New Overwatch Update Changes Mercy On PC, PS4, And Xbox One; Patch Notes Released

Apparently satisfied with the results of a recent Overwatch PTR patch, Blizzard has rolled out a new update for the live version of the game on all platforms. It makes adjustments to a few areas of Overwatch, but further balance adjustments to Mercy are the primary focus.

Following Mercy's overhaul in September, Blizzard has continued to experiment with additional changes to the healer. With this new patch, her Ultimate, Valkyrie, no longer affects the cooldown of Resurrection. Instead, Valkyrie provides a second charge of Resurrect, allowing her to potentially resurrect teammates back to back. This charge only lasts for the duration of Valkyrie, and the end result is that she can use Resurrect fewer times than she could previously.

"This method makes Resurrect more flexible when used with Valkyrie," Blizzard explained in the patch notes. "For example, in the past if you wanted to resurrect two teammates, you had to revive the first target, then activate Valkyrie (causing the Resurrect's cooldown to reset), and then revive the other target. With this change, you can now activate Valkyrie and fly in quickly to resurrect both targets instantly. However, this still reduces the overall number of Resurrects that Mercy can provide, since Valkyrie no longer reduces its cooldown."

Mercy also sees her Guardian Angel ability tweaked. Using Resurrect doesn't reset the cooldown on it now, but she can use the jump key to fly past a teammate she's targeting. The only other balance change involves Lucio, who now gets a 65% speed boost after finishing a wall ride. This is meant to deal with a bug that slowed his ability to wall ride.

Finally, this patch provides an option for PC players to set their status to Online, Away, Busy, or Appear Offline. The latter option will let you hide from that friend you can't bring yourself to delete, but Blizzard warns that this won't stop you from potentially ending up in the same match together.

This update is now available on PC, PS4, and Xbox One. Overwatch's Halloween Terror event is ongoing, allowing you to earn a variety of new (and returning) Halloween-themed items and take part in the Junkenstein's Revenge event. You can see all of the new Overwatch Halloween Terror skins in our gallery, or check out the new patch notes below.

Overwatch Patch Notes

General Updates

Social

Players can now set their social status to Online, Away, Busy, or Appear Offline (Note: appearing offline does not prevent friends from seeing you if you are placed into the same match). This option can be found under the social menu

Hero Updates

Lucio

• Wall Ride
• The speed boost that Lúcio receives after completing a wall ride has been increased by 65%

Developer Comments: A recent bug fix slowed Lúcio's Wall Ride. This change compensates for the reduced speed.

Mercy

• Guardian Angel
  • Players can now glide past a targeted ally using the jump key
  • Cooldown no longer resets when Resurrect is activated
• Valkyrie
  • No longer resets or reduces Resurrection's cooldown

Developer Comments: Valkyrie no longer resets or reduces Resurrect's cooldown. Instead, it now provides an extra "charge," allowing you to revive an ally even if it is still on cooldown. If the bonus charge hasn't been spent when Valkyrie ends, it will be removed.

This method makes Resurrect more flexible when used with Valkyrie. For example, in the past if you wanted to resurrect two teammates, you had to revive the first target, then activate Valkyrie (causing the Resurrect's cooldown to reset), and then revive the other target. With this change, you can now activate Valkyrie and fly in quickly to resurrect both targets instantly.

However, this still reduces the overall number of Resurrects that Mercy can provide, since Valkyrie no longer reduces its cooldown.

Zenyatta

• Added a number of additional voicelines for Cultist Zenyatta

Bug Fixes

Heroes

• Fixed a bug preventing Mercy's momentum from slowing down correctly when Guardian Angel was canceled
• Fixed a bug preventing the visual effects on Sombra's Pumpkinette victory pose from displaying correctly