Blizzard continues to make pretty bold changes on their Overwatch PTR server.
It was announced a few days ago, when Jeff Kaplan showed up for a surprise AMA on reddit: Lucio is too boring and yet too important in his current form. Lucio's easy-to-get-value-playstyle has made him a popular pick in lower tiers of play and especially his speed aura has made him invaluable in pro play.
But Blizzard was not happy with Lucio in his current shape and is thus trying out the following changes:
- Lúcio Sonic Amplifier Projectile speed increased from 40 to 50
- Alternate fire now considers vertical orientation when knocking targets back
- Crossfade Song area of effect radius decreased from 30 meters to 10 meters (A temporary in-game visual has been added to illustrate this radius (it is only visible to Lúcio and his teammates))
- Heal song (Healing-per-second has been increased by 50% (also applies to Lúcio’s Amp It Up ability))
- Sound Barrier Radius decreased from 30 meters to 20 meters
- Wall Ride Movement speed increased by 30%
- When wall riding Lúcio now receives a burst of speed when leaping off a wall
It is clear that Blizzard wants teams to group up more to benefit from Lucio's ever-present auras. This way, teams will still benefit (and benefit more) but with the increased risk of having to stick closer together. Secondly, his wallriding has been made even more important which might not impact lower skilled players but will be another chance for the pros to shine.
The other major change added in this patch is the addition of another route from Eichenwalde's offense spawn to the capture point. The choke point under the archway is now no longer the only way for grounded heroes to make it to the capture point:
One final change that is relevant to the competitive gamemode is the addition of progress markers for payload and hybrid maps:
- A tracking system has been added to Assault and Assault/Escort Maps that will allow us to break ties based on the progress that was made toward capturing the objective.
Developer Comments: "To mitigate draws in Competitive Play, we're implementing a system that tracks each team's progress on the objective. This will work similarly to the system that's already in place for Escort and Assault/Escort maps, which grants a win to the team that pushes the payload the furthest. Now, even if neither team successfully captures the objective, a winner can be determined based on which team captured the largest portion.
Let us know what you think of these tweaks, Lucio's in particular, in the comments!
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