Countdown | Time Zone Converter | Current Patch (Feb. 27th)

We'll also be compiling the best pieces of advice onto a page in our wiki, so users can reference this advice anytime they need it.

If there's not a degree of embarrassment involved in this Sombra buff, it's all been for naught.

Official Forum Post

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HERO UPDATES

Doomfist

• Hand Cannon
  • Ammo recovery rate increased from 0.8 seconds to 0.65 seconds per bullet

Developer Comments: This change will help Doomfist more consistently be able to use his weapon as part of his combos.

Mei

• Endothermic Blaster
  • Freeze (slow) duration increased from 1 second to 1.5 seconds
  • Weapon alternate fire ammo cost reduced from 25 to 20

Developer Comment: Increasing Mei's slow duration helps her freeze targets that are particularly elusive such as Genji or Lúcio. Lowering her alternate fire ammo cost allows her to more safely use it without costing her the ability to freeze enemies.

Sombra

• EMP
  • No longer blocked by small objects (e.g. sign posts)
• Hack
  • No longer gains ultimate charge from health pack healing
  • Cast time reduced from 0.8 seconds to 0.65 seconds
  • Now disables the following abilities:
    • Genji—Cyber-agility
    • Hanzo—Wall Climb
    • Pharah—Hover Jets
    • Lúcio—Healing Boost and Speed Boost (turns off current song entirely), Wall Ride
    • Mercy—Angelic Descent
• Machine Pistol
  • Machine Pistol spread reduced from 3 to 2.7
• Opportunist
  • Enemy health bars are now visible when health drops below 100% (formerly 50%)
    • Her ability to detect enemies through walls at 50% or less remains unchanged
• Translocator
  • Duration increased from 15 seconds to 20 seconds

Developer Comment: The goal of these changes for Sombra is to remove the necessity for her teammates to take damage and heal themselves with her hacked heath packs to try to get her ultimate charged up quickly. Her ultimate will now come up less often, but there are more abilities that are disabled by Hack so it is more effective when used. Previously, Opportunist would only activate when an enemy's health bar dipped below 50% but now the passive will reveal all damaged enemies which should help Sombra identify targets in her line of sight to pick off. Overall these changes should make her more effective and less reliant on her ultimate.

MAP UPDATES

Blizzard World

• Some health pack sizes have been reduced
• Some health pack locations have been changed
• Additional health packs have been added

Developer Comments: Health packs are a valuable resource in Overwatch and positioning around them is key to holding ground on defense or keeping up momentum on offense. We have moved the location of some health packs and included additional ones to improve game play on Blizzard World.

USER INTERFACE UPDATES

Mercy

• Valkyrie
  • No longer shows enemies' health bars unless they have taken damage

Developer Comment: This helps remove some clutter from Mercy players' screens when they use her ultimate

BUG FIXES

General

• Fixed a bug that prevented Capture the Flag statistics from displaying on the Career Profile if the match was played on Ayuttheya in the Arcade

Maps

• Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented announcement voice lines from triggering on Blizzard World

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Size: ~527 MB

https://twitter.com/westofhouse/status/968560854248570880

He just tweeted this.

Obviously a long-shot and wild speculation, but if Brigitte is the new hero, then Kari is a very likely VA for her seeing as she's Swedish and has worked with Blizzard before.

Tracer recalling back into her Pulsebomb.

Reinhardt charging himself over the edge of the map

Genji trying to deflect Winston's cannon.

Widowmaker missing her target 10 times before getting snipped by Ana

All while a funny and happy accordion song plays in the background

So You Want to Learn To Main Tank? A Super Comprehensive Guide on Main Tank Roles and Responsibilities

Overview:

In Overwatch there is a class of heroes that is often time overlooked for the flashier dps class; Tanks. Like any other role in OW, it is difficult to win a game without this role on your team. Even some high profile OWL players and coachesconsider tank to be the real "carry role" on any particular team. The reason that this class of characters is often underestimated is because unlike the dps that get skulls on their screen and a nice sound to reinforce the fact that they are doing a good job, there is little feedback when a tank is doing their job. It is unlikely that your teammates will even notice that you are actually the reason that teamfights are going your way.

So the big question is, what IS a tanks job? Today I'm going to be focusing primarily on the main tank role because I feel that there are a lot of misconceptions about what a main tank is, what their job is on the team, what they are notsupposed to be focusing on, and how to build a proper team comp as a main tank player. This guide will focus more on introduction to main tanking and general concepts and less on tank specific guides and strategies.

Heroes:

The main tank role is held by three heroes; Reinhardt, Orisa, and Winston. There is a big misconception that is held by some members of the community that Winston is not a main tank because of his weaker barrier; this is completely incorrect. So what is a main tank?

A main tank is a hero who's combination of large healthpool, armor, and abilities allow them in initiate the team fight, create space for the dps players on the team, and draw aggression from the enemy while staying alive themselves.

So let's break down these roles individually by hero and see how their abilities and characteristics allow them to open up the team fight and make way for the DPS to do their job.

A quick side note on armor. Armor is a type of health denoted as yellow on your health bar. All main tanks have a portion of their health as armor. Armor reduces the amount of damage taken by the hero.

"Armor will block 5 HP damage from every individual hit that deals 10 HP damage or more. Hits that deal less than 10 HP damage will be halved their damage instead."-from Overatchwiki

This makes armor particularly effective against weapons that contain many pellets such as tracer bullets but weak to burst damage.

Not Your Jobs:

Your job is not to go chasing kills or dealing with backline threats (that is a job for your off tank). Your job is not primarily to be fragging out or looking to "carry". You are not just a beefier dps.

Jobs:

The main tank's job is to act as the spearhead of the engagement. You are the frontline of your team and act as the initiator to each team fight. Your main responsibilities are to move forward and create space for your team to work with through a combination of barriers and abilities, draw the enemy fire to yourself instead of the squishy teammates, and do damage on the frontline of your team. Your job is to be the frontline of your team that the enemy has to get through in order to get to your squishies.

Reinhardt:

Sporting a huge health pool consisting of 200 armor and 300 health, Reinhardt epitomizes what a main tank is supposed to be. His abilities are all built around what a main tank's job is and, if used properly, can enable the rest of your teammates to do their job.

Reinhardt's main ability that he is known for is his barrier. It can take an absolutely huge 2000 damage without breaking (that is the equivalent of 10 squishies worth of damage). This is his main ability as a main tank when used appropriately and will allow for your team to do their job. So how does a Reinhardt use his shield most effectively? Hold up that shield and move forward!

Well that's the basics of it anyway. Too many new Reinhardts are afraid to walk into the fight, instead opting to stand at the choke and wait for the dps to get the first pick. It can be intimidating, but it is important that you put up that shield and walk forward. Your DPS players will thank you for giving them enough room to safely walk through the choke and get some angles on the enemy team. One thing to keep in mind is that you want to make sure that barrier is at full charge before walking in. Step off to the side for a moment, let it charge up, and then let your teammates know that you are going in and then hold W!

But you might say, "Hey I try and do that and I just get melted very fast!" Though it may seem counterintuitive, sometimes your job is going to just be to soak up 2000 barrier damage, 300 hp damage, and 200 armor damage (not to mentionany healing your received) and die. But during that whole time that the enemy were doing that, you drew all the agro to yourself and allowed your dps to do their jobs more safely. Sometimes it won't work, and that's fine just reset and try again.

Reinhardt also has his shift ability; Charge. Too many Reinhardt players overuse this ability and get separated and die in a 1v6 situation. That is not the purpose of charge! Charge is a very aggressive initiation tool and should be used in specific circumstances.

Your team is ready to follow up very quickly with things like zarya bubble, lucio speed boost, or ana nade as some examples

You are doing a short charge to get an easy pin. Think hanamura first point on attack. Charging the main tank or squishy into the rock is a very powerful play

Other niche situations where you won't put yourself out of position

In the words of a top 500 tank main and OWL player xQc, "Tanks can't always do a lot, but they a can always say a lot" Stay active in the comms, let your teammates know when you are engaging or backing up, let them know your barrier health, and if comms are quiet try and call targets to focus on!

Orisa:

Orisa is the newest addition to the main tank line up. She has proven herself to be a powerful main tank in all levels of play, especially after her recent buffs to barrier size and projectile speed. She has a slightly smaller health pool than Reinhardt, but makes up for it with a whopping 200 armor and 200 HP.

Her main ability as a main tank is her deployable barrier. Unlike Reinhardt's mobile barrier, Orisa uses a barrier that can be deployed every 8 seconds (faster if you launch it upwards). The pros to this barrier is that although Orisa can have these barriers up very often, once put down they are stuck there. Ive seen many Orisa players plop down their barrier right at the choke over and over again and never initiating the fight. Orisa players must toss the shield forward to where you want tomove! By tossing it a few meters forward past the choke, it allows your team to more safely progress forward knowing that the incoming fire will be blocked. Keep in mind that enemies can walk through the barrier so make sure to use your primary fire and halt to keep them behind the barrier!

"Advancing barriers" Keep this concept in your head when playing orisa and you will see the amount of work that your dps can do increase significantly! Keep tossing those shields forward, not in the same spot by your feet. Take away real-estate from the enemy, back them up over and over again with those aggressive advancing barriers! Remember, Orisa's barrier is not just for you! Think of putting it down in places where you can make the most room for your dps to do work. I see some Orisa's in the back line dropping barriers for themselves! That is not what a main tank's job is!

Her second "main tank" ability is her fortify. Fortify allows orisa to take an insane amount of damage by halving the incoming damage taken by her. This ability allows orisa to tank a huge amount of damage while moving forward and plopping down her shield when it runs out. This can create a very large amount of space for your team to work with. A small tip is to use this fortify while you still have almost full health to take advantage of the reduced damage that armor provides as well as the half damage! Do not use this ability lightly. Knowing when to use it is the mark of a good orisa and can make the difference in a team fight!

Winston:

Winston is a misunderstood main tank. Most people know him for his place in a dive comp but don't really know why he belongs there or what his job is supposed to be. I've even heard people say that they don't think Winston is a main tankbecause his barrier is weaker than the others! This couldn't be further from the truth!

Winston has 400 HP and 100 armor making him the squishiest of the main tanks. His barrier is also the weakest with a very large cooldown. So why ever use Winston as the main tank? Winston has a huge advantage over the other 2 tanks to make up for his weaknesses; mobility. Winston is at his strongest on maps with verticality, allowing for Winston to use his superior mobility to gain an advantage. But how do you use Winston as a main tank? Winston is the king of initiation with his jump pack ability. He doesn't make space like Reinhardt does by pushing the front line, his barrier is too weak to take even a few seconds of fire from the enemy team. Instead, Winston engages by jumping to the backline of the enemy team. By jumping towards the back Winston draws a large amount of agro from the enemy. They are forced to move back or lose their back line to the Winston. In that moment, Winston has created a space that the other heroes on his team can use.

Winston is best used with other mobile heroes that can also attack the backline such as Dva, tracer, and Genji. His protective barrier isn't very strong but it is enough for the mobile DPS to finish off the target that you initiated on. Winston is a much larger target and will draw from fire from the enemy DPS, allowing your squishier heroes to do some work.

Although Winston can be used with DPS with no mobility, he is definitely not as strong and has a harder time securing kills on his own. But his presence in the back line usually is enough of a distraction to pull the enemy away from theirfrontline, giving the DPS the space they need to do their job!

Tank Comps:

Each team will require a main tank. Choosing a main tank is not as simple as it may seem. You need to take into consideration the map you are playing on, the dps and supports that you have on your team, your off tank, and the enemy teamcomposition when choosing the main tank that will be best for the match.

Maps:

Certain tanks are better at certain maps. Some tanks might even be good at some portions of a map, but bad at other portions (think Winston on second point of route 66 but switching to rein for the more close quarters third point) so having a good grasp of the three main tanks is going to be very useful.

Maps with a lot of verticality such as Gibraltar and Nunbani are the domain of Winston. He dominates high ground and can get to places that the other main tanks cannot. If you are seeing that there are enemies on high ground that your off tank cannot get to, consider switching to Winston as he can jump up there and wither kill or bully them off.

Maps that are more tight quarters and have chokes are the domain of Reinhardt. He excels at pushing through chokes (his barrier is usually the size of the choke) and allowing his teammates to get through safely. His abilities charge, fire strike, and earth shatter are particularly strong in close quarters engagements.

Maps with strong defensive positions, payloads, and environmental hazards are the domain of Orisa. She excels at holding an area and anchoring her team safely. She can deny a lot of space through the use of her primary fire and halt. She is also very effective on payload maps where she can keep her shield up pretty much indefinitely.

DPS:

Also take into consideration the DPS that you will be playing with. If your dps are immobile or of limited mobility, consider choosing Reinhardt or Orisa. You would not want to choose Reinhardt if your dps is genji, tracer, or phara, since most of the time they will not take advantage of your barrier at all. Instead, Winston might make a good choice to pair up with those mobile heroes. Take note of how many people your barriers will actually be useful for before you choose your tank.

Supports:

Moira and lucio are fantastic choices when going with a death ball strategy with Reinhardt or Orisa. They can keep your team alive so long as you are grouped together behind your barrier. Winston might not be a good choice here since moiracannot easily join you in the backline without using her escape ability.

Zenyatta makes a fantastic choice for Winston as his Harmony orb can help sustain you in the back line and his discord orb can make winston's job a lot easier by securing kills faster

Mercy is great with pretty much any comp and is probably the most flexible healer for any tank line up.

Ana, she is best used with Reinhardt and Orisa. Her aim dependent healing and LOS requirements make it difficult for Winston to get healed outside of very good Ana player.

Tank Buddy:

Most main tank off tank combinations work but some are better and some are worse. I'm going to break down my favorites and least favorites and why

Best:

Reinhardt Zarya: A very powerful classic tank combination. Reinhardt allows zarya to maintain very high charge and zarya can keep even the most reckless reinhardts safe with her projected barrier. Reinhardt also can do massive amounts of damage swinginginto Gravitons.

Reinhardt Dva: Also very strong. Reinhardt is a powerful frontline presence but cannot help the backline or reach high ground easily. Dva makes up for his weaknesses.

Orisa Hog: A new classic that was popularized by OWL. The combination of halt and hook makes this tank pair a match made in heaven

Winston Dva: Another classic from the dive meta. These two mobile tanks are very scary together and can easily delete any squishy from the game.

Worst:

Orisa Zarya- Zarya will pretty much not be getting charge from her Orisa partner and their abilities don't really have much synergy

Winston Zarya- Although Winston could use the bubble, Zarya's lack of mobility makes it difficult for her to follow up on anything that Winston can do.

Winston Hog- Not the worst pair but their styles and abilities do not really match up well with each other and have almost no synergy.

Conclusion:

Hopefully this guide to main tanking has given you a bit of newfound understanding of what your hard to define role is as a main tank. Most of this just comes from experience so hopefully you guys got something out of it. If there is anything you guys would like to add just let me know or if you have any questions just comment of message me for some advice! Thanks for reading!

Whenever she destroys torb turret or kill rein/torb she should have a voice line "The future is now,old man"

Bridget, Brigette, Bridgiti, Bridgette, Bridgitti, Birdgitte, Bridgette, Birdgitti, Birgitte. Just to name a few versions of Brigitte I've seen around.

Am I assuming too much for Hero 27 to happen today? Or at least a reveal/cinematic? Comon Jeff, don't honeydick me...

update: https://twitter.com/PlayOverwatch?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Update: It's the 27th still, inbox is full, comments are great, and I'm loving the amount of upvotes. I've never had so many, so thank you all. Let's all agree to come together in our dreams tonight to push for the reveal/cinematic of hero 27 tomorrow, night all!

https://playoverwatch.com/pt-br/blog/21574699

Check out this blog post from the brazilian website. Now select the image from the first teaser, the report from Ana, as if you were gonna download the image (or just download on PC). Check the name. Image following

Blizz hired cosplayers for the announcements of Doomfist and Moira. Announcing 27 this way would be a good way to bait people into tuning in to the OWL matches. The team has been doing everything they can to push OWL viewership, and this would be a great way to do it.

EDIT: If they do this I hope Jeff comes on air. Seeing him interact with the casters would be awesome.

https://imgur.com/lEE6HfB Finally. Perfect harmony.

Sorry all, no Jet-pack Cat, just an adorable emote. If I'm wrong, I'll ^{eatmysandwhich.}

Edit: New image has a cattail and thruster on image in background!!!! Check out @PlayOverwatch's Tweet: https://twitter.com/PlayOverwatch/status/968539031070851072?s=09

So with this new image, we may in fact get jet-pack cat. That said, I still wonder if it'll still only be an emote. Trying to think how the cat would actually fit into gameplay. We'll see!!!

HERE YOU CAN GET RID OF ALL YOUR ANGER AND HATE.

CAPS ON AND LET IT ALL OUT.

JUST GET YOUR THIRD LUCIO PLAYER ICON DUPLICATE? GETTING PERMANENTLY KILLED BY THE MOST OP CHARACTER IN THE GAME? THERE'S TOO MUCH JUSTICE THAT RAINS FROM ABOVE? THIS IS THE RIGHT THREAD!

PLEASE STILL BE CIVIL, AT LEAST A LITTLE!

Wouldn't it be cool if Overwatch saved your best moments and put them into a small montage at the end of the season? I got this idea from Mario Kart 8, where you have the option to see a highlight reel after every game. Please tell me what you think! (Sorry if my english is bad, english isn't my native language but I hope you can understand anyways)

I'm sure this won't be seen, fully read, or will be downvoted to Oblivion for the mention of Sym main, but I just want to get this off my chest...

As someone with a disability that messes with the functionality of their hands, the existence of a character like Sym has been wonderful; it has allowed me to be able to enjoy playing a fps again. This is because her gun allows me to play her at a consistent level (diamond - not great, but I'm working on it) without having my gameplay greatly impacted by hand spasms or pain levels. I can, and do, play other characters when my hands cooperate, but rarely in competitive mode, since a spazzy episode can easily send my play level to the spastic silver aiming level.

So, while I'm excited about Sym getting a rework... I'm also fearful. Since so many people rage about her atypical playstyle, I'm worried they are going to strip away the features of her kit that make her such an accessible hero to play.

Please, Developer Gods, have mercy...

Before completely reworking everything about her, maybe consider some small changes first? Give having an 8 second cool down or a 2 meter spawn point for her barrier a try.

Experiment with a shorter slowdown for placing buildables to help her mobility on attack.

Try out having her turrets refunded upon destruction.

See what happens if you make her ult capable on being placed on a slight incline, stairs, or a spot of flat ground that happens to have a pebble on it. A huge part of her ult's benefit is being able to last, which is extremely difficult in upper levels because of the age of the game. With limited useful placement options, games of tp/sg hide and seek are ridiculously short; adding new options can return her ult's usefulness as an enemy distraction.

Maybe even give her an ability attached to the secondary weapon key that lets her place a single healing turret that lasts for 10 seconds.

Would these changes work? Who knows (but if it did, it would probably be a lot cheaper than a full redesign). But, whatever you do... please, please, please don't strip away her accessibility.

Shameless begging complete. My apologies for any typos, and excessive commas and parentheses (I had a lot of them lying about, so I had to use them before they expired). :-)

I know they won't apply to transformation ults, but considering you never get shutdown credit for killing, say, Tracer/Mei before/during their throw, it's a moot point (though should be updated). With channeled ults especially, you should at least get a 50 25 fire "Ultimate Interrupt" credit for stunning them.

https://i.imgur.com/yZPWCzj.jpg

This will restore you

This is my first ever reddit post so I apologize for mistakes but I've been refreshing this subreddit to see if anyone else saw this tweet before it quickly got deleted and haven't seen any posts yet. It looks like they were attempting to post what the PlayOverwatch twitter posted earlier because they corrected it with this tweet.

https://twitter.com/jpPlayOverwatch/status/968317717450194944

edit: link to screencap of deleted tweet in question https://imgur.com/a/TJ040

https://snag.gy/FRHsBI.jpg Happened somewhere 20 minutes ago

And then the employee said confusion was most likely twitch's fault https://snag.gy/HA7uF9.jpg

Decided to post since a lot of people were confused by this

I am a lucio main, who is still a bit op in this mode, so I'm definitely biased, but I think it's incredibly obvious the potential ctf has. The gamemode punishes feeding incredibly hard, it forces teams to swap between attacking and defending at a moments notice. It causes tons of edge of your seat plays each game. The gamemode teaches people to play as a six and coordinate in a much better way than traditional comp does. The gamemode is largely devoid of throwers and there are less otp's in a mode where swapping has to happen so quickly to counter the enemy. I think comp ctf should be either incorperated into the comp playlist, or left on as a standalone comp mode. I think it's a great option for people looking for a more team oriented experience than traditional comp.

What do you think? Agree? Disagree?

Edit: Wow this blew up. Definitely a lot of different opinions on the topic! To those who disagree with me I encourage you to check out some of the higher elo streamers playing the gamemode. The games are incredibly high octane and I think they really showcase the potential of the mode!

I feel like most of them are really expressive and would make some pretty awesome portraits. Would probably work as a great way to promote them. I need 'em Lucio shades !

I've played with someone who immediately said GG in the chat whenever the ennemy captured the flag, and it really felt like he was giving up. But I've played a couple of games where we were at 2-0 and yet we still managed to catch up. I know CTF games are often 3-0 or 0-3, but it doesn't mean you have to leave/abandon whenever the ennemy captures.