After a week on the PTR, Sombra and the other BlizzCon-announced goodies are now available on the live version.

A few minutes ago Patch 1.5 got pushed to the live servers. With it comes the second post-beta hero release, as well as the Arcade and accompanying gamemodes. On top of all that, several balance changes from the PTR have also been introduced!

For those of you who do not check out the PTR from time to time, have fun with your first experience with Sombra! Her flashy abilities allow for amazing gameplay, but also showcase just how high her skill ceiling is. For most of an introduction into her kit, we have published several interesting articles:
 

  • What Ultimates (and Basic Abilities) does Sombra's EMP disable?
  • Sky’s Spotlight: Sombra - Part One, her abilities
  • Sky’s Spotlight: Sombra - Part Two, interactions
     

Sombra is available immediately in all gamemodes, including Competitive Play.

As stated, the Arcade has also been added to the game. The Arcade can be considered Brawl mode 2.0, but also includes several new gamemodes such as 1v1 and 3v3. To get the most out of these modes, Blizzard has also started developing small maps, the first of which is playable now: Ecopoint: Antarctica. For more information, check out our previous articles here and here.

Finally, several significant hero changes have also made it to the regular version. While tournament might choose to ban Sombra from play for the time being, they can not prevent the following changes from impacting the meta in big ways:

  • All Ultimates will now charge at least 25% slower
  • Ana's Nano Boost no longer increases the target's movement speed
  • D.Va has received a +100 HP boost, 20% Ultimate cost decrease and Movement buff while firing
  • Lucio's AMP IT UP when used on his healing now does 10% less healing per second
  • Mei's Ultimate charge rate has been further increased by 15%
  • Mercy's passive self-heal now starts after a single second of taking no damage instead of the old 3 seconds
  • Pharah's rockets no longer knockback anyone within range, but she can now use her boosters longer, allowing her to stay in the air 100% of the time when used efficiently
  • Soldier: 76's main fire damage has been slightly increased, as well as its spread
  • As tested on the PTR, Torbjörn's scrap now automatically generates. Furthermore, his forge hammer swings faster but for less damage
  • Widowmaker's quickscoping ability has been greatly improved, and she is now immune to her own Venom Mine
  • Zarya's barriers build up your own charge about 20% slower

A bunch of other changes and bug fixes also went live, which can be read by opening the patch notes through the Battle.net launcher or on their forums! Enjoy Patch 1.5, and the new meta.

For more competitive Overwatch news, follow us @GosuOverwatch.