The final Overwatch event for 2018, Winter Wonderland, is upon us! For the next three weeks, Overwatch is getting into the holiday spirit with a bevy of Winter/Holiday themed skins, sprays and more from past Winter Wonderlands, as well as new cosmitics. Additionally, Winter Brawls Yeti Hunter and Snowball Offensive are now available, though competitive versions have not been included.

Though unlisted in the patch notes, Overwatch League away skins have been added! If you bought a home skin, or received an away skin as part of the All-Access Pass, you now have the other skin for free. Skins for the expansion teams are not added in this patch.

The hero balancing side has a few interesting notes as well. Brigitte's Shield Bash and Inspire have been nerfed and tweaked in order to make her easier to contend with. Doomfist has received nerfs in most of his offensive kit for similar development reasons. Other changes include a spread change to Bastion's turret mode, damage buffs to McCree's alt fire and Torbjorn's ultimate, and most importantly, Golden B.O.B. Not listed is a change to Soldier 76's ultimate. Helix Rockets will no longer auto aim when Tactical Visor is active.

As always, the patch notes are transcribed below:

New Seasonal Event: Winter Wonderland 2018

‘Tis the season to get merry!

Overwatch is getting into the holiday spirit for the next three weeks! Expand your collection and enjoy two winter brawls: Yeti Hunter and Mei’s Snowball Offensive. Visit Blizzard World to watch the snow fall, admire its twinkling nighttime lights, and savor the sight of confectionary-inspired décor.

Of course, we have new presents for you to unwrap from our Winter Loot Boxes! Unlock new seasonal items—including legendary skins like Krampus Junkrat, Sugar Plum Fairy Mercy, Figure Skater Symmetra, and more.

Learn more about Winter Wonderland here.

GENERAL UPDATES

Audio

An option to use Windows Spatial Audio is now available. This feature can be found in the Windows Start Menu under Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Sound > Speaker Device > Spatial Sound

Developer Comments: Since launch, we’ve supported Dolby Atmos for players who use headphones, and we’re now expanding this support to include the Windows 10 implementation for spatial audio. Spatial audio is configured in the Windows 10 sound settings and will take priority over the settings in the game client. This will allow for more options, including settings for Windows Sonic Headphones, Dolby Atmos for Headphones, and Dolby Atmos for Home Theater.

HERO UPDATES

Ashe

  • B.O.B.
    • Bob will now have a golden tint when Ashe equips her golden weapon

Developer Comments: Our final technical audit on Ashe’s character package allowed us to implement a feature we talked about several times during Bob’s production. Making him part of Ashe’s golden weapon is a great way to celebrate our favorite Big Omnic Butler and let players show off their hard-earned Competitive Points each time they summon him onto the battlefield.

Bastion

  • Configuration: Recon

    • Ammo increased from 25 to 35

  • Configuration: Sentry

    • Weapon spread decreased by up to 33% while firing

Developer Comments: Bastion could use a little bit of an offensive boost to balance out how vulnerable Configuration: Recon’s bulky size and Sentry’s stationary nature make it. As a reward for surviving in spite of these weaknesses, we gave Bastion a lower spread in Sentry mode to make it more effective at farther ranges than it was previously.

Brigitte

  • Shield Bash

    • No longer can travel or stun targets through barriers
    • Damage reduced from 50 to 5

  • Inspire

    • Cooldown reduced from 1.5 seconds to 1 second
    • Duration increased from 5 seconds to 6 seconds
    • Total healing increased from 80 to 100

Developer Comments: Brigitte’s Shield Bash is a strong ability that often feels difficult to counter. This change will offer new options for counter play, enabling shield tanks to better protect themselves and their teammates. Reducing its damage reduces her total stun combo damage potential while still allowing Whip Shot and her basic melee attacks to retain their full strength. Brigitte is a tank/healer hybrid, and lately we’ve been reducing her effectiveness by lowering the power of her non-healing functionality. We want to make sure she is still a viable pick, so we’re increasing the uptime of her Inspire passive ability to help improve her overall healing output.

Doomfist

  • Rising Uppercut

    • Loss of air control duration lowered from 3 seconds to 0.6 seconds

  • Seismic Slam

    • Maximum range reduced from 20 meters to 15 meters
    • Targets no longer lose air control while being pulled in

  • Meteor Strike

    • Inner ring damage radius increased from 1.5 meters to 2.0 meters
    • Outer ring maximum damage decreased from 300 to 200

Developer Comments: Doomfist’s high mobility allows him to engage and disengage from extremely long range. Decreasing the range of the targeted aerial version of Seismic Slam requires him to get closer before engaging an enemy and makes it slightly harder for him to escape from combat. The loss of air control on Rising Uppercut was a frustrating mechanic for players, but it allowed Doomfist to set up combos. We’ve found a decent middle ground by limiting the amount of time Doomfist has to line up his next move. The Meteor Strike changes will make it harder to secure easy eliminations on heroes without mobility abilities, such as Zenyatta or Ana, while still preserving its maximum potential damage when aimed well or when combined with other abilities such as Graviton Surge or Sleep Dart.

McCree

  • Peacekeeper
    • Alternate fire damage increased from 45 to 55

Developer Comments: McCree’s Fan the Hammer wasn’t as reliable against higher health heroes as it should be. Increasing its damage will make it more potent in close-range engagements where it is intended to be most effective.

Torbjörn

  • Molten Core
    • Damage increased from 130 to 160 per second

Developer Comments: While the Molten Core damage pools were intended to provide players with tools for area denial, they weren’t proving threatening enough to deter enemies for a significant amount of time because their damage was too low.

BUG FIXES

A.I.

Fixed a bug that caused Torbjörn bot to use some of his ultimate while attempting to repair his turret

Deathmatch

  • Fixed a bug that caused Athena’s voice lines to overlap if the match was a draw

Heroes

General

  • Fixed a bug that prevented a landing exertion visual effect from playing when a hero impacted a slippery surface before landing
  • Fixed an issue that caused enemy players to appear to have jittery movement at framerates over 100
  • Fixed issues that could cause the client to miscalculate projectiles

Ashe

  • Fixed a bug that caused Ashe’s Dynamite to create a second small explosion visual effect a few moments after the first explosion
  • Fixed a bug that prevented Ashe’s Dynamite from playing its fire visual effects on enemy abilities (e.g. Junkrat’s Steel Trap or Mei’s Ice Wall)
  • Fixed a bug that prevented Ashe’s Dynamite from exploding if it fell into small gaps
  • Fixed a bug that prevented spectators from seeing enemy outline’s through Ashe’s scope
  • Fixed a bug that caused Ashe to see Zarya’s Project Barrier visual effects when Bob was the ability’s target
  • Fixed a bug that caused Bob to slip off Mei’s Ice Wall
  • Fixed a bug that allowed Bob to push Bastion in Sentry mode when hit by his charge
  • Fixed a bug that prevented a charging Bob from opening the airlock doors on Horizon: Lunar Colony
  • Fixed a bug that caused Bob elbow to briefly disappear when waving
  • Fixed a bug that caused Bob to continuously charge into a small piece of collision instead of stopping
  • Fixed a bug that prevented Ashe’s Coach Gun from displacing breakables on maps

Bastion

  • Fixed a bug that caused Bastion’s Tank mode treads to continue moving while stunned
  • Fixed a bug that caused Bastion’s colored outline to include squares floating above him while in Configuration: Tank

Brigitte

  • Fixed a bug that allowed Brigitte to travel through Mei in Cryo-freeze when using Shield Bash

D.Va

  • Fixed a bug with the Lying Around highlight intro that caused Cruiser D.Va’s hair to clip into the mech

McCree

  • Fixed a bug that caused McCree’s Deadeye animation and sound effects to play twice if it was canceled quickly

Mercy

  • Fixed a bug that allowed Mercy to gain ultimate charge by damage boosting a Pharah as she damages herself

Moira

  • Fixed a bug that allowed Moira’s Biotic Orbs to go through or get stuck in walls and other collision

Reinhardt

  • Fixed a bug that prevented Reinhardt’s Earthshatter from traveling over certain terrain

Sombra

  • Fixed a bug that caused Sombra to hear the detected sound effect when entering stealth or teleporting

Symmetra

  • Fixed a bug that caused additional sound effects to play while viewing Symmetra’s Creation victory pose in the Hero Gallery
  • Fixed a bug with Symmetra’s teleporter where it would play its self-destruct sound effects when viewed in the Hero Gallery
  • Fixed a bug that allowed Symmetra to teleport her turrets under terrain

Torbjörn

  • Fixed a bug that caused Torbjörn’s turret to be built at an extreme angle if it landed on the edge of an object

Widowmaker

  • Fixed a bug that allowed Widowmaker’s Venom Mine to reveal enemy barriers through walls

Wrecking Ball

  • Fixed a bug that caused Wrecking Ball to briefly hit maximum speed before returning to normal speed when he used his Grappling Claw at maximum distance

Hero Gallery

General

  • Fixed a bug that prevented players’ Competitive Point currency deduction from visually updating after purchasing a golden weapon

  • Fixed a bug that caused heroes to display a t-pose briefly when viewing Highlight Intros with the UI disabled

Maps

Control

  • Fixed a bug that caused the hero select countdown timer to remain at 29 seconds

Dorado

  • Fixed a bug that gave unintended access to certain ledges

Hollywood

  • Fixed a bug that caused the ground beneath the western soundstage’s gates to be slippery while the gates were open

Temple of Anubis

  • Fixed a bug that prevented players from standing on the staircase ledge near the first point
  • Fixed a bug that allowed Sombra to reach unintended locations

Mystery Heroes

  • Fixed a bug that prevented the Mystery Heroes ruleset from being used while in a Mystery Heroes skirmish

Spectating

  • Fixed a bug that caused the kill feed to overlap with other UI elements while spectating players

UI

Colorblind Options

  • Fixed a bug that caused a player’s UI to appear as the enemy color during FFA Deathmatch games
  • Fixed a bug that prevented colorblind set team colors from appearing on the tab and victory screens
  • Fixed a bug that prevented player name plates from appearing in the hero select screen
  • Fixed a bug that prevented the end of round score screen from properly displaying team colors
  • Fixed a bug that prevented enemy Torbjörn’s turret health bar from displaying its team color