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Overwatch Patch Notes Detailed, New Kanezaka Map Live Now

Overwatch players now have a new venue in which to do battle, and some heroes have been tweaked to perform differently.

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The new Kanezaka map for Overwatch--which was previously only available in the Public Test Region--is now live on Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. And until January 25, players can earn a variety of rewards by winning games.

Kanezaka is a free-for-all Team Deathmatch map that's located next to the suburban town of Hanamura, an assault map and the home of Genji, Hanzo, and the entire Shimada Clan. Players can expect a familiar Japanese aesthetic, replete with a nightclub, pagodas, and a cat cafe.

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Now Playing: Overwatch - Official Kanezaka Challenge Micro-Event Trailer

Check out some screenshots of Kanezaka below.

From now until January 25, players who win Arcade, Quick Play, or Competitive matches can earn a total of seven new rewards, including six different sprays and the epic Kyogisha Hanzo skin. To unlock the Hanzo skin, players will need to win a total of nine Overwatch games.

  • 3 Wins: Pagoda player icon
  • 6 Wins: Yōkai spray
  • 9 Wins: Kyogisha Hanzo Epic skin

Playing Overwatch isn't the only way to unlock rewards, as those who watch any streamer play matches from now until January 25 can also earn new Kanezaka sprays. Players will need to watch two-hour increments to get the rewards, with six hours watched unlocking three sprays.

Blizzard has also detailed the various changes and tweaks it has made to the heroes. You can read the full patch notes below.

Ashe

Ashe being able to eliminate 200 health enemy heroes with one headshot while assisted by 30% damage boost became too dominant, especially when combined with the other improvements to her weapon. We are lowering the maximum damage but also the shot recovery time to keep her overall damage output relatively the same.

  • The Viper
    • Aim-down-sights damage reduced from 80 to 75
    • Aim-down-sights recovery time reduced from 0.7 to 0.65 seconds

Hanzo

This rate of fire change improves the feel and effectiveness of the Storm Arrows ability and though small, adds up over the course of firing 5 arrows.

  • Storm Arrows
    • Shot recovery time reduced from 0.3 to 0.25 seconds

Sigma

We're increasing the cooldown of Sigma's barrier to require a higher commitment to its placement and open up additional opportunities for counterplay.

  • Experimental Barrier
    • Redeploy cooldown increased from 1 to 2.5 seconds

Wrecking Ball

Wrecking Ball's high mobility and potential for massive shield health have left him a bit too survivable after the overall damage and crowd control in the game have been tuned down. We are reducing the amount of additional shields he generates per target though the base 100 shields from the ability remains unchanged.

  • Adaptive Shield
    • Shield per target reduced from 100 to 75

Bug Fixes

General

  • Fixed a bug that caused the flex role rewards banner to not display immediately
  • Fixed a bug with the end of round screen for Deathmatch that would exclude players who left when the match ends
  • Fixed a bug that caused achievement categories in the career profile to become misaligned when setting the filter to "locked"
  • Fixed a bug that caused jump landing sounds to not playback properly
  • Fixed a bug with long spray names overlapping with UI elements
  • [Fixed on impacted platforms] Fixed a bug that caused an indefinite loading icon on the Social menu if your friends list is empty
  • [PC-Only] Fixed a bug that caused the mouse cursor to remain focused on the game client while in windowed or windowed fullscreen mode

Heroes

Doomfist

  • Fixed a bug with the "One Punch" highlight intro that would cause it to clip into the ground on certain maps

Genji

  • Fixed a bug with the Genji Contenders skin portrait not appearing properly

Junkrat

  • Fixed a bug with the "Unwrap" emote animation not displaying properly when rotating the camera around during its duration

In other Overwatch news, Blizzard will show off Overwatch 2 during February's BlizzCon Online. It's unclear what game director Jeff Kaplan and the rest of the Overwatch team has in store for BlizzCon, but we know that existing Overwatch content will carry over to the sequel.

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