Overwatch Anniversary Event 2018 - all the new emotes, skins, and patch notes
The 2018 Overwatch Anniversary Event has kicked off.
You've already seen some of the skins included in the 2018 Overwatch Anniversary Event thanks to leaks and teases. But, Blizzard has provided some official screens of the news duds.
Three new emotes are available alongside those previously released and last year's Anniversary skins also make a return. There are 190 Anniversary items in total.
Along with the aforementioned the Overwatch Anniversary Event 2018 features the new Free-For-All Deathmatch map, Petra. Both Petra and Chateau Guillard will also be available in an optional Competitive FFA Deathmatch mode with placement matches, skill rating, leaderboards, and the opportunity to earn competitive points.
Past seasonal brawls are also available to play in the Arcade. The brawl of the day will rotate throughout the event.
Overwatch players will earn Anniversary Loot Boxes as they play, and can pick up one Legendary Anniversary Loot Box just by logging from May 22 - June 11.
Each Legendary Anniversary Loot Box comes with at least one guaranteed legendary item and can contain loot from past seasonal events or other classic content. Anniversary Loot Boxes are also available for purchase.
Along with the event, a new patch has been released and it makes changes to Hanzo, Ana, and Brigitte.
Earlier this month, Overwatch's Hanzo had his Storm Arrows projectile speed increased from 85 to 100. Today's patch reduces damage from Storm Arrows from 80 to 70. So while they are faster, they now cause less damage.
Previously, Brigitte's Shield Bash had its cone angle reduced from 90 to 60, and from today, the cooldown will increase from 5 to 6 seconds.
This patch also makes changes to Ana's Biotic Rifle. Its projectiles will now pass through allies with full health, and ammo has been increased from 10 to 14.
Full patch notes with developer commentary are below along with a look at the new map and skins.
Overwatch Anniversary 2018 - Emotes, Petra Map, Skins
Overwatch patch notes - May 22
Hero Updates
Ana
- Biotic Rifle
- Projectiles will now pass through allies with full health
- Ammo increased from 10 to 14
Developer Comments: These changes should help Ana when she is trying to land clutch heals in the middle of a big fight. Allies that do not need healing will no longer potentially block shots meant for teammates that do need it. Increasing her magazine size makes it less likely that Ana will be forced into a reloading in the middle of an important fight.
Brigitte
- Rally
- Maximum armor per player reduced from 150 to 100
- Shield Bash
- Cooldown increased from 5 to 6 seconds
Developer Comments: Brigitte’s ultimate is very powerful, especially when it is placed on the entire team. This change will reduce the maximum armor value of Rally, but does not reduce the overall amount of armor given by the ability over its duration. This means when used in combat while her allies are taking damage, it should feel about the same, but the lingering effects of the armor should have less of an impact. Her Shield Bash is a very strong ability on a fairly short cooldown, making it difficult for her opponents to play around. Increasing this cooldown allows for more options when battling against her.
Hanzo
- Storm Arrows
- Damage reduced from 80 to 70
Developer Comments: Hanzo’s Storm Arrows are doing too much damage considering his other changes, such as Lunge and projectile speed. This damage reduction will give Hanzo’s enemies a more reasonable chance to react and fight against him while using Storm Arrows.
Competitive Pay Updates
Rialto
- Rialto is now available in Competitive Play
Game Browser and Custom Games
General
- Added Infinite Ultimate Duration and Scalable Ultimate Duration options for Moira’s Coalescence
FFA Deathmatch
- Ana can now Nano Boost herself
Bug Fixes
General
- Fixed a bug that caused players to repeatedly return to the Hero Select screen when backfilling into a match
- Fixed a bug that prevented the sound wave visual effect from animating when previewing a voice line unlocked from a loot box
- Fixed a bug that caused a visual error to display 0/0 unlocks on the main menu
- Fixed a bug that caused Widowmaker to become stuck in a pillar in the Practice Range
- Fixed a bug that prevented the Groups tab in the Social menu from dynamically refreshing
- Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented shields from blocking projectiles (e.g. Tracer’s Pulse Bomb and Junkrat’s Frag Launcher)
- Fixed a bug that caused the camera to dip down for a frame when crouching and returning to an upright position
FFA Deathmatch
- Fixed a bug that allowed groups to queue for Deathmatch
- Fixed a bug that caused Sombra to be revealed to all enemies if targeted by Hanzo’s Sonic Arrow or Widowmaker’s Infra-sight while stealthed
Game Browser and Custom Game
- Fixed a bug that caused Moira’s Coalescence’s animation to incorrectly loop when Ultimate Duration was set above 100%
- Fixed a bug that caused Moira’s Coalescence SFX to stop playing after a couple of seconds when Ultimate Duration was set above 100%
- Fixed a bug that caused players who were idle in Assault and Skirmish game modes to be flagged as inactive and removed from the match
- Fixed a bug that prevented spawn resets and round start dialogue from playing when Random Heroes was enabled
- Fixed a bug that caused the start of match dialogue to say “Capture the enemy flag” instead of “Fight” in Team Deathmatch
- Fixed a bug that caused suicides to count as multiple deaths in Deathmatch when the Respawn as Random Hero option was enabled
Highlights
- Fixed a bug that caused dialogue lines to get cut short at the end of highlights
- Fixed a bug that caused placement indicators to appear red in Play of the Game playbacks and highlights when they were placed on valid ground
Heroes
- Fixed a bug that caused Ana’s Biotic Rifle crosshair to disappear momentarily when scoping and unscoping
- Fixed a bug causing Bastion’s Dune Buggy skin textures to stretch when waving hello
- Fixed a bug that caused Brigitte to reapply Repair Pack on her previous target rather than her new target if she used Repair Pack immediately after the cooldown ended
- Fixed a bug that caused Brigitte’s Shield Bash hitbox to be wider than her shield
- Fixed a bug that prevented Brigitte’s Self Healing statistic from being tracked
- Fixed a bug that prevented Doomfist’s hand from animating when using Hand Cannon immediately after Rocket Punch
- Fixed a bug that caused Hanzo’s Lunge animation to follow the direction of the first jump after changing directions on a subsequent jump
- Fixed a bug that caused Hanzo’s hands to float above his legs during his Meditate emote with certain skins equipped
- Fixed a bug that caused Hanzo’s shins to appear malformed in his Heroic victory pose with his Scion skin
- Fixed a bug that prevented players from modifying Hanzo’s Lunge ability cooldown time in Custom Games
- Fixed a bug that prevented Hanzo’s reticle from constricting when using Storm Arrows
- Fixed a bug that caused Lúcio’s Soundwave animation to play twice if he used his quick melee attack immediately afterward
- Fixed a bug that caused the hammer on McCree’s golden weapon variant to be dull with his Scrooge skin equipped
- Fixed a bug that caused McCree’s ankles to deform when he used his Take a Load Off emote
- Fixed a bug that sometimes caused frozen targets to evade attacks
- Fixed a bug that caused Mei’s Pajamei skin to exaggerate the curvature of her spine
- Fixed a bug that caused Mei’s Endothermic Blaster visual effects to go through shields
- Fixed a bug that caused Mercy’s wings to stretch out comically when waving hello while using Angelic Descent
- Fixed a bug that caused Mercy to be placed too far towards the back of the hero line up
- Fixed a bug that prevented Mercy’s healing and damage boosting beams from being visible the first time it’s used on a player after activating Valkyrie
- Fixed a bug that caused the pumpkin in Orisa’s Pumpkin Head victory pose to persist after navigating away from it in the Hero Gallery
- Fixed a bug that caused the player’s camera to zoom into Reinhardt’s Rocket Hammer when struck by it
- Fixed a bug that caused Soldier: 76’s jacket collar to clip into his shoulder with his Classic skin equipped
- Fixed a bug that prevented Sombra’s laser sight from tapering at its end with her Talon skin equipped
- Fixed a bug that caused Symmetra’s hard-light prism visual effects to deform into a sphere on the Hero Select screen
- Fixed a bug that caused Symmetra’s Teleporter and Shield Generator to self-destruct when placed against certain walls
- Fixed a bug that caused Tracer’s Recall to appear jittery for spectators, in highlights, and in replays
- Fixed a bug that made Torbjörn’s turret lose sync with his breathing animation in his Medal victory pose
- Fixed a that caused Widowmaker’s crosshair to disappear for a moment when unscoping
- Fixed a bug that caused Winston’s shoulder to dislocate after using an emote
- Fixed a bug that caused Winston’s Jump Pack to stop short of its full distance when clearing ledges
Maps
- Fixed a bug that caused projectiles shot at Attacker spawn room doors to slide upward
- Fixed a bug that prevented the payload marker from appearing before the game started
- Fixed a bug that caused players in the first Defender spawn room to make water splashing noises
- Fixed a bug that prevented the payload thrusters from turning red when reversing
- Fixed a bug that caused Genji’s Cyber-agility and Hanzo’s Wall Climb animations to loop and stutter when scaling walls
- Fixed a bug that caused Doomfist to clip through the environment during his Combo highlight
- Fixed an issue that allowed players to get a Play of the Game by killing gondoliers in Rialto
- Fixed a bug that prevented the heal icon from displaying on with the first Defender spawn room
- Fixed a bug that allowed defenders to see attacker spawn entrances