Since his reveal last month, players have been clamoring to try out Overwatch‘s newest hero, Hammond, whom the game officially calls Wrecking Ball. Today, he leaves the PTR and jumps to the live servers, thanks to the new Overwatch Hammond patch that just went out to all platforms. Blizzard also added some balance changes in addition to the new character.
Hammond is the latest addition to Overwatch‘s lineup. He’s positioned as a secondary tank that can soak up damage like Roadhog, but can’t necessarily defend his team like Orisa or Reinhardt. His grappling hook and dual machine guns differentiate him from the six other tanks but giving him mobility and a fast, accurate weapon. When his ultimate charges, he can pepper the battlefield with mines, which makes for an effective zoning tool.
Sombra was also majorly altered in this update. She can now go invisible and leave her translocator indefinitely, giving her more freedom to stalk her prey without having to worry about timers. However, she can’t run as quickly as before nor contest the objective while invisible. Players have expressed issues with her new changes but Blizzard has stood firm on their decisions. Hanzo’s Storm Arrows were also nerfed, as they now only last for five seconds and have a ten-second cooldown.
Several heroes have also had their damage falloffs adjusted. Soldier 76, Bastion, and McCree have had their minimum damage from maximum range increased from 30 percent to 50 percent, meaning their long-range shots will only be half as powerful as opposed to a third as strong. Mei’s alternate fire no longer has damage falloff at all, which means her icicle shots will do the same damage at every range. And Widowmaker’s submachine gun does less damage at a distance, which makes sense given that she should be using her scope instead.
Blizzard also changed the length of some matches. Assault maps in Quickplay and Arcade now only give players four minutes (instead of five) to capture the objective. In the developer comments, Blizzard points out that this was meant to keep games from going on too long, especially on the second objective points.
This Overwatch Hammond patch does not include the recent support changes, which went up on the PTR last week. Those tweaks are likely to come to the live servers in the next few weeks in one form or another.
