Last year, Overwatch introduced a test mode that Blizzard has primarily used to test potential balance changes and show players what the developers have been doing internally. They tend to be fairly minor tweaks and haven’t had a test update for a while. But last night we finally got a new one, and from what I’ve played it’s full of cool and fun tweaks. Prepare to fly Roadhogs and Genjis, Anas nanoboosted, and some wonderfully timed dubbing.
You can look at Full test patch notes here, which details change for each set of characters. The ideas for each edit were devised by a lot of Overwatch content creators, and most of them have been improved upon.
The first exciting (and festive) change is Orisa, who currently only has one health point, but compensates with 399 armor. She doesn’t get slowed when firing, so can just go straight at her at normal speed while firing her giant gun. Also, she’s wearing a Santa hat.
I went into a match to get the best Roadhog change, because I just had to see if I could bring him up. When using his ultimate, shooting down will lift him up. Honestly, it doesn’t look great from my perspective, but this Orisa’s kill cam that shot at me as I took to the sky was worth it.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to play Genji to try out his tweaked dance abilities, but you can catch the enemy Genji in the gif below simply never hitting the ground (keep an eye out for him). we glance over the rooftops at the top left). Blizzard has done so when he climbs a wall, it resets the cooldown of his double jump. He just, never comes down. I caught a few players in text chat talking about how it was broken. And yes. Please, never let Genji make this real.
Other highlights for me include Sigma, who now says, “Yes,” every time he throws a rock at someone, and Reinhardt, who says, “You shame yourself,” when you manage to block the enemy’s ultimate. Cassidy produces an unusually large number of somersaults in the course of his shot, rather than just once. Hanzo’s stormy arrows pierce walls, a lovely throwback to the scattering arrows he doesn’t quite like. And on top of that, when Mercy’s ultimate is extended by three seconds every time she takes the finishing blow. I think they should keep that for real, so that players get the Mercy battle they’ve always dreamed of.
Every hero gets some sort of weird and wonderful change, so I highly recommend reading through them (or playing, that’s the best way to watch). I’m glad Bliz is using test mode like this, previous tests were a bit boring (except for those three old damage one), but it’s a great playground for fun. The patch notes suggest that many creators will also decide on experimental content in the future, so I’m looking forward to seeing what they come up with. Can we give Torbjorn a hammer the size of Reinhardt? Or perhaps letting Widow’s grappling hook draw players in to draw them in like Roadhog?
When it comes to games published by Activision Blizzard, it’s worth noting that the company was investigated by several parties when it discovered allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination. Most recent, employees have called for the dismissal of CEO Bobby Kotick after A report by the Wall Street Journal has brought to light the new allegations.
