Overwatch 2 Retail Patch Notes – February 13, 2024 These patch notes will go live on Tuesday, Febraury 13 at 11:00 AM PST. 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 her...
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.
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.
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
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.
Concussive Blast
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.
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.
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.
This is seriously the biggest change to the game since 5v5 - arguably even bigger, and is practically Overwatch 3.
I haven't had a chance to play yet, but opinions on the internet seem mixed - some like it and say that the yoyo-ing of health bars is reduced, while others say it's even worse than before.
Hanzo does seem like he might be a problem since he didn't get a pre-emptive projectile size nerf like some of the other characters.
I'm not yet sure how I feel about the changes. On the one hand it is true that randomly dying isn't much of a problem anymore (Hanzo headshot, etc), but I've died multiple times behind cover where I'm pretty sure I got hit because of the hitbox changes.
That said, before this patch there were enough moments as e.g. Soldier where I ran away from fights the enemies should've been able to kill me. I'm glad they didn't change the movement as it'd feel terrible.
Edit: From my few metal rank quickplay matches I'd say yoyoing is less pronounced. Player survive with 20hp quite often, but healing them up takes some time. It'll be interesting how the game is played in a few days/weeks.