The Overwatch Public Test Region was updated with new visual effects for heroes with shields, like Orisa, Brigitte, Winston, and Reinhardt. Blizzard also revealed it had to disable Reinhardt from the PTR, however, because of stability concerns.

Overwatch developer Romain Dijoux explained players cannot use Reinhardt on the Overwatch PTR for the time being. "Reinhardt is currently disabled on the PTR due to a server crash that can happen when he’s used," the post read. Lead software engineer Bill Warnecke also explained Blizzard is working on a solution and hopes to have a fix for the PTR on Monday or sometime early next week.

There are new visuals for shields on the Overwatch PTR. Shields will now begin to flash when its health is low, similarly to low health effects in other video games or broken electronics. The change is most visible with Brigitte's shield, which was nerfed on the PTR. A preview for Reinhardt's shield could not be captured, however, because he is disabled.


The Overwatch PTR patch was highlighted by the Tobrjörn rework. New visual effects for Mei were also added to the PTR. 


Cover photo courtesy of Blizzard