Overwatch News

http://playoverwatch.com/news/21931801

 

The two-week fundraising campaign was supported by Overwatch® players around the world

 

NEW YORK, NY— JULY 9, 2018: The Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF) today announced that it will receive an unprecedented $12.7 million donation from Blizzard Entertainment. The donation was tied to worldwide sales of a limited-edition “Pink Mercy” hero skin for Blizzard’s internationally acclaimed best-selling game Overwatch®, along with a special T-shirt created to support the cause. (“Skin” is a game industry term for an alternate version of a character’s outfit or appearance.) The gaming community rallied around the fundraising effort, making it the largest donation by a corporate partner in one year in BCRF’s 25-year history.

The special charity skin was designed for the Overwatch hero Mercy, a scientist and the “guardian angel” of the game who has dedicated her life to helping others. The limited-edition skin was offered as an in-game purchase on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, with Blizzard Entertainment donating 100% of the proceeds it receives from sales of the skin to BCRF.

“Blizzard Entertainment’s record-breaking commitment to activate change for women’s health by mobilizing the gaming community worldwide will have a lasting impact,” said Stephanie Kauffman, Chief Strategic Alliances Officer at BCRF. “Blizzard’s support of BCRF will help accelerate breakthroughs in prevention strategies, improved treatments, survivorship and quality of life for breast cancer patients worldwide.”

In addition to the charity skin, players showed their support for the cause with a purchase of a limited-edition Pink Mercy T-shirt, available for men and women, designed by community artist VICKISIGH. Blizzard also coordinated charity streams on Twitch with 14 star Overwatch players from around the world, who collectively raised more than $130,000 for BCRF during the two-week campaign.

“BCRF does critical work every single day to support women’s health and develop new research and strategies for preventing, treating, and curing breast cancer, and we’re proud to make this contribution to their efforts,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “I’m grateful to all of the Overwatch players around the world who made supporting such a good cause possible with their enthusiasm for the game and their generosity.”

Click here to learn more about BCRF’s collaborations with Blizzard Entertainment.

https://twitter.com/Overbuff/status/1012438279969492992

HERO UPDATES

General

Added new hero “Wrecking Ball”

Several heroes have received major changes to their damage falloff:

Bastion

• Configuration: Sentry and Configuration: Recon – Minimum damage at max range increased from 30% to 50%.

McCree

• Peacekeeper – Minimum damage at max range increased from 30% to 50%

Mei

• Endothermic Blaster – Removed all damage falloff from her secondary fire projectile

Soldier: 76

• Heavy Pulse Rifle – Minimum damage at max range increased from 30% to 50%

Widowmaker

• Widow’s Kiss – Now has damage falloff applied on her automatic primary fire (50% at max range)

Developer Comments: The goal of these changes is to slightly reduce the impact of damage falloff on mid-range weapons. While assessing falloff mechanics across the board, weapons intended primarily for close-range combat benefited too greatly from lowering their falloff restrictions. We also normalized a couple of outliers in that Mei had a long-range travel time projectile with falloff applied and Widowmaker’s automatic fire did not have any.

Hanzo

Storm Arrows

• Duration reduced from 6 to 5 seconds
• Cooldown increased from 8 to 10 seconds

Developer Comments: Hanzo’s new kit has proven to be a bit too powerful, especially his new Storm Arrows ability. We’re lowering the frequency that he can have this ability available to make it more reasonable to play around.

Sombra

Stealth

• Now lasts indefinitely
• No longer can contest objectives while invisible
• Enemy detection radius increased from 2 meters to 4 meters
  Movement speed buff decreased from +75% to +50%

Translocator

• Now lasts indefinitely
• Can now be destroyed (has 5 health)

Developer Comments: These changes allow Sombra to more easily play as an infiltrator and scout for her team, as well as give her time to pick and choose when to reveal herself to ambush her enemies.

MAP UPDATES

Assault Maps

• Objective time reduced from 5 minutes to 4 minutes per control point in Quick Play and Arcade modes

BUG FIXES

General

Fixed a bug that caused the group leader’s UI to appear that they’re canceling or leaving Waiting for Players when using a controller
Fixed a bug that prevented players from receiving an AFK warning for not moving after receiving the No XP warning for not being in combat
Fixed a bug that caused Competitive Elimination to display as your last match played in the Recent Players menu
Fixed a bug that prevented players added to Avoid as Teammate from being removed if that player was added to their friends list

Endorsements

Fixed a bug that caused the Team Information screen to display an Endorsement level of a player who left the game
Fixed a bug that prevented the Endorsement input from opening the Endorsement tray if it shared that input with another input
Fixed a bug that prevented the Nearby Players menu from displaying Endorsement levels

Game Browser & Custom Games

Fixed a bug that allowed heroes to deploy multiple barriers or turrets when a decreased cooldown modifier was applied in a Custom Game
Fixed a bug that caused players to sometimes spawn into a wall or floor when playing a Deathmatch Custom Game with Respawn as Random Hero enabled

Heroes

General

• Fixed a bug that prevented heroes from playing a hit reaction animation when shot

Brigitte

• Fixed a bug that prevented Doomfist’s Rising Uppercut animation from playing when used after hitting something with Rocket Punch
• Fixed a bug that caused Brigitte’s portrait to show a non-existent ponytail with her Shieldmaiden skin equipped

Doomfist

• Fixed a bug that caused Doomfist’s Rocket Punch to stop if he hit Symmetra’s Turret when it was in midair
• Fixed a bug that prevented Doomfist’s Meteor Strike from hitting Reinhardt if he faced his Field Barrier upward
• Fixed a bug with Doomfist’s Rocket Punch that prevented it from canceling Genji’s Cyber-agility, Lúcio’s Wall Ride, or Hanzo’s Wall Climb on impact

D.Va

• Fixed a bug that prevented D.Va’s mech rear hatch from connecting to her mech when viewing D.Va’s Peace Victory Pose.

Junkrat

• Fixed a bug that prevented Junkrat’s Frag Launcher grenades from dealing the correct amount of damage on direct hits
• Fixed a bug that allowed Junkrat to set multiple Steel Traps in Custom Games
• Fixed a bug that prevented teammates from viewing Junkrat’s respawn timer if he died while piloting RIP-Tire.
• Fixed a bug that allowed the player to move the camera when Junkrat’s RIP-Tire was frozen

Moira

• Fixed a bug that prevented Moira’s Healing Orb from healing friendly training bots in the Practice Range
• Fixed a bug that prevented Moira’s Biotic Orbs from trigging controller vibration when using a controller

Reinhardt

• Fixed a bug that prevented Reinhardt’s Charge from propelling him forward if he was airborne due to Doomfist’s Rising Uppercut

Roadhog

• Fixed a bug that allowed Roadhog’s Chain Hook target to be pulled to his new location when he used Symmetra’s Teleporter.

Symmetra

• Fixed a bug that prevented Symmetra’s Turrets from displaying a red outline when viewed by the enemy team
• Fixed a bug that caused Reinhardt’s Earthshatter to sometimes go through Symmetra’s Photon Barrier
• Fixed a bug that prevented Symmetra’s Teleporter from using visual effects with her Oasis skin equipped
• Fixed a bug that allowed Symmetra to receive credit toward her Huge Success achievement if she teleported her Sentry Turrets

Tracer

• Fixed a bug that allowed Tracer to gain capture point progress during her Recall ability

Zarya

• Fixed a bug that prevented Zarya’s Particle Cannon from gaining energy when attacked by an enemy Symmetra or Zarya if they were too close to her when she used Particle Barrier

Looking for Group

• Fixed a bug that caused all game modes to be selectable when adding a player to an LFG group
• Fixed a bug that prevented the Choose Roles menu from offering a default role when accessed
• Fixed a bug that prevented players from receiving messaging notifying them why they were unable to change a Looking for Group title if they were suspended from changing Custom Game names
• Fixed a bug that prevented role icons from displaying on hero portraits
• Fixed a bug that allowed two players were able to queue for the same Looking for Group spot

Rolling into the fray with his newly upgraded battle mech, the champion of the Scrapyard—Wrecking Ball—our newest Tank hero, is ready to flatten foes and bulldoze frontlines on his way to victory!

Overview
Hammond, also known as “Specimen 8,” was genetically modified during his time on Horizon Lunar Colony and, like Winston, was granted increased size and intelligence as a result. He is a witty and conniving creature that loves to cause mischief. During the rebellion on Horizon, he secretly attached his escape pod to the back of Winston’s ship, hitching a ride to planet Earth to save himself from imminent destruction. He crash-landed in the Australian Outback near Junkertown, and over time upgraded his escape pod into a formidable mech, soon becoming a force to be reckoned with known as Wrecking Ball. He doesn’t speak any human languages, but his mech automatically translates his voice in a fittingly menacing tone.

Wrecking Ball brings a plethora of unique traits to the roster of tanks available in Overwatch. He can switch between a bipedal Combat mode with high-capacity machine guns and a Roll mode allowing him to cruise through maps and enemies alike with great speed. Entering the fray, his large health pool and shield-generating capabilities give him resilience when initiating and finishing battles. If that wasn’t scary enough, he can climb and swing on surfaces using his Grappling Claw and perform Piledrive, a devastating ground smash, to enemies below. In addition to setting up Piledrive, Wrecking Ball’s Grappling Claw enables him to reach top speed. Top speed increases his basic movement speed, damaging and knocking back foes in his path. His ultimate ability Minefield is just as versatile, allowing him to set a trap and control routes, or simply trigger a large area-of-effect explosion for enemies in the immediate vicinity.

Abilities

• Quad Cannons: Wrecking Ball fires machine guns
• Adaptive Shield: Grants Wrecking Ball a number of temporary shields based on the number of enemies nearby
• Roll: Wrecking Ball transforms into a sphere with increased speed
• Grappling Claw: While in Roll mode, Wrecking Ball can launch a short grappling hook to attach to surfaces, swing around, clear gaps, and move upwards. Using this ability allows Wrecking Ball to gain momentum, dealing damage and knocking back enemies upon impact
• Piledriver: Wrecking Ball slams down from the air, pulling enemies towards the center of impact and dealing damage
• Minefield (Ultimate): Wrecking Ball litters the ground around him with damage-dealing proximity mines

Overwatch Patch 1.25, which is now live!

Endorsements

• Whenever players finish a match, they can now use Endorsements to recognize their teammates for exceptional teamwork, sportsmanship, or shot calling. Opponents can be endorsed for good sportsmanship as well!
• Endorsing players will earn you bonus XP, and the more endorsements you rack up from other players, the higher your Endorsement Level will rise, up to 5. Scaling rewards based on this level can be claimed periodically.

Looking For Group

• Players can now use the Looking For Group interface to form their own groups with custom parameters. Choose roles, team compositions, desired endorsement levels, and even merge with other groups.

Career Profiles

• Career Profiles now have adjustable privacy settings, with your choice of Public, Friend Only, or Private.

New Damage Category

• The Offense and Defense hero roles have been merged to form a single Damage category.

Balance Changes

• The reality-bending hero Symmetra has undergone one of the biggest overhauls since Overwatch’s release, donning the new Damage role and coming in with a brand new primary attack, secondary attack, two new abilities, and a new ultimate ability. More details on her re-work can be found here: (https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/overwatch/t/symmetra-rework/122234)
• The map Horizon Lunar Colony has received design changes for both game balance and cosmetic purposes, adding more cover to objective points, some flora to the botany sections, and more!