Image: Blizzard Entertainment
Season 9 of Overwatch 2 brings a major series of balance changes, new Competitive rewards and a Pharah rework.
Blizzard Entertainment has dropped Overwatch 2 Season 9’s official patch notes, and it’s a hefty list of changes to be sure. This season, all heroes are getting their health pools buffed to reduce their reliance on Support players. In addition to that, a new co-op event called Cosmic Crisis is coming, competitive changes including a new skill tier are on their way and Pharah is being reworked - to the point that the infamous Pharmercy meta is now dead!
All that, and the usual skins and cosmetics are coming in Season 9: Champions, plus a Cowboy Bebop crossover:
The death of Pharmercy
Blizzard is looking to change Overwatch 2’s fundamental gameplay loop with a series of across-the-board changes affecting every hero in the game. These changes include larger health pools for every hero along with bigger projectile sizes for ranged heroes. All heroes are also getting a passive healing ability, and melee fighters are getting their damage buffed too. These changes are meant to impact how much teams have to rely on their Support players for healing, and how often Support players have to cling onto certain heroes to keep them alive at the cost of inflicting damage themselves.
In addition to this, Pharah is getting a rework to limit how much time she can spend jetting about in the air. Now, she can only refuel when she touches the ground instead of when players let go of the ‘fly’ button. To make up for this, Blizzard is giving her more speed while in the air, allowing her to travel around the map much more quickly. An unexpected side effect of this change is that the game’s longstanding and highly annoying Pharah-Mercy combo (depending on who you’re playing) is now dead in the water. With Pharah flying around so erratically, Mercy players can no longer keep up - so they can’t damage boost Pharah for the length of an entire game.
Junkertown is also getting a series of map changes, mainly to give players more cover in the wide-open first checkpoint zone. Besides that, Competitive Mode is getting a big overhaul. A new skill tier called Champion is being added, right above Grandmaster. All ranks have also been reset to reflect the new hero changes, and players will now have their predicted rank displayed after each placement match. After they get placed in a skill tier, Competitive Updates will now happen after every match, rather than a set amount of wins or losses.
Golden weapons are also being replaced by Jade weapons this season, but players can continue using their Competitive Points to buy Gold weapons starting from Season 10. A new co-op event called Cosmic Crisis will also hit Season 9 in line with its eldritch theme, where players have to work together in teams of three to fight off the Null Sector in a ruined Ecopoint Antartica.
You can find a full list of Season 9’s patch notes here.
