Another change is coming to Overwatch along with new hero Echo, and it'll allow you to 'confirm ultimates', a change that will let harried Ana players all around the world breathe a sigh of relief.
Starting today in the Overwatch PTR, you can choose to confirm your ultimate target before you activate your ability - thus saving your team from the heartbreak of a misplaced Nano-dart. Or, since Echo's ultimate ability lets her temporarily duplicate a member of the enemy team with juiced-up ultimate generation, the heartbreak of becoming a jolly Lucio when you wanted to start Earthshattering fools as a fearsome Reinhardt.
"If you've ever been an Ana player, you know you can do Nanoboost, but you can only do it to your own team," game director Jeff Kaplan explains in a preview event for Echo. "And how often have we all Nanoboosted the Lucio? It's a common enough thing where it's become called 'Boostio', there's actually a name for it. On your own team you're all coordinating and trying not to boost the Lucio and you do it by accident. You can imagine how challenging it is for Echo to grab the right person on the enemy team."
The new safeguard arrives as a user interface option under the Heroes menu. It's disabled by default, but turn it on and you'll get an extra step in the ultimate process for both Ana and Echo: put your reticle over your target, hit your ultimate button, then the game will show you a portrait of the hero you've picked and ask you to confirm or cancel.
"It gives you that chance to go, oh wait! That's Lucio. I don't want to be him. OK, Reinhardt, that's who I want to be," Kaplan adds.
Ultra-precise players who cherish speed will probably prefer to leave the option off, since it does slow you down a bit. I am not ultra precise, and thus I am very excited about never accidentally charging up the wrong hero again.
You can find even more to play while you wait for Echo to go live everywhere with our guide to games like Overwatch.
