Overwatch 2 (Switch): all the updates (latest: Ver. ???)

On this page, you will find all there is to know about the various updates for Overwatch 2 on Nintendo Switch (originally released on October 4th 2022 in North America and Europe, and October 5th 2022 in Japan)!

Archives: launch to December 2023

Click here for more Software updates!

Overwatch 2 – Ver. ???

• Release date: April 16th 2024 (North America, Europe) / April 17th 2024 (Japan)
• Patch notes:

 

Limited-Time Mode: Clash Trial

Clash is an upcoming core game mode in Overwatch 2. Teams must battle back and forth over 5 capture points, with each captured objective adding a point to the prevailing team’s score. Teams can win in two ways: either by having control of all five objectives at once, or by scoring five points total before the other team. Clash will be available as a limited-time trial through April 29.

 

How Clash is played

• Five total objectives placed in a linear pattern on a mirrored map.
• Only one objective is active at a time.
• Matches start with the center objective active.
• Players capture an objective by standing on it and filling a progress bar. Capture progress cannot be made if enemy players are contesting the objective.
• When a team captures the current objective, they are awarded one point to their total score and a new objective moving forward from the scoring team’s side is activated.
• Objectives can be secured multiple times. If a team is pushed off an objective and the other team successfully captures it, the next active point will be in the opposite direction.

Win Conditions

Complete one of these conditions to win the match:

• A team has successfully captured five objectives throughout the match to reach a total score of five.
• Regardless of score, a team manages to take the final objective (A or E) on the opponents’ side.

Hanaoka – New Map

Explore never-before-seen corners of Hanamura in the new map Hanaoka, inspired by the visual themes of the beloved Assault map. Explore the shops and restaurants around town or follow the scent of Sakura trees into the once-proud Shimada castle.

Mythic Hero Skin Updates

 

Mythic Hero Skins

• Mythic Hero Skins are now unlocked in the new Mythic Shop in exchange for Mythic Prisms.
• Mythic Hero Skins are unlocked for 50 Mythic Prisms with a starting set of customizations and then can be leveled up with 10 Mythic Prisms per level. You can unlock the skin and all available customizations for a Mythic Hero Skin for 80 Prisms.

Introducing Mythic Prisms

• Mythic Prisms can be earned in the Premium Battle Pass and used in the Mythic Shop to purchase the current featured Mythic Hero Skin for the season and select previous Mythic hero skins. You can earn a total of 80 Mythic Prisms when you complete Premium Battle Pass.
• Earning Mythic Prisms in the Premium Battle Pass is the easiest way to unlock a Mythic Hero Skin and all customizations each season. You can also purchase additional Mythic Prisms in game or in your platform’s store marketplace.

General Updates

 

Challenges

• Completing Weekly Challenge milestones will now reward additional Battle Pass XP.
• Overwatch Coins that were earned in the Weekly Challenges can now be earned in the Battle Pass for all players.
• Reduced the number of Weekly Challenges.

Developer Comments: The number of Weekly Challenges has grown over time, and we are simplifying what players can aim to accomplish, while also making earning Battle Pass XP more straightforward.

Endorsement Changes

• Players who are actioned for disruptive behavior and reduced to Endorsement Level 0 cannot use text or voice chat features until they return to Endorsement Level 1.

Developer Comments: Since we added the Endorsement system to Overwatch, players who have been actioned because of social reports (Inappropriate Communication, Gameplay Sabotage, etc) have had their Endorsement Level reduced to Level 0. That part of the system isn’t changing, but going forward, Level 0 players will no longer be able to speak in voice channels or type in text chat in most modes.

Hide My Name

• Updated option in Streamer Protect, found in your Social Options.
• You are now able to hide your BattleTag from other players in your group and from your friends in the match as well.
• When enabled, anywhere your BattleTag is displayed to players during a match now displays a random anonymized BattleTag, instead of only to the player with the “Hide My Name” setting visibly enabled.

Developer Comments: The “Hide My Name” setting in the Social Options now displays a random anonymized Battle Tag to all players in a match, instead of only to the player with the “Hide My Name” setting enabled. New settings have been added to “Hide My Name From Friends” and “Hide My Name From Group.” Of these two settings, “Hide My Name From Friends” takes priority when group members are also friends. A large list of hand-crafted BattleTags have been created to support this feature. Could it contain easter eggs or silly references?

Progression

• Added progression badges/sub-badges and rewards for Venture. Rewards can be found in Hero Challenges.

Leaver Penalties

Two new thresholds for Unranked Leave Penalties have been added:

• Leaving two out of 20 games will result in a 5-minute suspension from queuing for most modes.
• 10 or more out of 20 games will result in a 48-hour suspension from queuing for most modes.
• All other threshold tiers are unchanged.

Developer Comments: Overwatch 2 is a competitive game even for Unranked game modes, and the match experience for all remaining players is negatively affected when a player leaves before it is completed. Remember a penalty only applies when you leave games and not when you complete games. By introducing a lighter 5-minute penalty, we aim to discourage players from deliberately leaving games they don’t want to play, while not impacting those who may have a technical issue or an urgent need to step away from the game which they can resolve by the time the queue suspension is finished. The larger 48-hour suspension aims to target a very small portion of players who are aggressively leaving games.

• Leaving 10 games in Competitive Play will now result in a season ban regardless of the number of games completed.
• Players can still get banned from Competitive Play in as few as 5 games if they leave very consistently and don’t complete enough games to get back into good standing.
• Games completed in Competitive Play now count toward the 20-game window of the Unranked Leaver Penalty.

Developer Comments: We already suspend players who leave a Competitive and increase penalties up to a season ban for leaving games frequently, but players can work their way back into good standing if they complete several matches. However, this new rule will stop players from gaming the system over time.

Competitive Updates

 

Competitive Role-Specific Titles

• End-of-season titles for Competitive Role Queue now include the role the rank was achieved in.
• Examples include Champion Tank, Champion Support, Champion Damage, and Open Queue Champion.

Competitive Progress

• Each Role Rank Card now displays the associated Competitive Role-Specific title.
• Role Rank Cards can now be selected to open the Match History for the selected role.
• Match history will display the following: Map / Game Mode, Heroes / Role, Date, Score, Results of the match
• Match History can now be selected to open the Game Report for a match.

Grouping Restrictions

• All previous Competitive Grouping Restrictions have been removed.
• All groups in Competitive Play are now classified as Narrow or Wide.
• Players between Bronze and Diamond must be within five divisions of each other player in their group to be in a Narrow Group.
• Players at Master must be within three divisions of each other player in their group to be in a Narrow Group.
• Players at Grandmaster and Champion cannot be in Narrow groups, regardless of how close their ranks are. This restriction ensures that our highest-ranked players have the highest quality Narrow matches.
• Narrow Groups will always be matched against other Narrow Groups or solo players. If a group has both Wide and Narrow configurations of players, the Narrow configuration will always be prioritized.
• Any group that does not meet the criteria is considered a Wide Group. Wide Groups of four players may not queue. This restriction exists so that solo players are never required to make a Wide match.
• Wide Groups have increased queue times and reduced match quality because it’s more difficult to find another group of players with the same ranks in the same roles to match against.
• The amount a player’s Rank Progress changes after each match is modified by the group’s width.
• The wider the group is, the less their ranks will change when winning or losing.
• The higher the rank of the highest-ranked player in a Wide Group, the less the ranks of all players in the group will change when winning or losing.
• Players will now be informed if the configuration of roles they have selected would result in a Wide Group.
• The Tier Legend has been updated, and a new banner has been added to explain the rules described above.

Rank Information

• New Modifier: “Wide”—this modifier reduces changes in Rank Progress when winning or losing matches. The wider your group, the less your Rank Progress will change with each win or loss.
• The modifier “Volatile” has been renamed to “Demotion.” Arrows displayed under the modifiers have been changed to point from left to right instead of right to left.
• New Modifier: Demotion Protection. This modifier appears on the Rank Progress bar to denote when you did not go down in Skill Division because of a loss. If you lose the next match after, then you are dropped down to the previous Skill Division.
• Victory and Defeat have been added below the Rank Progress bar where modifiers are displayed

Golden Weapons

• Golden weapons can now be purchased with either Legacy Competitive Points or 2024 Competitive Points. You cannot purchase weapons with a combination of both currencies.

Hero Updates

 

New Hero: Venture

• Venture has been added to the line-up.
• Venture is immediately available to play in Competitive Play.

Developer Comments: This is a pretty major change from past heroes, but we’ve always wanted to allow new heroes into Competitive when a new season for Overwatch 2 launches. In the past, we wanted to make sure new heroes were free of any bugs or outstanding balance issues, as well as giving players enough time to unlock a hero from the Battle Pass. Because of the recent hero trial, we’re confident Venture is ready to jump into the action right away.

TANK

 

Doomfist

Developer Comments: This quality-of-life improvement streamlines the transition between charging up an empowered Rocket Punch and another ability by removing the requirement of pressing the cancel input first.

 

Rocket Punch

• The empowered punch is no longer consumed when the windup is canceled by using Seismic Slam or Power Block.

Junker Queen

 

Carnage

• Impact damage increased from 90 to 105.

Reinhardt

 

Earthshatter

• Knockdown duration increased from 2.75 to 3 seconds.
• Shockwave range increased from 20 to 25 meters.

Sigma

Developer Comments: This change will improve Sigma’s ability to protect allies that are further away from him.

 

Experimental Barrier

• Movement speed increased from 16.5 to 20 meters per second.

Wrecking Ball

Developer Comments: The general goals here are to add a direct way for Wrecking Ball to support his allies aside from purely enemy team disruption, make the hero more approachable while also adding more avenues for skill expression, and improve quality of life around the grapple.

 

Grappling Claw

• Hold the jump input while the Grappling Claw is attached to terrain to retract it, pulling yourself towards the anchor point. This action can be rebound in his hero settings.
• Now has a one second cooldown if Wrecking Ball never reaches ramming speed before canceling the ability. Interrupting him with Hack, Hinder, and stuns will still trigger the full cooldown.
• The maximum duration timer no longer triggers unless he reaches ramming speed.

 

Adaptive Shield

• Can now be reactivated to redistribute up to 300 overhealth to nearby allies, capping at 75 per person.
• Enemy and ally detection radius increased from 10 to 13 meters.

 

Minefield

• Health increased from 50 to 60.

DAMAGE

 

Sombra

 

Virus

• Total damage over time decreased from 100 to 90.

Tracer

Developer Comments: There is now more downtime before Tracer can safely reengage after driving her away and Pulse Bomb will require more precision.

 

Recall

• Cooldown increased from 12 to 13 seconds.

 

Pulse Bomb

• Base projectile size decreased from 0.2 to 0.1 meters. The total projectile size is now 0.25 meters.

Venture

Developer Comments: We are redistributing the damage on some of their abilities so that positioning relative to the enemy and tracking a target are more important for dealing maximum damage.

 

Drill Dash

• Impact damage decreased from 60 to 40.
• Damage over time increased from 40 to 60.

 

Clobber

• Impact damage decreased from 40 to 30.
• Damage over time increased from 30 to 40.

 

Tectonic Shock

• Vertical knockback decreased by 30%.

SUPPORT

 

Illari

 

Solar Rifle

• Primary fire recovery increased from 0.2 to 0.25 seconds.
• Secondary fire heal-per-second increased from 105 to 115.

Lúcio

 

Sonic Amplifier

• Damage per projectile decreased from 20 to 18.

 

Soundwave

• Damage increased from 35 to 45.

Lifeweaver

 

Rejuvenating Dash

• Heal increased from 50 to 60.

 

Tree of Life

• Pulse healing increased from 75 to 90.

Moira

 

Biotic Grasp

• Damage per second decreased from 65 to 60.

 

Coalescence

• Self-heal per second increased from 50 to 55.

Bug Fixes

 

General

• Hero Mastery Gauntlet – fixed a bug that could cause more AI teammates than intended.
• Fixed a bug with Wall Climb that could allow Heroes with the passive to climb infinitely.
• Fixed a bug with Diamond, Masters, and Grandmaster not playing any effects when entering the Top 500.
• Fixed a bug with duplicate entries on the Leaderboard.
• Fixed the missing flash notification on taskbar when joining a game as a backfill.

Maps

• Fixed in a previous update – resolved an issue where jump pads could become deactivated.

Circuit Royale

• Fixed an issue with the payload tires launching players unexpectedly.

Paraiso

• Fixed an area near the second point where the payload dock could negatively impact Earth Shatter and Tectonic Shock’s ability to hit larger heroes.

Heroes

Echo

• Fixed an issue with Duplicate that could prevent a death being counted if it was used as Echo falls off the map.

Doomfist

• Fixed an interaction with Mei’s Ice Wall that could allow you to get under the map.
• Fixed a bug with Power Block sounds triggering even if it was not blocking damage.

Illari

• Fixed an issue with Captive Sun affecting targets through floors and ceilings.

Junkrat

• Fixed a bug with Riptire receiving the self-healing passive.

Lifeweaver

• Fixed a bug where some un-targetable heroes could be healed by Tree of Life.

Mauga

• Fixed an interaction with Overrun and Brigitte’s Shield Bash that resulted in Mauga being knocked down with Overrun active.

Mercy

• Fixed a bug with the Caduceus Staff not opening up with the Parasol emote and Pose.

Venture

• Fixed a bug that would prevent Drill Dash from activating while underground if the input was pressed while falling through the air and Burrow was active.
• Fixed a bug where Drill Dash could deal damage multiple times with the initial impact and instantly kill targets or knock them back exceedingly far.
• Fixed a bug where certain heroes were still being pushed back even if they escaped from Drill Dash.
• Fixed a bug where Venture would sometimes launch very far if using Drill Dash off a ledge while Burrowed.
• Fixed a bug where attempting to emerge during Burrow near ledges would sometimes end the ability prematurely.
• Fixed a bug where the third-person camera would snap back to first-person instantly if you were in the air when burrow ended.
• Fixed a bug where UI prompts for emerging and Drill Dash were not visible during Burrow.
• Fixed a bug that could allow players to prevent footfall audio from playing.

• Additional notes: none.
• Source: Blizzard Entertainment

Overwatch 2 – Ver. ???

• Release date: March 19th 2024 (North America, Europe) / March 20th 2024 (Japan)
• Patch notes:

HERO UPDATES

 

TANK

 

Mauga

• Base Health decreased from 400 to 375.

 

Cardiac Overdrive

• No longer fills overhealth on activation.
• Duration increased from 4 to 5 seconds.
• Cooldown increased from 10 to 12 seconds.

DAMAGE

 

Sombra

 

EMP

• The previous reduction to ultimate cost has been reverted.

Symmetra

 

Photon Projector

• Primary fire damage per second decreased from 65 to 60, scaling with all levels. Maximum damage per second is 180.

 

Sentry Turret

• Health decreased from 50 to 40.

• Additional notes: none.
• Source: Blizzard Entertainment

Overwatch 2 – Ver. ???

• Release date: March 12th 2024 (North America, Europe) / March 13th 2024 (Japan)
• Patch notes:

OVERWATCH 2 X COWBOY BEBOP

Celebrate the legendary crew of Bebop in Overwatch 2! Immerse yourself in the iconic saga of Cowboy Bebop with an array of new skins found exclusively in the Overwatch 2 shop. From now until March 25, you can also tackle in-game challenges to answer the call of the bounty hunter and snatch up cosmic cosmetic rewards.

 

GENERAL UPDATES

 

NEW GAME MODE – HERO MASTERY: GAUNTLET

Hero Mastery: Gauntlet is a new co-op game mode where players work together to protect towers from enemy bots. Collect energy and buy powerful upgrades to survive all ten rounds! Focus your skills to earn high scores and compete on the leaderboards. Are you ready to enter the Gauntlet?

• Gauntlet teams can have up to three players and must survive all ten rounds to win. Each game randomizes the upgrades, bots, and targeted towers to keep things fresh.
• The Gauntlet has four difficulties that vary all aspects of gameplay, including score. Work your way up to Legendary and dominate the leaderboards.
• Athena has upgraded the simulation with many new bots for this mode. Be on the lookout for dangerous elite training bots.
• Play with AI mode is available for teams to practice with 1-3 players. Scores and Challenges are not recorded in this mode.

Hero Mastery: Gauntlet is launching with a limited-time event that includes exclusive rewards and challenges. Can you defend the towers and unlock them all?

COMPETITIVE PLAY UPDATES

• Competitive Placements and Overview will now be displayed before Hero Progression at the end of a Competitive Match.
• Competitive Rank Range has been added to the scoreboard so players can view the rank range of a match at any time.
• Modifiers can now be viewed outside of the Competitive Overview with a rank info button found on the Competitive Play menu.
• A new modifier called “Demotion Protection” has been added to the Competitive Overview to notify players that if they lose another game, they will be demoted to the next lowest division.

HERO UPDATES

Developer Comments: This patch is focused on fine-tuning some of the systemic hero changes made in Season 9. In addition, we’re adjusting individual abilities to make them feel more impactful due to heroes having larger health pools.

 

PROJECTILE SIZE UPDATES

• Global projectile size modifier for travel time projectiles with a speed greater than 50 meters per second reduced from 0.1 to 0.075 meters.

Developer Comments: We are decreasing the size of the fastest travel time projectiles because it reduces the frequency of these projectiles failing to headshot due to hitting the enemy’s chest hit volume first.

ROLE PASSIVES UPDATES

• Heal reduction applied by the damage role passive lowered from 20% to 15%.

Developer Comments: The Damage role passive reduces the potency of in-combat healing and helps equalize the effectiveness between burst and damage over time. Nevertheless, we are going to experiment with a lower value to relieve some of the pressure on tank and support roles. We’ll be keeping a close eye on this change as we want the healing reduction to still be noticeable.

OTHER HERO UPDATES

• Added a new UI element above the player’s first-person health bar to show all active healing status effects (Anti-Heal, Amplified Healing, Reduced Healing).

TANK

Doomfist

 

Meteor Strike

• Minimum damage increased from 15 to 50.

Mauga

Developer Comments: We are changing Cardiac Overdrive to make it more forgiving when used for yourself especially when Mauga is low health.

 

Overrun

• Stomp damage increased from 45 to 60.

 

Cardiac Overdrive

• Duration reduced from 5 to 4 seconds.
• Cooldown reduced from 12 to 10 seconds.
• Now fills his passive overhealth by 100.

Orisa

 

Terra Surge

• Charge rate for the first 2.5 seconds increased by 25%.

Ramattra

 

Ravenous Vortex

• Total damage increased from 45 to 70.
• Cooldown decreased from 12 to 11 seconds.

Reinhardt

• Armor increased from 275 to 300.

 

Fire Strike

• Damage increased from 100 to 120.

Roadhog

Developer Comments: We’re improving the consistency of the Hook combo. Enemies are pulled closer to Roadhog and aren’t launched as high when Pig Pen activates, making the Scrap Gun follow-up shot more consistent.

 

Chain Hook

• The enemy final position distance from Roadhog after being pulled decreased from 4 to 3 meters.

 

Pig Pen

• Vertical knockback on activation decreased by 43%

DAMAGE

Hanzo

Developer Comments: We’re reverting the previous change to the base projectile size of Hanzo’s arrows and replacing it with the general global reduction, which affects all travel time projectiles with a speed greater than 50 meters per second, resulting in Hanzo’s arrow projectile staying the same total size as before this patch.

• Base projectile sizes increased from 0.075 to 0.1 meters. The total projectile size, when combined with the general hero change, is still 0.175 meters.

 

Mei

 

Endothermic Blaster

• Ammo increased from 120 to 140.

 

Cryofreeze

• Heal per second increased from 50 to 62.5.

Reaper

 

Death Blossom

• Damage per second increased from 170 to 185.
• Ultimate cost decreased by 12%.

Sombra

Developer Comments: Virus deals critical impact damage when it hits Hacked targets, and this change makes using it as a follow-up more compelling. The Translocator now destroys breakable objects, preventing Sombra from teleporting a shorter distance than expected.

 

Virus

• Impact damage increased from 10 to 25.

 

Translocator

• Destroys breakables while in flight.

 

EMP

• Ultimate cost reduced by 8%.

Symmetra

 

Photon Projector

• Primary fire damage per second increased from 60 to 65, scaling with each stage. The new maximum damage per second is 195.

 

Sentry Turret

• Health increased from 30 to 50.
• Damage per second increased from 25 to 30.

 

Teleporter

• Health increased from 50 to 100.
• Shields increased from 150 to 200.

Torbjörn

 

Deploy Turret

• Turret damage increased from 11 to 13.

SUPPORT

 

Ana

 

Biotic Grenade

• Explosion damage and healing increased from 60 to 90.

Brigitte

 

Repair Pack

• Cooldown reduced from 6 to 5 seconds.

 

Rally

• Cost reduced 8%.

Illari

Developer Comments: We are adjusting the firing cadence of the Solar Rifle, making it more responsive to use and increasing the damage per second but not the burst damage.

 

Solar Rifle

• Primary fire recovery time reduced from 0.3 to 0.2 seconds.
• Maximum charge time reduced from 0.7 to 0.65 seconds.

Lifeweaver

Developer Comments: We’re increasing the burst potential of the Heal Blossom to reinforce Lifeweaver’s role as a high healing throughput support. The heal per second is roughly the same as before, but individual Heal Blossoms can be charged further.

 

Heal Blossom

• Maximum heal amount increased from 70 to 80.
• Maximum charge time increased from 1 to 1.15 seconds.

BUG FIXES

 

GENERAL

• Fixed an issue that caused the B button on gamepads to close a Replay instead of opening the Bookmarks.
• Fixed a bug that made all Souvenirs face backward when previewing them in the Battlepass.
• Fixed a bug with the ‘more items in shop’ button in the Event Hub, taking players to a blank screen.
• Fixed a bug that caused your own Progression Screen to display when viewing another player’s Progression Screen.
• Fixed a display issue that sometimes caused the Rank Update Progress Bar to display incorrect values.
• Fixed an issue that prevented the ‘Ring’ dot reticle from displaying correctly for all heroes.
• Fixed an issue that prevented you from opening the Options menu while a Deathmatch game was ending.
• Fixed a bug in Mystery Heroes that could cause jump pads to be disabled for players.
• Leaves now correctly count as a loss during Competitive Placements Matches.

Hero Mastery

• Fixed a bug that gave Echo full Ultimate charge after restarting a run.

MAPS

Junkertown

• Fixed some spots where the lighting was incorrect.

King’s Row

• Fixed an area of the map that allowed players to escape the playable space.

Samoa

• Fixed some areas that allowed Torbjorn’s turret to be almost fully obfuscated by the environment.

HEROES

• Fixed a bug that caused the DPS Passive to not be applied by: Symettra and Torbjorn Turrets, Riptire, and B.O.B.

Lifeweaver

• Fixed an interaction with Tree of Life and Mauga that could launch Cage Fight into the sky.
• Fixed a specific instance that allowed Life Grip to pull allies to their death.

• Additional notes: none.
• Source: Blizzard Entertainment

Overwatch 2 – Ver. ???

• Release date: February 21st 2024 (North America, Europe) / February 22nd 2024 (Japan)
• Patch notes:

HERO UPDATES

 

TANK

 

D.Va

 

Light Gun

• Base projectile size reduced from 0.25 to 0.2 meters. Total projectile size is now 0.3 meters.

Roadhog

 

Take a Breather

• Damage reduction increased from 40 to 50%.

Zarya

 

Particle Cannon

• Primary fire minimum damage increased from 85 to 95 damage per second.
• Primary fire maximum damage increased from 170 to 190 damage per second.

DAMAGE

 

Hanzo

• Base projectile sizes reduced from 0.1 to 0.075 meters. Total projectile size is now 0.175 meters.

Junkrat

 

Concussion Mine

• Cooldown decreased from 8 to 7 seconds.
• Maximum damage increased from 110 to 120.
• Minimum damage increased from 20 to 55.

Soldier: 76

 

Heavy Pulse Rifle

• Now uses the smaller 0.05 meter hitscan projectile size modifier. Total projectile size is now 0.05 meters .

Tracer

 

Pulse Pistols

• Minimum falloff range reduced from 12 to 10.

Widowmaker

 

Widow’s Kiss

• Now uses the smaller 0.05 meter hitscan projectile size modifier. Total projectile size is now 0.05 meters.
• Scoped shot damage falloff min-max range increased from 40-60 to 50-70 meters.

SUPPORT

 

Illari

 

Healing Pylon

• Cooldown decreased from 8 to 6 seconds.
• Cooldown when destroyed by enemies decreased from 15 to 12 seconds.

 

Captive Sun

• Sunstruck explosion damage increased from 100 to 160.
• Sunstruck explosion now has damage falloff again, reducing damage by up to 25%.

Lúcio

 

Sonic Amplifier

• Base projectile size reduced from 0.15 to 0.1 meters. Total projectiles size is now 0.25 meters.

Mercy

 

Caduceus Blaster

• Base projectile size reduced from 0.25 to 0.2 meters. Total projectile size is now 0.3 meters.

Zenyatta

• Base health decreased from 100 to 75.

 

Snap Kick

• Knockback decreased 25%.

• Additional notes: none.
• Source: Blizzard Entertainment

WELCOME TO SEASON 9: CHAMPIONS

Season 9 brings core gameplay updates, a reworked Competitive game mode, and a new Co-op event that will test the courage of even the bravest heroes as they face a dangerous threat of cosmic proportions.

 

NEW EVENT: COSMIC CRISIS

Face off against eldritch abominations in the twisted reality of Cosmic Crisis, a brand-new co-op mission. Work with three other players to repair your ship and escape the Ruins of Ecopoint Antarctica while fighting off the monstrous Null Sector. But keep an eye out for your teammates… an ancient power lurks in the shadows, waiting for its chance to strike.

 

COMPETITIVE PLAY UPDATES

Developer Comments: With your feedback, we’ve made new improvements to Competitive Play that aim to provide more transparency into your progress after every match; plus, we introduced a new skill tier and new Competitive Rewards to earn.

 

Skill Rank Reset

• Given the significant changes to our heroes and the addition of a new skill tier, this reset is designed to give all players a chance to climb higher than ever before.
• All ranks in Role Queue and Open Queue in Competitive Play have been reset to Unranked.

Placement Matches

• Placements have been rebuilt from the ground up. Your predicted rank will be displayed after each placement match.
• You must complete 10 matches in a role to receive your Skill Rank for that role.
• Winning your placements will have a significant impact on your final rank.

Competitive Updates

• Competitive Updates have been reworked. Instead of requiring five wins or 15 losses to get a Competitive Update, updates now happen after every match.
• Going forward, the Competitive Updates page now hosts information about your ranks in Role Queue and Open Queue, as well as your progress toward Competitive Point rewards

Skill Modifiers

• Modifiers now appear on the Competitive Progress page after each match.
• Skill modifiers provide information on how much a rank will gain or lose progress after a match, including win or loss streaks, rank instability, and match favorability.

New Skill Tier – Champion

• A new rank has been added above Grandmaster, called Champion, that is more exclusive than any other rank in Overwatch. Only an exceedingly small percentage of players will ever occupy this echelon of Competitive Play

Versus Screen

• The range of ranks for players in a match of Competitive Play is now displayed on the same screen where both teams are shown with their name cards, player icons, and titles.

New Grouping Requirements

• Bronze through Diamond Players may group with other players within 2 Skill Tiers of their own Skill Rank.
• Master players may group with other players within 1 Skill Tier of their own Skill Rank.
• Grandmaster players may group with other players within 3 Skill Divisions of their own Skill Rank.
• Champion players may group with only one other player within 3 Skill Divisions of their own Skill Rank.

Art & UI Updates

• Skill Tier and Skill Division art for rank icons have been redesigned for improved readability.
• The Competitive Skill Tier legend has been redesigned to include updated and new relevant information.

Competitive Points

• Each win now grants 10 Competitive Points.
• Each draw now grants 5 Competitive Points.
• Each loss still grants 0 Competitive Points.

Competitive Progression

• Competitive Challenges that award additional Competitive Points at the end of the season have been replaced with a new Competitive Progression system.
• Every match grants progress toward your Competitive Progression meter, and after earning 30 you will receive an additional 100 Competitive Points.
• Wins award 3 progress toward your Competitive Progression meter. Draws and Losses award 1 progress.

Matchmaking Rating

• At the start of this season only, the internal Matchmaking Ratings for all players have been adjusted to push players closer to the normalized average (approximately at Gold 3).
• Matchmaking Ratings have been decayed. The higher the rank, the more it has been decayed.
• Most players will start at a lower skill rank and division than their most recent rank.

Competitive Challenges

• Competitive challenges removed. Rewards and progress for Competitive Play are now displayed on the Competitive Progress page and titles are rewarded at the end of the season.

GENERAL UPDATES

 

PLAYER PROGRESSION

• Added a new set of visual upgrades. Hero/Game Mode badge upgrades start at Level 500. Progression Level badge upgrades start at Level 2500.
• Wrecking Ball title rewards are renamed from “Champion” to “Champ” to align with Junker Queen’s usage of the title (and to avoid confusion with the new Champion rank).
• Adjusted amount needed to level up certain sub-badges for Mauga and Illari.

FRIEND ENDORSEMENTS

• The endorsement is only eligible if you’re in the match for a set duration.
• Endorsements are subject to the configured cooldown period of 12 hours.
• Endorsements are subject to cooldown even if you unfriend the recipient.

SETTINGS

• Added a feature for controller/keyboard users that remembers what you had focus when backing out of screens.

CROSSHAIR UPDATES

New Reticle Types have been added.

• Square
• Box
• Line
• Triwing
• Falloff

New Reticle Dots have been added.

• Ring
• Square
• Triangle
• Cross
• Heart

New Reticle color options have been added.

• Brown
• Dark Red
• Light Red
• Light Purple
• Gray
• Teal

HERO UPDATES

Developer Comments: Season 9 features changes to the fundamentals of Overwatch 2 gameplay that affect every hero. We’ve heard the community feedback around some gameplay pain points, and these changes are in response to many of those.

 

GENERAL

Most damage-dealing projectile sizes have been increased by a new global modifier added to their base size.

• +0.05 meters for hitscan projectiles with a high rate of fire or spread (e.g., Tracer’s Pulse Pistols or Reaper’s Hellfire Shotguns).
• +0.08 meters for hitscan projectiles that are more precise (e.g., Cassidy’s Peacekeeper or Soldier:76’s Heavy Pulse Rifle).
• +0.05 meters for travel time projectiles that are shotguns or have a very high rate of fire (e.g., Roadhog’s Scrap Gun or Ramattra’s Void Accelerator).
• +0.10 meters for travel time projectile with a speed greater than 50 meters per second (e.g., Zenyatta’s Destruction Orb).
• +0.15 meters for travel time projectile with a speed less than or equal to 50 meters per second (e.g., Pharah’s Rocket Launcher).
• Very large projectiles with a base size greater than 0.5 meters have been excluded from these increases (e.g., Orisa’s Energy Javelin or Reinhardt’s Fire Strike).

Hero combined HP (base health/armor/shields) increased by 15-25%.

• 150-175 HP heroes increased by 25 HP.
• 200-300 HP heroes increased by 50 HP.
• 300+ HP (Tanks) increased by 75-100 HP.
• Each hero’s precise health increases are listed in their patch notes below.

Ultimate Charge

• All Ultimate ability costs increased by 10%.

Regenerative Passive for All Heroes

• All heroes now regenerate 20 health per second after 5 seconds of not taking damage.

Support Role Passive

• Now reduces the delay before regeneration begins by half (2.5 seconds).

Damage Role Passive

• Reload speed bonus on elimination has been removed.
• New role passive: Dealing damage reduces enemy healing received by 20% for 2 seconds.

Quick Melee

• Damage increased from 30 to 40.

TANK

 

D.Va

• Pilot health increased from 150 to 175.
• Mech armor increased from 300 to 375.

 

Self-Destruct

• Explosion maximum damage increased from 900 to 1000.
• Inner explosion radius (range for maximum damage before falloff begins) increased from 4 to 6 meters.

Doomfist

• Health increased from 300 to 375.

 

Rocket Punch

• Max impact damage increased from 50 to 75.
• Max wall slam damage increased from 30 to 40.

Junker Queen

• Health increased from 300 to 375.

 

Rampage

• Wound damage over time increased from 60 to 90

Mauga

• Health increased from 300 to 400.

 

Orisa

• Armor increased from 275 to 350.

 

Ramattra

• Health increased from 200 to 275.

 

Reinhardt

• Health increased from 200 to 250.
• Armor increased from 250 to 275.

 

Rocket Hammer

• Damage increased from 85 to 100.

 

Charge

• Wall impact damage increased from 225 to 275.

Roadhog

• Health increased from 550 to 650.

 

Sigma

• Shields increased from 200 to 275.

 

Winston

• Health increased from 200 to 225.
• Armor increased from 200 to 250.

 

Tesla Cannon

• Primary Fire damage increased from 60 to 75 damage per second.

 

Primal Rage

• Punch damage increased from 40 to 50.

Wrecking Ball

• Armor increased from 100 to 175.

 

Zarya

• Health increased from 100 to 175.

 

Particle Cannon

• Primary fire beam width increased from 0.15 to 0.2 meters.

DAMAGE

 

Ashe

• Health increased from 200 to 250.

 

B.O.B.

• B.O.B.’s weapon damage increased from 14 to 17.

Bastion

• Health increased from 200 to 250.

 

Cassidy

• Health increased from 225 to 275.

 

Deadeye

• Initial damage rate increased from 130 to 150.
• Damage rate increased from 260 to 300.

Echo

• Health increased from 200 to 250.

 

Focusing Beam

• Width increased from 0.2 to 0.25 meters.

 

Duplicate

• Maximum combined health value increased from 300 to 350.

Genji

• Health increased from 200 to 250.

 

Dragonblade

• Swing recovery decreased from 0.9 to 0.7 seconds.

Hanzo

• Health increased from 200 to 250.

 

Storm Arrows

• Damage increased from 65 to 75.
• Cooldown reduced from 10 to 8 seconds.

Junkrat

• Health increased from 200 to 250.

 

Frag Launcher

• Base projectile size reduced from 0.25 to 0.2 meters.

Mei

• Health increased from 250 to 300.

 

Pharah

Developer Comments: Pharah has a significant update that empowers more individual plays and shifting her movement capabilities from high up in the air to more horizontal movement that can cover distance quickly.

• Health increased from 200 to 250.

 

Rocket Launcher

• Recovery reduced from 0.85 to 0.80 seconds.
• Projectile speed increased from 35 to 40 meters per second.
• Explosion self-damage reduced from 50% to 25%.

 

Jet Dash

• New Secondary Fire Ability.
• Provides a quick horizontal boost in the direction Pharah is moving.
• 8-second cooldown.
• Added a setting to activate Jet Dash on Double Jump instead.

 

Jump Jet

• Now restores 50% of Hover Jets fuel and can briefly overfill the maximum fuel amount.
• Vertical boost height reduced by 20%.
• Cooldown increased from 10 to 14 seconds.

 

 

• Cooldown decreased from 9 to 7 seconds.
• Explosion now deals 30 damage to enemy targets.
• Explosion radius reduced from 8 to 6 meters.
• Knockback reduced by 10%.

 

Barrage

• Now instantly refills Hover Jets fuel.

 

Hover Jets

• Speed boost increased from 20% to 40%.
• Now requires landing to recharge fuel.
• Can now be activated without fuel to slow your descent.

Reaper

• Health increased from 250 to 300.

 

Sojourn

• Health increased from 200 to 250.

 

Railgun

• Secondary Fire base projectile size reduced from 0.1 to 0.07 meters.

Soldier: 76

• Health increased from 200 to 250.

 

Sombra

• Health increased from 200 to 250.

 

Symmetra

• Shields increased from 100 to 150.

 

Photon Projector

• Primary fire beam width increased from 0.2 to 0.25 meters.

Torbjörn

• Health increased from 200 to 250.

 

Tracer

• Health increased from 150 to 175.

 

Widowmaker

• Health increased from 175 to 200.

 

SUPPORT

 

Ana

• Health increased from 200 to 250.

 

Baptiste

• Health increased from 200 to 250.

 

Brigitte

• Health increased from 150 to 200.

 

Rocket Flail

• Damage increased from 35 to 45.

Illari

• Health increased from 200 to 250.

 

Kiriko

• Health increased from 200 to 250.

 

Kunai

• Base projectile size reduced from 0.18 to 0.15 meters.

Lifeweaver

• Health increased from 175 to 225.

 

Lúcio

• Health increased from 200 to 250

 

Soundwave

• Damage increased from 25 to 35.
• Knockback increased 12%.
• Movement lockout duration increased from 0.3 to 0.45 seconds.

Moira

• Health increased from 200 to 250.

 

Biotic Grasp

• Secondary fire damage increased from 50 to 65 damage per second.
• Secondary fire target acquisition radius increased from 0.6 to 0.7 meters.

Zenyatta

• Health increased from 75 to 100.
• Shields increased from 150 to 175.

 

MAP UPDATES

 

JUNKERTOWN UPDATE

• New nighttime lighting theme.
• New building near the first point to provide more cover & block long sightlines.
• Added a water tower near the first point to block sightlines from upper choke positions.
• Added more vehicles near the cliff to provide additional cover & block long sightlines.
• Reduced the cliffside path to tighten the space and reduce the overall footprint of the area.
• Removed a small health pack on the second area balcony that was easy for defenders to overuse.
• Added vertical beam at second choke point to promote movement out of the upper floor & make the choke easier to defend.
• Widened and added cover in a hallway in the third area to make close quarter fights easier to maneuver.

Developer Comments: We’ve added more cover—including new structures—to help counter some of the long sightlines around the first checkpoint. Additional changes in the third area allow attackers to push through certain chokes more easily.

 

BUG FIXES

 

GENERAL

• Fixed an issue with some shadows that could appear jagged when on any setting below Ultra.
• Fixed a bug that prevented your skin from changing when using the Change Skin option in Hero Select if you had a Loadout selected.
• Fixed a bug with Golden Weapons being marked as unspecified and not being purchasable.
• Fixed a bug with some callouts for pushing the payload playing at incorrect moments.
• Fixed an issue with Wall Climb failing in some situations.
• Additional bug fixes for general stability and performance.

MAPS

Antarctic Peninsula

• Fixed lighting in some areas of the map.

King’s Row

• Fixed areas of the map that were missing collision.

Midtown

• Fixed some locations that could cause some heroes to become stuck

Shambali Monastery

• Fixed a location of the map that displayed incorrect textures.

HEROES

Doomfist

• Fixed a bug with Meteor Strike that could result in Doomfist getting inside the environment.
• Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented Seismic Slam’s damage from going through turrets.
• Fixed a bug that could prevent Doomfist from acquiring Overhealth in some cases.
• Fixed a bug where Rocket Punch left a small window of time open to use abilities.

Echo

• Fixed an interaction when Duplicating Bastion that prevented the Duplicated Configuration: Artillery’s shots from landing if Duplicate ended before they landed.

Lifeweaver

• Fixed a bug that prevented Tree of Life from healing Reaper when in Wraith form.

Lúcio

• Amp it Up now goes on cooldown if interrupted by stun during its cast time or when dying while it’s active.

Mauga

• Fixed a bug with the burning applied by Mauga not being removed when picking up a health pack.

Orisa

• Terra Surge now correctly pulls in and damages enemies that are on uneven slopes/collision, as long as Orisa has a direct line of sight, they will get pulled/damaged.

Roadhog

• Fixed a bug with Roadhog’s model becoming distorted with some skins during the Heroic Highlight intro.
• Fixed a bug with Pig Pen displaying a Junkrat icon when pinged.

Sombra

• Fixed an interaction that prevented Hack from being interrupted by Rocket Punch or Shield Bash.
• Fixed a bug where Sombra would enter Stealth while escorting the robot in some situations.

Torbjörn

• Fixed a bug with disabling the Interact Cancel Deploy Turret setting causing you to only destroy a deployed turret and not toss out a new one when the ability is used.

Winston

• Fixed a bug with Primal Rage that interrupted the ability to attack if the Ultimate was initiated while Jumping and using Melee at the same time.

Zenyatta

• Golden weapon tint should now properly be reflected on all skins.

• Additional notes: none.
• Source: Blizzard Entertainment

Overwatch 2 – Ver. ???

• Release date: January 17th 2024 (North America, Europe) / January 18th 2024 (Japan)
• Patch notes:

BUG FIXES

General

• Fixed a bug that prevented enemy Pings from displaying if Ping was pressed twice

HEROES

Illari

• Fixed an issue preventing Illari’s ammunition from working correctly

• Additional notes: none.
• Source: Blizzard Entertainment

Let’s Hack Into Quick Play

¡Hola amigos! This is Sombra. I was a little bored and figured we should have some fun this weekend. ¿Qué te parece? So, I decided to hack into the game and change the rules of Quick Play to make things more… interesting for a little while. I call it: “Quick Play: Hacked!”

 

Quicker Play

For my first hack, I thought we could use a little change of pace. “Quick Play?” Why not “Quicker Play!” Faster Respawns, less time on the clock, and faster capture and payload movement speeds. Think you can keep up? BOOP!

• Respawning times are now 75% of their original time.
• Payloads in Escort and Hybrid maps will move 60% faster.
• Taking control of the Objective Point in Hybrid is 40% faster than normal.
• Taking control of the objective point in Control is 40% faster than normal, and scoring the capture progress percentage is 80% faster.
• Taking control of the objective point in Flashpoint is 20% faster than normal, and scoring the capture progress percentage is 40% faster.
• When you play an Escort, Hybrid, or Push map, the initial match time has been reduced to 70% of the original time, and any time extensions are also reduced to 70% of the total time added.
• These changes only apply to all players who play in Role Queue and Open Queue Quick Play modes during the duration of the event and will return to normal after January 14. Competitive Play and Arcade modes are not affected by these changes.

• Additional notes: none.
• Source: Blizzard Entertainment

Year of the Dragon Seasonal Event

The fireworks and festivities for the Year of the Dragon begin on January 30! Mischief and Magic prop hunt game mode returns on the Lijiang Night Market map, with all new props for Rogue Kiriko to transform into that will make you look in every direction imaginable. In addition, celebrate with your fan-favorite Lunar New Year Modes, including Capture the Flag and Bounty Hunter Blitz.

 

HERO UPDATES

 

TANK

 

Mauga

• Base Health increased from 250 to 300.
• Base Armor decreased from 250 to 200.

 

Incendiary and Volatile Chainguns

• Ammo decreased from 350 to 300.

 

Cardiac Overdrive

• Lifesteal decreased from 70% to 60%.
• Cooldown increased from 10 seconds to 12 seconds.

 

Cage Fight

• No longer grants infinite ammo. Still reloads Mauga’s Chainguns at the start of the ultimate.

 

Berserker

• Overhealth conversion rate decreased from 60% to 50%.

Orisa

 

Augmented Fusion Driver

• Removed falloff damage penalty.

 

Fortify

• Now immune to taking forced critical hit damage. Fortify already prevents direct critical damage from headshots.

Roadhog

 

Take a Breather

• Total amount healed reduced from 500 to 450.
• Cooldown between usages increased from 1 to 1.5 seconds.

DAMAGE

 

Sojourn

 

Railgun

• Gradual energy no longer decays below 25%.

Sombra

 

Stealth

• Grace period where Stealth can be canceled immediately after entering it increased from 0.5 to 0.75 seconds.
• Cooldown now pauses at 1 second while capturing or contesting objectives from 1.5 seconds.
• Cooldown on respawning decreased from 1.5 to 1 second.

SUPPORTS

 

Ana

 

Biotic Grenade

• Effect duration reduced from 3.5 to 3 seconds.

Illari

 

Solar Rifle

• Primary fire charge gain is no longer paused by secondary fire, nor channeling Captive Sun.
• Ammo increased from 14 to 16.

 

Captive Sun

• Now fully refills secondary fire resource and resets overheated status.
• Removed the damage falloff penalty on the Sunstruck explosion.

Lifeweaver

 

Thorn Volley

• Projectile speed increased from 70 to 80 meters per second.

 

Petal Platform

• No longer pierced by piercing projectiles.

BUG FIXES

 

General

• Fixed a bug that caused Endorsement Level to appear incorrectly in Custom Games.
• Increased the volume and clarity of Ultimate voice over lines.
• Fixed missing Multikill voice-overs from activating when criteria is met.
• Fixed the ‘Rugby Practice’ challenge not progressing.
• Fixed a bug when spectating that caused the camera to become stuck on 2 members of the team.
• Fixed an issue that prevented the ‘Hero Limit’ option from saving after being modified in Custom Game options.
• Fixed an issue with Reticle options where Dot Size and Outline Thickness would change the reticle appearance even if their opacity was set to 0.
• Fixed a crash related to viewing replays.
• Fixed a bug that prevented you from being able to manually enter the value for Maximum Queue Delay in Streamer Protect settings (this value could always be set using the slider).

Heroes

• Fixed a bug that allowed abilities with shockwaves to hit targets in a floor below.

Bastion

• Fixed an issue with Bastion’s hitbox becoming desynchronized while in Assault mode.

Doomfist

• Fixed a bug with Rocket Punch that could cause the targets of the punch to potentially lose their walking animation.

Echo

• Fixed a bug that occurred when an Echo copied Sigma’s Kinetic Grasp would not grow when taking damage.

Illari

• Fixed a bug where the Sunstruck effect wouldn’t detonate if the damage threshold was reached in the last 0.6 seconds of the effect.

Mercy

• Fixed an issue that reduced Guardian Angels active duration by cancelling the ability while simultaneously pressing crouch or jump.
• Fixed an issue that forced Mercy to reload if Valkryie was activated during the reload animation.

• Additional notes: none.
• Source: Blizzard Entertainment