Overwatch November 15th update early patch notes: Zarya, D.Va, Genji and more nervous

by Arthur · November 11, 2022

❘ Published: 2022-11-11T17:51:54

❘ Updated: 2022-11-11T17:52:07

The first ever major Overwatch 2 balance update will go live on November 15 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch. Here’s everything we know about the mid-season update.

The Overwatch 2 mid-season update will finally be rolling out a bit later than the developers would have liked, but it will finally see a number of nerfs to many of the game’s strongest heroes.

In total, five heroes will receive nerfs, including the game’s newest support, Kiriko, who saw much play in the Overwatch League Grand Finals using the upcoming patch in advance.

Note that Zarya’s barriers are being nerfed on both duration and cooldown, which should make eliminating the Russian tank a bit easier for teams.

Sombra finally gets hit with some nerfs.

Sombra is also on the chopping block with the hack lasting a bit less, plus her damage multiplier being greatly reduced from 40% to 25%.

Controversially, Genji also gets nerfed while DPS threat Sojourn remains untouched. The Cyborg Ninja’s Shuriken damage and ammo are both targeted, so it will take a bit longer to build the Dragon Blade.

On the bugfix side, hopefully Mei will finally see a return to play after a bug with her Ice Wall allowed Kiriko to reach unintended locations.

There are also several other big feats, such as an invincible Torbjorn turret trick that the developers can work on in time for the mid-season update.

Zarya won’t be as much of a threat once the update goes live.

We also know from a conversation with the developers that more changes are planned for Season 2 with buffs planned for tank heroes like Doomfist, but December 6th is still a long way off.

Season 2 will also see the arrival of the new tank hero, Ramattra, and a brand new map, so the developers will have a lot to monitor in the weeks leading up to launch.

Overwatch November 15th Update Early Patch Notes

Upcoming Patch Notes:

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Hacked enemies are no longer valid targets for hacking for the duration of the effect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