Catch up on the 2/27 Overwatch Patch Notes

A patch just hit live Overwatch servers. This contains the Sombra mini-rework that accidentally hit live servers previously, as well as some changes to Mei and Doomfist. There are also some map and UI changes.

The biggest change is to Sombra, who loses her health pack ult charge, but gets a ton of utility and damage in return. She’s now able to disable many more abilities with her Hack, including things like Lucio’s song or Genji’s double jump. Add in some buffs across the board, including better primary fire and longer Translocate time, and Sombra may just be one of the most terrifying members of the Offense roster.

Mei and Doomfist have received some small buffs, although they aren’t anywhere near the scope of Sombra’s changes. We should be seeing Symmetra and Torbjorn changes sometime after this patch.

Blizzard World has also gotten some tweaks to its health packs, making players less reliant on their healers.

Blizzard Entertainment

The full patch notes are below:

HERO CHANGES

Doomfist

Hand Cannon

Ammo recovery rate increased from 0.8 seconds to 0.65 seconds per bullet

Developer Comments: This change will help Doomfist more consistently be able to use his weapon as part of his combos.

Mei

Endothermic Blaster

Freeze (slow) duration increased from 1 second to 1.5 seconds

Weapon alternate fire ammo cost reduced from 25 to 20

Developer Comment: Increasing Mei’s slow duration helps her freeze targets that are particularly elusive such as Genji or Lúcio. Lowering her alternate fire ammo cost allows her to more safely use it without costing her the ability to freeze enemies.

Sombra

EMP

No longer blocked by small objects (e.g. sign posts)

Hack

No longer gains ultimate charge from health pack healing

Cast time reduced from 0.8 seconds to 0.65 seconds

Now disables the following abilities:

Genji—Cyber-agility
Hanzo—Wall Climb
Pharah—Hover Jets
Lúcio—Healing Boost and Speed Boost (turns off current song entirely), Wall Ride
Mercy—Angelic Descent

Machine Pistol

Machine Pistol spread reduced from 3 to 2.7

Opportunist

Enemy health bars are now visible when health drops below 100% (formerly 50%)

Her ability to detect enemies through walls at 50% or less remains unchanged

Developer Comment: The goal of these changes for Sombra is to remove the necessity for her teammates to take damage and heal themselves with her hacked heath packs to try to get her ultimate charged up quickly. Her ultimate will now come up less often, but there are more abilities that are disabled by Hack so it is more effective when used. Previously, Opportunist would only activate when an enemy’s health bar dipped below 50% but now the passive will reveal all damaged enemies which should help Sombra identify targets in her line of sight to pick off. Overall these changes should make her more effective and less reliant on her ultimate.

MAP UPDATES

Blizzard World

Some health pack sizes have been reduced

Some health pack locations have been changed

Additional health packs have been added

Developer Comments: Health packs are a valuable resource in Overwatch and positioning around them is key to holding ground on defense or keeping up momentum on offense. We have moved the location of some health packs and included additional ones to improve game play on Blizzard World.

USER INTERFACE UPDATES

Mercy—Valkyrie

No longer shows enemies’ health bars unless they have taken damage