Blizzard has released latest Overwatch PTR patch notes and it seems the company is focusing on one character. Lucio is seeing some changes with his stats.
Gamers with access to the PTR servers can notice that Lucio’s cross-fade ability has been toned down, with his speed-boost became a bit faster.
Blizzard explained that “Lucio has often felt like a must-pick due to his raw healing output and the versatility of providing a speed bonus to your entire team,” continuing by saying that “The goal of these changes is to keep those elements feeling strong, but making them harder to apply to everyone on your team at all times.”
“The end result is that he should feel stronger with teams that he can stay close to but not as strong when on teams with heroes that are often spread out (such as Pharah, Widow, Genji, etc).
“Much of Lucio’s character power was tied up in his large passive auras, which caused other elements of his kit to be weakened over time in an attempt to balance him.
“Now that his auras are more focused it will allow them to be much stronger and allow Lucio to be more active in his role.”
Tie-breaking in Competitive Play is also tweaked. “To mitigate draws in Competitive Play, we’re implementing a system that tracks each team’s progress on the objective,” Blizard explained, noting that “This will work similarly to the system that’s already in place for Escort and Assault/Escort maps, which grants a win to the team that pushes the payload the furthest. Now, even if neither team successfully captures the objective, a winner can be determined based on which team captured the largest portion.”
You can check out the full patch notes below:
General: Details about each hero’s unique backstory, along with information about some of their lore-inspired skins, have been added to the Hero Gallery
Competitive Play: A tracking system has been added to Assault and Assault/Escort Maps that will allow us to break ties based on the progress that was made toward capturing the objective.
Custom Games and Game Browser: Custom Game settings can now be saved as a preset from the game’s details page Access by right-clicking on the map image from the Create Game page or right-clicking a game name from inside the Game Browser.
Maps: A new route has been added to Eichenwald that connects the attacking team’s spawn area to the capture point.
Hero Update:
Lucio
Sonic Amplifier
- Projectile speed increased from 40 to 50
- Alternate fire now considers vertical orientation when knocking targets back
Crossfade
- Song’s area-of-effect radius decreased from 30 meters to 10 meters
- A temporary in-game visual has been added to illustrate this radius (it is only visible to Lúcio and his teammates)
Heal Song
- Healing-per-second has been increased by 50% (also applies to Lúcio’s Amp It Up ability)
Sound Barrier
- Radius decreased from 30 meters to 20 meters
Wall Ride
- Movement speed increased by 30% when wall riding
- Lucio now receives a burst of speed when leaping off a wall
Bug Fixes:
General
- Fixed a bug preventing achievements from being unlocked during off-season competitive matches
- Fixed an issue that prevented voice lines from being heard during the Play of the Game
- Fixed an issue that prevented voice lines from playing on Control maps
Custom Games and Game Browser
- Fixed an issue that allowed empty player slots to be displayed even when disabled (e.g. in 6v1 games)
- Fixed a bug preventing the pause feature from working properly after the original host has left the match
- Fixed a bug that allowed extremely long team names
Heroes
- Ana no longer cocks her rifle after throwing a grenade
- The brightness on Bastion’s Golden gun has been toned down when the BlizzCon skin is equipped
- Fixed a bug causing Mei’s pinky to bend awkwardly in some poses with her Chang’e and Luna skins equipped
Maps
- Fixed a bug on Eichenwalde that allowed enemy player outlines to be seen through a pile of dirt at the castle gate
- Fixed an issue on Eichenwalde that allowed players to become trapped in the broken castle doors
- Fixed a bug that allowed Sombra to reach unintended locations on King’s Row
- Fixed a bug that allowed players to reach unintended areas on the Capture the Flag version of Lijiang Tower
- Fixed a bug that allowed Symmetra to hide turrets in unintended locations on Oasis