67 - Omnic Lab: Battle Mercy, Valkyrie!

Omnic Lab: A Strategic Overwatch Podcast

This week Andres holds down the fort with guest from High Noon Podcast, D3athbl0w! They sit down and chat about the huge changes hitting PTR about Mercy, the DVa adjustments, and a cool change to Reinhardt’s camera.

News & Blue Posts:

• Sept 1st Game Night!
• Omnic Meta: (Homepage) - This report is all about Doomfist and his high pick rate completely shaking up the meta. Doomfist has the highest debut of any new hero since Overwatch came out, as he has made an immediate impact and claimed more than 25% usage across all tiers - putting him as one of the most popular DPS heroes in the game. Encourage you to check out the: Patch 1.13 hero change analysis over at omnicmeta.com.

New Competitive Season Changes:

• Players in Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond can now drop into lower skill tiers.
• We’ve made some adjustments to how skill rating is calculated after a win/loss.

New PTR Hero Changes:

• D.Va
• Micro Missiles (New Ability)
• D.Va fires a barrage of small rockets that detonate on impact, dealing damage in a limited radius around each explosion. These can be fired while D.Va is using any other ability or firing her Fusion Cannons
• Defense Matrix- Defense Matrix's resource meter will now deplete twice as quickly
• Boosters - Fusion Cannons can now be fired while flying
• Mercy:
  • Resurrect (formerly Mercy’s Ultimate ability)
  • Targets 1 player, instead of every player within a 5m radius
  • Ability cooldown: 30 seconds
  • Mercy is no longer granted invulnerability while Resurrecting
  • Valkyrie (New Ultimate)
  • Valkyrie unleashes the full power of Mercy’s Valkyrie Suit, enhancing her weapons and abilities for 20 seconds:
  • Caduceus Staff: Mercy’s healing and damage boost beams now affect all allies near the targeted teammate, and the staff’s effective range has been extended
  • Caduceus Blaster: Granted infinite ammo, while simultaneously increasing damage and fire rate
  • Guardian Angel: Increased range and movement speed
  • Resurrect: Cooldown is instantly reset when Valkyrie is activated and reduced to 10s after the initial cast
  • Hover: Mercy gains the ability to fly freely, at increased movement speed
  • Regeneration (Passive): No longer interrupted when Mercy takes damage
• Reinhardt:
  • Barrier Field - Holding primary fire while your shield is active now allows you to rotate the camera
• User Interface Updates:
  • The skull icons that indicate where teammates were killed throughout the map have been replaced with Hero Portrait icons
  • Third person camera view will now frame the action automatically when spectating or waiting to respawn
• End of Competitive Season 5
  • Season 5 will conclude on Monday, August 28th at 5:00 PM PDT. A countdown is conveniently located in the Important Box at the top right corner of the sub.
• Beginning of Competitive Season 6
  • Season 6 will begin on Thursday, August 31st at 5:00 PM PDT.
• End of the Summer Games event
  • The announced end date is Monday, August 28th. While there is not typically an announced end time, note that past events have ended around 5:00 PM PDT (00:00 UTC). Please use the "End of Season 5".

Special Thanks to Diamond Sponsors & New Patrons:

(12/25) Ben W, IceWeasel, HannibalSnowden, Lisome, Magic, Michael Crits, NotMuaddib, RcCrispy, Sketchy Nonsense Podcast, TragicZac, & Trinium.

Omnic Lab Links:

Twitter, Facebook, Patreon Discord: discord.me/omniclab Email: [e-mail] Website: http://www.omniclab.com iTunes, Google Play Music, RSS Twitch, Youtube, MERCH Full Extended Show Notes Rob: Twitter, Twitch,Velen's Chosen Podcast, Content Craft Podcast Andres: Twitter, audioblender.studio, soundcloud D3athbl0w: Twitter, High Noon Podcast