Junkertown Out Now, Read Overwatch Patch Notes

Blizzard has just announced that the brand new Overwatch map Junkertown is currently live on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

After a successful testing period on the Overwatch PTR, the map is now live for every player to download and experience. The map will launch alongside the brand new update for Mercy, which changes her character in a multitude of ways.

Check out some of the patch notes for the update below:

PATCH HIGHLIGHTS

New Escort Map: Junkertown

Junkertown is located in the harsh and unforgiving Australian Outback. Constructed from the remains of a destroyed omnium, it’s now the home to a band of lawless scavengers known as the Junkers, led by their cutthroat Queen. When they aren’t pillaging the omnium’s skeleton for anything of value, the Junkers blow off steam in the Scrapyard—a massive gladiatorial arena whose combatants fight for glory, riches… and to survive.

GENERAL UPDATES

General

• [XB1] Players whose Xbox Live reputation has been downgraded to “Avoid Me”
  will remain in the same matchmaking pool as other Overwatch players. Howevers, they will no longer be able to use the in-game voice communication

Mystery Heroes

• Players will no longer see the Assemble Your Team screen at the beginning of a game
• Players who purposefully kill themselves will no longer respawn as a new hero. However, their Ultimate ability will reset and anything that’s been placed (i.e. Torbjörn’s turret) will despawn
• Players will no longer be respawned as the same hero
• These changes also apply to any custom games where the “Respawn as Random Hero” option has been enabled.

User Interface Updates

• The skull icons that indicate where teammates were killed throughout the map have been replaced with hero portrait icons
• Third person camera view will now frame the action automatically when spectating or waiting to respawn

HERO UPDATES

D.Va

• Micro Missiles (New Ability)
  • D.Va fires a barrage of small rockets that detonate on impact, dealing damage in a limited radius around each explosion. These can be fired while D.Va is using any other ability or firing her Fusion Cannons

Defense Matrix

• Defense Matrix’s resource meter will now deplete twice as quickly
• Energy regeneration per second has been increased to 12.5% (formerly 10%)

Boosters

• Fusion Cannons can now be fired while flying

Developer Comments:D.Va’s Defense Matrix uptime has proven to be too strong, but simply reducing it without making other changes would make her too weak (and far less interesting to play). Instead, we’re adding a new ability and giving her the ability to fire while flying. These changes give D.Va new options while maintaining Defense Matrix’s ability to shut down big enemy attacks.

Mercy

• Resurrect (Formerly Mercy’s Ultimate ability)
  • Ability now targets a single player, instead of every player within a radius
  • Radius reduced to 5 meters
  • Ability cooldown is 30 seconds
  • Mercy is no longer granted invulnerability while Resurrect is active

• Valkyrie (New Ultimate Ability)
  • Valkyrie unleashes the full power of Mercy’s Valkyrie suit, enhancing her weapons and abilities for 20 seconds
    • Caduceus Staff: Mercy’s healing and damage boosts beams now affect all allies near the targeted teammate, and the staff’s effective range has been extended
    • Caduceus Blaster: Now has infinite ammo and increased projectile speed
    • Guardian Angel: Increased range and movement speed
    • Resurrect: Cooldown in instantly reset when Valkyrie is activated and reduced to 10s after the initial cast
    • Hover: Mercy gains the ability to fly freely, at increased movement speed
    • Regeneration (Passive): No longer interrupted when Mercy takes damage

Developer Comments:While resurrecting downed allies is a core part of Mercy’s gameplay, the way her Ultimate functioned was causing a number of problems. It was frustrating to play against, and it incentivized Mercy players to hide away from important battles, instead of taking part in them. This version turns Resurrect into a single target ability. It’s still an important part of Mercy’s kit, but plays much better for both Mercy players and her enemies. Valkyrie, her new Ultimate, gives her the opportunity for big game-making plays and opens a number of new options for her.

Reinhardt

• Barrier Field
  • Holding primary fire while your shield is active now allows you to rotate the camera

Developer Comments:This change gives Reinhardt more situational awareness while using his shield, allowing him to keep an eye on the battlefield while still protecting his team.

• A new “Movement Relative to Camera During Barrier Free Look” option can be found under Settings > Controls. Simply select “Reinhardt” from the dropdown menu. This allows players to change the way Reinhardt moves when Barrier Shield is active and players are controlling the third-person camera movement

To check out the full list of patch notes, including what bugs were fixed this time around, make sure to check out the full forum post on Battle.net.