Patch 1.48 Goes Live With Anniversary Event

Today begins the celebration of the 4-year anniversary of Overwatch. Alongside all the new cosmetics and brawls returning, there are a good deal of balance changes and bug fixes going live as well. The changes from last week’s experimental card were pushed through. The much-anticipated communication wheel has made it to the live server, as well as the ability to view patch notes in the Overwatch client itself instead of opening an internet browser. And most importantly, basketballs in spawn rooms can now be reset. Here is a rundown of the major changes.

Hero Changes

Buffs

Ashe

The Viper

• (Secondary Fire) Now reaches max zoom halfway through Ashe’s aim down sights, instead of at its conclusion

Bastion

Configuration: Sentry

• Spread decreased 10%
• Shots until max spread reduction lowered from 60 to 40

Self-Repair

• Resource drain rate increased  20%
• Healing per second increased from 75 to 90

D.Va

General

• Restored functionality allowing D.Va to maintain her current aim pitch when de-meching

Doomfist

Seismic Slam

• Can now hold down the Ability 2 button to use Seismic Slam as soon as able (and valid, if using the aerial version)
• When landing very close or on top of enemies, the enemy will be pushed in front/away from Doomfist slightly, instead of sometimes having then end up beside/behind Doomfist
• Aerial Seismic Slam no longer has a slight acceleration time, which should make it arrive at the destination more reliably

Echo

General

• Reduced the height of Echo’s head hit volume

Junkrat

Frag Launcher

• Projectiles maintains slightly more velocity on ricochet

Concussion Mine

• Projectile speed increased from 20 to 25
• Ricochet distance off of enemy players greatly reduced

Total Mayhem

• Bomb detonation time reduced from 1 sec to 0.7
• Bombs spread increased 50%

Mei

Cryo-Freeze

• Now behaves like Mei’s Ice Wall when it comes to interactions. Cryo-Freeze will block line of sight and collision in much the same way

Mercy

Caduceus Staff

• Healing per second increased from 50 to 55

Reinhardt

General

• Reduced the height of Reinhardt’s head hit volume, making it harder to hit him in the head from behind

Zenyatta

Orb of Discord

• Damage amplification increased from 25% to 30%

Nerfs

Ana

Biotic Rifle

• Healing reduced from 75 to 70

Moira

Biotic Orb

• Damage radius reduced from 5 to 4 meters
• Projectile speed increased from 16 to 20
• Projectile duration reduced from 10 to 7 seconds

New Features

Feature Update: Improved Communications Wheel

Added many more communication options so you can customize your interactions in Overwatch! To help you pick your favorites, go to Options, then Controls and scroll down to the Communication Wheel section. From here, you can choose from one of 26 different options for each sector of the wheel. You can change out your choices and swap around their positions within the wheel. Now, you can still tell your team “I Need Healing,” but you can also tell them you are “On My Way” so they should “Press the Attack!”

• New options are now available to customize the Communications Wheel
• Shortcuts are now customizable; pick from a set of 26 different communication options
• Additional keybindings are now available to support more voiceover lines
• We’ve changed how communication wheel throttling works in the game. You can use up to 3 communication wheel actions in rapid succession but there is now a delay between subsequent communications (similar to how Tracer’s blink ability works in the game)

Feature Update: Patch Notes In-Client

Players are now be able to read about the latest changes to Overwatch from within the game. We wanted to players across all platforms to have convenient access to this information, and it’s now easier than ever to stay up-to-date.

• Selecting the Patch Notes button on the main menu will display the patch notes in the client, and no longer requires a separate web browser
• Patch Notes will show as “new” whenever a game update is available

General

• Players will now receive an in-game notice thanking them for their cheat report when their report has resulted in an action
• Added buttons to Control map dropships to allow players to reset basketballs
• Play of the Game – Retuned a number of scoring factors to emphasize more active participation in fights

The rest of the bug fixes and workshop additions can be found here.

Stay Connected

Featured image courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment.

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