Patch Notes
Overwatch 2 Retail Patch Notes – December 19, 2024
Bug Fix Patch
This is a bug fix patch and contains no hero updates. In-Game Replay Codes and Highlights from the previous patch are removed.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed in a previous update an issue which was preventing queueing for the Yeti Hunter game mode
Brigitte
- Fixed an issue with Brigitte's Medic skin not appearing in the Hero Gallery and being able to be equipped.
Hazard
- Fixed an issue with the confirmation prompts for Hazard's Jagged Wall when turning preplacement controls to "On"
- Fixed an issue preventing Hazard's Jagged Wall ability from being placed on the destructible ground in Petra.
- Fixed an issue with Hazards Golden Weapon Variant, which is now available.
Juno
- Fixed in a previous update an issue where Juno's Orbital Ray could stack the damage boost on a subset of heroes.
Lifeweaver
- Fixed in a previous update an issue with Lifeweaver's Healing Blossom projectile preventing it from curving.
Mauga
- Fixed in a previous update an issue with Mauga’s gameplay in Freeze Flash elimination is now available to play in that mode again.
Sojourn
- Fixed an issue with Sojourn's Disruptor shot not providing the correct damage.
Sombra
- Fixed in a previous update an issue where Sombra could hack a friendly Lifeweaver Petal Platform
Overwatch 2 6v6 Experiment – December 17, 2024
6v6 Experiment – 2-2-2 Role Queue
Revisit the roots of Overwatch with the 6v6 Role Queue experiment, bringing back the structured 2-2-2 team composition for a limited time. This mode combines the thrill of the original six-player team dynamic with the strategic depth of Overwatch 2’s updated heroes and abilities. Dive in to experience a new balance of strategy, adaptability, and pure team synergy—showcasing how modern Overwatch gameplay thrives in a classic format.
- The 6v6 Experiment will be available to play in the Unranked Menu from December 17 to January 6.
- This mode uses the Role Queue Ruleset comprised of 2 Tank Heroes, 2 Damage Heroes, and 2 Support Heroes.
- Map selection and gameplay is based on the Quick Play ruleset.
To accommodate the 6v6 format, multiple heroes received balance changes that better suit their abilities in the 6v6 format. These changes are only applied for this mode and are adjusted from the most recent hero balance from the December 10 Patch.
- Base health regeneration timer increased from 5 to 7 seconds.
Tank
Tank role passive
- Knockback and critical damage reduction removed.
- No longer affects health.
- Now only reduces ultimate charge generated by 25%.
D.Va
- Base health increased from 225 to 350.
- Base armor reduced from 325 to 300.
- Weapon spread increased from 3.375 to 4 degrees.
- Movement speed penalty increased from 30% to 40%.
- Maximum duration reduced from 3 to 2 seconds.
- Cooldown increased from 3.5 to 4 seconds.
- Cooldown increased from 7 to 8 seconds.
Doomfist
- Base health increased from 375 to 425.
- Cooldown increased from 6.5 to 7.5 seconds.
- Maximum duration reduced from 2.5 to 2 seconds.
- Cooldown increased from 7 to 8 seconds.
- Overhealth gained per target reduced from 40 to 35 HP.
- Maximum temporary health reduced from 200 to 150 health.
Hazard
- Duration reduced from 3.5 to 3 seconds.
- Recharge time increased from 5 to 6 seconds.
- Cooldown increased from 12 to 15 seconds.
- Health increased from 400 to 500.
Junker Queen
- Base health increased from 375 to 425.
- Cooldown increased from 12 to 15 seconds.
- Self-healing from wounds damage scalar reduced from 2.5x to 1.0x.
Mauga
- Base armor reduced from 150 to 100.
- Base health increased from 425 to 450.
- Cooldown increased from 5 to 7 seconds.
- Stomp damage reduced from 75 to 60.
o Allied lifesteal reduced from 50% to 30%. o Cooldown increased from 15 to 17 seconds.
- Maximum duration reduced from 8 to 7 seconds.
Orisa
- Base armor reduced from 325 to 250.
- Base health increased from 150 to 250.
- Now has damage falloff starting at 25 meters.
- Maximum duration reduced from 8 to 7 seconds.
- No longer immune to critical damage.
Ramattra
- Base health increased from 250 to 375.
- Cooldown increased from 13 to 16 seconds.
- Bonus armor reduced from 300 to 200.
Reinhardt
- Base health increased from 250 to 325.
- Base armor reduced from 300 to 225.
- Now has the Steadfast passive again, reducing knockback by 30%.
- Health increased from 1500 to 2000.
- Cooldown increased from 7 to 10 seconds.
- Steering reduced 50%.
- Ability charges reduced from 2 to 1.
- Distance reduced from 25 to 20 meters.
Roadhog
- Base health increased from 600 to 650.
- Secondary fire air burst projectile added.
- Primary fire 4 large center projectiles removed.
- Primary fire pellets per shot increased from 16 to 25 projectiles.
- Damage per pellet increased from 6.25 to 6.5.
- Critical damage multiplier increased from 1.5 to 2x.
Cooldown increased from 6 to 8 seconds.
- Default bind moved from secondary fire to Ability 2.
- Maximum heal reduced from 400 to 325.
- Damage reduction increased from 40 to 50%.
- Cooldown is now 8 seconds, no longer resource based.
- Duration reduced from 8 to 6 seconds.
- Ability Removed
Sigma
- Base shield health reduced from 275 to 250.
- Recharge rate increased from 85 to 100 health per second.
- Damage reduced from 120 to 100.
Winston
- Base health increased from 225 to 350.
- Base armor reduced from 250 to 200.
- No longer ignores armor damage reduction.
- Secondary fire charge time increased from 0.85 to 1.1 sec.
- Secondary fire ammo cost increased from 12 to 25.
- Cooldown increased from 5 to 6 seconds.
- Cooldown increased from 12 to 13 seconds.
- Maximum health gain reduced from 700 to 500.
Wrecking Ball
- Base shield health removed.
- Base health increased from 300 to 500.
- Base armor reduced from 175 to 150.
- No longer able to disperse shields to allies.
- Radius reduced from 13 to 8 meters.
- Overhealth gained per target reduced from 100 to 75.
- Cooldown increased from 8 to 10 seconds.
Zarya
- Base health increased from 175 to 225.
- No longer shares a cooldown with Projected Barrier.
- Health reduced from 225 to 200.
- Duration reduced from 2.25 to 2 seconds.
- Cooldown reduced from 11 to 10 seconds.
- Health reduced from 225 to 200.
- Duration reduced from 2.25 to 2 seconds.
- Cooldown reduced from 9 to 8 seconds.
Damage
Damage role passive
- Healing reduction decreased from 25% to 15%.
- No longer has reduced effectiveness for tank heroes.
Ashe
- B.O.B.'s health increased from 1000 to 1200.
Cassidy
- Fan the hammer secondary fire damage increased from 45 to 50.
Echo
- Damage multiplier for low health targets increased from 3.5 to 4x (200 DPS).
- No longer has a max health for copied target.
Hanzo
- Time to fully charge each shot reduced from 0.8 to 0.72 seconds.
Mei
- Wall Health increased from 250 to 300.
Soldier: 76
- Damage increased from 19 to 20.
Torbjörn
- Damage increased from 13 to 15.
Tracer
- Falloff range increased from 10 to 12 meters.
Widowmaker
- Base health increased from 200 to 225.
Support
Ana
- Maximum ammo reduced from 15 to 12.
- Cooldown reduced from 12 to 10 seconds.
- No longer has reduced duration versus Tank heroes.
- Cooldown reduced from 14 to 12 seconds.
Baptiste
- No longer heals twice as much for allies under 50% max health.
- Instant heal increased from 40 to 50.
- Healing over time increased from 40 to 100 over 5 seconds.
- Drone Health increased from 125 to 150
Illari
- Max damage increased from 70 to 75.
- Min damage increased from 20 to 25.
- Cooldown reduced from 14 to 12 seconds.
Juno
- Cooldown increased from 10 to 12 seconds.
- Maximum duration reduced from 6 to 4.5 seconds.
- Maximum duration reduced from 10 to 8 seconds.
Kiriko
- Recovery time reduced from 0.9 to 0.8 seconds.
- Healing per projectile increased from 13 to 14.
Lifeweaver
- Maximum heal increased from 80 to 90.
- Cooldown increased from 12 to 15 seconds.
- Maximum duration reduced from 15 to 12 seconds.
- Maximum health increased from 1200 to 1400.
Zenyatta
Ammo reduced from 25 to 20.
Time to wear off when not in line of sight reduced from 5 to 3 seconds.
- No longer has a cooldown per target.
- Time to fall off target when not in line of sight increased from 1.5 to 3 seconds.
- Knockback reduced 20%.
- No longer increases quick melee damage.
Overwatch 2 Retail Patch Notes – December 16, 2024
Hotfix Balance Update
This is a hero balance hotfix. Replay codes from the December 10, 2024 patch are still available.
HERO BALANCE UPDATES
TANK
Hazard
- Ultimate cost increased 13%.
DAMAGE
Sojourn
- Primary fire shots-per-second reduced from 16 to 15.
- No longer generates energy.
- Energy charge rate reduced from 120 to 100 per second.
Overwatch 2 Retail Patch Notes – December 10, 2024
Season 14: Hazard
Get ready for an explosive season as we introduce Hazard, the new Scottish tank hero, embodying the spirit of anarchy for the greater good. Then test your skills with a unique blend of past and present in the 6v6 Role Queue event, where teamwork and synergy shine within the 2-2-2 setup. Plus, prepare to wield the hammer of Gods as Mythic Thor Reinhardt and earn up to five Legendary skins with the Premium Battle Pass. Packed with nostalgia, customization, and radical gameplay, Season 14 has everything you need to dominate in style and become a hazard to the competition.
Winter Wonderland 2024
The Winter Wonderland event returns now through January 7, bringing fan-favorite modes and exclusive rewards for the holiday season! From Mei’s Snowball Offensive to Freezethaw Elimination, there’s something for everyone. Complete challenges to earn seasonal rewards, including the festive Winter Casual Hanzo skin.
6V6 Role Queue Experiment
Explore Overwatch 2's latest evolution with the 6v6 Role Queue experiment, where strategy meets nostalgia. Dive into this unique mode to experience the dynamics of 6-player teams while maintaining structured gameplay, showcasing how modern Overwatch 2 heroes and abilities adapt to the classic team format.
Hero Mastery - Ashe
Practice your sharpshooting skills and get B.O.B. to do something, when Hero Mastery courses for Ashe arrives on January 14.
Hero updates
Damage Role Passive
- Debuff duration increased from 2 to 3 seconds.
- Healing reduction increased from 20% to 25%.
Global Projectile Size Bonus
- Hitscan radius large reduced from 0.08 to 0.07 meters.
- Hitscan radius small reduced from 0.05 to 0.04 meters.
- Projectile radius large reduced from 0.15 to 0.12 meters.
Developer Comment: We're increasing the potency of the damage role passive in order to make the threat of sustained damage more meaningful by slowing down health recovery while in combat. At the same time, we're slightly decreasing how reliable hitscan and large travel time projectiles are to hit.
TANK
Doomfist
Developer Comment: The recent increase to Rocket Punch wall slam angle has added a lot of consistency and made Doomfist significantly more threatening. To help account for this we're pulling out some of the survivability from Seismic Slam.
- Shockwave range reduced from 18 to 15 meters.
- Cooldown increased from 6 to 6.5 seconds.
Hazard
Developer Comment: The community feedback from Hazard’s trial has been largely positive, despite underperforming slightly. We’re adjusting his kit to increase the damage of his primary fire, making Bonespur more consistent and a reliable tool for finishing off enemies. Spike Guard protection sometimes felt inconsistent due to being used from a third-person perspective. To address this, we’ve widened the forward blocking angle, providing Hazard with more reliable protection. Additionally, the damage of Spike Guard has been slightly reduced to balance the increased Bonespur damage and protection radius. We’re also strengthening the Jagged Wall to make it more impactful, while increasing the time required to retrigger the knockback effect to minimize frustration from frequent knockbacks.
- Damage per spike increased from 6.75 to 7.5.
- Each volley’s center projectile no longer has a random launch spread and now always launches straight.
- The angle of protection provided by Spike Guard increased from 104 degrees to 180 degrees.
- Damage per second reduced from 75 to 70.
- Post-slash recovery time for Primary Fire and Quick Melee increased from .3 seconds to .5 seconds.
- Health increased from 350 to 400.
- Knockback damage increased from 40 to 50.
- Damage interval increased from 1.5 seconds per target to 1.75 seconds per target.
- Airborne momentum lost by casting Downpour reduced from 90% to 50%.
- Minimum obstacle height to trigger Vault reduced from 1.75 meters to 1.25 meters, which should allow Hazard to scale short obstacles more consistently.
Mauga
Developer Comment: The Overrun changes from the last patch have been great for enabling more active Mauga playstyles. We're converting some of his armor back to normal health to balance out some of the added survivability gained from the Overrun changes.
- Base armor reduced from 200 to 150.
- Base health increased from 375 to 425.
Orisa
Developer Comment: Although Orisa's effectiveness dropped off further than expected, the removal of the Fortify heat reduction mechanic has had positive effects on gameplay by making her ammo resource more meaningful. We're keeping that change while walking back some of the armor health loss. We also think her Terra Surge ultimate ability could be more effective so it now pulls enemies in from a further distance but the damage range hasn't changed so it won't be harder to get out of the area.
- Armor increased from 300 to 325.
- Base health reduced from 175 to 150.
- Pull radius increased from 8.5 to 10.5 meters
Ramattra
Developer Comment: Ravenous Vortex will now be more effective at dealing with bursts of high speed momentum, though this change does not have much effect on abilities that continuously move you for a duration like Reinhardt Charge or D.Va Boosters.
- Now briefly interrupts horizontal momentum when first affecting a target.
- Slowing field now ignores barriers for line of sight.
Winston
Developer Comment: Winston's leap now has a higher maximum damage to better reward accuracy when landing directly next to a target, though it still has damage falloff when landing further away.
- Damage increased from 50 to 60.
DAMAGE
Ashe
Developer Comment: There were some inconsistencies for when Coach Gun was disabled by mobility lock abilities. Now Ashe will be able to activate Coach Gun while mobility is locked out (such as Junkrat's Steel Trap) to knockback enemies but won't move herself.
- Can now be activated while affected by mobility locking abilities but won't move Ashe.
Pharah
Developer Comment: Pharah is a difficult hero to deal with for many due to her high flying mobility and burst damage. We're reducing how often her horizontal movement cooldown is available to make it slightly more of a positioning commitment when used.
- Cooldown increased from 8 to 9 seconds.
Sojourn
Developer Comment: Sojourn has received adjustments to increase the rate of her energy gain and shifted some power into her Disruptor Shot ability recently, though the secondary fire lacking in impact undermines her core gameplay fantasy as "the Railgun hero". We're adding some damage back to it and will keep a close eye on how powerful she ends up being.
- Secondary fire damage scaling increased from 1-100 damage to 20-120 damage.
Soldier: 76
Developer Comment: Soldier could use a small increase to his effectiveness and with changes to the damage role passive it's a good time to make his Biotic Field more available.
- Cooldown reduced from 18 to 15 seconds.
Symmetra
Developer Comment: Symmetra is performing quite well but we'd like to further enable teamplay around an interesting ability like the Teleporter by making it more difficult to destroy.
- Base shield health increased from 200 to 250.
Torbjörn
Developer Comment: We'd like to make the turret more effective without increasing its damage. It now builds more quickly to better enable repositioning it for a faster pace of gameplay. We've also fixed a grievous oversight from moving to larger health pools and Torbjörn's Forge Hammer will strike fear into his enemies once again.
Damage increased from 55 to 70.
- Build time reduced from 3 to 2.5 seconds.
- Base health increased from 225 to 250.
Venture
Developer Comment: This is mostly a quality-of-life change that makes Venture's cooldown cycle more consistent, as they tend to activate Burrow while soaring through the air quite often.
- Cooldown rate is now faster anytime Burrow is active, rather than requiring the player to be underground.
SUPPORT
Baptiste
Developer Comment: Adjusting the values of Regenerative Burst will increase Baptiste’s self-survivability while also providing greater support to his teammates.
- Cooldown decreased from 15 to 14 seconds.
- Radius increased from 10 to 12 meters.
Brigitte
Developer Comment: The duration has been reduced to limit Brigitte's Inspire uptime, while the healing per second remains unchanged, ensuring that healing output is unaffected when Inspire is triggered consistently.
- Duration reduced from 5 to 4 seconds.
Illari
Developer Comment: Illari's Captive Sun can be difficult to use effectively due to enemies' ability to dodge its effects. Increasing the radius will improve the consistency and overall value of the ultimate.
- Explosion radius increased from 8 to 10 meters.
Lúcio
Developer Comment: The adjustment to Lúcio's health pool has impacted his survivability in fights, this change will increase his durability in combat by improving his self-healing capabilities. Additionally, Sound Barrier now falls faster while in mid-air, enabling more reactive and safer usage from higher positions.
- Self-healing penalty decreased from 60% to 40%.
- Now falls faster when used in mid-air.
CUSTOM GAME UPDATES
- A new option to enable or disable passive health regeneration is now available in Settings > Heroes > General.
BUG FIXES
Temple of Anubis
- Fixed an issue where spectating on the Temple of Anubis map could cause extreme performance issues.
Brigitte
- Fixed an issue where Brigitte could still get damaged while holding up her shield at the end of the Bash ability.
Hazard
- Fixed a bug where Vault would sometimes abruptly cancel itself when attaching to walls via Violent Leap.
- Fixed a bug where Vault sometimes wouldn’t climb walls when Hazard was perfectly perpendicular to the wall.
- Fixed a bug where Vault wouldn’t climb walls at all when Hazard’s forward movement was partially impeded by a flanking wall.
Mercy
- Fixed an issue causing Mercy's resurrect lines to not play.
Moira
- Fixed a bug where Moira's orbs would sometimes visually stop moving.
Reinhardt
- Fixed an issue where Reinhardt's Earth Shatter ability was not affecting enemy heroes on certain floor sections.
Overwatch 2: Quick Play Hacked – December 4, 2024
Kingmaker
In Quick Play Hacked - Kingmaker, you'll crown your team’s champion in a new twist from the previous Limit 2 experiment where the lone player in their role earns bonus powers to dominate the match. Experiment with new compositions while leveraging the Kingmaker system to give every role a chance to shine, even in unconventional lineups. You'll want to be strategic in your role picks, as roles are locked at the start of each round, but switching roles mid-match can unlock game-changing potential.
- Kingmaker will be in its own playable mode outside of Role Queue and Open Queue in the Unranked menu.
- Players select roles in a first-come, first-served setup, with only two players per role (Tank, Damage, Support).
- Once a role is capped at two players, it’s locked for the remaining team members.
- You cannot switch roles during gameplay, but can switch between rounds for the Control game mode.
- Whichever role has only a single hero, that hero will receive an extra bonus effect and will be to all players in the match.
- This experimental mode runs through December 8.
- Health increased by 150 HP.
- Movement speed increased by 15%.
- Decreased crowd control effect and incoming critical damage.
- Health increased by 50 HP
- All cooldowns decreased by 20%
- Attack and reload speed increased by 20%
- Health increased by 100 HP
- Healing to allies increased by 30%
- All cooldowns decreased by 20%
Live Patch Notes
These patch notes represent general changes made to the Live version of Overwatch and the balance changes listed affect Quick Play, Competitive Play, Arcade, and Custom Games.