The November Overwatch 2 patch notes bring tidings of great Mei and nerfs.
Almost a month since her sudden removal due to game-breaking bugs, the November Overwatch 2 patch brings fan fav Mei back into the fold. In addition to the celebration caused by adding an old Hero back into the game, many were also nerfed in response to some launch period over-tuning.
Check out the full bug fixes at the link. Here's the rundown on the Hero balance changes at work and the changes of note.
Defense matrix, activate!
Toxicity in gaming is a sad expectation and reality of wanting to play online, but credit where it's due: Blizzard is attempting to right some wrongs and help the community out. It appears that the November patch finally activated the Defense Matrix audio transcription service, described as:
The audio transcription feature has been added with a limited rollout for PC players in select countries. As a piece of our Defense Matrix initiative, audio transcriptions allow us to analyze a transcript from a temporary voice chat recording of a reported player. Players will now see a notification when entering voice chat for the first time during a play session indicating that voice chat may be recorded. Make sure you report as close to when disruptive behavior occurred to maximize this feature’s effectiveness. Once reported, a temporary audio recording will be used to make a text file transcript through speech-to-text programs. No one listens to the temporary audio recording, which is quickly deleted after being transcribed. Transcriptions are only made for reports of disruptive behavior in public voice channels, which includes team and match chat—group “party” chat is excluded.
Any and all attempts at corralling disruptive behavior in gaming is a welcome boon. Here's hoping it leads to some noticeable change.
Tank updates
D.VA
Fusion Cannons
- Spread increased from 3.5 to 3.75
Boosters
- Impact damage reduced from 25 to 15
Call Mech
- Fixed in last update- Call Mech ultimate cost reduced by 12%
D.Va's ability to run down enemy Heroes while being hard to take down can feel oppressive at times. These changes to her overall ability to deal damage should make it so the tank must work a bit harder and longer for the same previous result.
ZARYA
Particle Barrier
- Duration reduced from 2.5 to 2 seconds
- Cooldown increased from 10 to 11 seconds
Projected Barrier
- Duration reduced from 2.5 to 2 seconds
- Cooldown increased from 10 to 11 seconds
Speaking of oppressive, no tank has quite felt so unkillable as of late like Zarya. This might be due to the fact that its hard to keep your team from shooting into that bubble and letting the Russian pump up. While small adjustments, the barriers' windows for absorbing damage being shorter should result in less of a feeling like she's an unstoppable monster.
DPS adjustments
GENJI
Shuriken
- Maximum ammo reduced from 30 to 24
- Damage reduced from 29 to 27
There's no worse feeling than seeing a Genji take a lifebar from 100 to 0 with four right-clicks. The change to the damage and ammo amount of his shuriken should keep the agile, annoying Hero from feeling so oppressive.
JUNKRAT
Steel Trap
- Fixed in last update- Arming time increased from 0.5 to 0.75 seconds
- Fixed in last update- Trapped duration reduced from 3 to 2.5 seconds
Well, at least Blizzard didn't buff him this time. Sigh.
SOMBRA
Hack
- Ability lockout duration reduced from 1.75 to 1.5 seconds
- Hacked enemies are no longer valid targets for hacking for the duration of the 8-second effect
- Hacked enemy damage multiplier reduced from 40 to 25%
The addition of the Overwatch 2 ping system was, in essence, a massive buff to Sombra. The ability to immediately give info in a direct fashion already meant she was gaining a huge advantage. This was extended further by giving hacked targets a Zenyatta Discord Orb-like damage debuff. Both the hack lockout and the damage reduction multiplier are much needed.
Supporting the supports
KIRIKO
Swift Step
- Invulnerability duration reduced from 0.4 to 0.25 seconds
Some players found that teleporting with Swift Step also made Kiriko immune to big damage effects such as RIP Tire and D.VA Bomb, giving the hero two seperate ways to fully ignore big damage. The shortening of the invulnerability time should get the ability back to where it's supposed to be, as a big movement ability with a big risk attached.
End transmission
The November Overwatch 2 patch notes feel like a long time coming, bringing some key balanced changed into the fold while also adding in this weird, new Hero called....Mei? She freezes things, apparently? Weird. That's cool.
Haha. Cool. Ice pun. Nice.
Keep (Over)watch for more OW2 news and notes right here on esports.gg!