Tiny Mauga, turret king Torbjorn, and DPS Mercy? Yes, please! Here’s how this returning April Fools’ Day game mode works!
Week 2 of the 2024 Overwatch 2 Anniversary event is now underway, and one of the featured game modes is Balanced Overwatch! This hilarious game mode lets players duke it out under the Overwatch 2 April Fools' Day patch notes.
Mauga is tiny in the Balanced Overwatch game mode (Image via esports.gg)
Balanced Overwatch patch notes
Here are all of the April Fools' Day and Balanced Overwatch patch notes. While Mauga is now a mini version of himself, Torbjorn's turrets can stick to allies, ceilings, and walls. Meanwhile, Reaper's secondary fire can now shoot. This grants him 16 shots in total. Don't forget about DPS Mercy. Her secondary fire is now Damage Staff!
Overwatch 2 April Fools' patch notes: Tank changes
Tank | Change | Details |
|---|---|---|
| D.Va | Boosters | Can now move backward, be canceled with crouch. Canceling the ability with crouch in the first .4 seconds reduces the cooldown to 1.5 seconds. |
| Self Destruct | Knockback increased by 900%. | |
| Doomfist | Power Block | Power Block and Meteor Strike also empower your next quick melee. Movement speed modifier increased from .65x to 1.25x. |
| Junker Queen | Jagged Blade | Pressing your secondary fire while the ability is active now magnetizes Junker Queen to Gracie. Cooldown now starts when blade starts returning to Junker Queen. Cooldown decreased from 6 to 4 seconds. |
| Mauga | Health | Decreased from 350 to 25. |
| Mauga’s Scale | Reduced by 50%. | |
| Incendiary Chain Gun | Hitting enemies who are on fire will ignite them. | |
| Orisa | Energy Javelin | Ricochets once. Explodes when it sticks. |
| Ramattra | Base Armor | Increased from 100 to 225. |
| Annihilation | Moved from his ultimate to Ability 1. No longer pauses its duration while dealing damage. Movement speed Increased by 20%. Duration increased from 3 to 5 seconds. Damage per second decreased from 30 to 20. Radius decreased from 12 to 9 meters. | |
| Nemesis Form | Moved from his Ability 1 to his ultimate. Always has Annihilation active while in use. Fully heals Ramattra on use. Pummel damage increased from 60 to 75. Pummel range increased from 10 to 15. | |
| Reinhardt | Barrier Field | You can now press your primary fire to reflect projectiles. Health decreases by 20% every second while reflecting. Barrier size decreased to 50% while Reflecting. Camera lock input now bound to quick melee. |
| Roadhog | Pig Pen | Projectile speed increased from 26 to 80. Projectile damage increased from 0 to 40. |
| Sigma | Accretion | Projectile speed decreased from 37 to 30. Projectile gravity decreased from 18 to 2. Pressing the ability button while Accretion is active will cause the rock to crash into the ground. When crashed, it will deal 50 damage in a 4-meter radius and stun anyone damaged. |
| Winston | Tesla Cannon | Secondary fire now chains between enemies. |
| Primal Rage | Punches also cause lightning to chain between enemies. | |
| Wrecking Ball | Movement Speed | Wrecking Ball’s sideways movement speed increased by 55%. |
| Quad Cannons | Deals increased damage as you continue to walk sideways. | |
| Zarya | Particle Barrier | Increases the size of the bubbled target by 1.75x. |
| Projected Barrier | Increases the size of the bubbled target by 1.75x. |
You can place Torbjorn's turret on a teammate's head (Image via esports.gg)
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Overwatch 2 April Fools' patch notes: DPS changes
Hero | Ability | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Ashe | F.R.E.D. | This is a new ability on mouse scroll. Allows for weapon swap. Call in F.R.E.D. to charge for a short duration before leaving. |
| Bastion | Configuration: Assault | Configuration: Assault is now the default form. Movement speed penalty has been removed. Configuration: Assault now has 150 ammo. Damage per bullet decreased from 12 to 5. It now deals 1.5x damage for critical hits. |
| Reconfigure | Transforms Bastion into Configuration: Recon. Grants a movement speed bonus of 35%. Configuration: Sentry fires shotgun blasts. | |
| Cassidy | Wanted! Passive | One enemy is marked. Kill them to gain 50 health until the next time you die. After 5 kills, you gain 1 health each time. |
| Echo | Focusing Beam | Targets within 8 meters of Echo take damage as if they’re under half health. |
| Duplicate | Can no longer choose who you duplicate. Can now duplicate allies. Duplicate’s health no longer capped at 300 health. Duplicate now gains an extra 100 shields. Bonus ultimate charge gain rate increased from 4 to 6.5. | |
| Genji | Deflect | Press your primary fire with perfect timing to critically deflect a projectile. |
| Hanzo | Storm Arrows | Number of ricochets increased from 1 to 3. Number of projectiles per shot increased from 1 to 5. Damage of each projectile decreased by 78%. |
| Junkrat | Frag Launcher | You can now detonate Frag Launcher projectiles with your secondary fire. |
| Mei | Avalanche Launch | New ability. Press jump in the air to activate this. This creates a large Ice Pillar under Mei that can be canceled by interacting with it. |
| Pharah | Jet Land | New ability. Press crouch in the air to activate. Dash downwards towards the ground. |
| Reaper | Hellfire Shotguns | Your primary fire now only shoots one shotgun. Damage per bullet is reduced from 5.4 to 2.8. Ammo is increased from 8 to 16. Your secondary fire now shoots the other shotgun. |
| Sojourn | Disruptor Shot | Disruptor Shot now pulls enemies in on deploy. You can deploy Disruptor Shot early by pressing E again. |
| Soldier: 76 | Heavy Pulse Rifle | Can now be used during Sprint. Using Heavy Pulse Rifle while sprinting has a spread of 2. |
| Sombra | Virus | Killing an enemy infected with Virus attempts to spread to a nearby enemy. |
| Symmetra | Teleporter | Only places exit Teleporter. Any ally can use Teleporter regardless of their location. Teleporter duration decreased from 10 to 4 seconds. |
| Torbjörn | Deploy Turret | The turret now sticks to walls, ceilings, and allies. |
| Tracer | Recall | Randomly sends you to the past or future, changing how your Pulse Pistols work. |
| Widowmaker | Grappling Hook | Now has 3 charges. Getting a critical hit with Widow’s Kiss’s secondary fire replenishes one charge of the ability. |
Moira's healing and damage are switched (Image via esports.gg)
Balanced Overwatch support changes
Hero | Ability | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Ana | Sleep Dart | Slept enemies slowly rise while sleeping. Enemies take fall damage when they land. |
| Baptiste | Exo-Boots | Now launches you forward rather than upward. |
| Amplification Matrix | Increases speed of projectiles shot through it by 200%. | |
| Brigitte | Scale | Scale increased by 1.5x. Armor increased from 50 to 150. |
| Shield Barrier | Health increased from 250 to 700. Always uses bigger size. | |
| Rally | Resets your Shield Bash cooldown. Movement speed bonus increased from 1.15x to 1.3x. | |
| Illari | Captive Sun | After using Captive Sun, Illari becomes Solar Installed. She moves faster and charges her Solar Rifle Faster, her rifle always charges to full damage power. Movement speed bonus 1.2x. Attack charge time reduced by 40%. Healing recharge bonus 1.2x. |
| Solar Powered | New passive. Illari is always Solar Installed when the sun is out. | |
| Kiriko | Protection Suzu | Now also grants allies a 10% damage boost, 10% healing boost, 50% movement speed boost, and 700% increased jump height. Increased duration from .65 to 1 second. |
| Vulpine Agility | New passive. Kiriko can jump an extra time in the air. | |
| Lifeweaver | Petal Platform | Now raises 20m up from 8m. |
| Lúcio | Sonic Amplifier | Ammo increased from 20 to 30. Recovery decreased from .14 seconds per bullet to .125 seconds per bullet. Now shoots 3 bullets per volley during Speed Boost and 5 bullets per volley during Healing Boost. |
| Sound Barrier | Knocks up enemies the sound waves hit. | |
| Mercy | Caduceus Staff | Damage boost from secondary fire removed. Secondary fire is now Damage Staff. Damage Staff fires Caduceus Blaster projectiles. Projectiles have a smaller size. Size gets bigger during ult. 2 more damage. Projectiles reload automatically while not firing. Projectiles reload at twice the speed while healing or after 4 seconds without firing. Can fire projectiles at a reduced firing speed if healing beam is active. Healing beam can heal at a reduced rate if Damage Staff is active. |
| Caduceus Blaster | Removed. | |
| Moira | Biotic Grasp (Primary Fire) | Now deals damage instead of healing. |
| Biotic Grasp (Secondary Fire) | Now heals instead of doing damage. | |
| Zenyatta | Orb of Destruction | Ammo increased from 25 to 32. Secondary fire charge time per projectile decreased from .52 to .47. Secondary fire projectiles fire 33% faster. Secondary fire damage decreased by 30%. You can now charge up to 8 Orbs with secondary fire. Zenyatta accelerates upward while charging secondary fire. |
Lifeweaver's Petal Platform goes up higher now (Image via esports.gg)
That's all for now. Which heroes are you excited to play during this event? Stick around on esports.gg for more news and updates!
