New game mode - Hero mastery

Hero updates

Junker Queen

Jagged Blade

• Impact damage increased from 50 to 65.

Orisa

Fortify

• Cooldown begins when the ability is activated instead of when it ends.
• Cooldown increased from 12 to 16.5 seconds.
• Overhealth bonus decreased from 125 to 100.

Zarya

Projected Barrier

• Health increased from 200 to 225.
• Cooldown decreased from 10 to 8 seconds.
• Size increased 15%.

Ashe

The Viper

• Reload time decreased from .25 to .2 seconds.

Bastion

A-36 Tactical Grenade

• Impact damage decreased from 30 to 15.

Configuration: Artillery

• Can no longer deal critical hits.

Mei

Endothermic Blaster

• Damage increased from 65 to 70 per second.
• Duration before slow falls off between primary fire hits increased from 0.5 to 0.6 seconds.

Deep Chill

• Bonus damage can now also be triggered with Mei's quick melee.

Support Passive

• Duration until support passive activates increased from 1.5 to 2 seconds.

Baptiste

Regenerative Burst

• Instant healing decreased from 50 to 40.
• Heal over time decreased from 50 over 5 seconds to 40 over 4 seconds.

Kiriko

Protection Suzu

• Now passes through enemy heroes.

ILLARI

Healing Pylon

• Heal decreased from 40 to 30.
• Shields decreased from 75 to 50.

Captive Sun

• Projectile Impact and explosion are now blocked by barriers.
• Projectile size decreased from 1.5 to 0.75 meters.
• Sunstruck duration decreased from 7 to 6 seconds.

And yes as expected you don't need bnet installed to play, just need to link your Steam and Blizzard accounts.

From briefly giving it another shot after quitting it 3 months into the mess that is - IMO - Overwatch 2, I am not only confused by the sheer avalanche of bars, popups and numbers and progressions that emulate an actual meaningful system or at least try to, but I can also say that sadly, not much has changed for the better.

Two more support heroes is good and they're both very well made in graphics and sound. Balance is still utterly all over the place and still reels from the removal of the second tank and a lack of a full-game rebalancing effort to accomodate such a sweeping change.

Ah well, still. Nice to see one less launcher. Hopefully their other games all come to Steam and ideally other sites, too.

ILLARI

• Illari has been added to the line-up.

Solar Rifle (Primary Fire)

• Long-range auto-charging rifle.

Solar Rifle (Secondary Fire)

• Medium-range healing beam that consumes solar energy.

Outburst (Ability 1)

• Launches you in the direction you are moving, knocking back enemies. Hold jump to go higher.

Healing Pylon (Ability 2)

• Deploy a pylon that heals allies.

Captive Sun (Ultimate)

• Fire an explosive ball of solar energy. Enemies hit are slowed and explode after taking significant damage.

• New Game Mode - Flashpoint
• Invasion Story Missions
• New Limited Time Evento: King's Row - Underworld

(read more details int the link post)

D.VA

Developer Comments: Once D.Va’s mech was destroyed, there was a window of time where the pilot could be damaged or killed before the player fully had control over their character. With this change, D.Va can no longer be damaged by things like explosions or melee attacks before the player fully transitions control from the mech to the pilot.

Boosters

• Cooldown reduced from 4 to 3.5 seconds.

Eject Mech

• Pilot is now damage immune for 0.4 seconds while ejecting.

DOOMFIST

Developer Comments: Doomfist is performing well overall but tends to have more deaths on average compared to other Tank heroes. Lowering the Seismic Slam cooldown will reduce downtime in his ability rotations and translate into more survivability due to the increased mobility and potential for generating overhealth more often with his passive ability. Additionally, Power Block will now always reduce explosive damage from a projectile stuck directly to Doomfist, even though normally you have to face the direction of the incoming damage to block it.

Seismic Slam

• Cooldown reduced from 7 to 6 seconds.

Power Block

• Now reduces damage from stuck projectiles.

RAMATTRA

Developer Comments: Similar to Doomfist’s Power Block change, Ramattra’s Block ability will now always apply damage reduction to projectiles stuck directly to him. His Annihilation ultimate ability was being generated slightly too quickly for how impactful it can be, so we are increasing its ultimate cost.

Block (Nemesis Form)

• Block now reduces damage from stuck projectiles.

Annihilation

• Ultimate cost increased 12%.
• Block now reduces damage from stuck projectiles.

SIGMA

Developer Comments: Sigma has always had somewhat floatier movement controls than most heroes in order to match his character movement animations. However, this led players to feel like his Tank role passive ability wasn’t reducing the amount he would be knocked back since it took him longer to stop than other tanks. We’ve now adjusted this to the standard hero movement values to make the gameplay interactions feel more consistent.

• Base movement ground deceleration increased to match standard heroes movement.

WINSTON

Developer Comments: Winston’s Tesla Cannon ranged attack had a decently long charge time relative to the damage it deals. These adjustments will make it more responsive to charge and fire, which can be useful for situations such as finishing off low health enemies attempting to flee, or poking at enemies before leaping in. This comes at the cost of taking a longer time to recover after firing, which in some cases will be weaker as a burst-damage combo with Jump Pack and primary fire.

Tesla Cannon

• Secondary fire charge time reduced from 1.2 to 1 second.
• Secondary fire recovery time increased from 0.5 to 0.75 seconds.

BASTION

Developer Comments: There are several small tuning adjustments to Bastion here with the goal of improving overall effectiveness, as Bastion’s weakness of being a large and immobile target has proven tough to overcome, even with such powerful damage potential.

A-36 Tactical Grenade

• Maximum explosion damage falloff reduced from 70% to 50%.
• Detonation time reduced from 0.5 to 0.35 seconds.
• Recoil adjusted to recover more quickly.
• Projectile size increased from 0.2 to 0.25.
• Impact damage increased from 15 to 30.

Configuration: Recon

• Reload time reduced from 1.5 to 1.2 seconds.

Configuration: Assault

• Transforming into Configuration Assault now repairs 50 armor health.

Configuration: Artillery

• Targeting state movement speed increased from 20 to 25 meters per second.

CASSIDY

Developer Comments: Even with the powerful and reworked Magnetic Grenade, Cassidy has still been underperforming, so we are reverting his maximum health back up to 225, having his gun damage falloff reach its full reduction sooner, and restricting the maximum range on magnetic grenade to help solidify his position as a close-to-mid range damage dealer.

• Base health increased from 200 to 225.

Peacekeeper

• Peacekeeper damage falloff range rescaled from 25-45 meters to 25-35 meters.

Magentic Grenade

• Projectile now has a maximum travel time of 1.5 seconds.
• Slow amount reduced from 30 to 25%.

HANZO

Developer Comments: Despite being conceptually strange, this gameplay mechanic felt good and fluid to use as Hanzo. However, it often resulted in some frustrating behavior for enemy players that can be alleviated without impacting Hanzo’s overall effectiveness too significantly.

Storm Bow

• Arrow draw progress is no longer preserved while wall climbing.

Soldier: 76

Developer Comments: Soldier: 76 became much more deadly after his last round of changes so we are reverting the Helix Rocket explosion damage to lower his burst damage. We are also increasing his Tactical Visor ultimate cost to help account for his overall increased damage output, both during the ultimate and leading up to it.

Helix Rocket

• Explosion damage reduced from 90 to 80.

Tactical Visor

• Ultimate cost increased 10%.

SOMBRA

Developer Comments: EMP frequency is a little too high given its relative power so we are increasing its cost. It will now also deal the usual percentage of max health damage to Lifeweaver’s Tree of Life ultimate instead of treating it like a barrier and destroying it instantly.

EMP

• Ultimate cost increased 15%.
• No longer destroys Lifeweaver's Tree of Life.

TORBJÖRN

Developer Comments: We are continuing to add power into the Rivet Gun, as the previous changes didn’t quite make up for the turret damage decrease. In addition, we are also improving the Forge Hammer swing speed so that it is more effective to repair a turret while it is under fire.

• Weapon swap time reduced from 0.5 to 0.4 seconds.

Rivet Gun

• Primary fire recovery time reduced from 0.55 to 0.48 seconds.

Forge Hammer

• Swing recovery time reduced from 0.75 to 0.6 seconds.

ANA

Developer Comment: Ana's damage breakpoint change has proven too effective overall given her long range so we are reverting it back to its previous value. We are also increasing the size of unscoped projectiles when firing at enemies (her projectiles have always had a larger size for allies) which should help them land more consistently against close-ranged threats.

Biotic Rifle

• Damage and healing per projectile reduced from 75 to 70.
• Unscoped projectile size increased from 0 to 0.1.

BRIGITTE

Developer Comment: Brigitte's overall effectiveness and survivability have been high relative to other heroes, so we are reducing the Barrier Shield health. We’re also slightly adjusting the ultimate cost of Rally, as it has become more effective after its rework.

Barrier Shield

• Barrier Shield health reduced from 300 to 250.

Rally

• Ultimate cost increased 6%.

KIRIKO

Developer Comment: Protection Suzu now rewards more deliberate usage by increasing its healing when cleansing negative effects. It will no longer knockback enemies, as it wasn't particularly important to its overall design and was there to provide feedback for the impact. These Kunai changes will make the weapon damage output more consistent and reduce some of the disparity between landing critical hits or not.

Protection Suzu

• Knockback removed.
• Healing reduced from 50 to 40.
• Now heals for an additional 30 health when cleansing a negative effect.

Kunai

• Damage increased from 40 to 45.
• Recovery time reduced from 0.55 to 0.5 seconds.
• Critical damage multiplier reduced from 3 to 2.5x.

LIFEWEAVER

Developer Comments: The Tree of Life outputs substantial healing but often doesn't provide enough value for an ultimate ability. To increase its utility, any overhealing done via the Tree is now converted to overhealth. Thorn Volley's spread is now less random, with half the projectiles having a smaller base spread to promote better mid-range consistency. Life Grip now has a longer mobility lockout duration to prevent accidental cancels by the affected ally using a movement ability immediately after the pull being started. Finally, we are supplementing Lifeweaver's survivability with an increase to his overall health pool by converting some of it to shield health in order to account for the large petal hit volume on his back, as well as increasing the healing done by Rejuvenating Dash.

• Base health reduced from 200 to 175.
• Base shield health increased from 0 to 50.

Thorn Valley

• Reduced spread for one of the two Thorn Volley projectiles fired per shot by 25%.

Rejuvenating Dash

• Healing increased from 25 to 50.

Life Grip

• Mobility lockout duration increased from 0.45 to 0.75 seconds.

Tree of Life

• 50% of Tree of Life’s overhealing is now converted into Overhealth – up to 100 maximum Overhealth.

LÚCIO

Developer Comment: In order to help bring Lucio’s survivability more in line with the rest of the Support heroes, Crossfade self-healing during Amp It Up is now a more effective survival option for Lucio.

Crossfade

• Secondary fire damage boost reduced from 30 to 25%.

MERCY

Developer Comment: Damage amplification effects have been an often discussed topic lately, and Mercy has been performing strongly at all skill ranks. We’re reducing the potency of Mercy’s damage boost beam but want to make sure it stays powerful enough to feel like an effective and interesting gameplay choice, as making the decision between healing or damage boosting is core to Mercy’s gameplay.

Caduceus Staff

• Secondary fire damage boost reduced from 30 to 25%.

CO-OP MODE HERO UPDATES

With the introduction of Overwatch 2: Invasion Story Missions, we will have specific hero balance changes for multiple heroes to ensure players have a continuous challenge when playing in co-op modes like Story Missions and Event Missions.

Heroes no longer passively gain ultimate charge over time. Ultimate costs increased in co-op game modes.

Read more...