Overwatch Season 6 Invasion Patch Notes & New Hero Abilities

Developer Comments: Once D.Va’s mech was destroyed, there was a window of time where the pilot could be damaged or killed before the player fully had control over their character. With this change, D.Va can no longer be damaged by things like explosions or melee attacks before the player fully transitions control from the mech to the pilot.

Developer Comments: Doomfist is performing well overall but tends to have more deaths on average compared to other Tank heroes. Lowering the Seismic Slam cooldown will reduce downtime in his ability rotations and translate into more survivability due to the increased mobility and potential for generating overhealth more often with his passive ability. Additionally, Power Block will now always reduce explosive damage from a projectile stuck directly to Doomfist, even though normally you have to face the direction of the incoming damage to block it.

Developer Comments: Similar to Doomfist’s Power Block change, Ramattra’s Block ability will now always apply damage reduction to projectiles stuck directly to him. His Annihilation ultimate ability was being generated slightly too quickly for how impactful it can be, so we are increasing its ultimate cost.

Developer Comments: Sigma has always had somewhat floatier movement controls than most heroes in order to match his character movement animations. However, this led players to feel like his Tank role passive ability wasn’t reducing the amount he would be knocked back since it took him longer to stop than other tanks. We’ve now adjusted this to the standard hero movement values to make the gameplay interactions feel more consistent.

Developer Comments: Winston’s Tesla Cannon ranged attack had a decently long charge time relative to the damage it deals. These adjustments will make it more responsive to charge and fire, which can be useful for situations such as finishing off low health enemies attempting to flee, or poking at enemies before leaping in. This comes at the cost of taking a longer time to recover after firing, which in some cases will be weaker as a burst-damage combo with Jump Pack and primary fire.

Developer Comments: There are several small tuning adjustments to Bastion here with the goal of improving overall effectiveness, as Bastion’s weakness of being a large and immobile target has proven tough to overcome, even with such powerful damage potential.

Developer Comments: Even with the powerful and reworked Magnetic Grenade, Cassidy has still been underperforming, so we are reverting his maximum health back up to 225, having his gun damage falloff reach its full reduction sooner, and restricting the maximum range on magnetic grenade to help solidify his position as a close-to-mid range damage dealer.

Developer Comments: Despite being conceptually strange, this gameplay mechanic felt good and fluid to use as Hanzo. However, it often resulted in some frustrating behavior for enemy players that can be alleviated without impacting Hanzo’s overall effectiveness too significantly.

Developer Comments: Soldier: 76 became much more deadly after his last round of changes so we are reverting the Helix Rocket explosion damage to lower his burst damage. We are also increasing his Tactical Visor ultimate cost to help account for his overall increased damage output, both during the ultimate and leading up to it.

Developer Comments: EMP frequency is a little too high given its relative power so we are increasing its cost. It will now also deal the usual percentage of max health damage to Lifeweaver’s Tree of Life ultimate instead of treating it like a barrier and destroying it instantly.

Developer Comments: We are continuing to add power into the Rivet Gun, as the previous changes didn’t quite make up for the turret damage decrease. In addition, we are also improving the Forge Hammer swing speed so that it is more effective to repair a turret while it is under fire.

Developer Comment: Ana’s damage breakpoint change has proven too effective overall given her long range so we are reverting it back to its previous value. We are also increasing the size of unscoped projectiles when firing at enemies (her projectiles have always had a larger size for allies) which should help them land more consistently against close-ranged threats.

Developer Comment: Brigitte’s overall effectiveness and survivability have been high relative to other heroes, so we are reducing the Barrier Shield health. We’re also slightly adjusting the ultimate cost of Rally, as it has become more effective after its rework.

Developer Comment: Protection Suzu now rewards more deliberate usage by increasing its healing when cleansing negative effects. It will no longer knockback enemies, as it wasn’t particularly important to its overall design and was there to provide feedback for the impact. These Kunai changes will make the weapon damage output more consistent and reduce some of the disparity between landing critical hits or not.

Developer Comments: The Tree of Life outputs substantial healing but often doesn’t provide enough value for an ultimate ability. To increase its utility, any overhealing done via the Tree is now converted to overhealth. Thorn Volley’s spread is now less random, with half the projectiles having a smaller base spread to promote better mid-range consistency. Life Grip now has a longer mobility lockout duration to prevent accidental cancels by the affected ally using a movement ability immediately after the pull being started. Finally, we are supplementing Lifeweaver’s survivability with an increase to his overall health pool by converting some of it to shield health in order to account for the large petal hit volume on his back, as well as increasing the healing done by Rejuvenating Dash.

Developer Comment: In order to help bring Lucio’s survivability more in line with the rest of the Support heroes, Crossfade self-healing during Amp It Up is now a more effective survival option for Lucio.

Developer Comment: Damage amplification effects have been an often discussed topic lately, and Mercy has been performing strongly at all skill ranks. We’re reducing the potency of Mercy’s damage boost beam but want to make sure it stays powerful enough to feel like an effective and interesting gameplay choice, as making the decision between healing or damage boosting is core to Mercy’s gameplay.