A new Overwatch patch has hit the live servers and with it, a slew of buffs have come through for the Shimada brothers of Hanzo and Genji.
The buffs were first tested in the Experimental Mode on June 2 and have now made their way to the live servers. Notably, all the changes except for the Moira adjustments have come through.
With Genji, the cyborg ninja is now far more lethal. An increase to his primary fire’s damage from 28 to 30 is big when you factor in the fact he fires three Shuriken at once.
Now, a barrage of three to the head combined with a melee or Swift Strike will result in a speedy elimination on any 200 HP hero.
Additionally, his secondary fire spread has been greatly reduced. This means that it will be far more reliable and your shots are likely to connect with your target. In close range, Genji will be a menace for supports in the backline.
Finally, his Deflect can now be canceled manually. This is a huge change that Genji players have been wanting for a long time. Previously, the only way to cancel it would be to either wall climb or Swift Strike, but now there’s a unique level of counterplay with Deflect.
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on Esports, Gaming and more.
If that wasn’t enough, Deflect now lasts half a second longer, which could be a major factor when encountering an Ultimate like Pharah’s Barrage or Roadhog’s Wholehog.
Elsewhere, Hanzo’s Storm Arrow has been buffed from 60 to 70 damage, making him into a more lethal threat. Now he can two-tap any 200 HP hero with a headshot followed by a body shot or vice versa.
Lastly, Echo’s Focusing Beam has been nerfed pretty hard with a range nerf down to 4 meters. This means that players will need to be a lot closer to the action for the beam to connect and play a lot more carefully if they want to get the maximum value the ability brings.
Full Overwatch June 16 patch notes are listed below:
GENERAL UPDATES
If a competitive game collapses due to a player leaving early, you are now granted a priority requeue the next time you queue to play. You will see a small icon on the interface to denote this status. When you queue for a game with priority queue status, the matchmaker tries to prioritize finding an appropriate game for you. This normally results in significantly lower times waiting in queue.
HERO UPDATES
ECHO
Focusing Beam felt slightly too long-ranged given how lethal it has the potential to be. Echo may have to get a bit closer to utilize the ability but certainly has the mobility to do so.
- Range reduced from 20 to 16 meters
GENJI
We’re looking to strengthen Genji’s close-range combat effectiveness to help solidify his viability as a mobile burst-damage hero. We’ll keep a close eye on his overall power as we’re increasing both the flexibility of Deflect and improving the shuriken damage consistency at the same time.
General
- Damage increased from 28 to 30
Secondary Fire
- Spread reduced from 12 to 9
- Duration increased from 1.5 to 2 seconds
- Can now be cancelled manually
HANZO
The previous combination of changes to the projectile speed and the damage of Storm Arrows impacted Hanzo more than intended so we’re reverting the Storm Arrow damage back its previous value.
- Damage increased from 60 to 70
ORISA
- Increased sound effects volume
WORKSHOP UPDATES
- Attach Players
- Detach Players
- Start Forcing Player Position
- Stop Forcing Player Position
- Is In Alternate Form
- Is Duplicating
- Hero Being Duplicated
BUG FIXES
- Deathmatch – Fixed a bug where the end of round flow music would not transition properly
- Fixed a bug in which custom game settings were sometimes being reverted to default between rounds of a Control map or when causing one’s own death while Respawn as Random Hero is active
- Custom games will no longer shut down due to server load issues when using Mei’s primary fire with a 0% freeze rate
- Fixed a bug where custom game lobby privacy settings were reset when importing a share code
Echo
- Fixed a bug that would allow Reinhardt’s Charge to hit Echo when using her Duplicate ability
- Fixed a bug where Echo would lose her ultimate charge if she dies with her ultimate target confirmation active
- Fixed a bug with Echo becoming stuck in her Focusing Beam animation
- Fixed a bug where a cloned hero’s communication wheel settings would not copy over properly
Mei
- Fixed a bug that would cause Mei’s hat to fall off when using Cryo-Freeze while wearing her Mei-rry skin
- Fixed a bug with Mei’s drone not animating correctly at the end of her Blizzard ultimate ability
Sombra
- Fixed a bug where Sombra could sometimes hack people right as they started an ability that would prevent hacking (i.e. Wraithform, Meteor Strike)
Symmetra
- Fixed a bug where Symmetra Turrets could be placed on certain spawn doors
- Fixed a bug in which restarting a rule that was using the Wait action and then executing the same Wait action on the same frame could cause the action to wait forever
- Fixed a bug in which using a chased variable for the rate or destination of the Chase action that was modifying it would cause incorrect behavior
- Fixed a bug in which the final objective of an Assault, Hybrid, or Escort map could be completed when Disable Built-In Game Mode Completion was in effect
- Fixed a bug in which reaching 100% distance or capture progress on the final objective of an Assault, Hybrid, or Escort map would cause endless beeping if Disable Built-In Game Mode Completion was in effect
- Fixed a bug which caused the Stop Transforming Throttle action not to work
- The Is Using Ultimate value now returns true when D.Va is using either of her ultimate abilities
- The Is Using Ultimate value now returns true for the first few frames of Echo’s ultimate (After the first few frames, check the new Is Duplicating value)
- The Is Using Ultimate value now returns true for Ashe only while B.O.B. is alive
- Fixed a bug which caused the Respawn action to stop working for players that had recently been resurrected
- Fixed rules with Echo as the designated hero not always executing correctly during or after her ultimate
- Fixed the Is Primary Fire value sometimes returning incorrect values after Winston’s ultimate and during Hanzo’s Storm Arrows ability
- The Is Using Ability 2 value no longer returns true for Widowmaker if her only existing Venom Mine has been fired off the map
- Fixed a bug where script error messages remained on screens for certain subroutine errors even after fixing the issue in the editor
- Fixed a bug preventing Set Objective Description from working when executed prior to the player spawning in
- Fixed a bug preventing Disable Built-In Game Mode Announcer from working in certain modes
- Fixed a bug preventing the Damage Over Time effects from occurring when first starting the Molten Floor Workshop Preset
- Fixed a bug preventing Set Match Time from being able to be used while in Assemble Heroes in CTF
- Fixed a bug preventing certain abilities from triggering Dealt/Received Knockback Events (Junkrat’s self-knockback from Concussive Mine, Doomfist’s Rocket Punch, and Reinhardt’s Rocket Hammer)
- Fixed a bug preventing Sigma’s Ultimate Ability from working properly when gravity settings were altered via Workshop or Custom Game Settings
- Fixed a bug preventing the names of Dummy Bots from properly showing up in Kill Cams, POTGs, and End of Match Summaries
- Fixed a bug where Destroy All Dummy Bots failed to work in certain scenarios