PATCH NOTES
New Hero: Baptiste (Support)
Baptiste is battle-hardened combat medic who wields an assortment of experimental devices and weaponry to keep allies alive and eliminate his enemies. Baptiste’s Biotic Launcher fires a three-round-burst that rewards accuracy and recoil control with significant damage output. His alternate fire lobs grenades that heal allies near the point of impact. With Regenerative Burst, Baptiste activates an intense surge that heals himself and nearby allies over time. When danger is near, Baptiste can toss out his Immortality Field to prevent allies from dying. Baptiste moves around the battlefield with Exo Boots, jumping over obstacles and clearing distances that would stop other heroes. Baptiste deploys his Amplification Matrix as his ultimate, which doubles the damage and healing effects of friendly projectiles.
GENERAL UPDATES
Armor
Beam-type damage is now reduced by 20% when hitting armor
Mei: Primary Fire
Moira: Alternate Fire, Coalescence
Symmetra: Primary Fire, Sentry Turret
Winston: Primary Fire
Zarya: Primary Fire
Damage over time effects are no longer mitigated by armor
Ana: Primary Fire
Ashe: Dynamite
Hanzo: Dragonstrike
Mei: Blizzard
Moira: Biotic Orb
Widowmaker: Venom Mine
Zarya: Graviton Surge
Developer Comments: The damage taken by armor from damage over time effects, such as Widowmaker’s Venom Mine, and beam weapons, like Symmetra’s Photon Projector, varied greatly. Now it will be more consistent and predictable.
Damage Boost
Damage boost is now applied when a projectile is fired rather than when it hits a target
Developer Comments: Previously, the effects of damage boosting were only accounted for if the damage-dealing hero was being boosted as they landed a hit. Now, damage is applied to the projectile as it is fired. This means the damage-dealing hero doesn’t need to be boosted when the projectile hits an enemy for the damage boost to be accounted for.
Knockback
Knockback distance is now more consistent
Heroes that are flying can now be knocked back and slowed
Developer Comments: Knockbacks are now less affected by how the enemy was moving when they were hit. Instead of having small or large knockbacks that depend on chance, knockbacks will feel similar regardless of the enemy’s movement leading up to the knockback. Allowing flying heroes, like Mercy when using her Valkyrie ability or D.Va using her Booster ability, to be properly knocked back makes for more fluid, realistic gameplay.
Sound
A new sound plays when you land a hit while damage boosted
A new sound plays when you land a hit, but it doesn’t do any damage
Developer Comments: With the addition of Baptiste, we wanted to be sure that you can tell when your hits were being buffed or nullified, regardless of what hero you’re playing.
HERO UPDATES
Ana
Nano Boost
Heal reduced from 300 to 250
Developer Comments: Giving Nano Boost an instant heal effect enabled players to survive longer and made Ana’s ultimate valuable. However, it was a bit too strong when healing heroes with large health pools.
Doomfist
Rising Uppercut
Cooldown reduced from 7 to 6 seconds
Seismic Slam
Cooldown reduced from 7 to 6 seconds
Developer Comments: Reducing the downtime of Doomfist’s abilities will give him some power back and make his gameplay feel more fluid.
Hanzo
Sonic Arrow
Detection radius increased from 7 to 9 meters
Developer Comments: Because of how dense the environment is on some maps, the Sonic Arrow can feel ineffective in some areas. Increasing Sonic Arrow’s detection radius should make it more effective.
Junkrat
Frag Launcher
Impact damage increased from 40 to 50
RIP-Tire
Cost increased by 10%
Developer Comments: Junkrat is one of the best barrier and tank busters in the game, and this change will help solidify this role. This doesn’t change the Frag Launcher’s explosive damage, which remains at 80. The total damage for direct impact is now 130, up from 120. Since we increased Frag Launcher’s damage output, Junkrat builds his ultimate too quickly. We’re increasing the cost of his ultimate to balance this change with his increased damage-dealing capabilities.
Lúcio
Amp It Up
Speed Boost’s amplification reduced from 70% to 50%
Crossfade
Speed Boost’s effect reduced from 30% to 20%
Sonic Amplifier
Soundwave now counts towards Offensive Assists
Wall Ride
Speed buff increased from 20% to 40%
Developer Comments: The knockback on Lúcio's Soundwave is a great tool for pushing enemies into situations that get them killed, so they should be rewarded an offensive assist for doing so. Lúcio’s ability to increase his teammate’s speed was too strong, especially when used on high health/low range heroes. We’re decreasing the overall power of Lúcio's Speed Boost but increasing the speed bonus he gets from using Wall Ride so his mobility isn’t impacted too much.
McCree
Fan the Hammer
Damage reduced from 55 to 50
Deadeye
Damage per second increased from 275 to 550 after locking onto targets for 1.5 seconds
Developer Comments: After reducing armor’s effectiveness for all heroes, Fan the Hammer doesn’t need to deal quite as much damage. Increasing Deadeye’s damage after being locked on for a bit makes it more effective when attacking high health, static targets (like barriers) and heroes with over 250 health. It will not impact how dangerous this is for heroes under 250 health.
Mei
Endothermic Blaster
Primary fire damage increased from 2.25 to 2.75 (45 to 55 damage per second)
Ice Wall
Health reduced from 500 to 400
Developer Comments: Increasing the damage of Mei’s primary fire should make her Freeze and Icicle move combination more potent. Making the pillars on Mei’s Ice Wall easier to destroy means less waiting for the wall to disappear on its own and more opportunities to counter it.
Moira
Biotic Grasp
Heal over time duration increased from 3 to 4 seconds
Total healing increased from 50 to 65
Developer Comments: These minor changes make Moira’s passive healing effect on Biotic Grasp slightly more effective when topping off an ally’s health.
Orisa
Fusion Driver
Movement speed penalty while firing reduced from 50% to 30%
Developer Comments: As a defensive tank, Orisa can have trouble pushing forward with the team. Allowing Orisa to move faster while firing should make it easier to apply pressure on the enemy team and use her barrier in proactive ways.
Pharah
Rocket Launcher
Minimum explosion damage increased from 16.25 to 20
Developer Comments: This change sets the Rocket Launcher’s minimum damage to where it was before we rebalanced its direct impact and explosive damage in a recent patch.
Reaper
The Reaping
Healing received from dealing damage reduced from 50% to 40%
Developer Comments: A recent change that increased Reaper’s healing while he dealt damage was a bit too strong, sometimes making opponents feel like Reaper was unstoppable.
Soldier: 76
Pulse Rifle
Damage increased from 19 to 20
Sprint
Delay before you can fire the weapon after using Sprint reduced from .5 to .3 seconds
Tactical Visor
Can target RIP-Tire and Immortality Field
Developer Comments: This change should potentially allow Soldier: 76 to kill an enemy hero one shot sooner. Reducing the time between when you use Sprint and when you can fire should make the ability more fluid and responsive. Giving Tactical Visor the ability to target Junkrat’s RIP-Tire and Baptiste’s Immortality Field drone is a quality of life improvement, since these are both critical targets.
Sombra
Hack
Cooldown is reduced by half when hacking a health pack
Changed the visual appearance to more clearly indicate when something has been hacked
Developer Comments: The cooldown on Hack often made it feel less effective to target health packs instead of players. This will make both health packs and players viable targets for hacking.
Symmetra
Photon Projector
Primary Fire’s damage ramps up 20% faster
Developer Comments: This will allow Symmetra to more consistently reach peak damage output from her Photon Projector.
Torbjörn
Base health increased by 50 armor (250 maximum health)
Overload
Armor gain reduced from 150 to 100
Developer Comments: Torbjörn’s survivability was a bit low, so we’ve shifted some power from his Overload ability to his base health.
Widowmaker
Infra-Sight
Reveals enemy health bars
Now canceled on death
Developer Comments: Infra-Sight had no counter to its effect, so it now ends when Widowmaker dies. To balance out its higher risk of use, Infra-Sight now reveals enemy health bars to Widowmaker’s team.
Wrecking Ball
Adaptive Shield
No longer cancels Roll mode
Developer Comments: This will make Adaptive Shield a more powerful survival tool, since being forced out of Roll mode left Wrecking Ball more susceptible to fire.
Zarya
Particle Cannon
Alternative Fire’s explosion radius changed to 2 meters, regardless of energy level
Developer Comments: Zarya’s damage greatly increases when at high energy, while also gaining increased beam size and a larger explosion radius. This often allowed Zarya to deal too much damage and made the explosions from the Alternate Fire on her Particle Cannon nearly impossible to avoid. This change will still allow Zarya to deal a lot of damage, but makes it more difficult to actually apply the damage.
Zenyatta
Orb of Destruction
Damage increased from 46 to 48
Orb of Discord
Effect reduced from 30% to 25%
Developer Comments: Zenyatta’s Orb of Discord makes him a nearly irreplaceable support hero on your team. We’re reducing its impact for Zenyatta’s team, but increasing the potency of the Orb of Destruction to compensate for its lesser effect.
Think this might be the most changes in one patch the games ever had. Gonna be interesting to see how the meta shakes out after this, can see Baptiste leading to bunker comps being the way to go on a lot of maps.
