Gamespot today published an article today where the author Mat Paget interviewed Blizzard Principal Designer Scott Mercer about Overwatch, competitive mode, and the new hero Ana! Link to full article below:
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/overwatch-to-limit-teams-to-one-of-each-character-/1100-6441726/
"The big thing for Competitive Play is we're going to turn on one-hero limit, so players will not be able to stack more than one of the same hero within a Competitive match. It's not going to affect Quick Play at all, but it is something we're going to turn on for Competitive."
Scott Mercer also also confirmed that they are planning on removing Sudden Death from competitive mode and allowing draws to occur. Specific details are not provided on how this influences the MMR system or Skill Ranking. Seems like it is still a WIP and will be around for at least Season 2 (E/N: beyond that who knows)
"We definitely want players to feel like if they had a tie, their time wasn't completely wasted," Mercer said. "So we're trying to find the sweet spot of a lot of players feel like, 'Oh, well, we got something out of it,' but at the same time not create situations where players might collude and create some nasty situations there. We're still discussing that."
New Hero: Ana Amari
Gamespot also released a video with the new hero: A support sniper named Ana Amari - Pharah's mother.
Below you will find the video hosted on youtube by Eurogamer
Ana's skills are as follows (Information taken from Blizzard's official website):
Name: Ana
Role: Support
Difficulty: 3 stars
Bio: Ana’s versatile arsenal allows her to affect heroes all over the battlefield. Her Biotic Rifle rounds and Biotic Grenades heal allies and damage or impair enemies; her sidearm tranquilizes key targets, and Nano Boost gives one of her comrades a considerable increase in power.
Weapon:
Biotic Rifle - Ana’s rifle shoots darts that can restore health to her allies or deal ongoing damage to her enemies. She can use the rifle’s scope to zoom in on targets and make highly accurate shots.
Special Abilities:
Sleep Dart - Ana fires a dart from her sidearm, rendering an enemy unconscious (though any damage will rouse them).
Biotic Grenade: Ana tosses a biotic bomb that deals damage to enemies and heals allies in a small area of effect. Affected allies briefly receive increased healing from all sources, while enemies caught in the blast cannot be healed for a few moments.
Ultimate:
Nano Boost: After Ana hits one of her allies with a combat boost, they temporarily move faster, deal more damage, and take less damage from enemies’ attacks.
Patch Notes! Buffs, nerfs and more!
GENERAL UPDATES
Gameplay
- If a match goes into Overtime for more than 20 seconds, the fuse will now start to "burn down" more quickly
- Players now respawn more slowly during Overtime (increased spawn time by 2 seconds)
Competitive Play
- Competitive Play matches can now only have one of each hero per team For more info, click here.
Miscellaneous
- Added Ana as an AI-controlled hero in Practice vs. AI, Play vs. AI, and Custom Game modes
- Timing on Zenyatta's Rapid Discord achievement is more lenient
- Targeted teammates now respond by saying "I'm with you," when players use the “Group Up” communication
- Renamed five sprays to avoid duplicate titles
HERO BALANCE UPDATES
General
- Self-healing abilities now charge ultimate abilities. As a result, some heroes’ ultimate costs have been adjusted (see below).
Bastion
- Configuration: Tank
- Ultimate cost increased by 10%
D.Va
Defense Matrix
- Cooldown decreased from 10 seconds to 1 second
- A new resource meter has been added. This meter will deplete while Defense Matrix is active and then recharge when it’s not in use.
- Defense Matrix takes 10 seconds to reach full charge from empty
- At a full charge, Defense Matrix will last for 4 seconds
- Defense Matrix will now remain active as long as its assigned hotkey is held
- Defense Matrix has been reclassified as an alternate fire and is now bound to RMB (by default)
- An option to “Toggle Defense Matrix” has been added under Options > Controls > D.Va
Self-Destruct
- Ultimate cost decreased by 15%
- Explosion delay reduced from 4 seconds to 3 seconds
- Explosion no longer damages D.Va (the player who activates it)
Developer Notes: D.Va isn't being selected as often as our other tanks, and we feel a lot of that stems from the underperformance of her damage absorption abilities. So, we've reconfigured her Defensive Matrix, making it more flexible and giving players the ability to use it more often. We’ve also given Self-Destruct a little more oomph, because it felt slightly underwhelming when compared to many of Overwatch's other ultimate abilities.
Lucio
Sound Barrier
- Ultimate cost increased by 10%
McCree
Peacekeeper
- Now maintains full damage at longer distances, but will deal less damage at extreme ranges
Developer Notes: While the game does feel better following the nerf to McCree’s close-range damage in a previous patch, it left him a little too weak. So, we're increasing his effective distance, making his range similar to Soldier: 76’s. This should hopefully give players another option for dealing with pesky long-range damage dealing heroes like Pharah and Hanzo.
Mercy
Caduceus Staff
- Damage Boost
- Bonus damage increased from 30% to 50%
- Effect will no longer stacks with bonus damage provided by another Mercy
Resurrect
- Ultimate charge cost increased by 30%
- Movement is no longer prevented during activation
- Guardian Angel instantly resets upon use
Developer Notes: Mercy's ultimate is one of the most powerful abilities in the game; however, players would often fly into the fray and die while using it. With this update, Resurrect will now take a bit longer to charge, but Mercy will be a lot safer when activating the ability in the middle of combat. In addition, we always intended Mercy’s Damage Boost beam to be her primary method for dealing damage, but it often felt so weak that you were better off pulling out your blaster. To help address this, we've slightly increased its potency.
Roadhog
Whole Hog
- Ultimate cost increased by 45%
Soldier: 76
Heavy Pulse Rifle
- Spread recovery will begin after a short delay (rather than instantly)
Tactical Visor
- Ultimate cost increased by 10%
Zenyatta
- Base shields increased by 50 (now 50 Health/150 Shield)
Orb of Discord and Orb of Harmony
- Projectile speed has been increased from 30 to 120
Transcendence
- Movement speed is now doubled upon activation
- Healing amount increased from 200 to 300 health per second
Developer Notes: While Zenyatta has never had the healing abilities of Lúcio or Mercy, he made up for it by dealing more damage. However, his lack of mobility and low health has meant he’s struggled to find a place in many games. To increase his effectiveness, we've made several changes, the biggest of which is an increased shield pool. This will allow him to go head-to-head with more enemies. The Orb of Harmony and Discord changes are also a quality of life change, helping Zenyatta move his orbs around and apply their effects more quickly. And lastly, we’ve increased Transcendence’s healing throughput. This ultimate was designed to be the most effective against sustained, high-damage fire and least effective against short, high-damage bursts (like D.Va’s or Junkrat's ultimates). But, due to the amount of healing it provided, there were times when it was possible for even sustained fire to overcome Transcendence’s output. We’ve made the heal powerful and also allowed Zenyatta to move around more quickly while it’s active.
Additional Patch notes for UI and Gameplay such as bugfixes can be read here
All changes playable on the PTR sometime on July 12th 2016
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