Overwatch 2 November 17 update patch notes delayed: Mei return, Genji, Sombra & D.va all nerfed

The Overwatch 2 November 17 patch includes nerfs to many of the game’s heroes, including Genji and Kiriko. Here are the patch notes for everything coming in the delayed Overwatch 2 November 17th update.

The next Overwatch 2 update was originally set for November 15th, but the developers announced that a “critical issue” caused the content drop to be delayed by several days to November 17th instead.

With Overwatch 2 Season 2 just around the corner, there’s a lot to look forward to in Blizzard’s hero shooter. The new season will bring a fresh Battle Pass to work through, as well as a brand new Tank called the Ramatra.

But before the Season 2 festivities begin, the developers have been working tirelessly to balance the existing roster of Heroes with regular updates, adding more nerfs to many fan-favorite characters.

Check out the early patch notes for the Overwatch 2 November 17 patch below.

Overwatch 2 November 17 Update: Hero nerfs

The November 17th update will introduce nerfs to five of Overwatch 2’s heroes that have proven too powerful in recent weeks; Genji, Sombra, D.va, Zarya and Kiriko. Sombra has been the hardest, and the effectiveness of her hack ability has been significantly reduced.

Popular DPS Genji has also been heavily nerfed, as the developers decided to lower both ammo capacity and Shuriken damage. Hopefully these changes, along with the remaining hero nerfs, will make the battles feel more smooth and clear when Ramattra joins the party in Season 2.

Overwatch 2 November 17 Update: Mei is back

The Overwatch 2 November 17 update is also expected to see the return of Mei, a couple of weeks after she was disabled in the game. Her Ice Wall ability allowed players to access certain locations on the map unintentionally, so the developers chose to temporarily remove her.

“We are working to resolve these issues as quickly as possible and aim to bring Mei back in our next upcoming update which is set for November 15th. Thank you for your understanding and patience,” they said in a blog post.

This was obviously the proposed date for this update, so she will now be releasing the full update on November 17th.

Overwatch November 2nd 17 Patch Patch Notes

Blizzard has yet to reveal everything coming in the Overwatch 2 November 17 patch, but you can check out the early patch notes from the official forum below, inducing more details about the nerfed heroes:

Sombra

• Hack ability lock duration reduced from 1.75 to 1.5 seconds
• Hacked enemies are no longer valid targets for hacking for the duration of the effect
• Hacked damage multiplier reduced from 40 to 25%

Developer Comment: With Sombra’s rework, she took a lot more damage to help explain the reduced duration of disable to Hack. This has proven too lethal for a flanker with easy access to enemy back lines, and we’ve similarly had to deal with the damage output of heroes like Tracer, Reaper and now Genji in the 5v5 format.

She can also no longer channel hack on an already hacked target, as feedback indicated that the reduced cooldown combined with hacking from stealth proved too frustrating for many players. This is essentially a per-target cooldown that allows Hack to keep his current 4 second cooldown for potentially multi-target hacking.

Genji

• Maximum ammo reduced from 30 to 24
• Shuriken damage reduced from 29 to 27

Developer Comment: Genji is a hero that has greatly benefited from the transition to 5v5. Switching to a single tank and reducing the amount of control has meant that Genji has had fewer obstacles in his way, but he hasn’t received tuning updates since he wasn’t active in the pre-launch meta (something also informed by our general preference to avoid preemptive tweaks when possible). We also saw that in early beta tests, other flanking heroes like Tracer and Reaper were also significantly more effective in OW2. These changes will bring Genji more in line with the other flanking damage heroes.

Zarya

• Barrier duration reduced from 2.5 to 2 seconds
• Barrier cooldown increased from 10 to 11 seconds

Developer Comment: Early player sentiment predicted Zarya as one of the weakest solo tanks in 5v5, although her high damage potential and barrier uptime have proven to be extremely effective. For opponents, feedback has indicated that this can feel like Zarya has very limited windows of vulnerability, which feels difficult to handle when combined with her rampant damage potential.

These changes will reduce the barrier’s uptime, making it a bit harder for her to gain energy and will give enemies more time to damage her.

D.va

• Fusion Cannon spread increased from 3.5 to 3.75
• Booster’s impact damage reduced from 25 to 15

Dev Comment: D.va ended up feeling too lethal after the last round of changes given how resilient she can be with the improved Defense Matrix. Both our stats and feedback from high level players deemed her not effective enough before that compared to other tanks, so this is a partial rollback to establish a middle ground there.

Kiriko

• Swift Step’s invulnerability duration reduced from 0.4 to 0.25 seconds

Developer Comment: This window of invulnerability is primarily intended to help avoid instantly dying to something unseen after teleporting through walls, but it ended up being a bit too long and led to some confusion when shooting at Kiriko

We will be sure to update this page with the complete Overwatch 2 November 17 patch as soon as they are available.

In the meantime, check out our other Overwatch 2 guides:

Are Overwatch 2 servers down? Overwatch Server Status | Best Overwatch 2 PC Settings: How to Increase FPS and Optimize Graphics | Does Overwatch 2 have cross-progression cross-play? Is Overwatch 2 crossplay? | How to Transfer Overwatch Skins to Overwatch 2: Account Merge Guide | How to Play Overwatch 2 on Steam Deck | How to fix Overwatch 2 different version error | Best Overwatch 2 Heroes

Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment