Overwatch patch 1.9 is coming very soon. The headline news, of course, is a slight rollback on the controversial Bastion buff, as well as the introduction of Orisa, a new Tank hero. Read on for more.
Find out what is in Overwatch’s future with our guide to its upcoming updates.
Overwatch Patch 1.9 Release Date
Orisa is now live for everyone. If you’re wanting to play as the new Tank hero, you can. However, she won’t be available to play as in Competitive just yet. She’ll be added to Competitive in a week.
Overwatch Patch 1.9New Hero – Orisa (Tank)
- Fusion Driver:
- Orisa’s fully-automatic cannon delivers sustained damage, but slows her movement while firing.
- Fortify:
- Orisa temporarily reduces damage received, also nullifying action-impairments.
- Halt!:
- Orisa’s alt fire launches a graviton charge which she can detonate. It slows enemies and pulls them in before exploding.
- Protective Barrier:
- Orisa has an energy shield like Reinhardt, but she can only throw it out where it remains stationary.
- Supercharger:
- Orisa deploys a device to increase damage inflicted by allies within her line of sight.
Orisa is the sixth tank to join the Overwatch lineup, with her moveset built around putting herself in harm’s way to protect her allies. Using her Fusion Driver, an automatic gun with a decent range to boot, she can lay down sustained covering fire. This is offstet by slower movement when firing and long reload times. Of course, she can use alternat fire, Halt!, to slow any enemies in her sights, getting them on her level. Check out more details onOrisa here.
Overwatch Patch 1.9 Hero Balance Changes
General
- The below change was hotfixed to live on March 3
- The total damage reduction that a hero can receive while buffed (e.g. from Ana’s Nano Boost and Orisa’s Fortify) has been capped at 50% (formerly 70%)
Ana – nerfed
- Biotic Rifle
- Damage decreased to 60 from 80
The great attempt to take Ana out of the meta begins by targeting her damage. She still has access to a great crowd control ability, good long-range healing and is one of the best single-target supports in the game. She just won’t be killing quite so hard. Initial nerfs to her biotic grenade were reverted, here’s class designer Geoff Goodman on why:
“Ana had the biggest changes in this patch, and upon testing, feedback, and talking about it a ton internally, we decided to pull back on the nerfs a bit for this patch. The damage reduction on her weapon is significant, but if this ends up not being enough we can re-visit some further tuning. We don’t want to swing her balance too wildly within a single patch.”
Bastion –nerfed
- The below changes were hotfixed to live on March 3
- Ironclad
- Bastion now takes 20% less damage while in Configuration: Sentry or Tank (formerly 35%)
With a change to his Ironclad passive, Bastion now takes only 20% less damage while in his Sentry or Tank form, as opposed to 35% in patch 1.8. With the changes to Bastion’s self heal already turning fights into drawn out wars of attrition, this nerf to damage reduction should mean that Bastions aren’t outlasting offensive heroes in extended firefights. Hopefully they aren’t surviving Ults, either.
Junkrat – buffed
- Total Mayhem:
- Added effect: no longer hurts himself from his own explosions.
No more suicide-tires is a good thing, and should stop any awkwardness in close-combat. Does make you wonder if Pharah, Zarya, S76 or Tracer will get something similar.
Mercy –tweaked
- Caduceus Staff:
- The amount of increased damage that’s done when boosting another player is now tracked under the match statistics and on the Career Profile page
Sombra – buffed
- Hack:
- Hacked health packs will now be visible through walls to Sombra and her allies.
- Stealth:
- Sound effects and VO distance for entering and exiting Stealth decreased to 15 meters.
- Translocator:
- Cooldown decreased to 4 seconds from 6
The buffs to Sombra continue, and solely target her utility abilities rather than pure damage. With these changes she’ll be able to translocate, cloak, then translocate again without ever becoming visible. That’s a lot of distance to cover, and you’ll see Sombras appearing from unexpected angles more often. Try not to die.
Winston – buffed
- Barrier Projector:
- Cooldown now starts when the barrier is placed, instead of when it ends
This is a much-requested change from the community that brings Winston’s barrier more in line with his competition, particularly the newly-added Orisa. It’s unlikely to catapult him to the top of the pick rates, but is part of a wider intention to buff the big gorilla.
Zarya –nerfed
- The below changes were hotfixed to live on March 3
- Particle Barrier:
- No longer protects Zarya from knockback
- Projected Barrier:
- No longer protects allies from knockback
The other main balance change is to Zarya, who can no longer negate knockback effects by throwing up her Particle Barrier. This means that Zaryas with fast reactions can no longer save themselves from being knocked off the edge by Lucio by quickly activating their Particle Barrier. This nerf also applies to allies who are covered by Zarya’s Projected Barrier.
Zenyatta – buffed
- Orb of Destruction:
- Alternate fire recovery decreased to 0.6 seconds from 1
- Weapon spread removed.
These quality of life changes should help Zen players be a bit more effective. His right click has always felt a bit lacklustre despite being such a heavy damage output, and these affect both significantly. Discord Orb penetrating barriers was removed after a day, though no explanation was given.
Overwatch Patch 1.9 Game Browser
Players can now disable or modify abilities activated with the secondary fire button
Overwatch Patch 1.9 Bug Fixes
General
- When Teleporters, Shield Generators, and other player-owned objects are destroyed, the kill feed now properly displays the owner’s name
AI
- Fixed a bug preventing Bastion and Torbjörn from taking a defensive position when turret abilities were disabled
Game Browser
- Fixed a bug that could cause certain settings to appear on the Custom Game’s information screen even though they were not being used
- Fixed an issue preventing values from the “Ultimate Generation” setting from being correctly displayed
- Heroes and maps are now sorted alphabetically under the “Find Game” filters in the Game Browser
- Fixed a bug preventing Bastion’s Self-Repair ability from being disabled in the Custom Game settings
Competitive
- The below change was hotfixed to live on March 3
- Fixed an issue preventing players from loading the Season 1 and 2 leaderboards
Arcade
- The below change was hotfixed to live on March 3
- Fixed an issue preventing heroes in 1v1 Mystery Duel from being shuffled correctly
Heroes
- Fixed an issue preventing Bastion’s walking animation from being triggered while Self-Repair was in use
- McCree no longer receives credit toward his On Fire meter when his Flashbang is used against Mei’s Ice Wall
- Fixed an issue causing Zenyatta’s feet to clip through his robe with the Sanzang skin equipped
- Fixed a bug causing Reaper’s shotguns and D.Va’s mech to appear unusually large on the main menu
- The below changes were hotfixed to live on March 3
- Fixed an issue preventing D.Va’s Defense Matrix from properly blocking enemy fire that has passed through another enemy hero
- Fixed an issue preventing Winston’s hitbox from lining up with his pose while crouched
Maps
- Training bots that are destroyed in the Practice Range are now displayed in the kill feed
- Fixed a bug allowing more than one player to enter the Practice Range
That’s the official notes. We’ll see you next month for patch 2.0.