New Roadhog and Winston changes are now live in the Public Test Region. In the previous PTR update released on January 7th, a slew of characters received balance changes. Bastion underwent what seemed like an overhaul of his skills, with tweaks to every single one – Sentry, Recon, Self-Repair, and Tank. He even receives a new passive called Ironclad, which negates 35% of damage received while in Tank or Sentry configuration.

Geoff Goodman, Principal Designer for Overwatch, announced the new build coming to PTR earlier today and it went live not long afterward.  Here are the changes you can expect to see:

• Roadhog
  • Scrap Gun
    • Spread decreased by 20%
  • Chain Hook
    • Targets are now pulled to a location 3.5 meters away, up to 2 meters
    • Cooldown increased from 6 to 8 seconds
• Winston
  • Critical hit volume reduced by 15%

While the changes aren’t plentiful, it may change the way players utilize Roadhog and Winston. For the latter hero, for example, having a slightly smaller hit volume will decrease the likelihood of unnecessary damage. You know, like those times the hit box shouldn’t have received incoming damage because the projectile passed by your character by a foot or more? Yeah, not many people enjoy it, especially if it leads to death.

Aside from Bastion – D.Va, Mei, and Mercy received some changes as well. Often times, Mercy’s skill “Resurrect” called for an honorable exchange of death for life. With the new changes in PTR, developers are hoping to help the players maintain some sanity and allowing Mercy to become invulnerable throughout the duration of the skill. Mei, on the other hand, can now be targeted by allies when she uses “Cryo-Freeze”. Theoretically, she can be buffed and healed during this time. Furthermore, D.Va’s “Defense Matrix” can deflect projectiles more effectively. The changes are as followed:

• D.Va
  • Defense Matrix
    • Projectiles (like Roadhog’s Chain Hook or Tracer’s Pulse Bomb) no longer need to travel a minimum distance before they can be blocked
• Mei
  • Cryo-Freeze
    • Mei can now be targeted by allies while in Cryo-Freeze
• Mercy
  • Resurrect
    • While performing a resurrection, Mercy now becomes temporarily invulnerable along with the allies being revived
  • Caduceus Staff
    • Zenyatta can no longer be targeted when Transcendence is active

What do you think of all these hero balances? Are you happy about Roadhog’s debuffs or the Winston changes? Feel free to let us know in the comments section below, we would love to hear from you!