Overwatch's Latest PTR Update Introduces A Big Mercy Change

Overwatch's latest Public Test Realm update has introduced a pretty big change for Mercy on PC. Her Valkyrie ultimate ability has been tweaked so it doesn't immediately reset Resurrection's cooldown. It no longer has any effect on that skill's cooldown timer, instead doubling Resurrection's range.

Although the change is only in the testing phase on the PTR right now, it could eventually come to all players on PC and PS4 / Xbox One, if developer Blizzard decides it's successful. So far, the adjustment has received a mixed reception on the Overwatch forums, so it will be interesting if Mercy is changed again before any update gets a wider release.

The change comes just a few days before Overwatch's Halloween event is due to start. New skins for McCree and Reaper are on the way as part of the event, which runs from October 10 through November 2 on all platforms.

Further specifics have not yet been announced, but along with new cosmetics, we may also see the return of Junkenstein's Revenge. (That seems likely given that Junkrat's Junkenstein skin is featured in the logo for this year's event.) The co-op mode pits a team of four against waves of enemies in what amounts to Overwatch's take on Horde mode. We'll report back as Blizzard shares more details; for now, the developer has only said that the update introduces "spooky new content."

In other Overwatch news, game director Jeff Kaplan recently discussed why it's scary for developers to post online. Kaplan shared his thoughts in a thread where players--citing the lack of forum posts from Blizzard developers--questioned if the Overwatch team has enough people on it. According to Kaplan, the development team has grown from 70 at launch in May 2016 to just over 100 now. "Even though I wouldn't say we're necessarily a 'small' team as modern development standards go, we're certainly not an overly large team either," he said.

Kaplan admitted that the team has made mistakes but noted that Blizzard tries to speak directly with fans using their real names, rather than using aliases or communicating through community managers. "And if you'll allow me to speak openly for a moment--it's scary," he said.