Blizzard has been on a roll lately with "Overwatch" updates. Just today, the game company released highly-anticipated hero Doomfist to live servers. They've also buffed several heroes and a few more buffs are coming, specifically for Junkrat and Roadhog. Beside the new hero and character buffs, loot box system was also changed and players now have more control over their highlights.
However, the biggest change Blizzard implemented in the latest patch is not about a single character, but the entire system. Patch 1.13 for "Overwatch" changed the game's Respawn system.
This is a big change as it affects respawn timing for defenders, which will make it easier to defend points.
'Overwatch' respawn system change
"Overwatch" players had a chance to read about respawn system change in patch notes, but it wasn't very clear what it meant. Blizzard only said that the patch will change respawn timing to reduce defensive stalling strategies when the team that is on offense plays aggressively and has an obvious advantage.
Since this wasn't exactly clear, Scott Mercer, game's principal designer, decided to post the explanation on the official forums of the game. Mercer explained that the previous system slowly increased respawn timer for defenders when there are more attackers than defenders on the objective for 30 seconds.
The respawn timer the increased linearly up to a maximum of 90 seconds of the attacking team's advantage.
However, the new patch will increase respawn timing for defending team after 15 seconds of attackers' advantage. Furthermore, instead of 90 seconds, it will reach the maximum respawn time after only 75 seconds, which is a drastic change.
The principal designer also noted that the timer won't reset if the attacking team leaves the objective for a short period of time, such as when they avoid D.Va's ultimate ability.
In short, increased respawn timer will start sooner for the defending team and it will reach its maximum 15 seconds faster than before.
New 'Overwatch' respawn timer is a big change
This change is a big one as it will favor attackers and allow them to hold the point easier and for a longer period. On the other side, defenders won't be able to use stalling tactics and wait for the rest of the team to come to the point and clear it.
Considering that only two maps, Eichenwalde and Horizon Lunar Colony, had a big difference in win rate between attackers and defenders, it's a bit surprising that Blizzard decided to make this change. However, defenders have a slightly higher win rate on 8 out of 11 "Overwatch" maps, and even though the difference is only one percent on less in most of those cases, the game developer probably thought it would be a good idea to do something about it.
While Blizzard is trying their best to make the game as balanced as possibly, this change might not be a good once. Nonetheless, the patch has been out for only a few hours, so we'll give it a shot and see how it will do!
