The latest Overwatch PTR tackles Ana, D.Va, Roadhog, and Sombra changes

I don’t know about you, but I put a hell of a lot of time into Overwatch during the holiday break. I had dreams of defeating that looming backlog (and I did… to a very miniscule extent), but most of my free time went into playing Blizzard’s excellent shooter. Somehow, all these months later, I’m still addicted to it.

There are annoyances that creep up here and there however. How on earth did that enemy Roadhog hook me through that wall for example, and why won’t that bloody D.Va just die? Dammit Blizzard, answer me!

Oh, you will with the latest Overwatch PTR Patch? Cool – let’s see what changes you have in mind:

Ana

• Biotic Grenade
  • Healing boost on allies has been decreased by 50%

Developer Comments: The healing boost from Ana’s Biotic Grenade was providing too much healing, especially when used on targets with large health pools.

D.Va

• Health increased from 200 to 400
• Armor decreased from 400 to 200
• Fusion Cannons
  • Bullet damage decreased from 3 to 2
  • Number of bullets per shot has been increased from 8 to 11

Developer Comments: D.Va’s armor often made her feel like she had no weaknesses, even against heroes that are often effective against bigger targets (like Reaper). The changes to her Fusion Cannons will result in a small overall decrease in damage, but they should feel more consistent now.

Roadhog

• Chain Hook
  • Targets are now pulled directly in front of Roadhog (rather than straight to him), except in cases where Roadhog drastically rotates
  • Hooked targets are now released if they leave Roadhog’s line-of-sight before being pulled
  • Line-of-sight checks (which detect if targets should be initially hit by the hook) are now done from Roadhog’s position, rather than the hook’s position

Developer Comments: The hook should now feel more consistent for Roadhog players, but it should also feel more reasonable to his enemies, as they cannot be hooked or pulled around corners anymore.

Sombra

• Hack
  • The time it takes to hack a target has been decreased from 1 second to 0.8 seconds

Developer Comments: Sombra often had difficulty hacking enemies, even when she surprised the target. This change should help her execute hacks more easily.

The best change by far is the one made to Roadhog’s Hook. Look, I get that we have a spot of lag because we’re all playing from South Africa, but that surely doesn’t account for every time I’ve been hooked around a corner. Hopefully this improved line-of-sight check will remedy that annoyance.

I’m quite happy with the very slight Sombra buff too. I feel that she’s a very underutilized hero, and this change should hopefully see her being picked up a bit more. In my own experience, that 1 second hack is just a tad too long. It’s ample time for a target to react and off you before you can do the same to them. A teeny 0.2 second improvement will make a world of difference!

Remember, these are PTR changes, and thus, are subject to change. That being said, I’m confident we’ll see them all patched into the main game client in the near future, and I can’t wait.

Last Updated: January 9, 2017