Overwatch New PTR Update Introduces Changes to Several Heroes

There’s a new Overwatch PTR update live. It introduces several tweaks and balance improvements to select characters. The heroes affected by the changes are Doomfist, McCree, Reaper, Reinhardt, and Zarya. Some have been nerfed, while others got a boost to level the playing field.

Blizzard has released a new Overwatch PTR update, which brings balance improvements to some heroes. Mostly, it either nerfs or boosts certain attacks. The heroes that are getting changes are Doomfist, Zarya, Reaper, McCree and Reinhardt. Of course, this update is only up on Public Test Realm. They won’t necessarily make it to the full game. Here are the full patch notes.

Doomfist

• Rocket Punch: Total distance traveled reduced by about 20% (This change has been on the PTR for a little while now)
• Seismic Slam: Added a new UI indicator to show how much damage it will deal, and how much it dealt. Previously this was only indicated by the default crosshair filling in, but this is only visible when using the default crosshair. The new indicator should always be visible, regardless of any crosshair changes. Also, targeting this ability while in the air is now restricted to locations lower than your current height

McCree

• Flashbang: Now slows targets significantly when they are stunned. This makes them less likely to slide away around a corner or something similar once they are stunned

Reaper

• Shadow Step: VO and SFX distance dramatically reduced

Reinhardt

• Hammer: Swing speed increased by ~10%. On top of the swing speed increase, we’ve gone through and tweaked many timings and other things about the Hammer to make it more responsive. Overall it should feel a lot better to swing and make contact with enemies.
• Charge: Impacting another charging hero (Doomfist or Reinhardt) no longer deals damage to both characters, but still causes a knockdown on both

Zarya

• Graviton Surge: Now disables all movement abilities of affect targets. This is similar to how Junkrat’s trap affects abilities