October 9, 2018 Patch

Introduction
Hey everyone!

We wanted to share a little bit about the big changes coming to everyone’s favorite weapons designer in this patch. So, we’ve gone and completely reforged Torbjörn with the aim of improving his playstyle and making him more adaptable to the needs of his team.

When we redesign a hero, we define the gameplay problems we’re aiming to solve, how our solutions can fit within the hero’s constraints, and what existing elements are core to the hero’s identity that we should definitely keep as part of their kit. In Torbjörn’s case, we identified his automated turret as one of those key elements. First, instead of having to stand next to a turret to build it, Torbjörn can now throw the turret out, so he can more effectively contest points and set up flanks on the fly. We’ve also given him a self-buff, Overload, which grants Torbjörn 150 armor and a 30% increase to his attack, movement, and reload speeds, so he can spend less time building and more time shooting. Last but certainly not least, we’ve given his ultimate ability Molten Core a complete overhaul.

We explored eight different iterations of Molten Core before we landed on the current design and moved it onto the next stage of production—giving it proper art, animations, and visual effects. The new Molten Core almost didn’t make it due to technical performance concerns, but fortunately, our artists and engineers came up with some clever solutions.

Molten Core now allows Torbjörn to spray pools of magma on the ground that do a ton of sustained damage (plus bonus damage to armor), but its true strength is denying the enemy team the ability to move through key locations or closing out a game in overtime by restricting the space around the objective.

Be sure to try out the new Torbjörn and the other updated heroes this patch and let us know what you think!


 * —Joshua Noh, Associate Game Designer

New Seasonal Event: Halloween Terror 2018
The fright for the future returns!

We’re celebrating the scariest time of the year with a seasonal event: Overwatch Halloween Terror! Expand your collection of spooky seasonal items and relive the chilling tale of Junkenstein's Revenge in our PvE brawl. This year we’ve added two new heroes to the fray: Brigitte and Tracer!

In addition to playing the limited-time brawl, you'll also be able to unlock new seasonal items—including six new legendary skins like Banshee Moira, Jack-o’-lantern Wrecking Ball, and Enchanted Armor Pharah—alongside our growing collection of bone-chilling gear from previous years.

Color Blind Option Updates
Customize how team colors are displayed in your user interface (e.g. nameplates, HUD, health bars, and hero outlines) with a set of nine different colorblind-friendly colors to choose from. You can also colorize enemy and friendly UI separately. These options can be found under Options > Video > Color Blind Options. All changes made will be saved and ready for you to see in the next match you play!

General

 * Updated the audio mix to add more clarity and dynamic range for all sounds in the game


 * Developer Comments: We’ve added more heroes and features to the game, so the audio mix has become more complex, which required us to rebalance sounds across the game. In this update, we extended the range of third-person weapon sounds, increased the range of first-person weapon impacts in the world, and generally balanced third-person footsteps and ability sounds.

General

 * Updated visuals for all shields and barriers to increase readability
 * Enemies' health bars will now become visible to players if an entity they create deals damage to an enemy

Brigitte

 * Developer Comments The health of Brigitte’s barrier was extremely difficult for most heroes to deal with, especially as she closes the distance to her targets. This change still provides Brigitte with substantial survivability but should also be more rewarding for opponents who pressure her.


 * BARRIER SHIELD
 * Shield health reduced from 600 to 500

Doomfist

 * Developer Comments Doomfist is all about getting up close and personal with his enemies, but his Hand Cannon's spread was tight enough to do surprising amounts of damage at longer ranges, especially against bigger targets. This change brings his weapon in line with other shotgun-style weapons by making its damage fall off beyond 15 meters.


 * HAND CANNON
 * Damage falloff now starts at 15 meters

McCree

 * Developer Comments: Previously, McCree’s Combat Roll cooldown felt too restrictive, which sometimes prohibited players from using it. The new, faster cooldown allows for more flexibility when choosing between using it for mobility or an instant reload.


 * COMBAT ROLL
 * Cooldown reduced from 8 to 6 seconds

Pharah

 * Developer Comments: We wanted to increase how responsive Pharah’s Rocket Launcher felt, because a full second of recovery between shots made it feel sluggish. To balance out the improved recovery time, we shifted some damage from the rocket's explosion to the direct impact damage. The overall damage potential is now increased when landing direct hits and decreased slightly when only dealing explosive damage. We reduced the amount of knockback each explosion causes, as it made it very difficult to aim at Pharah with rockets coming in at a faster pace. The Concussive Blast cooldown reduction should allow the ability to sync up more closely with the Jump Jet cooldown when used for mobility.


 * CONCUSSIVE BLAST
 * Cooldown reduced from 12 to 9 seconds
 * ROCKET LAUNCHER
 * Attack speed increased
 * Lowered recovery time between shots from 0.9 to 0.75 seconds
 * Damage redistributed between explosion and impact
 * Explosion damage reduced from 80 to 65
 * Impact damage increased from 40 to 55
 * Explosion knock back reduced by 20%
 * Self-knockback amount increased by 25%

Mei

 * GENERAL
 * Updated visual effects for all abilities

Orisa
''Developer Comments Orisa spends a significant amount of time firing her Fusion Driver from a relatively stationary location. The weapon's spread value caused it to feel too random when leading targets at a distance, considering the projectiles' travel time. We’ve tightened the spread slightly, which should leave her close- and mid-range damage potential largely unchanged, while making it feel better when hitting targets at longer ranges.''
 * FUSION DRIVER
 * Maximum spread reduced by 20%

Soldier: 76
''Developer Comments Soldier: 76’s damage output was a bit low, but not too far off from where we felt it should be. Making it take a few more shots to reach max spread smooths out the weapon spread curve and should make his damage more consistent.''
 * HEAVY PULSE RIFLE
 * Number of shots until reaching maximum spread increased from 6 to 9

Torbjörn
''Developer Comments Torbjörn was initially designed to be a specialized hero, intended to be a strong defensive option due to his armor-generating capabilities and ability to control areas with his turret. However, the scrap collecting and Armor Pack mechanics have proven to cause problematic gameplay issues because of their feast or famine nature. To make him more flexible in a wide variety of situations, we’ve removed the scrap system, made the turret much easier to deploy, replaced the Armor Pack ability with Overload—a powerful self-buff—and transformed Molten Core into a powerful new area denial ultimate ability.''


 * GENERAL
 * Reduced the size of Torbjörn’s head hit volume by 10%


 * RIVET GUN
 * Primary Fire
 * Projectile speed increased from 60 to 70 per second
 * Reload time reduced from 2.2 to 2 seconds
 * Turret targets enemy hit by primary fire
 * Alternate Fire
 * Recovery lowered from 0.8 to 0.6 seconds
 * Damage per shot lowered from 150 to 125
 * Reload time reduced from 2.2 to 2 seconds
 * Spread randomization readjusted


 * FORGE HAMMER
 * Radius increased to align with Quick Melee


 * DEPLOY TURRET
 * Turret is now a thrown projectile
 * Automatically builds over three seconds
 * No longer has different levels
 * Same damage output as previous level 2 turret
 * Maximum health reduced from 300 to 250
 * Now incurs a 5 second cooldown when deployed
 * Now incurs a 10 second cooldown when destroyed in combat
 * No longer able to deploy a new turret if it’s in combat
 * While the turret is firing
 * If the turret has taken damage within three seconds
 * Can now be destroyed using the Interact input
 * Completes self-building once deployed, even if Torbjörn is eliminated


 * NEW ABILITY: OVERLOAD
 * Replaces Armor Pack
 * Lasts for 5 seconds
 * Cooldown is 12 seconds
 * Temporarily grants 150 armor
 * Increases attack, movement, and reload speeds by 30%


 * NEW ULTIMATE: MOLTEN CORE
 * Switches weapon from Rivet Gun to his claw arm
 * Lasts 6 seconds
 * Fire up to 10 molten globules that create damage pools where they land for 10 seconds
 * Globules bounce off walls and ceilings until they hit the ground
 * Base damage is 130
 * Damage increases from 130 to 190 against enemies who have armor
 * Heroes affected by armor: Bastion, Brigitte, D.Va, Orisa, Reinhardt, Torbjörn, Winston, Wrecking Ball
 * Heroes who can grant armor to their allies: Brigitte

Please note that Torbjörn will be unavailable in Competitive Play for two weeks.

General

 * Reduced the setup timer for Assault, Escort, and Assault/Escort maps from 1 minute to 45 seconds
 * Assemble Your Team timer increased from 10 to 25 seconds in the second round on Assault, Assault/Escort, and Escort maps

General

 * A slider to change Player Outline Strength has been added under Options > Gameplay

Heroes

 * Bastion
 * Fixed a bug that caused the roll bar on Bastion’s Dune Buggy skin to obscure its view when backing up or firing in Tank configuration


 * D.Va
 * Fixed a bug that prevented some glowing effects from appearing on D.Va’s Nano Cola skin
 * Fixed a bug that prevented D.Va from fully appearing when viewing her MEKA Activated highlight intro in the Hero Gallery


 * Hanzo
 * Fixed a bug that caused Hanzo’s Storm Bow reticle to be visible while emoting


 * Mei
 * Fixed a bug that prevented Mei’s Blizzard from freezing enemies when cast in areas with low ceilings


 * Reinhardt
 * Fixed a bug that caused the player’s reticle to pitch up after using Earthshatter
 * Fixed a bug that caused Reinhardt’s Earthshatter animations to play if used while he was juggled in the air by knockback abilities
 * Fixed a bug that caused Reinhardt’s Rocket Hammer to knock enemies back further than intended
 * Fixed a bug that sometimes caused Reinhardt’s Charge to knock back the target rather than pinning them
 * Fixed a bug that would let Reinhardt immediately pin an enemy after a knock back close to a wall
 * Fixed a bug that allowed area affect abilities to hit Reinhardt’s Barrier Field from further than intended (e.g. Reinhardt’s Rocket Hammer and Junkrat’s Concussion Mines)


 * Sombra
 * Fixed an issue that caused Sombra to change the direction she was facing when using her Translocator to teleport
 * Fixed a bug that sometimes allowed Sombra’s Translocator to reach unintended places
 * Fixed a bug that prevented some abilities from being able to destroy Sombra’s Translocator if it was placed in certain locations


 * Symmetra
 * Fixed a bug that caused Symmetra to have a chance of playing inaccurate voice lines when placing turrets
 * Fixed a bug that caused Symmetra’s alternate fire to appear to detonate after missing a target


 * Torbjörn
 * Fixed a bug that prevented Torbjörn’s medal from appearing in his Medal victory pose


 * Zarya
 * Fixed a bug that caused Zarya’s Particle Cannon reticle to be visible while emoting

Maps

 * Busan
 * Fixed a bug that allowed players to stand on some prohibited rooftops in Downtown
 * Fixed a bug that prevented sprays from displaying on glass windows in MEKA Base


 * Volskaya Industries
 * Fixed a bug that prevented players from receiving capture credit if they dropped onto the point from one of the moving platforms

Game Browser and Custom Games

 * Deathmatch
 * Fixed a bug that prevented the “your team has lost” or “your team has taken the lead” voice lines from playing when the score swap happens due to self-inflicted deaths


 * VS AI
 * Fixed a bug that prevented players from receiving an “unable to join” error message if they attempted to spectate a Player vs AI match when all spectator slots were full