Overwatch’s latest patch is now live for testing on the PTR. So far it isn’t hugely exciting, though it’s very far-reaching, with some universal changes to character movement. Doomfist has also gone through another round of bug fixing.
Missed the last PTR cycle? Here are our patch notes for Overwatch 1.18.
Overwatch Patch 1.19 hero changes
Junkrat
Concussion Mine
- Concussion Mine now deals less damage to targets further away from th explosion’s centre.
Comments from lead designer Geoff Goodman: “Junkrat has been enjoying the flexibility his double-charge Concussion Mine provides, but it has now become a bit too easy to throw out huge bursts damage in a large area. With this change he can still dish out similar damage, but he must now be more accurate with his tosses.”
Mercy
Valkyrie
- No longer makes Resurrect instant
- No longer grants a bonus Resurrect charge
- The speed boost conferred to Guardian Angel while in Valkyrie has been decreased by 50%
- Valkyrie’s duration has been decreased to 15 seconds (down from 20)
Goodman: “Mercy’s recent Resurrect changes have helped in allowing enemies to have more counter play in dealing with her, but she was able to use Resurrect through Valkyrie enough to largely mitigate the impact of the previous changes. Additionally, we’re toning back the amount of mobility Valkyrie provides through Guardian Angel and reducing its duration to overall reduce the power of this ability.”
Overwatch Patch 1.19 Movement Changes
At the start of the 1.19 patch cycle,game director Jeff Kaplan announcedsome universal tweaks to the way heroes move.
Movement on the ground is more consistent, since going up or down an incline will no longer alter your hero’s speed. The small strafing movement when moving diagonally on an incline has also been eliminated. As a side effect of these changes, heroes will now control better in the air: “for example, Winston previously was not able to easily make small adjustments to his flight path during his Jump Pack leap, but now he should be able to do that.”
Naturally, Blizzard are watching the PTR for any unintended side effects. This change was added server-side, so it’s not technically part of the PTR patch, but we thought we’d mention it anyway.
Overwatch Patch 1.19 General Updates
- Weapon accuracy is no longer increased or decreased when shooting at Genji’s Deflect, or abilities that block projectiles (e.g. Winston’s Barrier Projector, or Mei’s Ice Wall)
- The Casual Hanzo skin has been updated to more accurately reflect his appearance in the Reflections comic
Overwatch Patch 1.19 Bug fixes
Heroes
Another round of Doomfist changes has been rolled out.
- Fixed a bug that could cause Doomfist’s Rocket Punch knockback to be inconsistent if he collided with an enemy using a movement ability (e.g. Winston’s Leap)
- Fixed a latency issue that caused Doomfist’s Rocket Punch to travel through an enemy instead of dealing damage
- Fixed an issue that sometimes caused Doomfist’s Rocket Punch’s directional movement to be unpredictable
- Fixed an issue that allowed enemies to jump over Doomfist’s Rocket Punch instead of taking damage
- Fixed a bug that caused enemy players hit by Rocket Punch to sometimes move along the wall impacted instead of taking damage
- Fixed an issue that caused enemies hit by Doomfist’s Rocket Punch to impact inclines instead of traveling up them
- Fixed a bug that caused Doomfist’s Rocket Punch to deal wall impact damage to Mercy if she used Valkyrie
- Fixed a bug that caused Doomfist’s Rocket Punch to activate before intended if he was near Mei’s Ice Wall
General
- Fixed a bug that caused weapon accuracy statistics to incorrectly calculate and display as a negative percentage in-game (e.g. players’ career profiles, the match status screen, and the end of match summary)
Maps
- Fixed an issue with spawn room doors preventing players from leaving or entering the spawn area on Control maps.