After being teased for a little while now, the Overwatch Anniversary 2018 update has finally made its way to the live servers. It has brought with it a variety of new cosmetics to collect, as well as all of the previous seasonable brawls and skins, so if you've missed out on any of the past events, now is your chance to catch up!
Since trying to describe these new cosmetics through words alone is a bit of a pointless task, allow me to share with you the recently posted trailer. It's one of the best edited non-cinematic videos the Overwatch team has posted so far, especially when it comes to how the music syncs up with the action, so I'd definitely recommend you give it a look. Here's the video:
Besides cosmetics, this update has also brought with it some important nerfs to Brigitte and Hanzo, as well as some much-needed buffs to Ana's healing output. You'll find the full patch notes over at the official website, but for now here's a brief list highlighting all of the important changes:
Ana
• Biotic Rifle
- Projectiles will now pass through allies with full health
- Ammo increased from 10 to 14
Developer Comments: These changes should help Ana when she is trying to land clutch heals in the middle of a big fight. Allies that do not need healing will no longer potentially block shots meant for teammates that do need it. Increasing her magazine size makes it less likely that Ana will be forced into a reloading in the middle of an important fight.
Brigitte
• Rally
- Maximum armor per player reduced from 150 to 100
• Shield Bash
- Cooldown increased from 5 to 6 seconds
Developer Comments: Brigitte’s ultimate is very powerful, especially when it gets stacked up to its maximum value on many allies. This change will reduce the maximum armor value of Rally, but does not reduce the overall amount of armor given by the ability over its duration. This means when used in combat while her allies are taking damage, it should feel about the same, but the lingering effects of the armor should have less of an impact. Her Shield Bash is a very strong ability on a fairly short cooldown, making it difficult for her opponents to play around. Increasing this cooldown allows for more options when battling against her.
Hanzo
• Storm Arrows
- Damage reduced from 80 to 70
Developer Comments: Hanzo’s Storm Arrows are doing too much damage considering his other changes, such as Lunge and projectile speed. This damage reduction will give Hanzo’s enemies a more reasonable chance to react and fight against him while using Storm Arrows.
The final major feature of this update is the addition of a Competitive FFA game mode, which also includes a brand new FFA map - Petra. Much like the previous few side-events, Competitive FFA will only be around for a couple of weeks, so make sure to dive in as soon as possible since it's unknown how long we'll need to wait before we see it again. Naturally, you also get competitive points based on your season high, so even if you're not exactly keen on FFA I would still recommend at least doing your placement matches.
That's pretty much everything you need to know about the event, so just jump in and have fun with all of the new and old content. Personally, i can't wait to dive into Lucioball again!
