A new map for Overwatch is available today for those playing on the game’s Public Test Region (PTR) server on PC. In addition, Blizzard is also testing additional changes to the game, specifically on some of its heroes and UI.
A few days ago, the game’s Twitter account teased the new location, which is called the Horizon Lunar Colony. As the name suggests, this new stage will take place on the moon. The colony was initially built to house a testing facility that experimented on a few gorillas, including the hero Winston. However, it seems that the experiments got out of hand, and the base was eventually abandoned.
In addition to the map, you can also test out some new changes to three heroes. For McRee’s Deadeye ultimate ability, targets lock on after 0.2 seconds (previously 0.8 seconds) and damage from the ability in the first second is increased from 20 points to 80 points. According to the developers, this was done so that players can deal damage to opponents before they get shot. Reaper’s passive ability, which would drop health orbs after you killed an enemy, has a major change in that it no longer produces said orbs. Instead, 20% of any damage you inflict on an enemy is returned as health. The previous effect only worked if you could take out enemies in quick succession. With this change, you can reap (pun intended) the benefits immediately without having to kill a foe. If you play as Roadhog his overall head hitbox size was reduced by 20% so that he’s no longer an easy target for opponents. His Scrap Gun damage was also reduced by 33%, but fire rate and clip size went up by 30% and five bullets, respectively. This was done so that “his hook combo and alternate fire burst damage potential while skill keeping his DPS roughly the same.”
If you’re curious about overall stats, you’ll see an updated version in the PTR. For example, you can see a player’s most-played heroes by highlighting their name in the Social menu. You can now also check your combined stats with the All Modes filter in your profile. Furthermore, the game now calculates averages in stats based on 10-minute increments instead of the overall number of games played. There are also some bug fixes available, and you can check them out in the list below. If you want to sign up for the PTR version of Overwatch, you can select the “PTR: Overwatch” option in the region/account menu on your Battle.net app.
