'Overwatch' PTR Update Enhances Genji And Hanzo's Wall Climb, Reaper's Wraith Form And More

In a new update to the Overwatch PTR, tweaks have been made to Genji, Hanzo, Reaper, Reinhardt, Orisa and Soldier 76.

Genji and Hanzo’s attack cooldown on their wall climb ability has been eliminated so that they can immediately engage enemies after climbing. The Overwatch developers cite this as “a quality of life change to make climbing feel better.” I didn’t know that climbing felt bad, but at least the Shimada Wonder Bros can clamber and clash to their hearts’ delight now.

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Hanzo’s Storm Bow has received a buff allowing charged arrows to maintain their charge after climbing a wall as long as the button is held down, as well as increasing charge speed by 10 percent. Decreasing Hanzo’s draw time “gives him more overall DPS, while also letting him fully charge an arrow and more quickly return to full movement speed when needed,” according to the patch notes. Just what Hanzo needed, more DPS, am I right? (I was going to write more, but a Hanzo arrow just lodged itself in my head from his current location halfway across the world, killing me instantly.)

Reaper’s received a simple but significant tweak: going into Wraith form automatically refills his ammo, meaning he can turn and punish someone who’s chased him too far. A gift to Reaper mains from Papa Kaplan ? Can it be? “Wraith Form is typically used as an escape ability after firing. This change gives Reaper a fighting chance if an enemy chases him down as he uses it,” state the patch notes. So don’t try it, squishy heroes, unless your aim is really that good .

Reinhardt’s Ult ability Earthshatter has received a debuff that makes it less likely to affect enemies on higher ground, lowering its effective height from three meters to two meters. As for objects that Earthshatter can “climb,” the height threshold has also been lowered from three meters to two meters, so Earthshatter is less likely to climb them as it “crawls” along the ground.

This is technically a debuff, but helps ground Earthshatter both literally and figuratively, keeping Earthshatter from affecting enemies higher up and maintaining it within bounds of an ability called Earth shatter, not Towershatter or Climbshatter.

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Soldier 76’s Heavy Pulse Rifle has received a minor debuff, with bullet damage decreased from 20 to 19. The devs hope this opens up his role on a team from a “must pick” to allowing for more variation in team comp (McCree? Anyone? Howdy?).

Finally, Orisa has received a major buff and a significant debuff as the dev team fights to find this new tank’s balance. Her Protective Barrier cooldown has gone from 12 seconds to eight seconds, making her more responsive to the situation on the front line by enabling her to reposition her barrier more quickly as needed.

In compensation, Orisa’s Fusion Driver damage has been reduced by 15 percent to keep her from feeling too powerful. Instead of doing 12 damage per shot, she now does 10.2 damage per shot, with her “anchor tank” abilities taking the buff rather than her damage output.

How do you feel about the character nerfs and buffs in the latest Overwatch PTR update? Do you feel the dev team should have focused on other characters or are these changes just what the doctor ordered? Feel free to let us know in the comments section below.