After being teased for quite a while now, the much-needed Hanzo rework has finally made its way to the Overwatch test servers. As expected, the always-annoying Scatter Arrow has been replaced with a brand new rapid fire ability, while Hanzo's lacking mobility options have been enhanced by the addition of a new Lunge skill. If these changes go through you can expect Hanzo to be much more powerful, albeit much more skill intensive as well.
Besides the Hanzo rework, this PTR update has also brought in a reworked version of the Horizon Lunar Colony, one of the most offense-sided maps in the entire game. These changes have been put onto the PTR by accident and are still nowhere near finished, but even so I have to admit they are still pretty darn exciting to see! You can check them out in the video below, courtesy of Ele_OW from Youtube:
As for the balance changes, you'll be glad to hear that Genji, Tracer, Junkrat and Brigitte have been nerfed, while Lucio on the other hand has received some rather strange tweaks. You'll find the full list of changes and developer explanations right below. Have a gander:
Genji
• Deflect
- Hitbox size has been reduced
Developer Comments: The hitbox on Genji’s Deflect was big enough that it would sometimes reflect projectiles that were pretty far away from him. We’ve tightened up the hitbox, which should solve this problem while still fully protecting him from projectiles that would hit him from the front.
Hanzo
• Storm Bow
- Projectile speed increased from 85 to 100
• Sonic Arrow
- Cooldown decreased from 20 seconds to 12 seconds
- Duration decreased from 10 seconds to 6 seconds
- Radius decreased from 10 meters to 7 meters
• Lunge (new ability)
- Press jump while in the air to leap horizontally
• Storm Arrows
- Replaces his existing Scatter Arrow ability
- Hanzo can now rapidly fire up to 6 arrows that deal reduced damage but are always fired at full power
Developer Comments: The goal of these Hanzo changes is to allow him to have new options and maintain his high damage output, while removing the frustration of fighting against the old Scatter Arrow. Hanzo is now much more mobile with his new Lunge ability, and with the combination of the bow projectile speed increase and the new Storm Arrows ability he can now deal his high damage more consistently than ever before.
Junkrat
• Frag Launcher
- Projectile size decreased from 0.3 to 0.2
• RIP-Tire
- Tire movement speed decreased from 13 to 12
Developer Comments: These changes are aimed at lowering some of the most frustrating parts about playing against Junkrat. Decreasing the Frag Launcher’s projectile size means he will have to aim a bit more carefully to land powerful direct hits and slowing the RIP-Tire’s movement speed gives his opponents slightly more time to destroy it before it detonates.
Lúcio
• Wall Ride
- Wall riding is less likely to be interrupted along a single surface
- Can now go around corners (both outside corners, and inside corners) without having to leave the wall
- Can now land back on the same wall after leaping away, provided his leap takes him far enough away from the original jumping off point.
- Wall leap boost decreased from 2.5 m/s to 2.0m/s
• Soundwave
- No longer consumes ammo
Developer Comments: Wall Ride has been significantly overhauled to allow it to function more smoothly across more areas of every map. Lúcio players should instantly notice a huge improvement in where and how Wall Ride can be used. In addition, Sonic Amplifier’s Soundwave ability was unnecessarily controlled by both a cooldown and an ammo cost, so we’re removing the ammo cost.
Tracer
• Pulse Bomb
- Max damage decreased from 400 to 300
Developer Comments: Pulse Bomb was too good at killing tanks, who can be easy to stick due to their size. This damage reduction makes it less powerful as a tank-destroyer, while keeping it lethal against most other heroes.
Brigitte:
• Shield Bash
- Cone angle reduced from 90 to 60
Dev Notes: When fighting against Brigitte, it often felt like Shield Bash was able to hit you when you felt like you should have dodged it. On the flip side, when playing as Brigitte sometimes you would hit the wrong enemy in the middle of a fight. With the cone being reduced the ability is more accurate to its visual representation.
Most of these balance changes will probably go live with the next competitive season in around a week, though don't be surprised if they get delayed for a little while in order to fix any potentially massive bugs. As for the Horizon Lunar Colony changes, they are still not ready for the spotlight and as such you shouldn't expect them to arrive in the near future.
Once more information gets released I'll make sure to let you know, but until then I would recommend you head on over to the PTR in order to give all of the new changes a try for yourself, especially the Hanzo ones!