'Overwatch' PTR Patch Notes: Nerfs To Ana, D.VA And Roadhog, Ultimate And Headshot Indicators Added

Overwatch’s Private Testing Realm, or PTR, is where Blizzard tests all the new changes they want to try out in their highly successful hero shooter. Before unleashing a horde of alterations that might not be healthy for the game, Blizzard tests them out in a safe environment that can always be reverted if necessary.

Ana and D.Va are getting some significant nerfs, Sombra is getting a buff to her hacking ability and Roadhog’s hook is changing drastically. Along with some UI fixes, the inclusion of a “kill feed” and some major bug fixes, this PTR update might not be as big as some of the others, but it’s a welcome inclusion to the game.

Here are the full PTR Patch Notes:

General

Emote Wheel

Players can now equip up to 4 emotes, sprays and voice lines from within the hero gallery

Voice line and emote submenus can be accessed using the left and right mouse buttons from within the Communication wheel

Players can now bind individual sprays, emotes and voice lines to unique keys or mouse buttons

HERO BALANCE UPDATES

Ana

Biotic Grenade

Healing boost on allies has been decreased by 50%

Developer Comments: The healing boost from Ana’s Biotic Grenade was providing too much healing, especially when used on targets with large health pools.

D.Va

Health increased from 200 to 400

Armor decreased from 400 to 200

Fusion Cannons

Bullet damage decreased from 3 to 2

Number of bullets per shot has been increased from 8 to 11

Developer Comments: D.Va’s armor often made her feel like she had no weaknesses, even against heroes that are often effective against bigger targets (like Reaper). The changes to her Fusion Cannons will result in a small overall decrease in damage, but they should feel more consistent now.

Roadhog

Chain Hook

Targets are now pulled directly in front of Roadhog (rather than straight to him), except in cases where Roadhog drastically rotates

Hooked targets are now released if they leave Roadhog’s line-of-sight before being pulled

Line-of-sight checks (which detect if targets should be initially hit by the hook) are now done from Roadhog’s position, rather than the hook’s position

Developer Comments: The hook should now feel more consistent for Roadhog players, but it should also feel more reasonable to his enemies, as they cannot be hooked or pulled around corners anymore.

Sombra

Hack

The time it takes to hack a target has been decreased from 1 second to 0.8 seconds

Developer Comments: Sombra often had difficulty hacking enemies, even when she surprised the target. This change should help her execute hacks more easily.

USER INTERFACE UPDATES

The “Stay as Team” button lights up when anyone on your team clicks it

Kill Feed

Hero ability icons are now displayed

Ultimate abilities are now indicated with an orange arrow

Headshot eliminations are now indicated with a red icon

BUG FIXES

General

Fixed a bug that allowed spectators to click the “Stay as Team” button after a game ended

Fixed a bug that caused the “Stay as Team” button to overlap with the “Back” button on the Social menu

Fixed a bug causing the “Mouse 4” button to execute the “Back” function during menu navigation, preventing it from being used for other features

Fixed a bug preventing the Social menu from correctly displaying World of Warcraft zones that have a single quotation mark in the name

Fixed a bug causing heroes to display a “T-pose” on the victory screen following a Mystery Heroes brawl

AI

Fixed a bug that prevented the Roadhog bot from grabbing enemies with his Chain Hook through a friendly Reinhardt’s Barrier Field

Fixed a bug that allowed the Sombra bot to hack through barriers

Fixed a bug that made the Torbjörn bot unresponsive after placing his turret

Competitive Play

Fixed a bug preventing players from receiving experience points when playing offseason games

Heroes

Fixed a bug that would cause the cup in Ana’s “Toast” victory pose to appear blurry on the right side of the screen

Fixed a bug causing a several visual effect issues on McCree’s “Hat Trick” emote

Fixed a bug causing Mercy’s wings to be improperly placed on her Valkyrie and Sigrún skins

Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented Symmetra’s Photon Barrier from playing a sound effect when destroyed

Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented Widowmaker’s Venom Mine from attaching to walls

Fixed a bug that prevented Zenyatta’s Nutcracker skin from glowing when his Transcendence ultimate ability was activated

Maps

Fixed a bug that allowed Widowmaker to reach an unintended location on Eichenwalde

Fixed a bug that allowed Widowmaker to reach unintended locations on Ecopoint: Antarctica

Fixed a bug that allowed Sombra to reach unintended locations on Dorado

Fixed a bug that allowed Sombra to reach unintended locations on Watchpoint: Gibraltar

Fixed a bug on Oasis's garden tier where the border around the capture point inaccurately marked the bounds of the capture point

Fixed an issue causing texture fragmentation on the Practice Range

Fixed a bug preventing some projectiles from destroying the piñatas on Dorado

Fixed an issue preventing the glass railings on Oasis from being easily broken by a melee attack