Image: Blizzard Entertainment
Overwatch 2’s second season buffs heroes like Doomfist and Junker Queen, but Support heroes are largely ignored.
Overwatch 2’s Greek Mythology-themed second season of content arrives today, and Blizzard has finally revealed a full list of patch notes for the season’s balance changes. While the developer had previously promised impactful hero changes every season to keep the meta from getting stale, this season only brings obvious buffs to heroes like Doomfist and Junker Queen - but Support heroes are puzzlingly ignored for the most part.
Here’s the lowdown: Doomfist is finally relevant to the meta again, after receiving buffs that allow him to use Rocket Punch a lot more often in combat without having to rely on wall slams for damage. The amount of health he gains from his passive has been increased, and his Power Block has been buffed to allow players to reap its benefits easier and quicker than before. This was a much-needed change seeing as barely anyone played Doomfist in Season 1. The hero had been nerfed into irrelevancy following his transition from Damage to Tank.
Junker Queen is easily my favourite new hero in Overwatch 2 yet, but she’s also one of the weakest tanks in the game. Despite receiving a few buffs in Season 2, it looks like that isn’t changing. Her healing abilities have received slight buffs and lower cooldowns, but her Torso and Head hit volume size have been increased by 12% - so she’s arguably squishier than ever before. Bastion’s new carpet-bombing ultimate is only situationally useful, but Blizzard is making it strike a whole lot faster, leaving less time for enemies to vacate the area before getting hit. A buff for Bastion and a semi-nerf for Junker Queen, not that she ever needed it.
Sojourn’s reign of terror over high-ranked games is finally coming to an end, according to these patch notes. The Damage hero’s much-despised one-shot kill ability has been nerfed so that it’s harder to immediately snipe enemies with her railgun. Her Ultimate charges faster, but her secondary fire now drains quicker, has a shorter damage falloff distance, and reduced critical damage multiplier. It shouldn’t throw her out of the meta entirely, but Sojourn is far from an instant win pick anymore. Symmetra has also received minor buffs with an increased beam charge and decay rate, and she can get ammo from shields again - making her a fantastic counter pick against Winston.
The most sorely-needed balancing changes in Overwatch 2 are absent in this update, however. Mercy and Ana have received minor buffs - the former can now switch to her pistol quicker, and the latter has her Sleep Dart cooldown decreased by a mere second - but these are hardly the game changers we were looking for. Matchmaking times for Damage and Tank roles are long and arduous at the moment, purely because no one wants to play Support - and can you blame them? It’s hardly fun to play heroes who get deleted every five seconds with barely any method of self-protection going for them. Players were hoping for Season 2 to remedy these issues, but it looks like Blizzard is turning a blind eye to them for now.
Here’s a full list of hero changes, as detailed in the patch notes:
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 slam stun duration range reduced from 0.5-1 to 0.25-0.75 seconds
- Non-Empowered Rocket Punch now stuns for the 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
- This has been in since his rework but was not mentioned
Power Block
- Cooldown reduced from 8 to 7 seconds
- Duration increased from 2 to 2.5 seconds
- Minimum damage mitigated required to empower Rocket Punch reduced from 90 to 80 damage
Meteor Strike
- Now empowers Rocket Punch on landing
- Enemy slow duration increased from 2 to 3 seconds
‘The Best Defense…’ Passive
- 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
- Torso and head hit volume size increased 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’ Passive
- Adrenaline passive healing multiplier increased from 1 to 1.25x damage dealt by wounds
BASTION
Configuration Artillery
- Delay before projectile drops reduced from 1 to 0.6 seconds
- Explosion damage reduced from 300 to 250
- No longer deals explosion damage to self
- Minimum delay between placing shots reduced by 20%
Reconfigure
- Cooldown reduced from 12 to 10 seconds
SOJOURN
Railgun
- Energy delay before draining reduced from 8 to 5 seconds
- Secondary fire damage falloff starting range reduced from 70 to 40 meters
- 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 fire damage per projectile increased from 9 to 10
- Overclock energy charge rate increased by 20%
SYMMETRA
Photon 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 Pistols
- Damage increased from 5 to 6
ANA
Sleep Dart
- Cooldown reduced from 15 to 14 seconds
KIRIKO
- Arm hit volumes width reduced 15%
- Added an auto-wall climb hero option
Kitsune Rush
- Ultimate cost increased by 10%
- Movement speed bonus reduced from 50 to 30%
- Cooldown rate 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 to activate
MERCY
- Weapon swap time reduced from 0.5 to 0.35 seconds
Caduceus Blaster
- Ammo increased from 20 to 25