Another month, another new patch. This one introduces Hero 28, Wrecking Ball. The genetic Moon experiment turned Australian pit fighter has been released to the live servers, adding another mobility-based tank to the roster. Additionally, the Sombra changes have snuck their way past PTR and onto live servers. Now the hacker extraordinaire can go invisible and teleport with impunity. Other changes include a Hanzo nerf and some numbers tweaking to damage falloff for a majority of the hitscan heroes.

As always, the transcribed patch notes can be seen below:

Look out world, Wrecking Ball’s here!

Our smallest hero has become one of our team's biggest achievements. When we first introduced Wrecking Ball to the team, making the hamster hero fit in the Overwatch lineup presented an exciting challenge.

Exploration is the key to animation, so we tried many different personality iterations for the hamster. At first, we made him maniacal, but he felt too evil, so we tried instead to highlight the difference between Hammond the critter—cute, cuddly, mischievous—and the Wrecking Ball mech—powerful, imposing, cold, and impersonal. Our eureka moment was nailing his “Relaxed” emote; I feel like it captures Hammond’s character and personality perfectly. He exudes confidence with the way he shifts his weight in the seat to get comfortable, then throws a cheese puff into the air and catches it in his mouth. After seeing it, we knew we has something special.

Wrecking Ball is one of our most agile tank heroes so far and has unique mechanics that I haven’t seen in other games. It was so exciting to see how much people loved him when we finally announced him. Be sure to roll into a match as Wrecking Ball and, while you’re at it, check out how he uses his trackball to pilot the mech!

—Ryan Denniston, Lead Animator

PATCH HIGHLIGHTS

New Hero: Wrecking Ball (Tank):

Wrecking Ball’s tinkering capabilities and iron-clad mech make him a formidable tank hero, capable of bowling through the front line of the opposition and causing mayhem in the back line. His primary weapon, Quad Cannons, are two sets of twin machine guns that shred enemies caught in their crosshairs. No team is too much for Wrecking Ball to engage against with his Adaptive Shield, which generates more health based on the number of enemies nearby. This shield makes him incredibly difficult to kill when he bulldozes into the fray and, once he starts to get low on health, also provides him the endurance to escape. The Roll ability allows Wrecking Ball to withdraw the mech’s robotic limbs, transforming it into a ball with increased movement speed. No obstacle can stand in Wrecking Ball’s way when he uses Grappling Claw, a short-range ability that grips the environment, letting him swing across terrain gaps or around corners to smash enemies. Grappling Claw also allows Wrecking Ball to reach top speed and ram into foes, dealing destructive damage and knocking them back. While airborne, the mech’s Piledriver ability causes Wrecking Ball to slam down from the air and knock his enemies off their feet.

When Wrecking Ball is at his strongest, he can use Minefield which flings mines onto the ground that deal a considerable amount of damage to enemies unfortunate enough to trigger them.

To learn more about Wrecking Ball, click here.

As with all new heroes, please note that Wrecking Ball's release in Competitive Play will be delayed by two weeks.

GENERAL UPDATES

General

  • Added a note to Sombra’s Hero Information page about her ability to remove her own Translocator
  • Removed the Shield Generators Destroyed statistic from players’ Career Profiles

Looking for Group

  • Added a button that allows you to queue into the selected game mode once the group becomes full
  • Added a button to relist groups in the LFG browser when the group has empty role slots

HERO UPDATES

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.

General

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)

Hanzo

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.

Storm Arrows

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

Sombra

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.

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 +70% to +50%

Translocator

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

MAP UPDATES

General

Developer Comments: In a previous patch we added a system to adjust the respawn rate of defenders in situations where attackers have a prolonged advantage in fights on final objectives. We’re just making this system a bit more aggressive to further reduce the duration of the long, drawn out fights that can occur when the defender spawns are so close to the action.

Assault Maps

Developer Comments: We have reduced the overall game time for Assault maps in Quickplay and Arcade Modes. Players now have four minutes to capture each point instead of the current five minutes per point. In some games, Point A would be captured rather quickly resulting in what could be lengthy battle over Point B. Point B is typically more defendable than Point A and, in some games, defenders were able to hold for the entire duration of remaining time which could potentially be 8 minutes or more. We felt that in these instances the overall time was simply too long for either team, with attackers unable to take the point and defenders having to hold. The reduction in time is now consistent with the Competitive Play times which provides an ample amount of time for both attackers and defenders, but hopefully removes the occasional game where it feels like you are playing against the timer and not the other team.

  • When final objectives on non-control maps are contested for extended amounts of time and attackers have an advantage in numbers, the respawn time for defenders now increases even faster
  • 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

AI

  • Fixed a bug that caused Torbjörn bot to continuously try upgrading his turret when placed in an inaccessible location

Custom Game

  • Fixed a bug that prevented groups electing to spectate from being placed into the Spectator section of the Custom Game they’re trying to watch

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
  • Fixed a bug that caused the text for the Sportsmanship Endorsement to bleed outside the chat box

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 Brigitte from dashing forward when using Shield Bash if she was airborne due to Doomfist’s Rising Uppercut
    • 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
    • Fixed a bug that prevented Doomfist’s Meteor Strike impact visual effect from occurring
    • Fixed a bug that caused Doomfist to plummet to his death if he used Meter Strike in the basement of the Château Guillard Deathmatch map

  • 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.

  • Genji

    • Fixed a bug that caused Genji’s kneepad to clip into his legs when wearing his Classic skin
    • Fixed a bug that caused Genji’s knees to pop while shifting his weight during his idle animation in the Hero Gallery

  • Hanzo

    • Fixed a bug that sometimes caused Hanzo’s Dragonstrike projectile to fire backward

  • 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
    • Fixed a bug that caused Junkrat’s Frag Launcher grenades to get stuck in certain terrain

  • Mei

    • Fixed a bug that caused Mei’s Ice Wall to be destroyed if Sombra hacked her

  • Mercy

    • Fixed a bug with Mercy that caused her Cadeceus Staff and Cadeceus Blaster to appear missing when using quick melee and weapon swap simultaneously
    • Fixed a bug that allowed Mercy to damage boost certain abilities (e.g. Hanzo’s Dragonstrike, D.Va’s Self-Destruct, and Junkrat’s Steel Trap)

  • 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

  • Sombra

    • Fixed a bug that allowed Sombra to push and contest payloads while invisible
    • Fixed a bug that caused parts of Sombra’s Translocator to be invulnerable
    • Fixed a bug that allowed Sombra to reach unintended locations

  • 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
    • Fixed a bug that prevented Symmetra’s Photon Barrier from destroying existing ones when placing a new one in Deathmatch
    • Fixed a bug that allowed Symmetra’s Sentry Turrets to shoot enemies through walls when placed on uneven surfaces
    • Fixed a bug that caused Symmetra’s Teleport telegraph to cancel if she fell off a ledge while placing it

  • 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

  • Widowmaker

    • Fixed a bug that prevented Widowmaker from grappling to some walls

Looking for Group

  • Fixed a bug that caused all game modes to be selectable when adding a player to a 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

Maps

  • Junkertown
    • Fixed a bug that prevented Junker Queen’s voice lines from playing