What you need to know
- Overwatch 2’s Season 2 update goes live today, bringing new content, a new Battle Pass and more to Blizzard’s popular hero shooter. Notably, the update also includes several significant balance changes.
- The main tweaks from the patch notes are buffs to Doomfist and nerfs to Sojourn, although changes for Bastion, Symmetra, Mercy, Ana, Kiriko and Junker Queen are also included. The damage hero passive has also been tweaked, as the movement speed buff was removed, but the reload speed buff increased to 35%.
- The update also brings the new tank hero Ramattra to the game, the new Shambali Monastery map, and some improvements to the control game mode and competitive play.
Overwatch 2’s Season 2 update is now live and available to all players on all platforms. The update offers a significant amount of new content for fans of Blizzard’s popular hero shooter to enjoy, including the new tank hero Ramattra, the brand new escort map Shambali Monastery, and a fresh Season 2 Battle Pass with 80 layers of cosmetics to unlock.
On top of these additions, Season 2 also brings a number of hero changes, bug fixes, and more to the game to improve game balance and stability. The biggest of these are the buffs that Doomfist, one of the worst performing tanks in Overwatch 2, received. Doomfist’s overall lethality and survivability have increased significantly, making him more of a threat than he was before.
The update also includes some major nerfs to Sojourn, Overwatch 2’s new damage hero who has dominated higher ranks since the game’s launch in October. The Railgun’s maximum effective range and critical hit multiplier have both been reduced to make her feel less oppressive overall, but even with these changes she should still be a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield.
There are also minor tweaks to Bastion, Symmetra, Mercy, Ana, Kiriko, and the Junker Queen, most of which aim to make playing both as and against these heroes a smoother and more consistent experience. The damage hero passive has also had its movement speed boost removed, but to compensate, the reload speed buff it provides has been raised to 35%. For a fully detailed list of all the changes in the Overwatch 2 Season 2 update, take a look through the full patch notes below.
Overwatch 2 Season 2: Patch Notes
We’ve listed all the patch notes for the Season 2 update below.
General
- When a point is won in control, the team that loses control of the point counts as having contested the point in overtime even if they were not present.
- Challenges to unlock Junker Queen, Sojourn and Kiriko added.
- 70+ player icon rewards have been added to challenges with the release of Season 2.
- A hero purchase tab has been added to the shop.
- Damage Role Passive: No longer grants a movement speed bonus. Refill speed bonus increased from 25 to 35%.
Competitive games
- There are new temporary competitive title rewards for name cards based on your rank at the end of the season.
- You can only earn these titles at the end of the current competition season and can only use them in the following season.
- Heroes who are not eligible for competitive play will have a lock icon in the Hero Gallery.
- Implemented a group of matchmaking improvements to improve match quality.
- Minor polish improvements in the competitive game interface.
Hero changes
RAMATTRA
- Ramatra has been added to the game, and is now available in Quick Play and Arcade matches.
- Ramatra will not be released in Competitive for two weeks.
- Void Accelerator (Omnic Form)
- Primary: Fire a stream of projectiles in a fixed pattern
- Secondary: Create a barrier at the targeted location
- Nemesis form
- Transform into Nemesis Form, change your attacks and gain bonus armor
- Pummel (Nemesis Form)
- Primary: Strike forward, creating a wave of piercing energy with each turn
- Secondary: Significantly reduces damage taken from the front and reduces movement speed
- Ravenous Vortex
- Fire a nanoball that explodes when it hits the ground, spreading a damaging field. Affected enemies are slowed and pulled downwards
- Annihilation (ultimate)
- Enter Nemesis Form and create an energy swarm around yourself. This swarm will lash out at nearby enemies, dealing damage and pausing the duration when damage is dealt.
DOOMFIST
- Rocket Punch
- Impact damage range (minimum-maximum) increased from 15-30 to 25-50 damage
- Wall slam damage range (minimum-maximum) reduced from 20-40 to 10-30 damage
- Empowered Rocket Punch wall mud stun duration range reduced from 0.5-1 to 0.25-0.75 seconds
- Non-Empowered Rocket Punch now stuns for a minimum 0.25 second duration on wall slam
- Empowered Rocket Punch knockback radius reduced from 4 to 3 meters
- Minimum time before cancel option becomes available reduced from 0.25 to 0.12 seconds
- Cooldown reduced from 4 to 3 seconds
- Power Block
- Cooldown reduced from 8 to 7 seconds
- Duration increased from 2 to 2.5 seconds
- Minimum damage required to power up Rocket Punch reduced from 90 to 80 damage
- Meteor Strike
- Now boosts Rocket Punch on landing
- Enemy slow duration increased from 2 to 3 seconds
- The best defense…
- Maximum temporary health increased from 150 to 200 health
- Temporary health gained per target hit with abilities increased from 30 to 40 health
JUNKER QUEEN
- Volume size of torso and head stroke increased by 12%
- Rampage
- Wound duration reduced from 5 to 4.5 seconds
- Ultimate cost reduced by 10%
- Commanding shout
- Cooldown reduced from 15 to 14 seconds
- Adrenaline rush
- Adrenaline passive healing multiplier increased from 1 to 1.25x the damage dealt by wounds
BASION
- Configuration Artillery
- Projectile drop delay reduced from 1 to 0.6 seconds
- Explosion damage reduced from 300 to 250
- No longer deals explosion damage on itself
- Minimum delay between shot placement reduced by 20%
- Configure again
- Cooldown reduced from 12 to 10 seconds
STAY
- Railgun
- Energy delay before drain reduced from 8 to 5 seconds
- Starting range for secondary fire damage has been reduced from 70 to 40 metres
- Secondary fire critical damage multiplier reduced from 2 to 1.5
- Secondary fire damage now scales linearly with energy from 30 to 130 damage (1 energy converts to 1 damage added)
- Primary burn damage per projectile increased from 9 to 10
- Overclock energy charge rate increased by 20%
SYMMETRY
- Proton projector
- Beam charge rate and decay rate increased by 20%
- Primary fire ammo consumption rate increased from 7 to 10 per second
- Primary fire gains ammo from damaging barriers again
TRACER
- Pulse guns
- Damage increased from 5 to 6
TO REACH
- Sleep Darts
- Cooldown reduced from 15 to 14 seconds
CYRICUS
- Arm hit volume width reduced by 15%
- Added an auto climb hero option
- Kitsune Rush
- The final cost increased by 10%
- Movement speed bonus reduced from 50 to 30%
- Cooldown speed reduced from 3 to 2 times faster
- Protection Suzu
- Cast time reduced from 0.15 to 0.1 second
- Kunai
- Ammo increased from 12 to 15
- Swift Step
- Ability input can now be held down to activate
GRACE
- Weapon switching time reduced from 0.5 to 0.35 seconds
- Caduceus Blaster
- Ammo increased from 20 to 25
Season 2 map pools
- New Queen Street – morning
- Colosseo – Evening
- Esperança – Morning
HYBRID
- Blizzard World – Cloudy (NEW)
- Eichenwalde – Evening
- King’s Row – Evening
- Midtown – morning
- Paraíso – morning
ESCORT
- Dorado – Evening
- Junkertown – Morning
- Circuit royal – Night
- Rialto – morning
- Route 66 – Night
- Shambali Monastery – Night (NEW MAP)
CONTROL
- Busan – Night
- Ilios – Evening
- Lijiang Tower – Dawn
- Nepal – Evening (NY)
- Oasis – Morning (NEW)
Error corrections
GENERAL
- Fixed a bug that caused Roadhog’s breathing to not be audible when viewing some animations in the Hero Gallery
- Fixed a bug that caused some players to lose progress in the competitive challenge
- Fixed an issue where multiple products could not be unlocked from the Hero Gallery
- Fixed an issue with the Lifesaver Challenge not counting Mercy’s Resurrect as a “Save”
- Fixed an issue with purchases not appearing immediately after purchase
- Fixed a bug with Torbjörn and Symmetra’s towers showing enemy red overlays in Deathmatch to the player who placed them
MAP
- Busan
- Fixed an area on the map where players could get stuck
- Colosseum
- Fixed geometry that allowed some heroes to compete undetected
- Esperança
- Fixed some areas that could be used to escape the playable space
- Fixed geometry that allowed some heroes to compete undetected
- Gibraltar
- Fixed lighting issues across the map
- Fixed some areas where Torbjörn could place his tower in unreachable places
- Nepal
- Replaced some missing pillars on Sanctum
- Rio
- Fixed a bug that allowed some heroes to enter the payload
- Route 66
- Fixed lighting issues across the map
- New Queen Street
- Fixed some issues with shadows over the map
- Fixed an area on the map where players could get stuck
HEROES
- Heroes no longer take damage from their own abilities if they are on the other side of a friendly barrier
- Fixed an issue with Damage Passive where a double reload animation could sometimes occur when the buff was active
- Cassidy
- Fixed an issue with some skins using the wrong props in the “Flashbang” victory pose
- Doomfist
- Fixed an issue where Doomfist’s Power Block reduced damage from area of effect abilities
- Meteor Strike – You can no longer detect Sombra if the reticle comes near her
- D. Va
- Fixed a bug that allowed players to use Self-Destruct during their Mech’s destruction while hacked
- Junker Queen
- Jagged Blade can no longer be recalled while asleep, stunned, hacked, or frozen
- Fixed an issue with Jagged Blade being consumed by friendly abilities such as Deflect, Defense Matrix, etc.
- Jagged Blade now takes a curved path on return
- Grace
- Guardian Angel now properly resets the cooldown if Valkyrie is used
- Guardian Angel ‘cancel boost’ is now disabled when Mercy is stunned
- Moira
- Junkrat’s Trap no longer appears at chest height in first person when using Fade
- Danger
- Fixed a bug that reduced the final cost of Rocket Barrage
- Soldier 76
- Fixed an issue where Soldier 76 was unable to hit enemies at max range under the Tactical Visor
- Symmetra
- Fixed a bug that resulted in all VO being cut out when teleporting
- Tracer
- Fixed a big one that caused her pulse gun damage to not start until max range
- Winston
- Fixed an issue with the Werewolf skin and the “Sorry” height intro turning Winston red in the Hero Gallery
- Zenyatta
- Fixed an issue with melee not animating correctly if used to cancel alternate fire
Overwatch 2 is now available on Xbox Series X|S, PS5, PS4, PC and Nintendo Switch. It is without a doubt one of them best xbox shooter available, and since it’s free to play, it doesn’t cost anything to check it out. Alternatively, players can purchase the Overwatch 2: Watchpoint Pack which gives access to a Premium Battle Pass, 2000 Overwatch Coins and a bundle of unique legendary skins.
