Overwatch Update Patch Notes Include Torbjorn Rework And More

Halloween Terror 2018 is the headliner of the update, but it also includes the major update for Torbjorn that was announced last month. Torb no longer uses armor packs or the scrap system. His secondary ability instead has changed to “Overload,” which works a lot like his previous Ultimate ability. The new Ultimate, called Molten Core, will shoot out pools of magma. Plus his turret build levels have been scrapped entirely, now permanently set to the second level.

“Torbjorn was initially designed to be a specialized hero, intended to be a strong defensive option due to his armor-generating capabilities and ability to control areas with his turret. However, the scrap collecting and Armor Pack mechanics have proven to cause problematic gameplay issues because of their feast or famine nature,” reads the patch notes from Blizzard. “To make him more flexible in a wide variety of situations, we’ve removed the scrap system, made the turret much easier to deploy, replaced the Armor Pack ability with Overload–a powerful self-buff–and transformed Molten Core into a powerful new area denial ultimate ability.”

The update also adds a new colorblind option, giving you nine different colorblind options to use for enemy and friendly UI. Those options can be found in Options > Video > Color Blind Options. The highlights for shields and barriers have between tweaked for easier readability, and health bars will become visible if an entity they create (like one of Torb’s turrets) deals damage.

Other changes include minor tweaks to Brigitte, Doomfist, McCree, Pharah, Mei, Orisa, and Soldier 76. The timer has also been adjusted for both Assault and Escort maps, giving players less time to setup but more to assemble the team. Besides Torb, Pharah got the most dramatic updates with a lot of changes to her rocket launcher knockback, explosion damage, and attack speed.

“We wanted to increase how responsive Pharah’s Rocket Launcher felt, because a full second of recovery between shots made it feel sluggish,” Blizzard says. “The overall damage potential is now increased when landing direct hits and decreased slightly when only dealing explosive damage.”

All of those changes come alongside Overwatch’s big seasonal event, which comes with a bunch of new skins and other cosmetic items to collect. It also includes the limited-time Junkenstein’s Revenge mode, which this year comes in both Classic and Endless Night flavors.