Patch Notes

Developer comments: Hazard's slower climbing fits his lumbering tank fantasy, but it was a point of friction when trying to chase down or escape from enemies, so we're speeding up how quickly he can vault over a ledge. Additionally, we're boosting Anarchic Zeal’s lifesteal as the current value wasn't effective enough.

Developer comments: Reinhardt generally does well across the game but falls off in effectiveness at high ranks. We're increasing the speed and responsiveness of Fire Strike to make it more reliable from range.

Developer comments: Freja has continued to climb in win-rate now that players have become accustomed to her kit. We are partially reverting the Quick Dash cooldown to reduce her airtime and frequency of explosive bolts.

Developer comments: Hanzo's been underperforming recently so we're reverting his bow draw speed back to its original, faster value. The Sonic Disruption perk isn't picked very often but increasing its duration will make it more useful and require less upkeep to control a health pack.

Developer comments: Drift Thrusters and Concussive Implosion have been too consistent at securing kills. These adjustments will give better opportunities for counterplay when fighting against these perks.

Developer comments: We're aligning the recovery of Dire Triggers with Reaper’s primary fire to improve the flow when alternating between the two.

Developer comments: Stim Pack's button mapping made it difficult to activate, especially in combat. Binding it to Weapon Swap improves the control scheme and removing the anti-heal makes it less punishing to use.

Developer comments: Invisibility is a frustrating mechanic to play against for many, so we're increasing the windows for counterplay. Sombra will now take longer to exit stealth and to disappear after taking damage.

Developer comments: Widowmaker is a more map-dependent hero than most and now with hero bans restricting her usefulness we're looking to make her viable in more situations.

Developer comments: Illari often has to move into high-risk positions to heal effectively. Extending the range on her healing beam will give her more flexibility in how she positions and supports her team.

Developer comments: The opportunity cost to use Thorn Volley is still too high compared to constantly charging Healing Blossom. We are improving the auto-charge to make weaving damage between healing less punishing.

Developer comments: To compensate for the buff to Reinhardt's Fire Strike in Core Overwatch, we're decreasing the burst potential of Reinhardt's Fire Strike build and normalizing the max projectile speed Fire Strike can reach. We're also tuning down Reinhardt's Melee build to be a bit more counterable, which is performing too consistently given the high payoff of the build.

Developer comments: Soldier 76's Helix Rocket build is one-shotting a little too consistently. We're decreasing the damage here a bit to reduce the burst potential.

Developer comments: Stacking large amounts of Weapon Power or Ability Power have become too prevalent, crowding out other itemization options. We are lowering the cost efficiency of these items to promote greater item diversity and weaken builds that rely on high amounts of burst through stacking Weapon or Ability Power. We're also strengthening some weaker item options.

Developer Comments: Zarya continues to overperform at all levels. Most of her power comes from how Weapon Power scales with Energy, allowing her to reach very high damage ceilings, so slowing down the rate at which she can scale her Weapon Power.

Developer Comments: Cassidy continues to be too dominant too consistently, especially at higher levels of play. Most of his power comes from how well he scales with Weapon Power, so shaving off a bit of his currency gain to slow down the pace of his scaling.

Developer Comments: We're squashing a few bugs that we believe have contributed to Reaper's high win rate. We're also making a slight adjustment to Revolving Ruin's ramp up time and maximum stacks. We're planning to make some more adjustments to Reaper's weapon builds in the future to incentivize them to build stats other than just Weapon Power.

Developer Comments: Ana’s abilities feature some of the longest cooldowns in the support roster, and their impact hasn’t always matched that investment in Stadium. This update improves the effectiveness of her utility, helping her keep allies in the fight longer and better rewarding well-timed ability usage. These changes should give Ana more consistent value in extended engagements.

Developer Comments: D.Va has been struggling in matchups against beam-focused heroes like Zarya, where her defensive tools feel less effective. We're adding some synergy with Defense Matrix Powers/Items when using it to mitigate Beam damage. We're also adding some power to some of the builds that utilize her main defensive tool, Defense Matrix, in hopes to allow them to have a bit more flexibility and apply more pressure in team fights.

Developer Comments: Junker Queen thrives when she can close the distance and brawl up close, and her current mobility has been allowing her to engage too freely. We're toning down her gap-closing potential to make her positioning more deliberate and reduce her ability to aggressively dive into enemy lines without consequence. This should encourage more thoughtful engagements while preserving her core bruiser identity.

Developer Comments: Reinhardt has been overperforming, especially at lower levels. We're tuning down some of the powers that are most difficult to counterplay, such as Melee Reinhardt feeling inescapable due to his crazy amount of Move Speed or being one shot by an Impact Burst Fire Strike. As an important known issue with this balance change, the Move Speed per stack is currently not represented correctly on the tooltip but it is functionally set to 2%. This will be fixed in a future update.

Developer Comments: Zarya continues to be overperforming, especially at higher levels of play. We're reducing some of the survivability of Weapon Power Zarya builds so that she should be more vulnerable, especially if she is opting to itemize full damage.

Developer Comments: Ashe has strong potential in the hands of experienced players, but parts of her kit have been falling off in the later stages of the game compared to other heroes. We're making targeted adjustments to help her scale more effectively into the late game, while also smoothing out some of the sharp edges that make her less forgiving for newer players. These changes aim to make Ashe a more rewarding pick across all skill levels.

Developer Comments: Lúcio's Ability Power Healing builds have continued to give too much healing output for how accessible and consistent they are, and have been overperforming at all levels of play. We're tuning down the healing output here because of how consistently effective it is. Lúcio's Weapon Power builds have mostly been crowded out by Ability Power builds, in both output and consistency. We're adding a bit more power here to encourage some more build variety.

Developer Comments: We're adding some small buffs to some of the less popular Powers in hopes to better enable some new build paths.

Developer Comments: Nebula Conduit has been too efficient of a purchase given the strength of its effect. We're reducing some of the Weapon Power to put more focus on its niche and less of an obvious choice in Weapon focused builds. Booster Jets was too easily enabling builds that benefit from Move Speed, especially for a certain Tank that swings a large hammer. Generally, we're going to be looking at peeling back some of the Move Speed increases as we felt we went a bit too far. We're hoping that will help out our less mobile heroes feel like they have a better chance in Stadium.

Developer Comments: Nano Cola™ Nitrous has been making it too difficult for opponents to take down D.Va while out of her mech and allowing her to get her mech back consistently. These changes will help add some risk of being out of her mech back into her kit.

Busan Blaster was allowing D.Va to get her mech back instantly, which was not the intention of this item's design.

Developer Comments: We've observed many scenarios where it feels like Orisa can become invincible. In combination with some of her other powers and items, we felt that Restorify was healing too much.

Solar Regenergy was too efficient for its cost, so we’re tuning it back to be more in line with items of similar cost.

Developer Comments: Reinhardt had a higher rate of earning Cash from damage and healing due to his range. However, Reinhardt has been overperforming and making a bit too much Cash so we’re pulling this back a bit.

Developer Comments: Lifelift has proven to be the most consistently effective Power for Zarya. We're reducing the scaling on it to try and make it feel less like a must pick in all styles of Zarya builds.

We’re also adding a little bit more healing in hopes of making Here to Spot You a bit more reliable of a power to choose from.

Developer Comments: While rolling around in ice balls has been very fun, we feel that the power currently feels too consistent at disrupting players for a long duration ability. We're hoping with these changes that it will still feel powerful but reduce its ability to carry an enemy around for its entire duration.

Developer Comments: Reaper originally had a higher rate of earning Cash from damage and healing since on average he has more difficulty dealing consistent damage due to his range. However, Reaper has been overperforming and making too much Cash so we’re pulling this back a bit.

Developer Comments: Soldier 76 has been consistently making too much money from damage and healing, allowing him to consistently snowball his lead.

We love that players have been enjoying using Rocket Visor. It's been great to see some players pick up Soldier: 76 who may not have played him much in the past. That said we have always intended for the build centered around Rocket Visor to be a strong accessible build, but not necessarily the build with the highest practical performance ceiling. We've seen that it's overperforming and can feel frustrating to play against. We're hoping to reduce a bit of the power with this change, but we will continue to keep a tactical eye on this build as we move forward with more balance updates.

We felt the payoff for making Biotic Bullseye work was a bit too low to be worth it.

Developer Comments: Kiriko was consistently earning a bit too much Cash from damage and healing.

Developer Comments: We know Juno has been very popular in Stadium but we’re addressing some of the most oppressive aspects of those builds in this update. We have found that on average, Juno was earning less Cash from damage and healing than other heroes, especially in the early rounds. We’re increasing this to help balance out with some of the Pulsar Torpedo build nerfs, as well as to help out the other Juno builds that are underperforming.

Pulsar Torpedo enthusiasts have been everywhere you look in Stadium and sometimes it feels like there's always a Pulsar Torpedo chasing you. We're reducing the cooldown of Cosmic Coolant per hit to reduce some of her ability pacing.

We felt that PulStar Destroyers had too much vertical power for damage focused Pulsar Torpedo builds. We've replaced the Ability Power with Ability Lifesteal to retain that aggressive playstyle.

Solar Shielding was providing too much Ability Power combined with its effect at its current cost.

Developer Comments: On average, Lúcio was gaining less than average Cash from damage and healing, so giving him a small bump here.

In combination with Amp It Up, Crowd Pleaser was allowing for too much burst healing that was outside of acceptable output ranges.

Amp It Up healbot builds have been a little too consistent so we’re shaving a little off from Megaphone.

Weapon Power Lúcio builds have been overshadowed by Ability Power Healing and Soundwave builds. We’re adding more consistency to Signature Shift to make it a more reliable and accessible option.

B-Side Bop has a very low pick rate, so we’re adding more Health to make it a more attractive option and add more power to less popular Lúcio builds.