Blizzard made more changes to Overwatch’s PTR and it appears they were mostly aimed at Mercy. However, they did tweak another hero, and fix some bugs. It’s not the largest Overwatch PTR update, but it affects Mercy in some significant ways.
Mercy’s Resurrect casting time has now been increased from no time to 1.75 seconds, in an attempt to give players ample time to counter her ability. They also reduced her movement speed by 75% while casting this ability, severely lowering her movement.
Below are the full patch notes for the PTR, including a small update for Ana and some bug fixes:
Overwatch PTR Patch Notes — Nov 1st, 2017
Hero Updates
Ana
- Biotic Rifle
- Damage increased from 60 to 70
Developer Comment: Ana has been outshined by other support heroes lately. Boosting her damage will help her defend herself and make her more threatening to the enemy team.
Mercy
- Resurrect
- Cast time increased from 0 seconds to 1.75 seconds
- Mercy’s movement speed is now reduced by 75% while casting
- an now be interrupted when Mercy is knocked back, stunned, or hacked
- Valkyrie
- When activated, Resurrection no longer has a cast time
Developer Comment: We feel that Mercy’s recent rework has been successful, but her Resurrect ability still feels too strong and frustrating to play against. Now that it has a cast time, there is more room for enemies to counter the ability. However, casting Resurrect happens instantly when Valkyrie is active. This should make her feel powerful when she transforms on the battlefield.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed several issues that prevented the announcer voice lines from playing correctly in Competitive, Elimination, and Capture the Flag game modes
- Fixed an issue causing Roadhog’s Chain Hook to latch on to enemy players for longer than intended
As a reminder, PTR is for PC players only, and typically marks what changes will be brought to the console versions of Overwatch.
Source: Blizzard
