Overwatch 2.88 Update Patch Notes | New communication wheel and more

The Overwatch 2.88 update patch notes don’t add in a new character in the game, but do bring something that helps teams communicate. But what is that new feature? And does it come with balance changes? This will also be quite a decently sized download (around 7 GB on PS4) so be warned. The patch notes are now correct and not just stitched together from PTR updates.

Overwatch 2.88 Update Patch Notes | Anniversary Event 2020

Overwatch 2.88 Update Patch Notes | New communication wheel and more

Yes, the Anniversary Event is finally here. You can read more about it here, but it brings forth every seasonal brawl from the past and you can earn every seasonal cosmetic in the loot boxes. There are a handful of new cosmetics as well.

Overwatch 2.88 Update Patch Notes | New communication wheel

It’s finally here. These Overwatch patch notes have finally upgraded the communication wheel for all players. Users can go into the options menu then to controls, and then customize their in-game communication wheel, which includes a whole swath of 26 voice lines. You can set a countdown, apologize, and request to retreat along with many more options that should help players coordinate better in ways other than voice chat. These are all fully voiced, too.

ALSO: Overwatch has been invaded by googly eyes

You probably can’t get everything on the wheel as there is limited space. However, it seems as though PC players should be able to have more on hotkeys (along with regular voice lines).

Overwatch 2.88 Update Patch Notes | New Workshop additions

Blizzard is continually adding new ways to interact with the Workshop. There are now nighttime versions of the island and expanse maps as well as new actions, features, and values. They’re quite extensive so you can read more about them below.

Overwatch 2.88 Update Patch Notes | Balance changes

There are only a couple of balance updates. Ashe’s zoom now counts as a full zoom halfway through the ADS animation, which presumably means her shots do more damage as her zoomed bullets are more deadly. Doomfist’s Seismic Slam can now be buffered as players can hold down that button to use that move as soon as possible. Landing on top of enemies with that move will also push them in front of Doomfist instead of behind him or at his sides. And there is now no acceleration time so he can more reliably land where he needs to.

D.Va also now has the same aiming pitch when she de-mechs. Mei’s Cryo-Freeze (where she recovers in an ice shard) now blocks line of sight and is a form of collision now. This likely means she can block attacks like a real wall. And, of course, Echo and Reinhardt’s heads are now a bit shorter so you can headshot them as easily from behind. Bastion, Mercy, Zenyatta, and Junkrat also saw small buffs while Moira got a tiny nerf and buff.

Full Overwatch 2.88 update patch notes

OVERWATCH ANNIVERSARY 2020

Overwatch turns four this year and we’re celebrating with brand new items, including new Legendary skins like Masquerade Reaper, Dragoon Mercy, Little Red Ashe, and more! Participate in the weekly anniversary Challenges for even more epic rewards, such as Carbon Fiber Sigma, Fleur de Lis Widowmaker, and Masked Man McCree. Did you miss any Overwatch festivities over the previous years? Don’t worry—you’ll be able to unlock items from past events using credits (or by opening Loot Boxes)! Relive the thrill of previous seasonal brawls in the Arcade, with a brawl of the day rotating throughout the Anniversary celebration.

Thank you so much for playing Overwatch with us over the past four years! Your continued support and enthusiasm help drive us to keep creating. We look forward to celebrating with you in-game!

GENERAL UPDATES

Feature Update: Improved Communications Wheel

Added many more communication options so you can customize your interactions in Overwatch! To help you pick your favorites, go to Options, then Controls and scroll down to the Communication Wheel section. From here, you can choose from one of 26 different options for each sector of the wheel. You can change out your choices and swap around their positions within the wheel. Now, you can still tell your team “I Need Healing,” but you can also tell them you are “On My Way” so they should “Press the Attack!”

New options are now available to customize the Communications Wheel
Shortcuts are now customizable; pick from a set of 26 different communication options
Additional keybindings are now available to support more voiceover lines
We’ve changed how communication wheel throttling works in the game. You can use up to 3 communication wheel actions in rapid succession but there is now a delay between subsequent communications (similar to how Tracer’s blink ability works in the game)

Feature Update: Patch Notes In-Client

Players are now be able to read about the latest changes to Overwatch from within the game. We wanted to players across all platforms to have convenient access to this information, and it’s now easier than ever to stay up-to-date.

Selecting the Patch Notes button on the main menu will display the patch notes in the client, and no longer requires a separate web browser
Patch Notes will show as “new” whenever a game update is available

Custom Games Updates

Existing Share Codes can now be re-uploaded with new Custom Game Settings (requires same original owner)
Skirmish can now override which Control Points are valid on Control Maps

Developer Comment: When choosing to create a share code for your Custom Game Settings, we’ve added the option to re-upload the new settings to an existing share code (assuming the owner is the same). This should make it easier for content creators to update existing modes, even if the codes have already been shared. Note: One may also re-upload settings to a code that has expired (assuming the owner is the same), and the share code will become valid again.

General

Players will now receive an in-game notice thanking them for their cheat report when their report has resulted in an action
Added buttons to Control map dropships to allow players to reset basketballs
Play of the Game – Retuned a number of scoring factors to emphasize more active participation in fights

COMPETITIVE UPDATES

Competitive Deathmatch Season 3 has begun! Now through June 10, 2020, compete in Competitive 8-player free for all Deathmatch to earn a rank and rewards.

HERO UPDATES

Ana

Biotic Rifle

Healing reduced from 75 to 70

Ashe

The Viper

(Secondary Fire) Now reaches max zoom halfway through Ashe’s aim down sights, instead of at its conclusion

Bastion

Configuration: Sentry

Spread decreased 10%
Shots until max spread reduction lowered from 60 to 40

Self-Repair

Resource drain rate increased 20%
Healing per second increased from 75 to 90

D.Va

General

Restored functionality allowing D.Va to maintain her current aim pitch when de-meching

Doomfist

Seismic Slam

Can now hold down the Ability 2 button to use Seismic Slam as soon as able (and valid, if using the aerial version)
When landing very close or on top of enemies, the enemy will be pushed in front/away from Doomfist slightly, instead of sometimes having then end up beside/behind Doomfist
Aerial Seismic Slam no longer has a slight acceleration time, which should make it arrive at the destination more reliably

Echo

General

Reduced the height of Echo’s head hit volume

Junkrat

Frag Launcher

Projectiles maintains slightly more velocity on ricochet

Concussion Mine

Projectile speed increased from 20 to 25
Ricochet distance off of enemy players greatly reduced

Total Mayhem

Bomb detonation time reduced from 1 sec to 0.7
Bombs spread increased 50%

Mei

Cryo-Freeze

Now behaves like Mei’s Ice Wall when it comes to interactions. Cryo-Freeze will block line of sight and collision in much the same way

Mercy

Caduceus Staff

Healing per second increased from 50 to 55

Moira

Biotic Orb

Damage radius reduced from 5 to 4 meters
Projectile speed increased from 16 to 20
Projectile duration reduced from 10 to 7 seconds

Reinhardt

General

Reduced the height of Reinhardt’s head hit volume, making it harder to hit him in the head from behind

Zenyatta

Orb of Discord

Damage amplification increased from 25% to 30%

WORKSHOP UPDATES

New Workshop Features

Allow strings to be stored as variables
Allow no string reevaluation in Create HUD Text, Create In-World Text, and Set Objective Description
Added Player Dealt Knockback and Player Received Knockback Events
Conditions and actions are now displayed using C-style syntax. This new syntax is used when copying to text, and both new and old syntaxes are supported when pasting from text
Nulls at the end of a String or Custom String value are no longer displayed (or required when pasting from text)
Adjusted syntax coloring for conditions and actions to make it more consistent
Relaxed type restrictions, allowing Boolean values (such as Compare) to be used where numbers are expected, and vice versa
Added support for the new communication types to related actions and values
Added nighttime versions of the Workshop Island and Workshop Expanse maps

New Workshop Actions

Break
Continue
Set Crouch Enabled
Set Melee Enabled
Set Jump Enabled
Declare Round Draw
Set Ability Cooldown
Cancel Primary Action

New Workshop Values

Is Meleeing
Is Jumping
Event Direction
Button
Event Ability
Ability Cooldown
Ability Icon String
Array
If-Then-Else

BUG FIXES

General

Fixed a bug that could allow voice lines from opposing teams to be heard at Hero Select screens on certain maps
Fixed a bug where some arcade game modes were not storing or displaying stats correctly
Custom Game Filter – Changed the custom game filter “Only Show Games with Space For Party” in 2 ways:
- The names have been changed to be more descriptive: “on” is now “room in game” and “include in queue” is now “room in lobby”. “off” is still “off”
- The filter’s default has been changed to “room in game” (previously “on”) instead of “off”
Fixed a bug that caused per-hero Friendly Outline settings to not apply properly in some cases

Maps

Busan

MEKA Base: Fixed a bug that allowed Sombra to traslocate to an unintended location near the capture point
Downtown: Fixed a bug that allowed Sombra to place her translocator in several unintended locations

Havana

Fixed a bug that prevented Genji and Hanzo from consistently being able to wall climb in several locations near point A

King’s Row

Fixed a bug that caused Orisa’s Protective Barrier to fall through the floor when deployed at a specific spot close to Point B

Heroes

Baptiste

Fixed a bug where people could stand on immortality field
Immortality Field can no longer be exploited by swapping heroes to reset the cooldown

Doomfist

Fixed a visual issue with Doomfist’s primary fire animation while in a Graviton Surge
Fixed a bug where McCree’s roll could cause Uppercut to not lift him to the correct height
Fixed a bug where hitting Sombra with Rocket Punch would not put hack on cooldown if she was using it at the time
Fixed an animation pop when doing an aerial slam at certain range
Holding secondary ability will now also trigger the ground version of Seismic Slam when it becomes valid
Fixed a bug where sometimes Seismic Slam would not trigger if Doomfist was on a slippery surface

D.Va

Fixed a bug that caused D.Va to not gain full health when spawning into her mech in Total Mayhem

Echo

Fixed a bug where some effects caused by Duplicated heroes were not always removing themselves after 3 seconds
Fixed a bug where an Amplification Matrix wouldn’t boost damage during the 3 second linger window after Duplicate ended
Fixed a bug that caused a Graviton Surge created by clone Echo to stop displaying visual effects when Duplicate ends
Fixed a bug causing Echo to be credited with a “Double Kill” on a single kill, when playing with a damage scalar > 100%
Fixed a bug where kills done by cloned heroes after Duplicate had ended were not counting towards the Duplicated Kills stat
Fixed a bug where the Hacked effect on health packs that were hacked by an Echo Duplicating a Sombra would be colored wrong after her ultimate ended
Fixed a bug where Sticky Bombs could sometimes deal damage through shields
Fixed a bug where after using Call Mech, a Duplicated D.Va would use incorrect voice lines

Genji

When Genji reflects Reinhardt’s firestrike, it will now swap team coloration from Reinhardt’s POV
Fixed a bug where Genji did not receive credit for kills done by a deflected Hanzo Dragonstrike

Mei

Fixed a bug where enemy Mei’s Icewall would appear the incorrect color in FFA modes
Fixed interactions between friendly Mei’s Cryo-Freeze and various abilities

Mercy

Fixed a bug that caused player nameplates to be invisible when Mercy’s beam target is afflicted by Ana’s Biotic Grenade and ally colorblind colors is enabled
Fixed a bug where Mercy could lose ultimate charge in custom games with a damage scalar under 100%

Torbjörn