Overwatch: Patch 1.16 / 2.19 – Ultimates now work differently!

The patch 1.16 / 2.19 for Overwatch not only brought Halloween but also changes to the Ultimates. Here are the details.

Since last night (10.10.2017), patch 1.16 (PC) and 2.19 (PS4, Xbox One) is live in Overwatch. With the start of this year’s Overwatch Halloween Terror, one might well have overlooked that the patch also brought some changes to the game mechanics and characters.

The most important changes have been made to the Ultimates. As soon as the button for the Ultimate is activated, the entire Ultimate charge is immediately gone. Previously, it emptied over a period of about half a second. This allowed a character to retain some charge from the Ultimate if they died or were interrupted during activation. This is no longer possible.

In general, there are three types of Ultimates.

• Transformation Ultimates (Bastion, Genji, Mercy, etc.): These grant the hero passive benefits. These Ultimates cannot be interrupted (except by the character’s death).
• Channelled Ultimates (McCree, Pharah, Reaper, etc.): These abilities are channeled and are interrupted if the character is stunned during their effect.
• Ultimates with Delay (Ana, Hanzo, Reinhardt, etc.): These Ultimates require a moment before the effect takes place. If the character is interrupted during this “duration”, the Ultimate is lost.

You can read the full patch notes from here.

Overwatch Patchnotes 1.16 / 2.19 (Halloween 2017 Update)

General Updates

Updates to the Halloween Horror victory poses in Overwatch

• Changes have been made to this year’s selection of seasonal victory poses. You can find more information about these changes in this article.

Hero Updates

General

• The charge of ultimate abilities is now immediately consumed upon activation, rather than being depleted over a short period.

D.Va

• Boosters
  • The option to manually hold D.Va’s boosters instead of toggling them has been added under Options > Controls > D.Va.

Genji

• Dragonblade
  • No longer interrupted when Genji is stunned or hacked.

Orisa

• Supercharger
  • Can now be interrupted if Orisa is stunned or hacked.

Sombra

• Hack
  • Now interrupts the following ultimate abilities: Ana’s Nanoboost, Orisa’s Supercharger, Mei’s Blizzard, Reinhardt’s Earthshatter, and D.Va’s Call Mech.

Changes to the User Interface

Assault Maps

• When capturing a point, the progress bar is now divided into three segments that fill with the color of the team capturing it (filling each segment triggers an animation and a sound).
• The number of defenders currently on the objective is now displayed in addition to the number of attackers directly beneath the progress bar.

Fixed Bugs

General

• A bug has been fixed that allowed muted players to bypass the mute by leaving and rejoining the same match.

AI

• A bug has been fixed that caused bots to get stuck in a movement loop after crossing the tunnel under the objective in the university area of Oasis.

Competitive Matches

• A bug has been fixed that caused matches to end in a draw if both teams won their first attack round on Hanamura, Horizon Lunar Colony, Temple of Anubis, or Volskaya Industries in overtime.

Custom Games and Game Browser

• A bug has been fixed that caused the setting to modify capture speed in custom games not to be applied.
• A bug has been fixed that caused D.Va’s projectile speed sliders not to appear in the custom game settings.

Heroes

• A bug has been fixed that caused D.Va’s Micro Missiles to not produce haptic feedback when using a controller with vibration enabled.
• A bug has been fixed that caused Lucio’s soccer ball to fly the wrong direction when his juggling emote was activated at 30FPS.
• A bug has been fixed that caused Mercy to continue moving forward after Guardian Angel was finished.
• A bug has been fixed that caused heroes to be resurrected as another hero after being revived by Mercy.
• A bug has been fixed that caused Roadhog’s chest to sink when his Exhausted emote was activated while the Mako or Sharkbait skin was equipped.
• A bug has been fixed that caused Symmetra’s teammates not to hear the sound effects of their turrets.
• A bug has been fixed that caused the animation when drawing Torbjörn’s weapon not to play after placing a turret was canceled.

Maps

• A bug has been fixed that caused some heroes to get stuck behind a barrel near the objective on Junkertown.
• A bug has been fixed that caused a dark field to appear on King’s Row when looking at the Robot City for too long.
• A bug has been fixed that allowed Sombra to access unintended locations on Volskaya Industries.
• A bug has been fixed that caused the overtime progress not to restart on Ilios, Lijiang Tower, Nepal, and Oasis when the point changed control after both teams’ progress bars reached 99%.

User Interface

• A bug has been fixed that caused Widowmaker’s sniper mode UI to appear when she was selected in spectator mode.

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Have you seen the cool new skins from the Halloween event?