Huge Overwatch Update Now Live With New Map And Mercy, D.Va Revamps

As a new piece of content, the headlining feature of today's Overwatch update may be the Junkertown map, but more meaningful are the balance changes the patch makes. Among other things, these include the overhauls for both D.Va and Mercy, both of whom now play much differently.

The changes to those two characters don't come out of nowhere; they were first announced in August and have been live on the Public Test Realm for the last few weeks. But they are significant: D.Va gains a new ability called Micro Missiles, which allows her to send a barrage of rockets and can be activated even when firing her weapons or using another ability. Similarly, Fusion Cannons can now be fired while flying. Defense Matrix sees a nerf, as its resource depletes twice as quickly, although regeneration increases to 12.5% per second (up from 10%).

"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)," Blizzard explained in the patch notes. "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 sees even more significant changes, as she gains an entirely new Ultimate in place of Resurrect. The new one, Valkyrie, "unleashes the full power of Mercy's Valkyrie suit" by buffing her weapon and each of her abilities in different ways; among these, she gains the ability to fly freely with Hover. Resurrect goes from being an Ultimate to a standard ability, and it can only target a single deceased ally, rather than all teammates near her.

"While resurrecting downed allies is a core part of Mercy's gameplay, the way her Ultimate functioned was causing a number of problems," Blizzard said. "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."

While nowhere near as significant as the changes to either of those two, Reinhardt has also been tweaked in this expansion. When his shield is up, you can press the primary fire button to rotate the camera, allowing you to better check out your surroundings.

As noted above, this patch also introduces Junkertown, and it makes some other improvements and tweaks. The update is out now for all players on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.