Fans of Overwatch have been waiting for the most recent patches for weeks, and ESTNN previously covered the impacts that this patch could have on play. Patch 1.43.0.0 is live on all platforms and it is bringing changes to armor, shields and is overall working to balance out the playing field. Of course, this update also brings us the Winter Wonderland update with new skins, emotes, and sprays for holiday cheer.
Hero Updates
General
- Armor damage reduction increased from 3 to 5
Every hero is receiving this change, and the goal behind it is to ensure that you spend less time picking away at barriers, and more time communicating with your team to engage. Tanks are a bit more viable from behind their shields, but their main purpose is still to protect the team.
Orisa
General
- Base armor increased from 200 to 250
Fusion Driver
- Movement speed penalty reduced from 30% to 20%
Protective Barrier
- Health reduced from 900 to 600
Fortify
- Cooldown decreased from 10 seconds to 8 seconds
Sigma
Experimental Barrier
- Health reduced from 1500 to 900
- Barrier health regeneration rate reduced from 150 to 120 health per second
Kinetic Grasp
- Cooldown reduced from 13 seconds to 10 seconds
- Damage-to-shield gain ratio increased from 40% to 60%
Reinhardt
Barrier Field
- Health reduced from 2000 to 1600
- Movement speed penalty reduced from 50% to 25%
Steadfast (Passive)
- Knockback resistance increased from 30% to 50%
The above changes were beneficial to the state of play, and while many of the main tanks got their health or shield pools lowered, but movement speed increases to Reinhardt and Orisa allow them to position themselves and their weaker barriers accordingly. Sigma’s changes ensure that players will be gaining more utility of o his Kinetic Grasp while saving the shield for emergencies. Tanks have changed drastically over the course of 2019, and there is no sign of that changing.
Moira
Biotic Grasp
- Healing reduced from 4 to 3.25 (80 HP/s to 65 HP/s)
D.Va
Defense Matrix
- Cooldown decreased from 2 seconds to 1.5 seconds
Widowmaker
Grappling Hook
- Cooldown increased from 10 to 12 seconds
Torbjörn
Overload
- Cooldown decreased from 12 to 10 seconds
Genji
Shuriken
- Ammo increased from 24 to 30
Zarya
Particle Cannon (Secondary Fire)
- Explosion radius increased from 2 to 2.5 meters
- Ammo cost decreased from 25 to 20
The last set of hero changes were aimed at adding survivability and balance to a majority of the heroes as Blizzard saw fit. Moira’s reduction in healing capabilities will force there to be a balance in how the healing is used in team fights. Zarya and D.Va’s changes are quite minor but D.Va’s cooldown buff will assist her with the recent armor changes. The patch notes are not over though, as Blizzard threw in a few treats for the holidays.
General Updates
There is a brand new “While You Wait” feature that spices up the long queue times. They are replacing the Skirmish mode with a new variety of game modes to supplement the exceptionally long queue times that occur. When in queue, players will now be prompted to pick from the following game modes:
Practice Range: Practice your skills against training bots.
Skirmish: Spar with other players without keeping score
Deathmatch: Compete for the top place on the scoreboard
Custom Game: Select a custom game from the Custom Game Browser or create your own.
The good news is that all modes can be done while solo or in a party, given that you have the lobby set up correctly. There are numerous bug fixes that got released with nothing too major that needs to be fixed.
Bug Fixes
General
- Fixed a bug that caused players spectating teammates during killcam to be unable to rotate the camera
- Fixed a bug that caused the “Prepare Your Defenses” text to appear for the attacking team when a game starts in Mystery Heroes
- Fixed a bug that could cause a client crash when attempting to spectate a friend at the start of a quickplay game
- Fixed an issue where Max Health granted by heal-over-time abilities was being calculated incorrectly with Gravitic Flux
- Color Blind Mode – Fixed an issue which caused models affected by infra-sight to appear washed out when using colors other than red
- Workshop – Fixed an issue causing map names and dropdowns from being displayed in the incorrect case
- Workshop – Fixed an issue preventing D.Va from being detected in Player Died events
- Workshop – Toggling the custom game lobby hot key while viewing lobby settings should now properly close the screen
- Custom Games – Renamed Assault/Escort to Hybrid
- Fixed a bug that could cause heroes with regenerating health/shields to not take full damage when damaged while at full health
- Various hero abilities (e.g. Symmetra’s Turrest, Roadhog’s Hook, Sigma’s Accretion, Orisa’s Halt, etc) will now respect the collision boxes on vending machines and other such props
- Fixed a bug that caused High Precision Mouse Input to cause toggle crouch to behave inconsistently
Maps
- Black Forest (1v1) – Fixed a bug that allowed Reaper to Shadow Step through the breakable doors
Heroes
Doomfist
- The default circle is now hidden when using advanced reticle settings
- Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented the sound effect of Doomfist’s Rising Uppercut from playing
- Fixed a bug where Seismic Slam could land on an enemy’s head while playing FFA modes
Junkrat
- Fixed a bug where Junkrat grenades would not explode when slowly rolling down steep inclines
Lucio
- Fixed a bug that caused the audio visualization effect on Lucio’s glasses to disappear
Orisa
- Fixed an issue where Orisa’s halt projectile could sometimes appear to go through the ground when viewed in 3rd person
Reaper
- Fixed a bug allowing a player to swap heroes while using Shadowstep
Roadhog
- Fixed a bug that prevented Roadhog’s hook from damaging turrets and barriers
Sigma
- Fixed a bug that caused Sigma’s primary fire not to function if he was hacked while deploying experimental barrier
Widowmaker
- Turning off the toggle zoom control option for Widowmaker while zoomed in no longer remains stuck in the zoomed state
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