The day has finally arrived for Overwatch’s Storm Rising Archives event to go live and along with the new mission and skins, a few heroes are getting some updates from the PTR.
Storm Rising is the third Archives event in Overwatch, and like Retribution and Uprising, it features an all new PvE mission for players to battle through.
There are also a total of nine new skins as well as a ton of other cosmetics for players to collect throughout the event.
What are the details on Storm Rising?
Storm rising is the latest PvE mission from Overwatch and will have players take control of either Tracer, Winston, Genji or Mercy and battle through the streets of Havana in search of Maximilien, a high-ranking member of Talon.
According to Overwatch Director Jeff Kaplan, Storm Rising takes place six years in the past from the present day. Kaplan said players would also find out more about Sojourn during the brawl in the latest Overwatch Developer’s Update.
In addition to Storm Rising, past PvE brawls Uprising and Retribution will also be available to play during the Archives event.
In addition to the new event, there are several big hero balance changes going live in the Storm Rising patch.
This includes improvements to Reaper’s Shadowstep and Symmetra’s Teleporter, as well as a slight reword to how Junkrat’s projectiles function.
Other new updates include a new privacy setting that only allows a player’s group members to view their profile and an option to set victory poses to random.
The hero updates, for Reaper and Symmetra at least, have been looked forward to by players for quite some time, and there’s hope that Shadowstep will no longer be a “throwaway” ability.
Junkrat players seem split on the updates to his primary fire, which are supposed to encourage more direct shots by taking away the generosity of the projectile’s bounce.
Full Overwatch Patch Notes – April 16, 2019
NEW SEASONAL EVENT: OVERWATCH ARCHIVES 2019 — STORM RISING
Experience a decisive moment in Overwatch’s history during the Overwatch Archives event! Get ready to travel back in time and visit beautiful Havana, Cuba where Overwatch agents are hot on the trail of the notorious businessman and Talon associate Maximilien. Team up with your friends to capture and interrogate Maximilien—whose knowledge could shape the future of Overwatch. Relive the action of previous Archives events, where you’ll fight off hordes of Talon agents while escaping Rialto and stop an Omnic insurrection in King’s Row. You’ll earn Archives Loot Boxes as you play, unlocking cosmetics from Overwatch’s past, including Legendary skins like Deadlock McCree, Scientist Moira, Talon Baptiste, Socialite Ashe, and many more!
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HERO UPDATES
JUNKRAT
Developer Comments: With this change, we’re looking to slightly increase the range at which Junkrat can land direct hits. The speed of his bombs has increased, but we tuned it so this wouldn’t affect the arc of his projectile. This means that aiming with it will feel the same. The grenades bounce less and explode sooner, which will allow Junkrat to aim them more deliberately. This will reduce the amount of rolling grenade spam when playing against him.
FRAG LAUNCHER
- Projectile speed increased from 20 to 25
- Grenades now bounce less but explode sooner
REAPER
Developer Comments: Shadow Step was originally intended to be purely an out-of-combat mobility tool to traverse the map, since Wraith Form was already a great tool for disengaging. However, this made Shadow Step very situational, so we’re increasing its flexibility to make it a better, less niche ability. This will enable Reaper to use Shadow Step in more offensive situations.
SHADOW STEP
- Can now be used in air
- Time to exit Shadow Step reduced from 1.0 second to 0.5 of a second
- Reaper is now invisible for the entire time it takes to exit shadow step
- Railings and other breakable objects no longer block teleporting
- Disabled by Zarya’s Graviton Surge and Junkrat’s Steel Trap
SYMMETRA
TELEPORTER
- Railings and other breakable objects no longer block teleporter placement and teleporting
USER INTERFACE UPDATES
Hero Gallery
- You can now set your Victory Pose choice to random
Social
- There is now an option to set your profile so only your current group can view it