Overwatch 2‘s first major hero balance patch will arrive on November 15 with nerfs to Sombra, Genji, Zarya, D.Va, and Kiriko, and Blizzard is already eyeing some other standout heroes for potential adjustments.
The hero balance patch notes (opens in new tab) went up on the Blizzard forums earlier today, outlining a few targeted changes coming ahead of the broader Season 2 update.
Sombra’s Hack ability is first on the list. Its damage has been reduced from 1.75 seconds to 1.5, and its damage multiplier is now 25% instead of 40%. Hacked enemies also can’t be targeted for hacking during the effect’s duration.
Zarya’s barrier will receive similar treatment. Its duration has been cut from 2.5 seconds to 2 seconds, and its cooldown has been increased from 10 seconds to 11. “Feedback has indicated this can feel as though Zarya has very limited windows of vulnerability, which feels difficult to deal with when combined with her ramping damage potential,” the patch notes say, acknowledging Zarya’s status as a frickin’ raid boss.
Genji’s changes in this update are an interesting consequence of the game’s new 5v5 format. “Changing to a single Tank and the reduction of crowd control has meant Genji has had less obstacles in his way, however he hasn’t received tuning updates since he wasn’t actively in the meta until launch,” the patch notes read. With this in mind, his max ammo has been reduced from 30 to 24 and his shuriken damage has been cut slightly from 29 to 27 in a move to “bring Genji more in line with the other flanking damage heroes.”
D.V is due for split changes. Her Fusion Cannon spread has been increased from 3.5 to 3.75 while her Booster impact damage has been cut significantly from 25 to 15.
Finally, the invulnerability window on Kiriko’s Swift Step has been reduced from 0.4 seconds to 0.25 seconds.
In a Twitter Space stream (opens in new tab) following the release of the patch notes, lead hero designer Alec Dawson touched on some other potential nerfs, starting with Sojourn.
“Sojourn is really interesting from a data standpoint,” he said. “Sojourn becomes a very strong character around Masters [rank] and up. Before that, Sojourn is actually under-performing at some of the lower ranks. So when we think about changes for characters that have these really polarizing win rate differentials, we want to make sure we’re making changes that affect some of that potency at those high ranks but also do not make the character even worse at the low ranks … It’s more about those one-shot moments from long range on 200 HP characters. We’re looking at some ways to make that a little bit smoother but still retain her identity. Her right click is a big, big portion of her identity.”
In a Twitter reply (opens in new tab), Dawson added that Sojourn is “top of mind for Season 2 changes,” reiterating a focus on her one-shot capability.
Brigitte, one of the better but not top-tier heroes on our Overwatch 2 support tier list, also came up in Dawson’s discussion about making changes for the long-term health of the game. “One of the ones we’ve been talking about is [Brigitte] and her ult. Is that something we want to keep around long-term? Maybe that’s something we do [with] one of those major patches.”
On the opposite end of the balance spectrum, Blizzard is looking to buff Overwatch 2’s worst tanks starting with Doomfist, and helping the support role remains a “long-term focus” given its ongoing struggles. The role has become so unpopular, in fact, that players reckon long queue times are often caused by nobody wanting to play support.
Future Overwatch 2 seasons “may see a lot more buffs” and “possibly even some reworks,” according to Dawson.