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Blizzard released a new update for the Overwatch Public Test Region yesterday, highlighted by the long-awaited return of the replay system. But that’s not all. The Overwatch developer also implemented six new hero updates that could be coming to the live servers in the future.
To kick off the list of changes, Blizzard increased the amount of healing ammo in Baptiste’s Biotic Launcher from 10 to 12 and extended the duration of the combat medic’s Amplification Matrix from eight to 10 seconds to help his teammates make better use of the ultimate ability.
D.Va’s Defense Matrix is well known as one of the strongest abilities in the game, but Blizzard’s looking to limit its powers yet again. The ability’s range has been shortened from 15 to 10 meters, which will require D.Va players to more carefully position themselves and time their defenses to make full use of the Matrix’s shorter distance.
Additionally, McCree’s primary fire recovery has been reduced from 0.5 seconds to 0.4 seconds, allowing for a quicker fire rate and effectively increasing his damage output slightly without overtuning the actual damage numbers.
Orisa received a smaller quality of life change, but it’s an alteration that will ultimately serve as a buff to the tank hero—one that benefits bunker compositions in turn. The omnic’s Protective Barrier can now be deployed without interrupting Orisa’s Fusion Driver reload, which just so happens to be one of the longest reloads in the game.
Symmetra also received a small quality of life change, increasing her Teleporter’s interaction range by one meter. With the added distance, the hero can now interact with her creation without having to move forward to do so.
Torbjörn’s Rivet Gun had its secondary fire damage reduced from 12.5 to 10.5 to help limit the combined power of his secondary fire with the sustainability on his Overload ability.
You can read the full PTR patch notes on the Overwatch forums. A breakdown of the patch notes can also be found here.
