A new patch is in testing through the Public Test Realm featuring new emotes, the revised Competitive Mode and some Hero tweaks. You can read all the notes here. Below to sum up what this will mean for our you and our affected heroes.
[please note that changes in the PTR are not guaranteed to stick, if you have strong feelings about any of these notes, go to the forums to give Blizzard your feedback here]
Sit and Laugh Emotes Available!
Every character now has a "sit" and "laugh" emote available. Tracer already had a laughing emote so she now has officially the least emotes available, D.Va has officially been confirmed as gremlin with Overwatch's first Legendary emote, and Symmetra creates a hard light stool to sit on like a throne. Sit emotes will also last until you hit any other key so get ready for tons of funny videos of cocky players literally sitting on the point.
Competitive Play Season 2
Competitive mode is getting a major overhaul after major complaints.
1. Sudden death and the coin flip are gone
This change is welcome because the coin flip didn't work and didn't make too much sense. Now instead of games ending 0-0 but one team still somehow winning, we are getting a time bank. When you push a payload to victory or capture a point and your opponent is also victorious, you will both go again using the time you had left over. This will emphasize the importance of sticking to the payload for faster completions for more time and contesting to stall your opponents for as long as possible. Though it make take some getting used to, this should be for the best.
2. Rank 1-100 is being replaced with a 1-5,000 system with shiny categories
Your rank will progress as bronze, silver, gold, platinum, diamond, master then grandmaster. (Poor gold. It used to be the best medal around and now it's third from last? Damn deflation. Joel would be so disappointed) This should feel more satisfying. Gold to Platinum should feel like more of an accomplishment than going from rank 55 to 56. Also, up to Diamond you will keep the highest tier you've entered even if your rank goes down so it'll be okay to have bad days.
3. Golden Guns cost more but we're all getting richer!!
The cost to buy a Golden Gun has gone from 300 to 3,000 but Blizzard is going to multiple how many Competitive Points we've already earned by 10. Winning a match will award you 10 CP, while getting a tie will net you a lesser 3 CP. Blizzard may ever be so generous as to award us a few CP even if we lose in the future.
Hero Balance Changes
Symmetra changes - Minor Buff
Now, when Symmetra has a teleporter active, if she communicates her "Ultimate Status" it will show how many charges are left on her teleporter. This is something I've been asking for for quite some time and is really just a quality of life rather than a buff but it is so welcome!
D.Va changes - Minor Nerf
D.Va's defense matrix will not be quite as spamable, but her effectiveness should remain high
Hanzo changes - Buff
After hitboxes were reduced and projectile forgiveness was majorly reduced Hanzo took A LOT of skill to be good with. His arrows travel faster, which will take some getting used to, but should make for more consistent damage. Hanzo also moves a little faster than he used to while his bow is drawn which should help him in sniper showdowns
He still gets his ult ridiculously fast
Mei changes - Buff
Many will say Mei does not need a buff but after reading these notes I think change is intuitive. Now when you throw snowball at a Reinhardt shield he will pass through just like characters can. Several attacks already have this ability so this isn't unheard of. Maybe this will even bring Mei into the Competitive Meta. Time will only tell.
Also, bigger radius is great until you're stuck in the middle.
A bug was fixed that when Mei spawned a wall underneath herself she'd get pushed to either side instead of go up. I had this happen a few times so I'm glad they're fixing this.
McCree changes - Nerf
McCree can no longer cancel his ult to get 50% charge. You're gonna hear a whole lot less High Noons and that is always a good thing
Mercy changes - BUFF
Mercy's healing per second has been increased TWENTY-FUCKING-PERCENT!! This is a big deal and it's gonna make it so hard to take out enemies being actively healed.
Her allies come back faster from her ult too (that is if they ever die now).
Genji changes - NERF
Genji's a character with a high skill ceiling, and the issue with high skill ceiling characters is when someone masters them, they get to demigod mode. Just watch any Seagull montages and you'll see how ridiculous Genji has been.
Genji is going to be a lot easier to lock down now. Traps will affect him while he's dashing, his burst damage is being severely reduced, his mobility is being reduced, and his ult is being shortened by 2 seconds.
A couple of these would have been enough but all of these at once may be a little too much. I think we will see some of these nerfs reduced or removed though
Lucio changes - Minor Nerf
Lucio's speed boost has been decreased so he isn't a necessary pick in every competitive match. It's going to suck, but his utility is still there and unique enough he won't be replaced entirely
Roadhog changes - Minor Nerf
We've all seen the images of Roadhog's hook pulling some bullshit clipping and while this is a video game with plenty of other crazy things around, some of the hooks shared around just weren't making sense. I think this change is a welcome quality of life change, rather than a nerf
Zenyatta changes - Nerf
Zenyatta has seen a major comeback in competitive play. Going from seeing no play at all to being practically mandatory on all teams. He finally can take a punch, but now they need to reduce Zenyatta's punch.
Interestingly enough, Zenyatta will still do the same amount of damage in 1v1s which is cool of Blizzard
Maps Balance Changes:
Watchpoint: Girbraltar is getting rid of it's first checkpoint, the one down the hill in the "carwash." I'll trust that Blizzard had some good numbers behind this one but I guess it really didn't change much except make it so that the payload couldn't go back too far in the beginning.
Other Updates of Note:
You can now see all Allied Health Bars if you want
Supports will still have the unique passive of seeing allies via wallhack, this will still be useful in case a teammate needs to be reminded to go get health.
You'll be better able to party up with players that are in a game with you
A very welcome patch that will probably slip in under the radar honestly.
Reaper once again has a bug report of Shadow Step being used to reach unintended locations. People sure are persistent with it's continued abuse.
TL:DR;
- Zenyatta, McCree, Lucio nerf
- Mei, and Hanzo buff
- Genji major nerf
- Mercy major buff
- Competitive Mode looking new and improved
- Sit and Laugh emotes incoming
- Several quality-of-life changes
