Get ready to kick it, the Summer Games are back!
This year Lúcioball makes its way to Busan Stadium, and your heroes are ready to soak in the sun with some new skins! Over the last few months I’ve had the pleasure of working with professional artists around the world to bring these seasonal skins to life.
It’s a really fun process. It starts with our concept artists sharing their ideas early, which helps hype us up as we start to think of all of the possibilities and details we can add to the models and textures for the final skins, such as making the propellers on the back of D.Va’s Waverunner mech spin faster when she uses her Boosters ability. The 3D artists then choose which skins they want to create and are encouraged to voice their opinions and ideas during the development process so we can help them turn their vision into a reality. Once they have collaborated with us on the digital sculpture and the final in-game model, we then finalize the skins and give them an extra coat of polish in-house with our rigging and skinning, visual effects, audio, and quality assurance testing teams to make sure that they work in-game. The entire effort can take weeks to create a legendary skin, but the end result is always worth it!
This event was especially memorable for me since I got to work with and help train a new artist on our art pipeline. In addition to keeping the process organized and efficient, I also got to get my hands dirty by creating Hana’s model for the D.Va Waverunner skin.
Part of the excitement during the creation process is imagining how fans will receive our artwork—we really hope that you love these skins, and we’re looking forward to reading and hearing what you have to say about them and Summer Games!
—John Gotch, Senior Character Artist Supervisor
PATCH HIGHLIGHTS
SUMMER GAMES 2018
The Summer Games return for more fun in the sun! This year, we’re celebrating the spirit of competition with a new Lúcioball arena, Season 2 of Copa Lúcioball, and a smörgåsbord of loot. Unlock over 50 new seasonal items—including legendary skins like Waveracer D.Va, Fastball Zenyatta, and Cabana Ana—alongside our growing collection of summer gear from previous years.
GENERAL UPDATES
GENERAL
- Changed the name of Junkrat’s Buccaneer skin to Bilgerat
- Added under attack voice lines for Zenyatta, Lúcio, and Moria
- All Overwatch League skins now include the name of the team’s city or state
LOOKING FOR GROUP
- Settings will be saved after changing filters on the Looking for Group browse screen
HERO GALLERY
- Added a What’s New option that displays new unlockable content
HERO UPDATES
GENERAL
- Some ultimate abilities now restore ammunition after completion for some heroes
- Abilities affected: Genji’s Dragonblade, Junkrat’s RIP-Tire, Pharah’s Barrage, Roadhog’s Whole Hog, and Zenyatta’s Transcendence, Winston’s Primal Rage
ANA
NANO BOOST
- Now also instantly heals the target for 300 health
- Range increased from 30 to 40 meters
BRIGITTE
SHIELD BASH
- Cooldown increased from 6 to 7 seconds
REPAIR PACK
- An option to control Brigitte’s Repair Pack targeting sensitivity has been added under Options > Controls > Brigitte
DOOMFIST
ROCKET PUNCH
- No longer impacts Symmetra’s teleporter
- Now destroys Symmetra’s sentry turrets without stopping his movement
HANZO
LUNGE
- Cooldown increased from 4 to 5 seconds
LÚCIO
CROSSFADE
- Aura radius increase from 10 to 12 meters
SOUND BARRIER
- Temporary shields granted increased from 500 to 750
MERCY
CADUCEUS STAFF
- Healing beam reduced from 60 healing per second to 50 healing per second
MOIRA
BIOTIC GRASP
- Passive energy regeneration rate increased from 2 per second to 2.4 per second
REINHARDT
BARRIER FIELD
- Decorative insignia no longer protrudes from the shield’s surface
SOMBRA
GENERAL
- Reduced the size of Sombra’s head hit volume
SYMMETRA
PHOTON PROJECTOR
- Primary fire range increased from 10 to 12
WIDOWMAKER
GRAPPLING HOOK
- Cooldown increased from 8 seconds to 10 seconds
ZARYA
ENERGY
- Drain rate reduced from 2 energy per second to 1.6 energy per second
GRAVITON SURGE
- Radius reduced from 8 to 6 meters
GAME BROWSER AND CUSTOM GAMES
HEROES
- Brigitte’s Repair Pack now has a minimum cooldown time of 1.5 seconds regardless of custom game settings
BUG FIXES
GENERAL
- Fixed a bug that displayed an inaccurate AFK countdown timer before removing players from a match if they were flagged as AFK more than once
- Fixed a bug that caused the player camera to display an odd location before switching to the first-person view of the selected hero after Assemble Your Team phase ends
AI
- Fixed a bug that caused Torbjörn bot to fire his gun endlessly if his turret is teleported by a Symmetra player
COMPETITIVE PLAY
- Fixed a bug that could cause players to lose an endorsement level if they exited before a match completes, but after the return timer for a leaving player has expired