Overwatch PTR Brings Support Hero Changes

Published: July 19, 2018 11:31 AM /

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overwatch ana brigitte lucio lúcio mercy moira maps

A new patch that changes most of the game's support heroes (along with some other interesting tidbits) is currently available for players to check out on the Overwatch PTR according to a post on the game's official forums.

One of the game's biggest items of note is that five of the game's support heroes are having minor balance adjustments made to them. Ana's Nano Boost now heals the target for 300 health, Brigitte's Shield Base cooldown has been increased again to 7 seconds, and Moira's passive energy regeneration has been increased from 2/second to 2.4/second. Lúcio's Crossfade aura has been increased 20% from 10 to 12 meters and Mercy has had her healing reduced from 60 healing per second to 50 healing per second. The changes for these five healers are explained in greater detail in this forum post by Overwatch Principal Designer Geoff Goodman.

Some of the game's other heroes are getting balance tweaks aside from these five healers. Doomfist's Rocket Punch will no longer impact Symmetra's teleporter and will blow through her Sentry Turrets. Hanzo's lunge cooldown has been increased from 4 seconds to 5 seconds, slightly reducing his current mobility. Sombra's head hitbox has been fixed to be more accurate to her actual head shape and a bug in this area has been squashed. Reinhardt's shield has been smoothed out a bit and Widowmaker's Grappling Hook cooldown has been upped from 8 seconds to 10 seconds. Finally, Zarya has had two changes in this PTR patch: Her energy drain rate has gone down from 2/second to 1.6/second and the radius of her Graviton Surge Ultimate has been reduced from 8 meters to 6 meters.

In addition to a goodly chunk of the Overwatch cast of characters getting tweaked, a number of Ultimates are getting a buff of sorts. Certain Channeled and Transformation Ultimates will now restore a hero's ammo after they've run down. Genji, Junkrat, Pharah, Roadhog, Winston, and Zenyatta will all get their ammo topped up for free after their Ultimate runs out.

A number of other small changes and bug fixes have made their way into this PTR patch - be sure to read the PTR patch notes for all the details. If you have Overwatch on the PC, you can check out these changes on the Public Test Realm right now by changing your region in the Blizzard Battle.net launcher.

What do you think of the latest changes made in the Overwatch PTR? Do any of them particularly stand out to you as good or bad changes? Let us know in the comments below!

Have a tip, or want to point out something we missed? Leave a Comment or e-mail us at tips@techraptor.net


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One of my earliest memories is playing Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo Entertainment System. I've had a controller in my hand since I was 4 and I… More about Robert N

More Info About This Game
Learn more about Overwatch
Game Page Overwatch
Platforms
PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
Release Date
May 24, 2016 (Calendar)
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