Less dupes in Loot Boxes, too
It’s another big day forOverwatchasDoomfistfinally joins the live game. Blizzard has an update out now on PC, PS4, and Xbox One that introduces the offense hero and tweaks existing characters.
If you’ve kept up withOverwatchchatter these past few weeks, a good portion of today’s patch notes will seem familiar. Notably, Loot Boxes won’t give out as many duplicates as before and the highlight system is more robust, allowing you to create your own 12-second clips at the press of a button.
A few other nuggets stood out to me: Blizzard has reduced Reaper’s Shadow Step sound effect and VO distance by 50%, Zarya’s Graviton Surge disables mobility on all affected heroes (where ya going, Mercy?), and Roadhog is no longer selectable in Limited 1v1 matches. We’re free!
Now, if I can just tear myself away fromSplatoon 2…
New Hero: Doomfist (Offense):
Equipped with charisma and ambition, Doomfist is a consummate tactician and one of the leaders of Talon: literally throwing down his gauntlet as he joins the fight. From his base in Nigeria, Doomfist is a commanding offense hero equipped with hard-hitting melee abilities. Driven by a belief that conflict is essential to humanity’s progress, he’s committed to advancing his vision of the future—even if the agents of Overwatch disagree with his methods.
Doomfist’s cybernetics make him a highly mobile, powerful frontline fighter. His primary attack is the Hand Cannon; this four-shot weapon fires projectiles from Doomfist’s knuckles one at a time or in a single blast. With his secondary attack, Rocket Punch, he charges forward and delivers a devastating blow, knocking back any opponent it connects with and dealing extra damage if the enemy is hurled into a wall.
Seismic Slam smashes into a targeted area, knocking opponents toward him so he can deal further damage. His Rising Uppercut tosses enemies high into the air, while his passive ability, The Best Defense…, grants him shields every time he uses one of his abilities against an opponent. Lastly, his ultimate ability, Meteor Strike, causes him to leap high and drop into a targeted area, dealing massive amounts of damage.
To learn more about Doomfist,click here.
Loot Box Updates
We always want the experience of opening a loot box to feel exciting and rewarding, and in our latest patch, we’re working to improve that experience in two key ways. First, we’re drastically reducing the amount of duplicates you will receive when opening loot boxes. Second, to compensate for this reduction of duplicate items, we’re also increasing the overall amount of credits you will receive from loot boxes. On average, you should be earning just as many credits, if not slightly more, from loot boxes as you did prior to these changes.
New Highlight Options
Our highlights system has received several major updates:
To learn more about this feature, check out our recentdeveloper update.
Custom Games and Game Browser
Genji
McCree
Developer Comment:This change will make McCree’s Flashbang consistent against fast-moving targets like Genji or Lúcio.
Reaper
Developer Comment:Even though Shadow Step wasn’t intended to be used as a way for players to teleport right next to an enemy without their knowledge, the sound effects were audible from distances that made teleportation difficult from nearly anywhere. This change allows Reaper to be a bit more sneaky with his flanking options.
Reinhardt
Developer Comment:In the last update, Reinhardt’s Rocket Hammer had an issue that allowed players with higher latency to swing faster. We fixed this bug, which suddenly made the swing speed feel too slow, so we’re compensating by increasing his standard swing speed. During this process, we also found and fixed a few bugs with Rocket Hammer’s hit registration. Overall, the hammer should feel much better.
Zarya
Developer Comment:In the past, the abilities that allowed heroes to escape Zarya’s Graviton Surge felt fairly arbitrary. We’re cleaning this up and increasing Graviton Surge’s overall power by rendering all movement abilities unusable when an enemy is trapped.
[ALL] Overwatch Patch Notes – Aug 10, 2025[Battle.net]
