier in the process.”

The PTR update may arrive as early as next week according to Goodman. And no, it’s not likely to feature the promised changes to Symmetra (earlier hyped for November). However, Goodman noted that internally, Symmetra is working fairly well.

“There aren’t any Symmetra changes for this patch. Her changes ended up being much more significant and require more time to finish up, but she’s feeling pretty great internally so hopefully we can get her out there pretty soon.”

Thoughts on the upcoming changes for the PTR? Let us know in the comments below.