Overwatch Update Brings More Character Balance Changes
By Alexander Pan 12 January 2017
Blizzard releases a new PTR update for Overwatch that will bring further changes to Roadhog’s hook, as well as additional tweaks to Ana and Sombra’s abilities.
As 2017 kicks off, it certainly appears that Blizzard doesn’t intend to slow down support of its massively popular multiplayer shooter Overwatch. In addition to the new Oasis map and various balance changes, the development team is set to launch yet another new update to the Public Test Region (PTR) that will bring even more tweaks to a number of Overwatch‘s heroes.
According to new post over at the Blizzard Forums by Principal Designer Geoff Goodman, the development team are about to push out a new update to the Overwatch PTR that will bring about new balance tweaks for Roadhog, Ana, and Sombra. Having originally addressed issues with Roadhog’s hook in a previous patch, this new update will add some more line-of-sight checks towards the left/right of a potential target, meaning that it should be theoretically easier to hook someone who is only partially concealed. Perhaps most significantly, this new tweak will also be used for the character’s recently-introduced persistent line-of-sight check, meaning that hooked victims won’t be able to escape Roadhog’s hook quite so easily as before when moving out of his line of sight.
These new line-of-sight checks also play a part in a new change in which hooked targets are now heavily slowed while being stunned, even when in mid-air, meaning that enemies are a lot less likely to slip out of Roadhog’s line of sight and thus breaking his hook. And lastly, this new PTR update also fixes a bug that allowed Roadhog to hook someone and pull them behind him if he spun around before the hook landed.
While Roadhog was the character that had the most balance changes, this new patch also features new tweaks for Ana and Sombra. Having deemed the sniper-healer’s Bionic Grenade to be a touch too powerful in its previous iteration, Blizzard has now shortened the ability’s duration from 5 seconds to 4 seconds, meaning that allies will be healed bit less and enemies will have a bit more leeway.
As for Overwatch‘s resident hacker, having initially received a buff that shortened Sombra’s Hack duration to 0.8 seconds, the new PTR update has now shortened the character’s Hack cooldown from 12 seconds to 8 seconds and thus boosting her ability to neutralize enemies.
The new year may still be fresh, but the recent slew of updates indicate that Blizzard is certainly not resting on its laurels when it comes to providing excellent support to its legion of loyal Overwatch players. With what appears to be a Valentine’s Day Event in the works for next month, fans can expect even more content from the studio in the coming weeks.
Overwatch is now available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
