Overwatch PTR Patch Notes – Nov 13, 2019

A new Overwatch patch is in development and now available for testing! To share your feedback or report any issues, please post in the PTR Feedback or PTR Bug Report forums.

Please note that the below patch notes only include changes currently available for testing on the PTR. While many of these changes may also be available on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in a future patch, the PTR is PC-only and only reflects changes coming specifically to that platform.

INTRODUCING “WHILE YOU WAIT”

Coming with this patch, we will be removing the current “Skirmish” feature that allowed you to spar while waiting to start a game and replacing it with a brand new option called “While You Wait”.

When in queue, players will now be prompted to pick, if they want to, between the following game modes:

Practice Range - Now available to be entered as a group

Skirmish - Spar freely with other players without keeping track of score

Deathmatch - Compete for the top place on the scoreboard

Custom Game - Pick a custom game from the Custom Game Browser or create your own game mode

Note that Custom Game will have to have the new setting "Allow players who are matchmaking" available in order to be selected

All “While You Wait” game modes are optional and can be accessed by a single player or as a group, but only the group leader can decide which mode to pick.

WORKSHOP UPDATES

Custom Games - Practice Range Mode

New Workshop Values Game Mode Current Game Mode

New Workshop setting "Allow players who are matchmaking": allows players who are matchmaking to participate in the Custom Game created



HERO UPDATES

General

Armor damage reduction increased from 3 to 5

Orisa

General

Base armor increased from 200 to 250

Fusion Driver

Movement speed penalty reduced from 30% to 20%

Protective Barrier

Health reduced from 900 to 600

Fortify

Cooldown decreased from 10 seconds to 8 seconds

Sigma

Experimental Barrier

Health reduced from 1500 to 900

Barrier health regeneration rate reduced from 150 to 120 health per second

Kinetic Grasp

Cooldown reduced from 13 seconds to 10 seconds

Damage-to-shield gain ratio increased from 40% to 60%

Reinhardt

Barrier Field

Health reduced from 2000 to 1600

Movement speed penalty reduced from 50% to 25%

Steadfast (Passive)

Knockback resistance increased from 30% to 50%

Developer Comment: The above changes to armor, Orisa, Sigma, and Reinhardt are aimed at decreasing the overall amount time players spend damaging barriers while improving the individual heroes in other areas. This is a significant change to the pace of the game and we’ll be monitoring these heroes closely to ensure they retain impactful gameplay in the tank role.

Moira

Biotic Grasp

Healing reduced from 4 to 3.25 (80 HP/s to 65 HP/s)

Developer Comment: Moira’s primary heal has proven to be too potent, largely due to its ability to heal multiple targets.

D.Va

Defense Matrix

Cooldown decreased from 2 seconds to 1.5 seconds

Developer Comment: With role locks in place there is some room to improve D.Va’s impact as a tank, so we’re partially reverting a previous change which increased Defense Matrix’s cooldown.

Widowmaker

Grappling Hook

Cooldown increased from 10 to 12 seconds

Developer Comment: With barriers having less uptime, Widowmaker will be even more effective at locking down long sight lines. This change weakens her mobility so she can still be reasonably countered.

Torbjörn

Overload

Cooldown decreased from 12 to 10 seconds

Developer Comment: Torbjörn has difficulty in extended team fights once his turret is eliminated and Overload has been used. This change allows Torbjörn to be able to rely on his Overload more often.

Genji

Shuriken

Ammo increased from 24 to 30

Developer Comment: As average hero survivability has gone up over time, Genji can sometimes have difficulty finishing off his targets. Loosening his ammunition constraints will help give him a small boost.

Zarya

Particle Cannon (Secondary Fire)

Explosion radius increased from 2 to 2.5 meters

Ammo cost decreased from 25 to 20

Developer Comment: Zarya’s overall damage output is in a good spot but the secondary fire was left feeling a little too weak after the last set of changes.

BUG FIXES

General

Color Blind Mode - Fixed an issue which caused models affected by infra-sight to appear washed out when using colors other than red

Workshop - Fixed an issue causing map names and dropdowns from being displayed in the incorrect case

Workshop - Fixed an issue preventing D.Va from being detected in Player Died events

Custom Games - Renamed Assault/Escort to Hybrid

Fixed a bug that could cause heroes with regenerating health/shields to not take full damage when damaged while at full health

Various hero abilities (e.g. Symmetra’s Turrets, Roadhog’s Hook, Sigma’s Accretion, Orisa’s Halt, etc) will now respect the collision boxes on vending machines and other such props

Fixed a bug that caused High Precision Mouse Input to cause toggle crouch to behave inconsistently

Maps

Black Forest (1v1) - Fixed a bug that allowed Reaper to Shadow Step through the breakable doors

Heroes

Doomfist

The default circle is now hidden when using advanced reticle settings

Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented the sound effect of Doomfist’s Rising Uppercut from playing

Fixed a bug where Seismic Slam could land on an enemy’s head while playing FFA modes

Junkrat

Fixed a bug where Junkrat grenades would not explode when slowly rolling down steep inclines

Orisa

Fixed an issue where Orisa’s halt projectile could sometimes appear to go through the ground when viewed in 3rd person.

Roadhog

Fixed a bug that prevented Roadhog’s hook from damaging turrets and barriers

Widowmaker