Overwatch’s latest patch, 1.17, is available now on the live game. The headline feature is Moira, the game’s latest hero, though there are also some changes to Ana and to Mercy, as Blizzard continue to polish her recent rework. It seems we’ll be waiting a bit longer to play around in Blizzard World, though we’ll update this post as 1.17 rolls on.
These are the best Overwatch heroes… for now.
Overwatch Patch 1.17 hero changes
The below changes are currently live.
Mercy
Caduceus Staff
- Increased visual readability of Mercy’s healing and damage boosting beams
Resurrect
- Cast time increased from 0 seconds to 1.75 seconds.
- Mercy’s movement speed is now reduced by 75% while casting.
- Can now be interrupted when Mercy is knocked back, stunned, or hacked.
Valkyrie
- While active, Resurrect no longer has a cast time.
- While active, casting Resurrect does not reduce Mercy’s movement speed
Support forum agent ‘Vrakthris’ says that while Blizzard feel Mercy’s recent rework has been successful, Resurrect still feels too strong. These changes are intended to make it easier to counter, except when her ult is active. Jeff says “we don’t want [Mercy’s] focus to be resurrect” – it should always be her healing.
Ana
Biotic Rifle
- Basic damage increased from 60 to 70.
A nice and simple comment from the devs on Reddit: “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.”
Lucio
- Lúcio now has an effect above his head to indicate which song he’s playing in spectator mode
Winston
Barrier Projector
- Now displays a health bar
Possible Future Changes
Hanzois likely to get some attention in the near future. In response to complaints about Scatter Arrow, Kaplan says “we’ve been talking about scatter arrow since 2014… it’s always been controversial.” He says it’s not fair to say it takes no skill at all, and makes the fair point that if it were nerfed, Hanzo would be very weak indeed. That said, he acknowledges it doesn’t feel good to play against, and doesn’t speak to the fantasy Blizzard intended. “So it’s tricky with Hanzo. He’s being heavily discussed right now.”
The team also seem to be taking concerns overDoomfist’s strengthseriously, with players concerned that his nerfs ended up going too far and that his abilities are inconsistent.
Overwatch Patch 1.17 Blizzard World
Blizzard World is a hybrid map set in a theme park based on the Overwatch publishers’ many properties. Speaking to VentureBeat at BlizzCon 2017, Jeff Kaplan says “I can’t wait for it to go up on the PTR next week,” so we expected it to be added to patch 1.17 imminently – but it seems we’ll have to wait a bit longer.
Overwatch Patch 1.17 Moira
Moira is Overwatch’s latest hero – a new support character affiliated with the evil Talon organisation. She was unveiled and playable at BlizzCon, and of course the first thing everyone who wasn’t there wanted to know was: when canweplay her?
The answer: now. Moira was put up on the PTR just days after BlizzCon – here’s a full breakdown of her abilitiesto get you up to speed. One of those abilities – Fade – is an escape move that Blizzard are concerned may be a little too strong. At BlizzCon, assistant game director Aaron Fuller told us that:
“Typically, healers are focused really early in a fight and a team bands together to save them, or the healer has outs, but [Moira] has this ability to disappear. A lot of the time she might be the last to die in a team fight, and there’s something really cool about that, being able to rely on your support to keep your team up – but it could be that her survivability is actually [a problem]. We’re expecting that to be the thing we have to address if there is anything we have to address. You never know, it could be perfect, right?!”
The community has discovered that one of Moira’s sprays pairs with a new Mercy one, hinting at a lore tie-in between the two – that’s not surprising, as they each represent two approaches to healing and biotic technology. In a neat touch, she also has voice lines in Gaelic. Blizzard are working on bugs in which her healing orbs don’t work on practice range botsor after she’s died, even if resurrected, and have increased the volume of her healing sounds in the audio mix.
Overwatch Patch 1.17 General Updates
General
- Clicking the “leave game as group” checkbox will now remember your selection for future matches
Arcade
- One of the arcade slots will now change on a daily basis to include a variety of game modes such as Limited Duel, Low Gravity, and Capture the Flag
Overwatch Patch 1.17 User Interface
General
- Made several visual adjustments to revamp the spectator mode HUD including an improved spectator mode UI, a new unit frame style, and an animated ultimate indicator
Overwatch Patch 1.17 Bug Fixes
General
- Fixed a bug that prevented player portrait borders from loading in the Hero Select screen or on the Match Status screen
- Made several visual adjustments to revamp the spectator mode HUD including an improved spectator mode UI, a new unit frame style, and an animated ultimate indicator
- Fixed a bug that prevented players from adding spectators to a Deathmatch game from within the Custom Game lobby
- Clicking the ‘leave game as group’ checkbox will now remember your selection for future matches
A.I.
- Fixed a bug that prevented bots from respawning when they were moved to a different slot or team within the Custom Game lobby
- Fixed a bug that prevented the Sombra bot from hacking health packs
- Fixed an issue that affected the Bastion bot’s movement when defending Point A on Eichenwalde
- Fixed a bug that prevented bots from defending Point A on certain maps
Heroes
- Fixed a bug that caused Ana’s sidearm to emit a bright light when viewed in the Hero Gallery
- Fixed an issue that prevented Ganymede from making appropriate roadrunner noises when Bastion’s Dune Buggy skin was equipped
- Fixed a bug that prevented Mercy’s ultimate icon from displaying correctly when hacked by Sombra
- Fixed an issue causing Roadhog’s Chain Hook to latch on to enemy players for longer than intended
- Fixed an animation bug that caused Widowmaker’s knees to snap together when jumping
- Fixed an issue that caused the toy robot in Zarya’s Mystery Gift emote to inflate when she tore it apart
- Fixed an issue that prevented Junkrat’s RIP-Tire from casting properly while jumping
Maps
- Fixed a bug that caused the incorrect stage of the map (e.g. Sanctum on Nepal) to be displayed during the hero selection phase when playing on Nepal and Lijiang Tower
- Fixed a bug that prevented the progress bar from displaying briefly when players reached checkpoints on Escort and Escort/Assault maps
- Fixed an issue that prevented the targeting UI on Doomfist’s Seismic Slam from functioning correctly when aiming at the spinning turbine blade near the last point of Junkertown
- Fixed a bug that caused some objects to uncharacteristically fly across the room when shot on Horizon Lunar Colony
Arcade
- One of the arcade slots will now change on a daily basis to include a variety of game modes such as Limited Duel, Low Gravity, and Capture the Flag