Halloween Terror returns to Overwatch 2 when Season 13: Spellbinder lands on October 15th. A new season also means a new balance patch, and Blizzard Entertainment has shared extensive changes coming to heroes like Mauga, Ramattra, Juno, Sombra, and more.
First is the ignite duration on Mauga’s Incendiary Chaingun, which is now four seconds instead of three. Ramattra can no longer pierce barriers with his Pummel, but it deals 2.5 times more damage, thus opening up more options for other tanks. Juno’s Mediblaster now heals six HP/s with each projectile instead of 6.5, while the falloff range has gone from 30-50 meters to 20-35.
Baptiste’s primary fire is getting a 30 percent reduction in recoil (which is more about reducing the fatigue of managing it). Brigitte’s Repair Pack will have an increased cooldown – 5.5 seconds instead of 5. As for Sombra, her Hack no longer ends Stealth (though it does reveal her to enemies), and the ability lockout duration goes from 1.5 to 1 second.
Furthermore, Stealth is no longer passively activated but with the Translocator instead, and it lasts for only five seconds. Opportunist returns as a passive, while Sombra deals 20 percent more damage to hacked targets. Check out the hero changes below and full patch notes here.
Overwatch 2 Retail Patch Notes – October 15, 2024
HERO UPDATES
General
Swapping your hero hides your selection on the enemy scoreboard for 15 seconds.
Developer Comments: This change adds a more friction to counterswapping, especially in the extreme case where two players on opposite teams are both sitting in spawn with the scoreboard open and rapidly switch their heroes in response to each other’s choices.
Tank
Mauga
Incendiary Chaingun
- Ignite damage over time duration increased from 3 to 4 seconds.
Developer Comment: Increasing the duration of Mauga’s burn effect will help better reward going for the smaller, harder to hit targets.
Ramattra
Pummel
- No longer pierces barriers.
- Now deals 2.5x more damage to barriers.
Developer Comments: Ramattra’s Pummel projectiles passing through barriers was a source of frustration for players trying to protect themselves or their allies. With these changes enabling Ramattra to deal critical damage to barriers, he will still be a valuable hero choice against barrier mechanics, but won’t immediately apply damage to players on the other side.
Reinhardt
Barrier Field
- Health reduced from 1600 to 1500.
Developer Comments: This is just some fine tuning for the barrier health and regeneration rate as it had become slightly too tough to break through.
Damage
Hanzo
- Base health increased from 225 to 250.
Developer Comments: We are reverting Hanzo back to his previous health now that it’s possible to take out an opposing Hanzo with a well-aimed headshot thanks to the weapon damage changes.
Sojourn
Railgun
- Energy no longer stops degenerating at 25 energy.
- Time before energy degeneration begins increased from 7 to 12 seconds.
Disruptor Shot
- Damage per second increased from 60 to 80
- Now generates 25% of damage done to enemy players as Railgun energy.
Developer Comments: These Railgun changes swap out the 25 minimum energy it decays to for a longer time before it begins to degenerate which alleviates some of the pressure to quickly use the secondary fire. Disruptor shot is getting a damage increase to helps its effectiveness as an area denial tool, andlong with additional utility through generating a small amount of Railgun energy to make it more broadly useful.
Sombra
Hack
- No longer ends Stealth but does reveal Sombra.
- Hacked ability lockout effect duration reduced from 1.5 to 1.0 seconds (EMP duration unchanged).
- BOB hacked stun duration reduced from 10 to 3 seconds.
Stealth
- No longer passive and now activates by using Translocator.
- Now has a 5 second duration.
- Added stealth timer around the reticle and removed ability icon.
- Taking damage now reveals Sombra for 1 second instead of ending stealth.
Translocator
- Cooldown increased from 5 to 7 seconds.
EMP
- Ultimate cost increased 12%.
Opportunist
- The Opportunist passive has been added back in.
- Increases Sombra’s weapon damage versus hacked targets by 20%.
- See critically injured enemies through walls.
Developer Comments: This is a significant change to Sombra’s playstyle in the hopes of making her more interactive for the opposing team and shifting some of her power from the utility of Stealth and Hack into increased lethality.
Stealth having a limited duration less than the Translocator cooldown is intended to create brief windows of vulnerability. It still enables Sombra to cross through dangerous areas unseen, but to really hang around in the enemy backline will require moving from cover-to-cover similar to other flanking heroes. No longer having the stealth movement speed removed upon taking damage also enhances its usefulness as an escape tool.
Support
Baptiste
Biotic Launcher
- Primary fire recoil reduced by 30%.
Developer Comment: This change is aimed at reducing the fatigue resulting from controlling the recoil over longer periods of play more than trying to add power to Baptiste’s primary fire.
Brigitte
Repair Pack
- Cooldown increased from 5 to 5.5 seconds.
Developer Comment: Brigitte’s healing output over the course of a match is quite high, so this is just a slight adjustment to help bring that in line.
Juno
Mediblaster
- Falloff range reduced from 30-50 meters to 20-35 meters.
- Healing per projectile reduced from 6.5 to 6.
Developer Comments: Juno’s healing output is too high for how much mobility she possesses so we’re shortening her falloff range to increase the importance of positioning well with her mobility abilities.