Overwatch screenshot of Halloween Terror cosmetic Dragon Symmetra

After spending quite a bit of time on the PTR, one of Overwatch's most anticipated updates has now finally arrived onto the live servers. It brings with it a greatly reworked Symmetra that's bound to cause a meta-shift or two, a significantly updated Horizon Lunar Colony that will hopefully be less attacker-sided, and perhaps most importantly of all, a brand new Looking For Group and Endorsement system!

If you're just looking for a quick summary and you don't mind figuring out the details on your own, you should check out the most recent trailer down below. It's a fairly short video, but it should get you up to speed quite nicely. Have a look:

For those of you that are just interested in the hero changes, however, allow me to share all of the important patch notes. Have a gander:

Doomfist

Meteor Strike

- Bonus movement speed increased from 150% to 200%

The Best Defense…

- Shield gain increased from 30 to 35 for normal abilities

Developer Comments: The increased movement speed on Meteor Strike gives Doomfist new options in how and where to deploy it. His passive is also being increased, allowing him to survive more often when diving into enemies. 

McCree 

Deadeye

- Range increased from 70 meters to 200 meters

Developer Comments: While McCree’s Deadeye rarely came into play at 70 meters, we are increasing the range so it cannot be a limiting factor during normal gameplay.

Orisa

Supercharger

- Ultimate cost reduced by 15%

Developer Comments: Supercharger wasn’t getting enough use, considering its impact. This change allows Orisa to use her ultimate more aggressively, knowing that she will be able to generate them more easily.

Symmetra 

Photon Projector 

- No longer locks onto targets

- Range increased to 10 meters

- Damage ramping now takes 2 seconds per damage level instead of 1 second

- Damage ramp increased from 30/60/120 to 60/120/180

- Now generates ammo instead of spending it when hitting a barrier

- Ammo reduced from 100 to 70

  Alternate Fire 

- No longer pierces targets

- Now explodes on contact

- Projectile speed increased

- Charge up speed increased

- Damage changed to 60 impact / 60 explosive 

Sentry Turret 

- Turret is now placed like a projectile instead of being set in place

- Can hold a max of 3, down from 6

- Can now deploy a max 3, down from 6

- Damage increased

- Amount of slowing effect increased

Teleporter 

- Can now place the exit up to 25 meters away from Symmetra

- Entrance will automatically be built in front of Symmetra, rather than at her team’s spawn point

- Lasts 10 seconds

- Health lowered to 300

- More things can teleport through it (e.g. Junkrat’s RIP-Tire)

- Entrance can be destroyed

- If either the entrance or exit is destroyed, the other is removed 

New Ultimate: Photon Barrier 

- Deploys a barrier that is big enough to span and cut through an entire map

- Orientation can be changed by pressing the ultimate button again

- Lasts 15 seconds

- Has 5000 health

Developer Comments: The goal of these changes is to move Symmetra to her new damage role and make her more flexible and viable across more areas of the game than she was previously. Now that Symmetra is no longer a support hero, she is expected to be able to dish out heavy damage, and these changes allow for her to do so. She should be more powerful and interesting in more team compositions and maps, and she should also be stronger on offense and defense. 

While I'm definitely excited to finally have a reason to bring out my Dragon Symmetra skin, my favorite part of this update is the newly added Looking For Group system. It's incredibly flawed and I don't think you can even sort groups by ping, but all of that pales in comparison to the ability to team up with like-minded players and actually have a decent round of competitive Overwatch! 

I have no idea how the system will end up looking like once the honeymoon phase is over, but so far it has managed to find me three different groups that were all more than willing to accommodate each other. We might not have won every game, and not every group functioned as well, but so far this has been a noticeable improvement over the random nonsense that happens in regular solo queue. 

So if you haven't played competitive in a while and you're curious if the new LFG system could revitalize your interest in it, now would be the perfect time to give it a try. Not only is the system still fresh so everyone is learning how it works, but the season is ending in only one day so you don't even have any rating losses to worry about. So give it a look, it really is quite fun!