The next Overwatch patch is live on the game’s public test realm.
The biggest change is the addition of a new map: Horizon Lunar Colony. According to the patch notes the colony’s goal “was to examine the effects of prolonged extraterrestrial habitation—on human and ape alike.” The research looked promising, until the sudden loss of communication with the base. The new map, along with a recent post from the game’s Atlas News service, have led to speculation that a new gorilla may be the next hero.
In addition to the new map, a trio of heroes have seen tweaks. McCree’s ultimate ability, Deadeye, will now lock on and accumulate damage more quickly. Blizzard noted that McCree is often stopped before he can deal any serious damage with the ability. “These changes make it more flexible and powerful,” said Blizzard in the patch notes.
Reaper is also seeing a boost to his passive skill The Reaping. Reaper will now regain 20 percent of all damage dealt to heroes back as health. Previously, he would need to collect healing orbs from dead opponent’s, which wasn’t ideal. “Since enemies needed to be dead for it to work, it wasn’t very helpful unless the situation was already in your favor,” said Blizzard regarding the old version of the skill.
Lastly, Roadhog is seeing a few changes. The hitbox on his head is being decreased. Blizzard said it was abnormally large compared to other characters of similar size. He is also seeing changes to his Scrap Gun. The clip size is increased from four to five, and the fire rate is increased 30 percent. On the flip side, bullet damage is being lowered 33 percent. “The Scrap Gun changes reduce the power of his hook combo and alternate fire burst damage potential while still keeping his DPS roughly the same,” said Blizzard.
The patch also adds new legendary skins for Genji and D.Va, as well as new options for custom games such as gravity and jump height. Full patch notes are available here. There was no word on when the next patch will go live on all platforms.
Overwatch is currently running its anniversary event, so tons of new items are available. The Game Fanatics crew played some Overwatch earlier this week to celebrate the event, and you can check out how that went below.
