GENERAL
- Adjusted the respawn timing to limit defensive stalling strategies when the offensive team has a clear advantage and plays aggressively
Custom Games and Game Browser
- Clarified the text on the “Flag Carrier” options under the Capture the Flag settings for Custom Games
- Removed the “Projectile Speed” and “Projectile Gravity” options for heroes who do not have projectile weapons
- Minimum movement speed has been changed to 50% (formerly 10%)
- Players can no longer select Roadhog during Limited 1v1 matches
User Interface
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Added ability to create customized reticles
- Reticle options can be found under the “Controls” tab in the “Options” menu (click the “Advanced” expander under the “Reticle” heading)
- The name of Mercy's “Stethoscope” spray has been changed to “Heartbeat”
- Statistics gathered from 6v6 Elimination matches will now be added to statistics in the Career Profile
- Tie games will no longer be included in the win percentage calculation that’s listed under the Player Profile
HERO UPDATES
D.Va
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Defense Matrix
- New sound effects and voice lines have been added, indicating when Defense Matrix has absorbed an enemy’s ultimate ability
Genji
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Deflect
- New sound effects and voice lines have been added, indicating when an enemy’s ultimate ability has been deflected
McCree
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Flashbang
- Stunned targets are now slowed heavily, meaning they're less likely to escape while stunned (especially while in the air)
Developer Comment: This change will make McCree's Flashbang consistent against fast-moving targets like Genji or Lúcio.
Reaper
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Shadow Step
- Sound effect and VO distance has been reduced by 50%
Developer Comment: Even though Shadow Step wasn't intended to be used as a way for players to teleport right next to an enemy without their knowledge, the sound effects were audible from distances that made teleportation difficult from nearly anywhere. This change allows Reaper to be a bit more sneaky with his flanking options.
Reinhardt
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Rocket Hammer
- Swing speed increased by 10%
Developer Comment: In the last update, Reinhardt’s Rocket Hammer had an issue that allowed players with higher latency to swing faster. We fixed this bug, which suddenly made the swing speed feel too slow, so we’re compensating by increasing his standard swing speed. During this process, we also found and fixed a few bugs with Rocket Hammer’s hit registration. Overall, the hammer should feel much better.
Zarya
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Graviton Surge
- Now disables mobility abilities on all affected targets
Developer Comment: In the past, the abilities that allowed heroes to escape Zarya’s Graviton Surge felt fairly arbitrary. We’re cleaning this up and increasing Graviton Surge's overall power by rendering all movement abilities unusable when an enemy is trapped.
BUG FIXES
General
- Fixed an issue preventing “Best In Game” stats from being updated
- Fixed a bug that could cause the user interface to incorrectly indicate that an enemy player has been hit when colliding with them
- Fixed a bug that could allow projectiles that would normally pierce shields (i.e. Reinhardt’s Fire Strike) to pass through other surfaces
- Fixed a bug that caused some players to lose audio during the match
Competitive Play
- Fixed a bug that caused players to get a leaver penalty during offseason matches, even after the in-game banner advised it was safe to leave the match
Custom Games and Game Browser
- Fixed a bug that prevented players from being added to a Custom Game with 12 Spectator slots
- Fixed a bug in Custom Game settings that prevented some heroes with Self Healing from having a Healing Dealt modifier
- Removed the Projectile Gravity slider from heroes who do not have abilities affected by gravity
Heroes
- Fixed a bug with D.Va’s Call Mech ability that allowed you to see her inside the mech before entering it
- Fixed a bug that could cause eliminations from Junkrat’s Total Mayhem to be mislabeled in the kill feed
- Fixed a bug that would cause Junkrat to use his Ultimate Callout when he is unable to use his Ultimate
- Fixed a bug that allowed Roadhog’s Chain Hook to latch on to Orisa’s Supercharger
- Fixed a bug that allowed Sombra to take damage after activating her Translocator
- The sound effects on Reinhardt's Bloodhardt, Blackhardt, and Wujing skins have been updated to reflect the use of an axe instead of a hammer
- Fixed a bug preventing Lucio from receiving the full speed boost when traveling backwards during a Wall Ride
- Fixed a bug that occasionally prevented Torbjörn from building and upgrading his turret
- Fixed multiple hit registration bugs in Reinhardt’s Rocket Hammer
Maps
- Fixed a bug on Eichenwalde that prevented Soldier 76 from placing his Biotic Field in certain locations of Point A
- Fixed a bug that caused AI-controlled players to perpetually move toward the objective on the Gardens point in Oasis
- Fixed a bug that prevented Training Bots from facing the right direction and returning to their original location after being moved by player interactions on the Practice Range
- Fixed a bug with that was causing unusual camera angles for Highlight Intros on Route 66
- Fixed a bug that could cause D.Va to fall through the floor while boosting into the ground in a specific area on Volskaya Industries
The biggest part of the update is the addition of a new offensive hero, Doomfist. Doomfist is highly mobile and can deliver devastating blows, he's best played as an offense hero and comes with the following abilities:
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HAND CANNON
- Doomfist fires a short-range burst from the knuckles of his fist. Its ammunition is automatically regenerated over a short time.
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SEISMIC SLAM
- Doomfist leaps forward and smashes into the ground, knocking nearby enemies toward him.
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RISING UPPERCUT
- Doomfist uppercuts enemies in front of him into the air.
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ROCKET PUNCH
- After charging up, Doomfist lunges forward and knocks an enemy back, dealing additional damage if they impact a wall.
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THE BEST DEFENSE…
- Doomfist generates temporary personal shields when he deals ability damage.
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METEOR STRIKE
- Doomfist leaps into the sky, then crashes to the ground, dealing significant damage.
Another highlight of the update is the Loot Box tweak. After this patch, Loot Boxes will see a drastic reduction in the amount of duplicates you receive when opening a loot box. To compensate for the reduction in duplicates, Blizzard has increased the overall amount of credits each loot box hands out. On average, you'll be receiving the same amount of credits, if not more.
The Highlights System has seen a number of changes:
- The game will continue to automatically generate highlights for you based on your recent gameplay. These auto-generated highlights—now categorized as “Today’s Top 5”—will be surfaced on a daily basis and persist for a full 24 hours (or until the game client is patched, whichever happens first).
- Players can now generate their own highlights! The ability to capture 12 seconds of your own gameplay has been added to the game, and can be bound to a single button of your choice (or a button per highlight slot) in the Options menu under “Request Highlight.” These player-generated highlights will be saved under a new section called “Recently Captured” and will persist until the game client is patched. Players can have up to 36 recently-captured highlights stored at one time.
- With the above, players can now record any of their “Top 5” or “Recently Captured” highlights, exporting them as a video file to their gaming platform’s designated media library (on console) or directory (on PC). On PC, players will also have the option to select the quality at which these highlights are exported, supporting up to 4K for Windows 8 or higher operating systems, and up to 1080p on Windows 7.
As far as heroes go, D.Va (new sound effects), Genji (new sound effects), McCree (Flashbang will slow stunned targets), Reaper (sound changes), Reinhardt (Rocket Hammer speed buff), and Zarya (Graviton Surge disables mobility abilities of affected targets) saw changes with the update.
In addition to those changes, a number of heroes saw bug fixes, as did maps, custom games, and the game browser. Respawn changes have come with the update as well. According to Blizzard, the change does the following (via forums):
"There was an existing system that slowly increased the defender respawn time in the case where there are more attackers than defenders on an objective for 30 seconds. The defender respawn time then increased in a linear fashion up to a maximum when the attackers held an advantage for 90 seconds.
"We simply retuned the timing so that the increased defender respawn time starts after 15 seconds of attacker advantage, and also reaches the maximum possible increase of defender spawn time at 75 seconds.
"Note that this timer doesn't immediately reset to 0 if the attackers temporarily leave the objective area due to something like avoiding a D.Va Self-Destruct or Mei Blizzard or otherwise no longer have a numerical advantage on the objective. The "attacker advantage timer" instead reverses and counts back down to 0.
"Example: If attackers have an advantage for 10 seconds, then defenders regain it for 5 seconds, the "attacker advantage timer" is now at 5 seconds. If the attackers then get a few kills to regain advantage then after 10 more seconds the "attacker advantage timer" reaches 15 seconds and defender respawn time begins to slowly increase.
"The end result is that stalling tactics involving defenders trickling in one at a time into the waiting weaponry of an entire enemy team on the objective should be less effective than before."
You can get the patch details on the following page!
