Overwatch 2Feb 18, 2016 7:00 pm CT

More Torbjorn and Bastion changes in the latest Overwatch beta patch

By Alex Ziebart
Editor-in-Chief, Emeritus

The Overwatch beta received an update earlier today addressing a number of bugs and balance issues. Turret extraordinaires Torbjorn and Bastion have been a point of contention throughout the beta; rookie players find them impossible to deal with, while veteran, coordinated players see them as trivial roadblocks. In this beta build, Bastion sees a mobility buff, but a nerf to his survivability. Torbjorn’s turret takes a hit, but he sees a small boost to his actual weapon.

Check the patch notes below for the full details — not just the tweaks to Bastion and Torbjorn, but other balance tweaks and bug fixes, too.

Originally Posted by Lylirra (Official Post)

General

Miscellaneous

Completed a tuning pass for end-of-match commendations
Increased the cooldown on using Voice Lines

Hero balance changes

Bastion

Configuration: Recon
- Maximum weapon spread decreased by 25%
Configuration: Sentry
- No longer gains any armor bonus
- All changes to bullet damage made in our February 9 beta patch have been reverted

Developer comments: We’ve given Configuration: Recon a bit of a boost to allow Bastion to “run-and-gun” more efficiently when needed. We’ve also made a significant change to Bastion’s survivability when in Configuration: Sentry; by removing the 300 additional armor, Bastion is now more vulnerable to attack, but loses none of its offensive power. We’re very eager to see how both of these updates play out in the beta.

D.Va

D.Va’s mech is no longer move- or aim-locked after being called down
Self-Destruct
- Ultimate charge now generates passively even when D.Va is dead or her mech is destroyed
Call Mech
- Ultimate cost decreased by 20%

Developer comments: The changes we made to how heroes gain Ultimate charge in the February 9 beta patch had some unintended side effects for D.Va, making it much harder for her to generate Ultimate than before. These changes should help correct this pain point, as well as provide a nice quality-of-life change to the process of summoning her mech.

Mei

Endothermic Blaster
- Alternate Fire
  - Ammo cost decreased from 50 to 40

Developer comments: The goal of this small change is make it so that using Mei’s alternate fire doesn’t feel like it’s compromising her primary fire.

Mercy

Guardian Angel
- Can no longer target the souls of dead allies

Developer comments: The change we made to Guardian Angel in the February 9 beta patch (allowing the ability to target the souls of dead allies) was intended to help Mercy get to where her Resurrect may be the most needed. In practice, this change caused problems. We saw a lot of feedback from players noting that they’d accidentally target a dead ally when they meant to target a living ally, or that they’d target a dead ally thinking it was a living ally initially. As a result, we’ve reverted the original change.

Torbjörn

Turret bullet damage decreased from 16 to 14
Turret repair amount decreased from 100 to 50 health per swing
Rivet Gun
- Maximum ammo decreased from 20 to 18
Alternate Fire
- Cost decreased from 5 to 3

Developer comments: Torbjörn’s turrets currently feel a little too powerful, so (to start) we’re taking away some of their power as well as removing Torbjörn’s ability to out-repair reasonable incoming damage. Torbjörn’s Rivet gun is also getting a small boost to allow for more liberal use of his Alternate Fire when needed.

Bug fixes

General

Fixed several in-game locations in which it was possible to use Tracer’s Blink ability to exit intended play space
Fixed an issue when blue-colored effects would sometimes get “stuck” on screen
Fixed a crash that could happen when opening Loot Boxes
Fixed several client- and sever-side crashes

Heroes

Fixed an issue that caused Zenyatta to receive more credit than intended for kill assists when determining Play of the Game

Spectating

Projectiles will now appear to line up more correctly with targets when viewing a player in Spectator Mode

In addition to the above patch notes, players have discovered some undocumented changes. Torbjorn’s turret appears to now have a brief delay before targeting players who come into view, whereas prior to this patch, his turret was notorious for its instead “360 noscope” behavior. In addition, heroes who have range-limited attacks — such as Zarya and Symmetra’s beam attacsk — now have crosshair feedback which indicates whether or not they’re actually in range of their target. Previously, new players would shoot their beam in the general direction of their opponent, unsure whether or not they were actually doing damage — and they probably weren’t. Now, their crosshairs will turn red if they’re within range to hit.

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