Overwatch Winter Wonderland confirmed with December update 1.43 patch notes

Overwatch developer Blizzard has denied reports suggesting update 1.43 has been delayed until next year.

Instead, Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan has taken to Reddit to confirm plans to release update 1.43 alongside the Winter Wonderland event next week.

“We’ve been seeing quite a bit of misinformation being spread about our December patch (1.43),” Kaplan explains.

“The patch is scheduled to go live next week. Short of some unforeseen circumstance causing a delay, we’re expecting to go live with the patch next week.

“I’m guessing everyone is as excited as we are for the changes to go live as soon as possible along with Winter Wonderland.”

With the update about to go live next week, fans can also take a look at the patch notes courtesy of the Overwatch PTR.

The December update introduces a new “While you Wait” feature, which gives fans the chance to sample other game modes while waiting for matches to start.

The new update also makes lots of balance changes to heroes like Doomfist, Sigma, Orisa and Moira.

You can see the full list of Overwatch 1.43 patch notes below…

WHILE YOU WAIT

• Coming with this patch, we will be removing the current “Skirmish” feature that allowed you to spar while waiting to start a game and replacing it with a brand new option called “While You Wait”.

• When in queue, players will now be prompted to pick, if they want to, between the following game modes:

• Practice Range – Now available to be entered as a group

• Skirmish – Spar freely with other players without keeping track of score

• Deathmatch – Compete for the top place on the scoreboard

• Custom Game – Pick a custom game from the Custom Game Browser or create your own game mode

• Note that Custom Game will have to have the new setting “Allow players who are matchmaking” available in order to be selected

• All “While You Wait” game modes are optional and can be accessed by a single player or as a group, but only the group leader can decide which mode to pick.

WORKSHOP UPDATES

• Custom Games – Practice Range Mode

• New Workshop Values

• Game Mode

• Current Game Mode

• New Workshop setting

• “Allow players who are matchmaking”: allows players who are matchmaking to participate in the Custom Game created

HERO UPDATES

General

• Armor damage reduction increased from 3 to 5

Orisa

• Base armor increased from 200 to 250

• Fusion Driver Movement speed penalty reduced from 30% to 20%

• Protective Barrier Health reduced from 900 to 600

• Fortify Cooldown decreased from 10 seconds to 8 seconds

Sigma

• Experimental Barrier Health reduced from 1500 to 900

• Barrier health regeneration rate reduced from 150 to 120 health per second

• Kinetic Grasp Cooldown reduced from 13 seconds to 10 seconds

• Damage-to-shield gain ratio increased from 40% to 60%

Reinhardt

• Barrier Field Health reduced from 2000 to 1600

• Movement speed penalty reduced from 50% to 25%

• Steadfast (Passive) Knockback resistance increased from 30% to 50%

 – Developer Comment: The above changes to armor, Orisa, Sigma, and Reinhardt are aimed at decreasing the overall amount time players spend damaging barriers while improving the individual heroes in other areas. This is a significant change to the pace of the game and we’ll be monitoring these heroes closely to ensure they retain impactful gameplay in the tank role.

Moira

• Biotic Grasp Healing reduced from 4 to 3.25 (80 HP/s to 65 HP/s)

 – Developer Comment: Moira’s primary heal has proven to be too potent, largely due to its ability to heal multiple targets.

D.Va

• Defense Matrix Cooldown decreased from 2 seconds to 1.5 seconds

 – Developer Comment: With role locks in place there is some room to improve D.Va’s impact as a tank, so we’re partially reverting a previous change which increased Defense Matrix’s cooldown.

Widowmaker

• Grappling Hook Cooldown increased from 10 to 12 seconds

 – Developer Comment: With barriers having less uptime, Widowmaker will be even more effective at locking down long sight lines. This change weakens her mobility so she can still be reasonably countered.

Torbjörn

• Overload Cooldown decreased from 12 to 10 seconds

 – Developer Comment: Torbjörn has difficulty in extended team fights once his turret is eliminated and Overload has been used. This change allows Torbjörn to be able to rely on his Overload more often.

Genji

• Shuriken Ammo increased from 24 to 30

 – Developer Comment: As average hero survivability has gone up over time, Genji can sometimes have difficulty finishing off his targets. Loosening his ammunition constraints will help give him a small boost.

Zarya

• Particle Cannon (Secondary Fire) Explosion radius increased from 2 to 2.5 meters

• Ammo cost decreased from 25 to 20

 – Developer Comment: Zarya’s overall damage output is in a good spot but the secondary fire was left feeling a little too weak after the last set of changes.

BUG FIXES

General

• Color Blind Mode – Fixed an issue which caused models affected by infra-sight to appear washed out when using colors other than red

• Workshop – Fixed an issue causing map names and dropdowns from being displayed in the incorrect case

• Workshop – Fixed an issue preventing D.Va from being detected in Player Died events

• Custom Games – Renamed Assault/Escort to Hybrid

• Fixed a bug that could cause heroes with regenerating health/shields to not take full damage when damaged while at full health

• Various hero abilities (e.g. Symmetra’s Turrets, Roadhog’s Hook, Sigma’s Accretion, Orisa’s Halt, etc) will now respect the collision boxes on vending machines and other such props

• Fixed a bug that caused High Precision Mouse Input to cause toggle crouch to behave inconsistently

Maps

• Black Forest (1v1) – Fixed a bug that allowed Reaper to Shadow Step through the breakable doors

Heroes

Doomfist

• The default circle is now hidden when using advanced reticle settings

• Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented the sound effect of Doomfist’s Rising Uppercut from playing

• Fixed a bug where Seismic Slam could land on an enemy’s head while playing FFA modes

Junkrat

• Fixed a bug where Junkrat grenades would not explode when slowly rolling down steep inclines

Orisa

• Fixed an issue where Orisa’s halt projectile could sometimes appear to go through the ground when viewed in 3rd person.

Roadhog

• Fixed a bug that prevented Roadhog’s hook from damaging turrets and barriers

Widowmaker

• Turning off the toggle zoom control option for Widowmaker while zoomed in no longer remains stuck in the zoomed state