Overwatch fans! The latest round of tweaks, tinkerings, and tidbits has arrived fresh for testing on the FPS game’s PTR. That means it’s time to check out the patch notes to see what’s in store for Blizzard’s team-based shooter very soon.
Headline news from the notes is a new feature for Overwatch replays – Share Replays. Blizzard says, since it launched the option to relive your best battles again, and again (and again) last year, players have been asking for the chance to share them with their buds. Well, fear not – Blizzard’s all over it. The new addition gives you an alphanumeric code that you can share in-game, on social media, or wherever, really, which your pals can plug in to watch your greatest hits. They’ll be valid until the next patch goes live.
In addition, there are some improvements to the replay system, a few Hero balance adjustments, bug fixes, and various other general updates, such as changes to how time banks work in Competitive Assault, Payload, and Hybrid modes.
Read on to see the full February 26 Overwatch PTR patch notes (via Blizzard).
Replay Changes
- 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
General Updates
- 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
- The initial Assemble Heroes timer for games using the Assault, Hybrid, Control, and Payload game modes has been further reduced from 35 to 30 seconds
- In the Assault, Payload, and Hybrid game modes for Competitive Play, when both teams complete a round of offense and have more than 2 minutes of time bank then each team’s time bank is equally reduced until one of the teams has a 2 minutes remaining
- Example: If Team A completes a round of offense on Volskaya with 4:37 remaining in their time bank, and Team B completes their round on offense with 2:50 remaining, then 50 seconds is removed from each team’s timebank. This leaves the teams tied 2-2 and Team A with 3:47 remaining and Team B with 2:00 remaining
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
That’s all we’ve got for the Overwatch February 26 patch notes, but if you’re a fan of the game, check out everything we know so far about the Overwatch 2 release date, and how Overwatch is helping a therapist to connect with young people.