Overwatch bug prevents Baptiste’s grenades from healing
Blizzard EntertainmentAn Overwatch player has discovered a bug that prevents Baptiste’s healing grenades from working in certain locations.
It seems that stairs can prevent the grenades from healing nearby friendly players, even if the grenade appears to have landed well within range of the target.
Long-time FPS players will likely be familiar with the problems that can arise with stairs, particularly with explosives or other projectiles that cause a “splash” of damage or healing on impact. It’s certainly not an issue unique to Overwatch.
Baptiste is the most recent addition to the Overwatch hero roster.For Baptiste, this can be a particularly troublesome issue, as the grenades from his Biotic Launcher are his primary source of healing output.
As u/tastylactate demonstrates, the result can be a scenario in which it’s very difficult for Baptiste to heal from certain positions, as though his grenades appear to be landing on target, they don’t actually take effect.
The issue doesn’t appear to occur in all instances of a grenade hitting stairs, seemingly varying depending on the exact location in which it lands, and how the target hero is situated, making it difficult to predict whether or not it will render any given grenade ineffective.
There have also been reports of similar issues with Ana’s Biotic Grenade, which operates in a similar manner.
It seems to be that the problem is in line-of-sight, as the tiny edges of the stairs can technically block the sightline between the grenade’s landing point and the player, resulting in the game believing the grenade’s splash didn’t hit the player even though it seems clear visually that it should.
Given that this kind of issue has appeared in multiple titles – CS:GO, for instance, has similar issues with explosive grenades not always dealing the damage that they should – it’s not clear that this is necessarily an easy fix for Blizzard.
Until the bug has been addressed, it’s worth keeping it in mind, especially for Baptiste players who might find their effectiveness neutralized in certain locations if they’re not careful, but should be able to work around the issue by using their exo-boots to fire from a higher angle when necessary.