New Overwatch PTR Patch Makes Ultimates More Rare for All Characters

Overwatch's latest PTR patch is now available, and as Blizzard said yesterday, it brings some huge changes to the first-person shooter on PC. Community manager Josh Engen posted on the game's forum that "none of these changes should be considered final," as Blizzard will make adjustments as it sees fit throughout the process.

This PTR focuses exclusively on hero balance changes, and they're pretty significant. First off, dealing damage to non-players such as Torbjorn's turrets or Symmetra's sentries no longer charges your Ultimate ability. Additionally, Ultimates now cost 25 percent more for every hero, and Mei players need to add another 15 percent on top of that.

The biggest changes are to D. Va, whose health has increased to 200 from 100. Her armor remains the same at 400, while her movement speed while firing is now 25 percent faster. Torbjorn also sees scrap generate automatically over time, though the amount of scrap he collects from fallen enemies has decreased by 40 percent. His melee weapon Forge Hammer's swing speed is up 25 percent, with its damage lowered by 27 percent.

Soldier 76's bullet damage and spread both increase, while Ana's Nano Boost ability no longer grants faster movement speed to its recipient. Lucio's Amp It Up ability now delivers healing 10 percent slower, while Zarya's barriers now gain 20 percent less power.

Engen added that more adjustments will come as the PTR progresses. We'll keep you updated on these as they're revealed. Principal designer Geoff Goodman said yesterday that this PTR will last longer than ones in the past and will see the team testing different iterations of character changes. He also said that the changes in the upcoming patch "are unlikely to make it through PTR unchanged." Goodman added that the promised Symmetra changes aren't in this patch, as they are "much more significant and require more time to finish up."

You can see the current full patch notes here or in the list at the bottom of this article.

To access the PTR, you'll need Overwatch on PC. Open the Battle.net client, go to where you select your region/account (right above the Play button), and choose "PTR: Overwatch." The PTR will need to install, but once it has, you'll be able to try out the new changes as much as you like.

Overwatch recently saw the addition of a new Halloween event that introduced new items to loot boxes and the shooter's first cooperative mode. Titled Junkenstein's Revenge, it has players defending Eichenwalde against Junkrat, Roadhog, and a horde of mechanical minions. However, only four characters are playable in this mode: Ana, Hanzo, McCree, and Soldier 76.

You can check out all of the Halloween skins here. Additionally, you can watch us open 51 Halloween loot boxes in this video.

Hero Balance Changes

General

• Dealing damage to non-players (like like Torbjorn's turrets or Symmetra's teleporter), no longer charges ultimate abilities
• Ultimate costs have been increased by 25% for all heroes

D. Va

• Mech health increased to 200 (formerly 100). Armor remains at 400
• Movement speed while firing has been increased by 25%

Soldier 76

• Pulse Rifle
  • Bullet damage increased from 17 to 20
  • Maximum bullet spread Increased from 2.2 to 2.4

Ana

• Nano Boost
  • No longer increases move speed

Mei

• Blizzard
  • Ultimate cost has been increased by 15%

Lucio

• Amp It Up
  • Healing-per-second has been decreased by 10%

Zarya

• Particle Barrier
  • Power gained from barriers decreased by 20%

• Projected Barrier
  • Power gained from barriers decreased by 20%

Torbjorn

• Scrap is now automatically generated over time
• The amount of scrap collected from a fallen enemy has been decreased by 40%
• Forge Hammer
  • Swing speed increased by 25%
  • Damage decreased by 27%