A surprise new Overwatch patch for the PTR has dropped, and it contains some significant changes to D.Va, Mei, Sigma, and Soldier: 76’s kits.
The February 26 PTR patch went live on Wednesday, which is a day we don’t usually expect to see Overwatch updates on, so it was a bit unexpected.
Only D.Va, Sigma, Mei, and Soldier were updated in the patch, and Mei’s changes significantly impact her Ice Wall, which is bad news for mains and good news for everyone else.
To start, the cooldown for Ice Wall is increased from 10 seconds to 13 seconds on the PTR, which means Mei can’t throw it up near as often as players have gotten used to.
Next, changes to player collision mean that large heroes can now fit through a single gap in Mei’s Ice Wall. This means things like a charging Reinhardt’s will actually be able to make it through when a break appears instead of being stopped.
Sadly, for all the D.Va players out there it seems like the three-second Booster cooldown was too good to last forever, with the ability now requiring four seconds between uses.
Soldier: 76, on the other hand, sees a reduced cooldown time for his Helix Rockets ability – down to six seconds instead of eight – which could increase the amount of DPS he’s able to produce.
Finally, Sigma will be able to charge his Gravitic Flux ultimate faster during matches, since the cost has been reduced by 10 percent.
Developers have also added a new feature to the PTR that allows players to share clips with each other, similar to how Workshop codes work. You make a clip, get a code, share it with your friends and they can then watch it in Overwatch.
The full February 26 Overwatch PTR patch notes can be found below.
Overwatch PTR Patch Notes – February 26, 2020
Please note that the below patch notes only include changes currently available for testing on the PTR. While many of these changes may also be available on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in a future patch, the PTR is PC-only and only reflects changes coming specifically to that platform.
GENERAL UPDATES
New Feature: Share Replays
Since the introduction of the replay system, players have consistently asked for the ability to share those replays. We’re excited to bring that functionality to you!
A replay is shared via an alphanumeric code typically 6 characters long. The code can be shared however you want: in game, on forums, over social media. Another player can input that code and watch your replay. Codes are valid until the next patch.
We have also made some improvements to the replay system.
- You can pin up to 10 replays to keep until the next patch. You can unpin a replay to make room for a different replay
- We track your 10 most recently imported replay codes. This allows you to watch the same imported replay again without retyping the code
- There is a new note field for each replay entry. Add descriptions or notes for yourself
We eagerly await your feedback on this feature.
General Updates
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- In game friend requests will now only display in game once per session
- RealID friend requests will only show RealID names in game if you have recently played with that player
HERO UPDATES
D.Va
Boosters
- Cooldown increased from 3 to 4 seconds
Mei
Ice Wall
- Cooldown increased from 10 to 13 seconds
- Player collision now allows large heroes to fit through 1 pillar gaps
Sigma
Gravitic Flux
- Ultimate cost reduced 10%
Soldier: 76
Helix Rockets
- Cooldown reduced from 8 to 6 seconds
BUG FIXES
General
- Fixed a bug that could cause the “New” tag to remain on the “Player Icon” menu tab even after viewing the new icon(s)
- Fixed a UI bug that could cause both teams to show 100% at the end of a Control Point map
- Fixed a bug that could cause friend request “toasts” to be permanently displayed on screen when getting more than one request at a time
- Fixed a bug that could cause several heroes’ ultimate sounds to be silent when observing in third-person
- Fixed an issue preventing replays from recording in Custom Games that start immediately
Maps
Numbani
- Fixed a bug that allowed players to stand in an unintended location near the final checkpoint
Heroes
Bastion
- Brick Skin: Fixed a bug that caused Bastion’s brick bullets to grow in size after shooting through a Mei Ice Wall
Orisa
- Fixed an issue where Orisa’s Supercharger placed on Petra’s breakable floors was not properly being destroyed along with the floor
Reinhardt
- Fixed a bug that resulted in assisted or environment kills not being counted in Reinhardt’s Charge Kills stat, if the killed player was first knocked back by Reinhardt’s charge
Sigma
- Fixed a bug where Sigma’s Gravitic Flux animation would play even if he was slept or stunned
Sombra
- Fixed a bug where Sombra’s translocator placed on Petra’s breakable floors was not properly being destroyed along with the floor
Workshop
- Fixed an issue causing Player Joined Message to trigger multiple times when a player joined the match
- Fixed an issue preventing Set Team Score/Modify Team Score from working in Assault, Hybrid, and Payload
- Fixed an issue causing the editor to eat the last character of a unicode string when pasting in text
- Fixed an issue preventing “Is Firing Primary” from returning true when Doomfist shoots his last bullet
- Fixed an issue causing “Disallow Button” to fail to disable Reaper’s Shadow Step
- Renamed “Spectators” to “Non-Team Spectators” in Create HUD Text and Create In-World Text for clarity
- Fixed an issue preventing the Non-Team Spectators option from working properly in Create HUD Text and Create In-World Text
