Overwatch PTR Update Brings Balance Changes To Roadhog, Winston

It seems like Overwatch is one to watch, especially lately, with the beloved Blizzard title recently hitting 25 million registered players and rolling out update after update to its Public Test Realm (PTR) that have been nerfing and buffing heroes left and right. Fans had their eyes peeled for another round of enhancements to hit the Overwatch PTR, and Blizzard delivered.

Blizzard executive and principal designer for Overwatch Geoff Goodman took to the game's official forum to make the announcement. "We have a new build coming soon that has some Roadhog and Winston changes to test out," he stated. Goodman went on to detail changes coming to the piggish tank hero and the good-hearted, genetically-altered gorilla. These updates will focus on bringing balance to the characters, something extremely important in all kinds of video games.

Roadhog's general changes center around leveling his abilities out. The upcoming tweaks will "reduce the power of his hook a bit," but will also make his gun "more effective when [he's] not using the hook." Winston, on the other hand, is getting set "more in line with other heroes" after players and the Overwatch team alike noticed that "Winston's head hit volume was just abnormally big, making him take more damage than he otherwise should."

Check out the full list of balance changes below.

Roadhog

• Scrap Gun
  • Spread decreased by 20 percent
• Chain Hook
  • Targets are now pulled to a location 3.5 meters away, up from 2 meters
  • Cooldown increased from 6 to 8

• Spread decreased by 20 percent

• Targets are now pulled to a location 3.5 meters away, up from 2 meters
• Cooldown increased from 6 to 8

• Spread decreased by 20 percent

• Targets are now pulled to a location 3.5 meters away, up from 2 meters
• Cooldown increased from 6 to 8

Winston

• Critical hit volume reduced by 15 percent

The Overwatch team anticipated that the update would arrive to the PTR sometime in the near future. Today (only a few hours ago) in a follow-up post on the forum, Blizzard Entertainment Lead Software Engineer Bill Warnecke announced that the "changes are now on the PTR, build 1.8.0.0.34524." Only gamers who play Overwatch on a PC have access to the PTR, and can enter it by jumping into the Region/Account menu in the Battle.net app, where they can select the "PTR: Overwatch" option.

To us, it sounds like these changes are much-needed and will benefit players greatly by offering a more balanced gameplay experience. That being said, though, it's always best to know the things to avoid while playing Overwatch and to be on the lookout for all the creative ways people are cheating in the game before you test out the latest updates.