Patch Notes

May 9, 2025

Overwatch 2 Retail Patch Notes – May 8, 2025

Hotfix Balance Update

This is a game balance hotfix. Replay codes from the May 6, 2025 patch are still available.

Stadium Updates

Tank

D.Va
D.Va

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.

Countermeasures – Power

  • Decreased mitigation requirement to 100 (down from 150).

Mastermind's Mitigator – Rare Ability Hero Item

  • Decreased damage mitigation requirement to 200 (down from 300).

Stat Boost – Power

  • Increased Defense Matrix recovery rate to 125% (up from 100%).

Ultrawide Matrix – Power

  • Defense Matrix duration increased to 25% (up from 20%).

Multi-Task Mod – Epic Weapon Hero Item

  • Increased Weapon Power to 20% (up from 10%).

Singijeon's Pulse Plating – Epic Survival Hero Item

  • Increased Ultimate Charge gain to 10% (up from 5%).

Plot Armor – Rare Survival Hero Item

  • Damage reduced now gets counted as damage mitigated by Defense Matrix.
Junker Queen
Junker Queen

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.

Booming Voice – Epic Ability Item

  • Reduced Ability Power to 15% (down from 25%).

Slicing Spree – Rare Hero Survival Item

  • Reduced Move Speed stat to 5% (down from 10%).
  • Reduced Move Speed while near an enemy with a Wound to 5% (down from 10%).
  • Increased Attack Speed while near an enemy with a Wound to 10% (up from 5%).
Reinhardt
Reinhardt

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.

Impact Burst – Power

  • Reduced bonus damage to 15% (down from 20%).

Smashing – Power

  • Reduced Move Speed per stack to 2% (down from 3%).
Zarya
Zarya

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.

Lifelift – Power

  • Reduced Particle Barrier health scaling to 25% of your bonus Max Life (down from 50%).

Pre-Workout – Power

  • Reduced Lifesteal to 15% of your Energy (down from 20%).

Damage

Ashe
Ashe

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.

Head Honcho - Power

  • Increased damage increase per unscoped shot landed to 5% (up from 3%).

B.O.B. Jr. - Power

  • Reduced Attack Speed reduction to 20% (down from 50%).

Infrared Lenses – Epic Ability Hero Item

  • Fixed an issue where the increased damage against Burning targets was only applying to The Viper and B.O.B. Now increases all damage dealt by Ashe to Burning targets.
  • Reduced increased damage to Burning targets to 20% (down from 25%).

Support

Lúcio
Lúcio

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.

Crowd Pleaser – Power

  • Healing reduced to 100% of Crossfade healing (down from 150%).

Let's Bounce - Power

  • Reduced Wall Slam damage to 25 (down from 40).
  • Reduced Knockback Increase to 25% (down from 30%).

Sonic Boom – Power

  • Increased Healing to 30% of damage dealt (up from 20%).

Fast Forward – Power

  • Increased damage increase to 30% (up from 25%).

#1 Single – Rare Ability Hero Item

  • Reduced Ability Power to 5% (down from 10%).

All Out Auditiva – Epic Ability Hero Item

  • Reduced Ability Power to 15% (down from 20%).
  • Reduced Amp It Up Duration to 25% (down from 33%).
Moira
Moira

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

Precarious Potency – Power

  • Increased healing to 25% of Biotic Grasp's healing (up from 20%).

Destruction's Divide – Power

  • Increased Coalescence effectiveness when toggled to 30% (up from 25%).

General

General Items

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.

Booster Jets – Epic Weapon Item

  • Reduced Move Speed when using an ability to 10% (down from 20%).

Nebula Conduit – Epic Survival Item

  • Reduced Weapon Power to 5% (down from 10%).
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May 6, 2025

Overwatch 2 Retail Patch Notes - May 6, 2025

Bug Fix Update

This is a bug fix patch and contains no game balance updates. In-Game Replay Codes and Highlights from the previous patch are removed.

Bug Fixes

General
  • Fixed an issue where some Loot Boxes were not auto-opened and were unable to be opened manually. They should now be opened and visible in Loot Box history.
  • Fixed a bug that could prevent you from participating in Hero Bans if you were watching a replay when the queue located a match.
  • Fixed a bug that caused the wrong skin to be equipped when using the "Try Out" button.
  • Fixed an issue with the Wave Respawn timer.
Heroes

Cassidy

  • Fixed an issue with Cassidy's Quick Draw Perk and the Peacekeeper Secondary Fire.

Reinhardt

  • In a previous update, fixed an issue with Reinhardt's Crusader's Fire Perk.
Stadium

General

  • Fixed an issue preventing disconnected players from rejoining a Stadium match when that match is transitioning between rounds.
  • Fixed an issue where the UI was incorrectly displaying Competitive Points for winning when actually losing a Stadium match.
  • Fixed an issue allowing enemy team selections to be viewed in the assemble phase in Stadium Matches.

Items

  • Fixed an issue where the Multi-Tool Rare Weapon Item was not boosting healing abilities for certain heroes.

Ana

  • In a previous update, fixed an issue with Ana's Unscoped Resources Epic Weapon Hero Item, this item is now reenabled.

Cassidy

  • Fixed an issue with Cassidy's Quick Draw Power.

Mei

  • Fixed an issue where the mini-blizzard from Mei's Cryclone power would not target in front of the player correctly.
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May 1, 2025

Overwatch 2 Retail Patch Notes - May 1, 2025

Hotfix Balance Update

This is a game balance hotfix. Replay codes from the April 22, 2025 patch are still available.

Stadium Balance Updates

Developer Comments: In this update we are primarily adjusting some outlier Powers and Items as well as adjusting a few that can lead to some undesirable experiences in Stadium. We’re also adjusting how much Stadium Cash is earned from damage and healing for a number of heroes. In the near future, we’ll be taking a close look at some of the Powers and Items that are underperforming to see how we can increase their viability.

Tank

D.Va
D.Va

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.

Nano Cola™ Nitrous – Epic Survival Hero Item

  • Health reduced to 25 (down from 50).
  • Reduced Max Life increase to 5% (down from 25%).
  • Reduced duration of Nano Boost to 4 seconds (down from 8 seconds).

Busan Blaster – Epic Ability Hero Item

  • No longer generates Ultimate Charge.
Orisa
Orisa

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.

Restortify – Powers

  • Reduced healing to 5% of your Max Life every 1 second (down from 10%).

Solar Regenergy – Rare Survival Hero Item

  • Reduced Armor Restoration to 3% of Max Life (down from 5%).
Reinhardt
Reinhardt

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.

  • Reduced the amount of Stadium Cash gained from damage and healing by 13.64%
Zarya
Zarya

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.

Lifelift – Power

  • Particle Barrier health scaling reduced to 50% of your bonus Max Life (down from 100%).

Here to Spot You – Power

  • Increased healing to 20% of your Max Life over 3s (up from 15%).

Damage

Mei
Mei

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.

Coulder - Power

  • Reduced the knockback frequency rate by 60%.
  • Increased how far enemies are knocked back.
  • Increased the damage dealt per knockback to 20 (up from 10).
Reaper
Reaper

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.

  • Reduced the amount of Stadium Cash gained from damage and healing by 10%.
Soldier: 76
Soldier: 76

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.

  • Reduced the amount of Stadium Cash gained from damage and healing by 12.5%.

Rocket Visor – Power

  • Duration reduced to 0.5 seconds (down from 0.75 seconds).

Biotic Bullseye – Power

  • Increased ammo restoration to 10% per critical hit (up from 5%).

Support

Kiriko
Kiriko

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

  • Reduced the amount of Stadium Cash gained from damage and healing by 16.67%.
Juno
Juno

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.

  • Increased the amount of Stadium Cash gained from damage and healing by 33.33%.

Cosmic Coolant – Power

  • Cooldown per target hit reduced to 0.5 second (down from 1 second).

PulStar Destroyers – Epic Ability Hero Power

  • Removed 15% Ability Power.
  • Added 10% Ability Lifesteal.

Solar Shielding – Epic Ability Hero Power

  • Ability Power reduced to 15% (down from 25%).
Lúcio
Lúcio

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.

  • Increased the amount of Stadium Cash gained from damage and healing by 10%.

Crowd Pleaser – Power

  • Healing reduced to 150% of Crossfade healing (down from 200%).

Megaphone – Power

  • Amp It Up duration reduced to 15% (down from 20%).

Signature Shift – Power

  • Increased Projectile Size increased to 80% (up from 20%).

B-Side Bop – Epic Weapon Hero Item

  • Health increased to 50 (up from 25).
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Apr. Patch NotesApr.
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.