Overwatch June 30 update patch notes: Competitive Open Queue, Brig nerfs

A new Overwatch patch has hit the live servers with some majors nerf to Brigitte, the addition of Open Queue in Competitive Play for Season 23, and some major SR changes for high-ranked players.

The biggest addition this patch comes in the form of Open Queue being added alongside Role Queue in Competitive play. This will give players even more ways to play the game – either with or without role restrictions.

The next major change comes in the form of how SR will work for the very top players. Now, the maximum SR a player can begin a season with after completing placement matches is 3900.

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However, as players compete in more matches, their SR will rise to a value that reflects their actual skill. The changes are made to adjust for the removal of SR decay.

Moving onto balance changes, the Experimental Mode nerfs to Brigitte have gone through with Repair Pack no longer granting additional armor.

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This change for Brigitte is massive as it will stop her from being able to enable flankers such as Tracer, Genji and Echo by preemptively giving them more health before engaging.

Elsewhere, D.va has seen some major buffs with Defense Matrix being active for longer, Micro Missiles having less delay after activation and Fusion Cannons having 10% less movement penalty.

Ashe has also seen a small nerf with Dynamite’s cooldown increasing from 10 to 12 seconds. Now, Ashe players will have to wait a bit longer after using the powerful ability before being able to use it again.

Full patch notes:

COMPETITIVE UPDATES

Open Queue Added to Competitive Play

Starting with Season 23, Competitive Play will support both Role Queue and Open Queue. These will be separate queues, so you won’t see Role Queue teams playing against Open Queue teams. Open Queue will have its own SR and leaderboard, separate from the role-specific Role Queue SRs and leaderboards.

Adjustments to Seasonal Placements for High SR Players

Beginning with Season 23, the maximum Skill Rating (SR) earned after a player completes each season’s placements has been capped at 3900 SR. Players are still matched with other players of similar skill, as we want to keep matches as fair and fun as possible. As each player participates in more games during the current season, their SR will slowly rise to reach a value that fully reflects their current skill.

This change is intended to address many of the issues that SR Decay tried to fix, but in a more positive manner that rewards staying active and playing more games instead of penalizing players for not playing enough. Achieving a very high SR at the end of a season can no longer be achieved by completing a mere five placement matches. This does mean you may see larger SR differences between all the players in a very high SR match than in previous seasons, as two similar and highly skilled players might have different SRs based on how many games they’ve played during the season.

HERO UPDATES

Ashe

Dynamite

• Cooldown increased from 10 to 12 seconds

Developer Comment: With recent improvements to Ashe’s weapon her overall damage output has increased significantly. Toning Dynamite down will lower her overall damage while keeping her damage output focused on her rifle.

Brigitte

Repair Pack

• No longer grants an additional armor health pool

Barrier Shield

• Maximum health increased from 200 to 250
• Regeneration rate decreased from 100 to 85 health per second
• Cooldown when destroyed increased from 3 to 5 seconds

Developer Comment: Granting additional maximum health is a powerful ability and has proven too effective when combined with the additional healing of Repair Pack. Brigitte’s barrier will now provide more protection up front, enabling her to withstand more directed fire, but will also have a longer downtime if it is destroyed.

D.Va

Fusion Cannons

• Movement penalty reduced from 50 to 40%

Defense Matrix

• Cooldown reduced from 1.5 to 1 second

Micro Missiles

• Activation delay reduced from 0.5 to 0.25 seconds

Developer Comment: These buffs are aimed at making D.Va feel more fluid and responsive to play.

Junkrat

Concussion Mine

• Trigger delay reduced from 0.156 to 0.1 seconds

RIP-Tire

• Time to take control of Junkrat post detonation has been reduced from 1.5 to 0.9 seconds

Developer Comment: These are a couple quality of life changes for Junkrat. This makes it possible to do some Concussion Mine jumps that were no longer possible after a previous increase to its projectile speed.

BUG FIXES

General

• Fixed a bug with patch notes truncation for the Taiwanese locale
• Fixed a bug with specific hero ultimate voicelines playing both their friendly and enemy team variations

Heroes

Ashe

• Fixed a bug with an Incorrect shadow displayed across the hood of the Little Red skin

Lucio

• Fixed a bug with Lucio being able to switch to Heal Song while stunned

Reinhardt

• Fixed a bug with fire strike appearing invisible for allies

Roadhog

• Fixed a bug that allowed Roadhog to hook Baptiste’s Immortality Field

Wrecking Ball

• Fixed a bug where Wrecking Ball could hit an enemy much faster than intended with Roll Damage