Blizzard has released a new update for Overwatch on the PC-only Public Test Realm, introducing a variety of tweaks to McCree, Reaper, Reinhardt, Zarya, and Doomfist, the newest character to join the game.
Arguably the most significant change is for Zarya’s ultimate ability, the Graviton Surge. When launched it now disables “all movement abilities” of the enemy characters caught within it, much like Junkrat’s trap. This means that characters like Tracer will no longer be able to teleport out of the gravitational pull, which in turn makes Graviton Surge significantly more effective.
McCree, meanwhile, will now slow targets hit with his Flashbang, making it harder for them to escape around a corner or behind cover and leaving them open to his gunfire for a little longer. Take a look at the full list of new PTR changes below.
It’s important to note that these changes are currently in testing on the PTR and may not necessarily be transferred over to the proper game. Since they’re experimental, the changes could be tweaked or even removed completely.
Doomfist
- Rocket Punch: Total distance traveled reduced by about 20% (This change has been on the PTR for a little while now)
- Seismic Slam: Added a new UI indicator to show how much damage it will deal, and how much it dealt. Previously this was only indicated by the default crosshair filling in, but this is only visible when using the default crosshair. The new indicator should always be visible, regardless of any crosshair changes. Also, targeting this ability while in the air is now restricted to locations lower than your current height
McCree
- Flashbang: Now slows targets significantly when they are stunned. This makes them less likely to slide away around a corner or something similar once they are stunned
Reaper
- Shadow Step: VO and SFX distance dramatically reduced
Reinhardt
- Hammer: Swing speed increased by ~10%. On top of the swing speed increase, we’ve gone through and tweaked many timings and other things about the Hammer to make it more responsive. Overall it should feel a lot better to swing and make contact with enemies.
- Charge: Impacting another charging hero (Doomfist or Reinhardt) no longer deals damage to both characters, but still causes a knockdown on both
Zarya
- Graviton Surge: Now disables all movement abilities of affect targets. This is similar to how Junkrat’s trap affects abilities
On July 12 Blizzard made progression for Doomfist available on the PTR, allowing players to unlock new skin and poses. You can see all the Doomfist skins here. The owners of the first seven Overwatch League teams were also recently revealed, and included among them are some very big games in traditional sports, gaming, and other industries.