Overwatch patch containing changes to Roadhog, Lucio, other heroes, and more live

Along with the Year of the Rooster event kicking off, a patch has gone live for Overwatch.

As usual, it contains general updates and bug fixes. Also, balancing has been applied to Overwatch characters Ana, D.Va, Lucio, Roadhog and Sombra.

Full notes are below along with developer comments on the hero changes where applicable.

Those who test things out on the PTR will notice not a whole lot has changed, and for those who don't use the PTR, you can look over the previous notes through here for comparison.

Overwatch Patch Notes
Hero Balance Updates
Ana

Biotic Grenade – Effect duration has been reduced from 5 seconds to 4 seconds
Healing boost on allies has been decreased by 50%

Developer Comments: The healing boost from Ana's Biotic Grenade was providing too much healing, especially when used on targets with large health pools.

D.Va

Health increased from 200 to 400
Armor decreased from 400 to 200
Fusion Cannons – Bullet damage decreased from 3 to 2; Number of bullets per shot has been increased from 8 to 11

Developer Comments: D.Va's armor often made her feel like she had no weaknesses, even against heroes that are typically effective against bigger targets (like Reaper). The changes to her primary fire will result in a small overall decrease in damage, but her Fusion Cannons should feel more consistent now.

Lucio: New Hero Option: Allow Backwards Wall Ride – When enabled, allows Lucio to start wall riding while moving backwards.

Roadhog (Chain Hook)

Targets are now pulled directly in front of Roadhog (rather than straight to him), except in cases where Roadhog drastically rotates
Hooked targets are now released if they leave Roadhog's line of sight before being pulled
Line of sight checks (which determines if targets are hit by the hook) are now done from Roadhog's position, rather than the hook's position

Developer Comments: The hook should now feel more consistent for Roadhog players, but it should also feel more reasonable to his enemies, as they cannot be hooked or pulled around corners anymore.

Sombra (Hack):

Cooldown has been reduced from 12 seconds to 8 seconds
Time it takes to hack a target has been decreased from 1 second to 0.8 seconds

Developer Comments: Sombra often had difficulty hacking enemies, even when she surprised the target. This change should help her execute hacks more easily.

General

The “Stay as Team” button now lights up when anyone on your team clicks it
Players can now join Team Chat from the Hero Select screen (Push “RB” on the Xbox One controller and push “R1” on the PlayStation 4 controller)

Communication Wheel

Players can now equip up to 4 emotes, sprays, and voice lines from within the hero gallery
Voice line and emote submenus can be accessed from within the Communication wheel
Players can now bind individual sprays, emotes, and voice lines to mouse buttons, unique keys, or controller buttons

Kill Feed

Hero ability icons are now displayed in the Kill Feed
Headshot eliminations are now indicated with a red icon
Crouch now has a very small cooldown between uses

Bug Fixes
General

Fixed a bug allowing spectators to utilize the “Stay as Team” button during the end of a game
Fixed a bug that caused the “Stay as Team” button to overlap with the Back button on the Social menu
Fixed a bug preventing the Social menu from not correctly displaying World of Warcraft zones that have an apostrophe in the name
Fixed a bug causing heroes to display a T-pose on the victory screen after a Mystery Heroes brawl
Fixed a bug preventing Simple Checkout from being navigated by a controller on PC
Fixed a bug preventing Alt+Tab from properly minimizing the game client while in fullscreen mode
Fixed a bug preventing the Kill Feed from displaying the destruction of Teleporters, Shield Generators, and Turrets

AI

Fixed a bug that prevented the Roadhog bot from being able to hook players through Reinhardt's shield
Fixed a bug that allowed the Sombra bot to hack through barriers
Fixed a bug that made the Torbjörn bot unresponsive after placing a turret

Competitive Play: Fixed a bug preventing players from receiving XP for playing offseason games

Heroes

Fixed a visual bug with Ana's “Toast” victory pose, causing her cup to appear blurry on the right side of the screen
Fixed a bug causing a graphics issue with McCree's “Hat Trick” emote
Fixed a bug preventing the countdown timer from appearing on Mei's Cryo-Freeze ability
Fixed a bug with the placement of Mercy's wings on her Valkyrie and Sigrún skins
Fixed a bug preventing Symmetra's Photon Barrier from playing its destruction sound effect when it is destroyed
Fixed a bug causing Tracer's “You Got It” voice line to play an incorrect line
Fixed a bug preventing Widowmaker's Venom Mine from attaching to walls
Fixed a bug preventing Zenyatta's Nutcracker skin from receiving a golden glow while using his Transcendence ultimate ability

Maps

Fixed a bug preventing Pharah from being able to refuel while standing in some planters in Oasis
Fixed a bug that caused Sombra to get stuck under the bridge in Eichenwalde
Fixed a bug that caused Sombra to get stuck behind rocks in Route 66
Fixed a bug that allowed Symmetra to place her Shield Generator in unintended locations in Watchpoint: Gibraltar
Fixed a bug that allowed Widowmaker to perch on an unintended location in Eichenwalde
Fixed a bug that allowed Widowmaker to reach unintended locations in Ecopoint: Antarctica
Fixed several visual artifacts on the Practice Range
Fixed a bug preventing some projectiles from destroying the piñatas in Dorado
Fixed a bug with the size of the capture point on the garden tier in Oasis
Fixed an issue preventing the glass railings in Oasis from being easily broken by a melee attack