Today marks the official release of Overwatch's newest map, Junkertown. The Australian Escort map has been available to play in the PTR since it was first revealed at Gamescom, Cologne last month.

The PTR has also been playing host to a handful of balance changes that seem likely to have a big impact on Overwatch esports. D.Va finds her much-maligned Defense Matrix nerfed significantly, but makes gains to her offensive capabilities with the addition of Micro Missiles and the ability to attack while using her boosters.

However, it may be another leading lady who will steal the show this time around. A bold reworking of Mercy's skill set now gives her the ability to resurrect a team mate every 30 seconds and adds the Valkyrie ultimate which gives her a free resurrect, allows her to fly and amplifies all her abilities for its duration.

Neither Mercy nor D.Va will be able to sneak up on Reinhardt, who can now rotate the camera whilst holding his shield up. The first competitive match on the patch is happening right now in Finland as ENCE eSports take on FC Lahti Menace live on twitch.tv/rogtournament. Check out the patch notes reproduced in full 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

BUG FIXES

General

  • Fixed a bug that caused Custom Reticles to appear transparent and ignore opacity settings when their thickness was set to 1
  • Fixed a bug that caused Control matches to be played in a best-of-five format when creating a custom game using the Competitive preset
  • Fixed a bug that prevented players from requesting a highlight while viewing a killcam after being killed
  • Fixed a bug that prevented voice lines from playing after players received five votes on a commendation card at the end of a match
  • Fixed an issue that prevented players from automatically joining Match Chat, even when the option was enabled
  • Fixed a bug that prevented players from receiving the Perfect Round indicator after an Elimination game if they received a temporary health boost from an ability (e.g. Lúcio’s Sound Barrier)
  • Fixed a bug that caused the “Aim Ease In” setting to affect controller input too aggressively when the thumbstick was deflected diagonally

Deathmatch

  • Fixed an issue that prevented the entire Team Deathmatch description from being displayed in the info section
  • Fixed a bug that occasionally caused the incorrect announcer VO to play in highlights captured during Deathmatch games
  • Fixed a bug that allowed Junkrat to destroy his own Steel Traps with Concussion Mines

Heroes

  • Fixed a bug that occasionally caused the heroes’ “sigh” voice line to play when respawning
  • Fixed a bug that interrupted the animation on Ana’s eye during the Beach Ball emote with her Captain Amari skin equipped
  • Fixed a bug that prevented Doomfist from being knocked back when his Rocket Punch ability was being used
  • Fixed a bug that allowed Doomfist’s Rocket Punch to hit players through the taxi on King’s Row
  • Fixed a bug that caused a pair of pink fuzzy dice to mysteriously float onto the screen when viewing D.Va’s weapon in the Hero Gallery if her Cruiser skin was equipped
  • Fixed an issue that caused the golden tint of Junkrat’s weapon to appear dull when his Firework skin was equipped
  • Fixed a bug that gave Junkrat’s RIP-Tire a speed boost when players wall jumped on ledges
  • Fixed a bug that occasionally caused Mei’s Ice Wall to launch players into the air
  • Fixed a bug that caused Mei’s Ultimate to appear friendly (it failed to change from blue to red) after being reflected by Genji
  • Fixed a bug that prevented Roadhog’s Chain Hook icon from being displayed in the kill feed when it caused an environmental kill
  • Fixed a bug that caused Symmetra’s Photon Barrier to indicate a 10-second cooldown when the red “cannot use” icon was active
  • Using D.Va's melee attack no longer cancels Micro Missile barrage
  • D.Va's Micro Missiles are now interrupted by stuns, knockbacks, and other crowd-control effects
  • Mercy’s Resurrect is no longer blocked by Steel Trap or Graviton Surge
  • Mercy is no longer able to use Valkyrie to escape Graviton Surge and Steel Traps

Maps

  • Fixed a bug on Ecopoint: Antarctica that could cause a crate to block your view of heroes during the winning team lineup
  • Fixed a bug that allowed Reaper to reach unintended locations on Castillo
  • Fixed a bug that allowed some heroes to reach unintended locations on Horizon Lunar Colony
  • Fixed a bug that prevented reflections from appearing on weapons while standing in certain areas on Ilios
  • Fixed a bug that caused jump pads to bounce players higher than intended on Oasis
  • Fixed a lighting issue that caused some items on the last point of Route 66 to take on a pinkish hue when players used low video settings
  • Fixed an issue that caused reflections to appear overly dark while players were standing in areas of the Cave Inn on Route 66
  • Fixed an issue that caused excessive camera zoom and flashing lights when players loaded into the tutorial map
  • Fixed a bug that prevented plated railings from being properly destroyed by weapons fire on Volskaya Industries
  • Fixed a bug that allowed players to reach unintended locations on Watchpoint: Gibraltar

User Interface

  • Removed the “Healing Prevented” statistic from Ana’s career profile page
  • Fixed a bug that caused Doomfist’s Rocket Punch UI to occasionally remain visible when respawning
  • Fixed a bug that prevented Doomfist’s Seismic Slam from accurately targeting moving objects, causing Doomfist to land in unintended locations