Overwatch patch 1.35 shapes up with several Reaper buffs, bug fixes

The Overwatch development team has released an update to the Public Test Region servers introducing changes to Reaper, Symmetra, and Junkrat.

This is the first iteration of patch 1.35, which also adds the ability for players to set their victory pose to random.

Reaper’s ability Shadow Step has received numerous buffs with this patch, further increasing the damage hero’s mobility. Shadow Step is now available for use in mid-air, allowing Reaper to counter knockbacks or environmental kills with the right timing. The time taken to exit the ability has been halved so that it only takes 0.5 seconds, and the hero now remains invisible during this brief time.

Another change made to Shadow Step relates to positioning on the map. Reaper can now step onto items that are usually breakable, such as fences. Similarly, Symmetra can now place her teleporters on breakable surfaces.

Junkrat has received further adjustments to his primary fire despite his damage buff only recently hitting live servers. The grenades from his Frag Launcher will now travel faster, and to compensate will not bounce as many times before exploding.

The update arrived on PTR March 25, though Blizzard is yet to post the official patch notes on the company’s forums. This is usually done within a few hours of release, so many users turned elsewhere for specific information. Notes pulled directly from the game client revealed exactly what the 4GB update included.

The large patch size was due to the number of bug fixes made to various maps to prevent heroes from getting stuck on objects. Each map has to be uploaded anew with the new object parameters in place.

As the patch is only on the PTR server, it’s currently unavailable to console users. All changes made to heroes are for testing purposes and are subject to further revision before going live.