Overwatch 2.52 Patch Notes

Halloween is almost upon us and Overwatch is celebrating once again with its annual event. And with an event, comes an update. And with update, comes patch notes. Junkenstein returns once again alongside some new spooky themed skins and the Torbjörn rework. There is much more to look over in the Overwatch 2.52 patch notes so let’s dig in. The event also ends on October 31.

Overwatch 2.52 Patch Notes – New Halloween Skins and Cosmetics

The update is 1.585 GB on PS4 and contains quite a bit of new skins. Blizzard has already revealed some of them like Jack-O’-Lantern Wrecking Ball, Undead McCree, Enchanted Armor Pharah, Spider Widowmaker, Banshee Moira, and Swamp Monster Doomfist (which maybe should have been named “Doomfish”).

The new skins that we are seeing for (mostly) the first time are Bride Sombra, Slasher 76, and Pumpkin Mei, which you can see in the gallery at the top of the guide.

A good portion of the cast now has Pumpkin victory poses, Trick or Treat voice lines, and assorted Halloween sprays. Bastion has a new emote where it walks like a zombie and Brigitte and Winston have new highlight intros, although Brigitte’s isn’t quite as seasonal as Winston’s.

Overwatch 2.52 Patch Notes – Miscellaneous Changes

The setup timer across Assault, Escort, and hybrid maps down from one minute to 45 seconds. However, the “Assemble Your Team” phase in the second round will now be 25 seconds instead of 10.

As promised in a recent Developer Update, Blizzard has also added more colorblind options and now allows players to change nameplates, HUD, health bars, and hero outlines from the menu. This will let colorblind players find what works for them. You can even change the enemy and friendly UI independently. It’s under Options, Video, and then Color Blind Options.

Overwatch 2.52 Patch Notes – Torbjörn Rework

This Overwatch patch also contains the new Torbjörn rework. He has been made into less of a specialized hero that can be useful in more situations. He can now throw his turret, shoot more quickly, and has a new ultimate. His old ultimate is still in the game but it’s a weaker, less effective regular version on a normal cooldown, which allows him to move faster and absorb more damage. However, it only lasts for a few seconds.

The new version of Molten Core, his ultimate, shoots lava on the ground and damages those standing in it, especially those wearing armor. His trophies and achievements have also been slightly tweaked. His “Armor Up” trophy/achievement is now for absorbing 500 armor damage without dying but “Raid Wipe” is still for killing four enemies during a single use of Molten Core.

You can see the full details below.

• General
  • Reduced the size of Torbjörn’s head hit volume by 10 percent
• Rivet Gun
  • Primary Fire
    • Projectile speed increased from 60 to 70 per second
    • Reload time reduced from 2.2 to 2 seconds
    • Turret targets enemy hit by primary fire
  • Alternate Fire
    • Recovery lowered from 0.8 to 0.6 seconds
    • Damage per shot lowered from 150 to 125
    • Reload time reduced from 2.2 to 2 seconds
    • Spread randomization readjusted
  • Forge Hammer
    • Radius increased to align with Quick Melee
  • Deploy Turret
    • Turret is now a thrown projectile
    • Automatically builds over three seconds
      • No longer has different levels
      • Same damage output as previous level 2 turret
    • Maximum health reduced from 300 to 250
    • Now incurs a 5 second cooldown when deployed
    • Now incurs a 10 second cooldown when destroyed in combat
    • No longer able to deploy a new turret if it’s in combat
      • While the turret is firing
      • If the turret has taken damage within three seconds
    • Can now be destroyed using the Interact input
    • Completes self-building once deployed, even if Torbjörn is eliminated
  • New Ability: Overload
    • Replaces Armor Pack
    • Lasts for 5 seconds
    • Cooldown is 12 seconds
    • Temporarily grants 150 armor
    • Increases attack, movement, and reload speeds by 30 percent
  • New Ultimate: Molten Core
    • Switches weapon from Rivet Gun to his claw arm
    • Lasts 6 seconds
    • Fire up to 10 molten globules that create damage pools where they land for 10 seconds
      • Globules bounce off walls and ceilings until they hit the ground
    • Base damage is 130
    • Damage increases from 130 to 190 against enemies who have armor
      • Heroes affected by armor: Bastion, Brigitte, D.Va, Orisa, Reinhardt, Torbjörn, Winston, Wrecking Ball
      • Heroes who can grant armor to their allies: Brigitte

Overwatch 2.52 Patch Notes – Other Balance Changes

Blizzard touched up many of the heroes but none as drastically as the little Swedish turret thrower. The audio has been rebalanced to account for the wealth of new heroes. Blizzard has “extended the range of third-person weapon sounds, increased the range of first-person weapon impacts in the world, and generally balanced third-person footsteps and ability sounds.” This means you’ll be able to more easily distinguish who is doing what.

Brigitte’s shield now has 500 health, McCree’s Combat Roll now has a 6-second cooldown, Doomfist’s Hand Cannon now has a greater damage dropoff, Orisa’s weapons spray has been reduced, Soldier 76’s weapon spray now widens after more shots, Mei has new visual effects for her abilities, and Pharah can now attack more quickly (Concussive Blast included) but her damage isn’t as great. Check the full numbers below.

General

• Updated visuals for all shields and barriers to increase readability
• Enemies’ health bars will now become visible to players if an entity they create deals damage to an enemy (e.g. Symmetra’s turrets)

Brigitte

• Barrier Shield
  • Shield health reduced from 600 to 500

Doomfist

• Hand Cannon
  • Damage falloff now starts at 15 meters

McCree

• Combat Roll
  • Cooldown reduced from 8 to 6 seconds

Pharah

• Concussive Blast
  • Cooldown reduced from 12 to 9 seconds
• Rocket Launcher
  • Attack speed increased
    • Lowered recovery time between shots from 0.9 to 0.75 seconds
  • Damage redistributed between explosion and impact
    • Explosion damage reduced from 80 to 65
    • Impact damage increased from 40 to 55
  • Explosion knock back reduced by 20 percent
  • Self-knockback amount increased by 25 percent

Mei

• General
  • Updated visual effects for all abilities

Orisa

• Fusion Driver
  • Maximum spread reduced by 20 percent

Soldier: 76

• Heavy Pulse Rifle
  • Number of shots until reaching maximum spread increased from 6 to 9

Overwatch 2.52 Patch Notes – Bug Fixes

As is the case with every patch, bugs need to be squashed. They’re relatively minor but worth skimming over. Sadly, there are none concerning Shadowing Stepping to unintended locations. Although, there are a few concerning Sombra’s Translocator.

Bastion

• Fixed a bug that caused the roll bar on Bastion’s Dune Buggy skin to obscure its view when backing up or firing in Tank configuration

D.Va

• Fixed a bug that prevented some glowing effects from appearing on D.Va’s Nano Cola skin
• Fixed a bug that prevented D.Va from fully appearing when viewing her MEKA Activated highlight intro in the Hero Gallery

Hanzo

• Fixed a bug that caused Hanzo’s Storm Bow reticle to be visible while emoting

Mei

• Fixed a bug that prevented Mei’s Blizzard from freezing enemies when cast in areas with low ceilings

Reinhardt

• Fixed a bug that caused the player’s reticle to pitch up after using Earthshatter
• Fixed a bug that caused Reinhardt’s Earthshatter animations to play if used while he was juggled in the air by knockback abilities
• Fixed a bug that caused Reinhardt’s Rocket Hammer to knock enemies back further than intended
• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused Reinhardt’s Charge to knock back the target rather than pinning them
• Fixed a bug that would let Reinhardt immediately pin an enemy after a knock back close to a wall
• Fixed a bug that allowed area affect abilities to hit Reinhardt’s Barrier Field from further than intended (e.g. Reinhardt’s Rocket Hammer and Junkrat’s Concussion Mines)

Sombra

• Fixed an issue that caused Sombra to change the direction she was facing when using her Translocator to teleport
• Fixed a bug that sometimes allowed Sombra’s Translocator to reach unintended places
• Fixed a bug that prevented some abilities from being able to destroy Sombra’s Translocator if it was placed in certain locations

Symmetra

• Fixed a bug that caused Symmetra to have a chance of playing inaccurate voice lines when placing turrets
• Fixed a bug that caused Symmetra’s alternate fire to appear to detonate after missing a target

Torbjörn

• Fixed a bug that prevented Torbjörn’s medal from appearing in his Medal victory pose

Zarya

• Fixed a bug that caused Zarya’s Particle Cannon reticle to be visible while emoting

Maps

Busan

• Fixed a bug that allowed players to stand on some prohibited rooftops in Downtown
• Fixed a bug that prevented sprays from displaying on glass windows in MEKA Base

Volskaya Industries

• Fixed a bug that prevented players from receiving capture credit if they dropped onto the point from one of the moving platforms

Game Browser and Custom Games

Deathmatch

• Fixed a bug that prevented the “your team has lost” or “your team has taken the lead” voice lines from playing when the score swap happens due to self-inflicted deaths

Versus AI

• Fixed a bug that prevented players from receiving an “unable to join” error message if they attempted to spectate a Player vs AI match when all spectator slots were full