The Latest Update Patch of Overwatch has recently been launched across all the major platforms. This patch introduces a new character in the game and encourages balances in the Existing hero characters.
Orisa, the newest character is now part of the game, thanks to the latest Patch. The Character of Orisa remained in PTR (Public Test Realm) for a few weeks but now it’s fully introduced in the game and players can have it as a playable character.
Orisa has a number of new utility options such as The Mini Graviton Surge, “Halt!” Power and her Immunity to a variety of Displacement effects and the ability to “Fortify”. As a powerful character, Orisa is an unbreakable Tank that can be used to push the front lines as well as defend the Choke Points.
Characters such as Winston, Sombra, and Junkrat have been given the biggest re-balancing in the patch. It’s actually Blizzard’s attempt to make these characters more viable at higher levels of the gameplay.
The Patch almost reinvents the character of Junkrat and it’s mechanics. Junkrat now no longer receives damage from his own grenades. This means Junkrat is now more deadly than ever before. Winston’s character is also a bit modified, thanks to the new patch. You’ll now find that Winston’s Barrier will now begin its cool-down process as soon as the ability is activated.
Sombre’s character is the one that’s been modified to a great extent after the new patch. There are a number of changes made to her Inventory/kit.
Following are the Official Patch Notes and Changes made to the characters that this new patch brought. You’ll also find some general updates with the detail as well.
Check out the Patch Notes below.
General:
Competitive Play
- On Route 66, the attacking team is now given 60 additional seconds after pushing the payload to the first checkpoint.
Developer Comments: This change will bring Route 66 in line with the other Escort maps.
Custom Game and Game Browser
- When setting up a Custom Game, players can now disable or modify abilities activated with the secondary fire button
Heroes:
Ana
- Biotic Rifle
- Damage decreased from 80 to 60
Developer Comments: Ana’s kit has several strong components, which makes her difficult to replace. Reducing her damage output will make her less threatening on attack and reduce her dueling capabilities.
Bastion
- Ironclad
- [XB1, PS4] Bastion now takes 20% less damage while in Configuration: Sentry or Tank (formerly 35%)
Developer Comments: After the last update, Bastion became a little too difficult to deal with, so we’re reducing his new passive to give enemies more opportunities to counter.
Junkrat
- Total Mayhem
- Junkrat’s explosion no longer hurt himself
Developer Comments: Previously, Junkrat’s projectile speed made him difficult to use at long ranges, but the damage he took from his own explosions made him difficult to use at close ranges. This change makes him more effective at close ranges, allowing Junkrat players to explore new strategies.
Mercy
- Caduceus Staff
- The amount of increased damage that’s done when boosting another player is now tracked under the match statistics and on the Career Profile page.
Sombra
- Hack
- Sombra’s teammates can now see hacked health packs through walls
- Stealth
- Sound effects and VO distance has been reduced to 15 meters when Sombra enters or exits Stealth
- Translocator
- Cooldown reduced from 6 seconds to 4 seconds
Developer Comments: Sombra can be devastating in the right hands, but infiltrating and harassing enemies could often feel difficult. These changes should increase her effectiveness and teamplay.
Winston
- Barrier Projector
- Ability cooldown now starts when the barrier is placed, instead of when it ends
Developer Comments: This change should help Winston do what he does best: distract the enemy team and block damage.
Zarya
- Particle Barrier
- No longer protects Zarya from knockback
- Projected Barrier
- No longer protects allies from knockback
Developer Comments: This is actually reverting a change that we made a few patches ago, which made players immune to knockbacks if they were hit by an effect from inside her barrier. This had some negative side effects, such as making targets immune to knockbacks from effects that pierce barriers, like Reinhardt’s charge and Winston’s Primal Rage punches. Now, these will cause knockback again. This does not affect knockbacks from effects that originate from outside her barriers, such as Pharah’s Concussive Blast. Those will still be blocked by the barriers, not causing any knockback.
Zenyatta
- Orb of Destruction
- Alternate fire cooldown has been reduced from 1 seconds to 0.6 seconds
- Weapon spread has been removed
Developer Comments: Zenyatta’s alternate fire often felt too difficult to use due to its long recovery time. This reduction should make it a more viable option. Also, his weapon has always had a very small amount of spread. This wasn’t enough to change the way he was played, but it would occasionally cause shots to miss that would normally hit their target. Removing this small variance should help him feel more consistent.
There are also a lot of Bugs fixed in Overwatch now because of the new patch. If you want to see the bug fixes details, you can find them here. Based on the recent changes after this patch, there are also doubts that the meta will now shift a bit. It could specifically be moving on the consoles because the overall Bastion’s Buff has been reduced. Let’s see if these doubts come true as more info unfolds about the latest patch.