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[Nirolak]

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SX2lJuk66xI

WELCOME TO THE YEAR OF THE ROOSTER
by Blizzard Entertainment 01/24/2017

Welcome to the Year of the Rooster
Gather your family and friends, heroes, and get ready to ring in the Year of the Rooster!

Overwatch's Lunar New Year celebrations have begun and we hope this seasonal event brings you happiness, prosperity, and (most importantly) lots of fun. For the next three weeks, players will have the chance to collect over 100 commemorative cosmetic items, enjoy a firefight beneath some fireworks on Lijiang Tower, and work together to capture the flag in Overwatch's newest brawl mode.

Good Luck and Great Fortune Await

Starting today, our customary Loot Boxes have been replaced with our lucky Lunar Loot Boxes—and they’re packed with one heck of a (primal) punch, including new skins like Palanquin D.Va and Wukong Winston!

As with previous events, Lunar Loot Boxes can be earned or purchased, and each will contain at least one item from our Year of the Rooster collection—including player icons, sprays, victory poses, emotes, highlight intros, skins, and more. While the contents of each seasonal Loot Box are random, you can unlock a variety of these customization options in the Hero Gallery for credits throughout the event’s duration.

Once you've unlocked an item, it will be yours forever, which means you can celebrate the Year of the Rooster all year-round. The collection will return to the vault on February 13, however, so be sure to fire up your favorite gaming machine and see what good fortune might await before it’s too late!

Capture the Rooster

No event would be complete without a first-class brawl, and for the Year of the Rooster we took a cue from tradition and are introducing an Overwatch take on a true competitive gaming staple: Capture the Flag.

In Capture the Rooster, teams will face off on Lijiang Tower, attempting to secure the enemy flag while the opposing team does the same. In this fast-paced brawl, players will need to get creative with their team compositions as they attempt to construct a lineup that’s built for offensive speed and defensive stability.

Let the Celebration Begin

We’ll also be ringing in the Lunar New Year over on our social media channels, so be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for some extra luck—and don't forget to keep an eye on playoverwatch.com to stay up to date with the latest game news!

Overwatch’s Year of the Rooster is live RIGHT NOW on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. We wish you every success this season and can’t wait to see you in-game!

https://playoverwatch.com/en-us/blog/20497686

Skins/Victory Poses:

HERO BALANCE UPDATES

Ana
Biotic Grenade
Effect duration has been reduced from 5 seconds to 4 seconds
Healing boost on allies has been decreased by 50%

Developer Comments: The healing boost from Ana’s Biotic Grenade was providing too much healing, especially when used on targets with large health pools.

D.Va
Health increased from 200 to 400
Armor decreased from 400 to 200
Fusion Cannons
Bullet damage decreased from 3 to 2
Number of bullets per shot has been increased from 8 to 11

Developer Comments: D.Va’s armor often made her feel like she had no weaknesses, even against heroes that are typically effective against bigger targets (like Reaper). The changes to her primary fire will result in a small overall decrease in damage, but her Fusion Cannons should feel more consistent now.

Lúcio
New Hero Option: Allow Backwards Wall Ride
When enabled, allows Lucio to start wall riding while moving backwards.

Roadhog
Chain Hook
Targets are now pulled directly in front of Roadhog (rather than straight to him), except in cases where Roadhog drastically rotates
Hooked targets are now released if they leave Roadhog’s line of sight before being pulled
Line of sight checks (which determines if targets are hit by the hook) are now done from Roadhog’s position, rather than the hook’s position

Developer Comments: The hook should now feel more consistent for Roadhog players, but it should also feel more reasonable to his enemies, as they cannot be hooked or pulled around corners anymore.

Sombra
Hack
Cooldown has been reduced from 12 seconds to 8 seconds
Time it takes to hack a target has been decreased from 1 second to 0.8 seconds

Developer Comments: Sombra often had difficulty hacking enemies, even when she surprised the target. This change should help her execute hacks more easily.

 

[Alucrid]

i'm going to spend $40, aren't i?

 

[LiK]

I will collect them all!

 

[Magnus]

Super blah skins, emotes, and highlight intros as far as I'm concerned.

Nabbed the Winston legendary in my free box, and not even really pumped about it. Got nearly 6k gold, but wouldn't even spend 1k on any of these skins this time around. Should have bought one of the Christmas ones. Oh well. Reinhardt/Zen skins look OK. Wouldn't mind getting those in a box.

Excited for the CTF Brawl though!

 

[BiggNife]

Man it's great when literally everyone said "please don't keep Dva's PTR nerfs" and Blizzard said "nah"

RIP my favorite character ;_;

 

[Zackat]

I like that color palette.

Mei looks awesome.

 

[Royce McCutcheon]

Lúcio
New Hero Option: Allow Backwards Wall Ride
When enabled, allows Lucio to start wall riding while moving backwards.

Hey now what's all this here

 

[PurpleMoustache]

Hell yeah CTF!
Hell no those D.VA changes!

 

[bender]

i'm going to spend $40, aren't i?

I'll be lucky if I only spend that much. So many Legendary skins. Got Zenyatta from my free box.

 

[Vault Dweller 111]

Can someone gif highlight intros?

 

[Ser Booty]

LOL this Ana skin is nightmare fuel

 

[ShadowSoldier89]

DVa finally gets a good skin, as she gets nerfed into the ground

 

[Ricerocket]

Wow no hero choice limit on CTF. About to try this out.

 

[Drayco21]

RIP D.Va

 

[LifEndz]

Gotta have that Zen skin. Mustn't spend money...but I gotta have that zen skin. Aghhhhhh

 

[Imbarkus]

What's the armor/health difference for D. Va translate to? I guess I don't get the difference.

 

[Royce McCutcheon]

Man it's great when literally everyone said "please don't keep Dva's PTR nerfs" and Blizzard said "nah"

RIP my favorite character ;_;

I just wish they didn't nerf my baby right in the middle of the fucking season,was 1-2 games away from master and I'm worried about hurting my team lol. My next closest time played is Lucio with 5. 63 hours on a character imma have to relearn

 

[LiK]

Wow no hero choice limit on CTF. About to try this out.

wtf, gonna be a mess

 

[Trey]

Hey now what's all this here

If they ever make his gun interesting to shoot, he'll become my main again.

 

[Giolon]

I need that red Mei skin in my life so badly. D.Va nerf is so sadmaking though

 

[PeterGAF]

I need all of them

 

[sh1fty]

Zenyatta skin is the only thing I'd want. Knowing RNG I won't get it lol.

 

[Twilight Gap]

Dva buffs last time had me like

Dva nerfs this time have me like

Game is dead to me

 

[BY2K]

Widowmaker am cry.

 

[ShadowSoldier89]

What's the armor/health difference for D. Va translate to? I guess I don't get the difference.

Armor halves damage from shots, up to a maximum of 5 damage reduction. With this nerf and her already giant crit hitbox, Dva is super squishy. She also had an 8% damage nerf based when all pellets hit, however you are now generally doing even fewer damage to smaller targets due to the increased pellet count and how the spread works.

Based on the PTR, DVa feels weaker now than at launch

 

[PurpleMoustache]

What's the armor/health difference for D. Va translate to? I guess I don't get the difference.

Edit: I'm an idiot

 

[GuitarGuruu]

In for the Ana and Reinhart skins. Also CTF is one of my favorite game modes of all time, can't wait to try it.

 

[mollipen]

My first two loot boxes. :\

 

[taco543]

That Reinhardt skin

 

[D1337]

Finally don't like any of the skins. Wont have to spend money this time.

 

[Maximo]

Man it's great when literally everyone said "please don't keep Dva's PTR nerfs" and Blizzard said "nah"

RIP my favorite character ;_;

ANd here I am being happy about them.

 

[ieptbarakat]

Wow those D.VA nerfs, just as I was excited to play for her new outfit too.

 

[cheez124]

been a while since i've played, probably gonna jump back in for this. gotta get that dva skin, shame about those nerfs though :\

 

[fernoca]

Guess they really like Mei. Geeze. XD

 

[Genghis Khan]

Did they really not do anything with Hanzo...?

 

[Symbiotx]

I don't like many of the skins, but I'm glad to have another special event! Also, that surprise reverse Lucio wallride!?? Sweet!

 

[PAULINK]

looking at this again, I guess i'm only really digging the winston, mei and dva skins. Might bite for 24 loot boxes.

 

[bigkrev]

I bought $20 of Lootboxes, got 4 of Roadhog's new epic Emote, and 2 of the same Mei Legendary (the white one). Got TONS of other dupes, those are just the ones that stuck out.

Might have the same probelm they had with the Christmas boxes, which lead to them giving a bunch more out for free?

 

[Royce McCutcheon]

Don't bother with the Dva skin,won't be able to see her in the mech for long anyway,WASTE OF MONEY *throws chair*

 

[mollipen]

Did they really not do anything with Hanzo...?

Japan doesn't celebrate Lunar New Year, and with the strained ties between Japan/China/South Korea, throwing them in when they don't have that direct relevance might have come off questionable.

 

[exYle]

What's the armor/health difference for D. Va translate to? I guess I don't get the difference.

Armor has built-in damage mitigation, dependant on how much damage is dealt to her per hit (armour cuts incoming damage in half up to a limit of 5 damage. So a hit that deals 6 damage now deals 3, but a hit that deals 100 damage now deals 95). So with more health and less armour, she's much more squishy.

 

[Collateral22]

Servers down?

 

[LiK]

Don't bother with the Dva skin,won't be able to see her in the mech for long anyway,WASTE OF MONEY *throws chair*

i wanna see her in her hanbok more

 

[punkmaggit]

i'm going to spend $40, aren't i?

Lol this is my internal struggle every new event.

 

[Skel1ingt0n]

GG Anna

Her nerfs have been ridiculous


Seriously - I feel like every single balance update takes the last remaining bit of fun out of playing heals/support. Mercy is boring. Lucio has gotten boring. Now Anna is gonna get boring.

I LIKE support - but I like it cause I feel like I can make a big difference to a game.

 

[『Inaba Resident』]

CTF being both attack and defense at the same time is pretty dumb. Feel like it should have been round based

 

[CryptiK]

Finally a DVA nerf its been a long time coming she was OP as fuck (at master/grandmaster level).

 

[Head of Vengarl]

That Junkrat skin is the stuff of nightmares.

 

[oti]

Why no Soldier skin.

Why another Mercy skin?

 

[Revolutionary]

Played a few rounds of CTF... it's not very good in this game.