Overwatch 2 patch notes, Mar. 19, 2024 – No, bad Mauga! cover image

Overwatch 2 patch notes, Mar. 19, 2024 – No, bad Mauga!

Hey, wanna arm wrestle?

Looking for some Overwatch patch notes? Esports.gg has you covered with all the notes, observations, and more regarding the game's ever-changing landscape. Below you'll find a rolling list of the patch notes so far in 2024. We have a hotfix today for the Season 9 patch which includes a number of balancing tweaks for Mauga and Symmetra.

Be sure to bookmark this page so you can keep track of what's going on in everyone's favorite shooter.

Overwatch 2 patch notes, Mar. 19, 2024

Mauga

  • Base Health decreased from 400 to 375.
  • Cardiac Overdrive
    • No longer fills overhealth on activation.
    • Duration increased from 4 to 5 seconds.
    • Cooldown increased from 10 to 12 seconds.

The Mauga buffs from last week proved to be too divisive. I suppose the sign that maybe he was buffed too much came in the form of every OWCS team playing a Mauga comp over the weekend. Regardless, back he goes to the middle of the pack.

Sombra

  • EMP
    • The previous reduction to ultimate cost has been reverted.

I don't feel like that's much of a nerf, but, whatever.

Symmetra

  • Photon Projector
    • Primary fire damage per second decreased from 65 to 60, scaling with all levels. Maximum damage per second is 180.
  • Sentry Turret
    • Health decreased from 50 to 40.

Turrets requiring two shots to die was maybe a bit too good.


Overwatch 2 patch notes, Mar. 12, 2024

ROLE PASSIVES UPDATES

  • Heal reduction applied by the damage role passive lowered from 20% to 15%.

PROJECTILE SIZE UPDATES

  • Global projectile size modifier for travel time projectiles with a speed greater than 50 meters per second reduced from 0.1 to 0.075 meters.

Yeah, this makes sense. That 20 percent healing reduction was downright oppressive. Here's hoping this helps tanks feel less brittle.

HERO CHANGES - TANK

Doomfist

  • Meteor Strike
    • Minimum damage increased from 15 to 50.

A good change! All too often you'd end up doing, literally, 15 damage with your Meteor Strike.

Mauga

  • Overrun
    • Stomp damage increased from 45 to 60.
  • Cardiac Overdrive
    • Duration reduced from 5 to 4 seconds.
    • Cooldown reduced from 12 to 10 seconds.
    • Now fills his passive overhealth by 100.

Will this make playing Mauga feel less gross? Only time will tell, but Cardiac being more viable certainly helps him in the long run.

Orisa

  • Terra Surge
    • Charge rate for the first 2.5 seconds increased by 25%.

What? Why? Did she need it? I mean, I'm fine with this, but it feels a bit unneeded.

Ramattra

  • Ravenous Vortex
    • Total damage increased from 45 to 70.
    • Cooldown decreased from 12 to 11 seconds.

Small changes, but not bad ones.

Reinhardt

  • Armor increased from 275 to 300.
  • Fire Strike
    • Damage increased from 100 to 120.

Look: Rein is still bad. There's no amount of damage increase here that's going to help that at the moment. Fact of the matter is, his shield is made of paper and he can't do anything up close against his biggest counters. It feels bad, but it's reality.

Roadhog

  • Chain Hook
    • The enemy final position distance from Roadhog after being pulled decreased from 4 to 3 meters.
  • Pig Pen
    • Vertical knockback on activation decreased by 43%

After years of debuffs it feels weird that Hog is now maybe one of the best tanks for any situation.

HERO CHANGES - DPS

Hanzo

  • Base projectile sizes increased from 0.075 to 0.1 meters. The total projectile size, when combined with the general hero change, is still 0.175 meters.

This is actually a non-change, which means it gets a non-comment.

Mei

  • Endothermic Blaster
    • Ammo increased from 120 to 140.
  • Cryofreeze
    • Heal per second increased from 50 to 62.5.

Mei: She's good!

Reaper

  • Death Blossom
    • Damage per second increased from 170 to 185.
    • Ultimate cost decreased by 12%.

Reaper buffs? Now? In this economy? Sure, if you say so.

Sombra

  • Virus
    • Impact damage increased from 10 to 25.
  • Translocator
    • Destroys breakables while in flight.
  • EMP
    • Ultimate cost reduced by 8%.

Well, Sombra is just that much better now. Hope you like seeing her in your Quick Play games.

Symmetra

  • Photon Projector
    • Primary fire damage per second increased from 60 to 65, scaling with each stage. The new maximum damage per second is 195.
  • Sentry Turret
    • Health increased from 30 to 50.
    • Damage per second increased from 25 to 30.
  • Teleporter
    • Health increased from 50 to 100.
    • Shields increased from 150 to 200.

Symmetra feels like she's constantly in that range of being nerfed and buffed over and over. So, it's hard to tell if these changes will help her deal with a non-shield based meta.

Torb

  • Deploy Turret
    • Turret damage increased from 11 to 13.

A Pumpkin Spice... Latte?!

HERO CHANGES - SUPPORT

Ana

Biotic Grenade

  • Explosion damage and healing increased from 60 to 90.

That heal increase is nice. Along with the nerf to the DPS passive, this helps Ana out a ton.

Brig

  • Repair Pack
    • Cooldown reduced from 6 to 5 seconds.
  • Rally
    • Cost reduced 8%.

All good changes for a hero that sometimes feels like nothing but a niche pick.

Illari

  • Solar Rifle
    • Primary fire recovery time reduced from 0.3 to 0.2 seconds.
    • Maximum charge time reduced from 0.7 to 0.65 seconds.

I'll take any help illari can get at this point. She just feels incredibly slow right now, so more firepower helps.

Wifeleaver

  • Heal Blossom
    • Maximum heal amount increased from 70 to 80.
    • Maximum charge time increased from 1 to 1.15 seconds.

Just based off a few games on the new patch I could already tell his healing feels better. However, Lifeweaver still feels like a big target compared to other Supports.


Overwatch 2 patch notes, Feb. 21, 2024

We don't have a lot things to say about these balance changes, to be honest. A lot of them are course-corrections from the launch of Season 9. Will they affect the burgeoning meta? More data needed.

HERO CHANGES - TANK

D.Va

  • Light Gun
    • Base projectile size reduced from 0.25 to 0.2 meters. Total projectile size is now 0.3 meters.

Roadhog

  • Take a Breather
    • Damage reduction increased from 40 to 50%.

Zarya

  • Particle Cannon
    • Primary fire minimum damage increased from 85 to 95 damage per second.
    • Primary fire maximum damage increased from 170 to 190 damage per second.

HERO CHANGES - DPS

Hanzo

  • Base projectile sizes reduced from 0.1 to 0.075 meters. Total projectile size is now 0.175 meters.

Junkrat

  • Concussion Mine
    • Cooldown decreased from 8 to 7 seconds.
    • Maximum damage increased from 110 to 120.
    • Minimum damage increased from 20 to 55.

Soldier 76

  • Heavy Pulse Rifle
    • Now uses the smaller 0.05 meter hitscan projectile size modifier. Total projectile size is now 0.05 meters.

Tracer

  • Pulse Pistols
    • Minimum falloff range reduced from 12 to 10.

Widowmaker

  • Widow's Kiss
    • Now uses the smaller 0.05 meter hitscan projectile size modifier. Total projectile size is now 0.05 meters.
    • Scoped shot damage falloff min-max range increased from 40-60 to 50-70 meters.

HERO CHANGES - SUPPORT

Illari

  • Healing Pylon
    • Cooldown decreased from 8 to 6 seconds.
    • Cooldown when destroyed by enemies decreased from 15 to 12 seconds.
  • Captive Sun
    • Sunstruck explosion damage increased from 100 to 160.
    • Sunstruck explosion now has damage falloff again, reducing damage by up to 25%.

Lucio

  • Sonic Amplifier
    • Base projectile size reduced from 0.15 to 0.1 meters. Total projectiles size is now 0.25 meters.

Mercy

  • Caduceus Blaster
    • Base projectile size reduced from 0.25 to 0.2 meters. Total projectile size is now 0.3 meters.

Zenyatta

  • Base health decreased from 100 to 75.
  • Snap Kick
    • Knockback decreased 25%.

Overwatch 2 patch notes, Feb. 13, 2024

GAMEPLAY CHANGES

Most damage-dealing projectile sizes have been increased by a new global modifier added to their base size.

  • +0.05 meters for hitscan projectiles with a high rate of fire or spread (e.g., Tracer’s Pulse Pistols or Reaper’s Hellfire Shotguns).
  • Plus 0.08 meters for hitscan projectiles that are more precise (e.g., Cassidy’s Peacekeeper or Soldier:76’s Heavy Pulse Rifle).
  • +0.05 meters for travel time projectiles that are shotguns or have a very high rate of fire (e.g., Roadhog’s Scrap Gun or Ramattra’s Void Accelerator).
  • Plus 0.10 meters for travel time projectile with a speed greater than 50 meters per second (e.g., Zenyatta’s Destruction Orb).
  • +0.15 meters for travel time projectile with a speed less than or equal to 50 meters per second (e.g., Pharah’s Rocket Launcher).
  • Very large projectiles with a base size greater than 0.5 meters have been excluded from these increases (e.g., Orisa’s Energy Javelin or Reinhardt’s Fire Strike).

Hero combined HP (base health/armor/shields) increased by 15-25%.

  • 150-175 HP heroes increased by 25 HP.
  • 200-300 HP heroes increased by 50 HP.
  • 300+ HP (Tanks) increased by 75-100 HP.
  • Each hero’s precise health increases are listed in their patch notes below.

Ultimate Charge

  • All Ultimate ability costs increased by 10%.

Regenerative Passive for All Heroes

  • All heroes now regenerate 20 health per second after 5 seconds of not taking damage.

Support Role Passive

  • Now reduces the delay before regeneration begins by half (2.5 seconds).

Damage Role Passive

  • Reload speed bonus on elimination has been removed.
  • New role passive: Dealing damage reduces enemy healing received by 20% for 2 seconds.

Quick Melee

  • Damage increased from 30 to 40.

The big gameplay changes are here, and with it comes a new era of Overwatch. Pay special attention to the new class passives, which all bring a new twist to Overwatch and its patch notes.

COMPETITIVE CHANGES - OVERWATCH 2 PATCH NOTES

Skill Rank Reset

  • Given the significant changes to our heroes and the addition of a new skill tier, this reset is designed to give all players a chance to climb higher than ever before.
  • All roles in Role Queue and Open Queue in Competitive Play have been reset to Unranked.

Placement Matches

  • Placements have been rebuilt from the ground up. Your predicted rank will be displayed after each placement match.
  • You must complete 10 matches in a role to receive your Skill Rank for that role.
  • Winning your placements will have a significant impact on your final rank.

Competitive Updates

  • Competitive Updates have been reworked. Instead of requiring five wins or 15 losses to get a Competitive Update, updates now happen after every match.
  • Going forward, the Competitive Updates page now hosts information about your ranks in Role Queue and Open Queue, as well as your progress toward Competitive Point rewards.

Skill Modifiers

  • Modifiers now appear on the Competitive Progress page after each match.
  • Skill modifiers provide information on how much a rank will gain or lose progress after a match, including win or loss streaks, rank instability, and match favorability.

Take Blizzard's advice for the new season: Use your best Heroes for those 10 placement matches. The MMR reset will do right by you, so play your best!

HERO CHANGES - TANK

D.Va

  • Pilot health increased from 150 to 175.
  • Mech armor increased from 300 to 375.

Self Destruct

  • Explosion maximum damage increased from 900 to 1000.
  • Inner explosion radius (range for maximum damage before falloff begins) increased from 4 to 6 meters.

Doomfist

  • Health increased from 300 to 375.

Rocket Punch

  • Max impact damage increased from 50 to 75.
  • Max wall slam damage increased from 30 to 40.

Junker Queen

  • Health increased from 300 to 375.

Rampage

  • Wound damage over time increased from 60 to 90.

Mauga

  • Health increased from 300 to 400.

Orisa

  • Armor increased from 275 to 350.

Ramattra

  • Health increased from 200 to 275.

Reinhardt

  • Health increased from 200 to 250.
  • Armor increased from 250 to 275.

Rocket Hammer

  • Damage increased from 85 to 100.

Charge

  • Wall impact damage increased from 225 to 275.

Roadhog

  • Health increased from 550 to 650.

Sigma

  • Shields increased from 200 to 275.

Winston

  • Health increased from 200 to 225.
  • Armor increased from 200 to 250.

Tesla Cannon

  • Damage increased from 60 to 75 damage per second.

Primal Rage

  • Punch damage increased from 40 to 50.

Wrecking Ball

  • Armor increased from 100 to 175.

Zarya

  • Health increased from 100 to 175.

Particle Cannon

  • Primary fire beam width increased from 0.15 to 0.2 meters.

There's too many changes here to go over them all, but many just boil down to health increases. However, the damage increases on Reinhardt, Winston, and Doomfist should not be ignored.

DPS CHANGES - OVERWATCH 2 PATCH NOTES

Ashe

  • Health increased from 200 to 250.

B.O.B.

  • B.O.B.’s weapon damage increased from 14 to 17.

Bastion

  • Health increased from 200 to 250.

Cassidy

  • Health increased from 225 to 275.

Deadeye

  • Initial damage rate increased from 130 to 150.
  • Damage rate increased from 260 to 300.

Echo

  • Health increased from 200 to 250.

Focusing Beam

  • Width increased from 0.2 to 0.25 meters.

Duplicate

  • Maximum combined health value increased from 300 to 350.

Genji

  • Health increased from 200 to 250.

Dragonblade

Swing recovery decreased from 0.9 to 0.7 seconds.

Hanzo

  • Health increased from 200 to 250.

Storm Arrows

  • Damage increased from 65 to 75.
  • Cooldown reduced from 10 to 8 seconds.

Junkrat

  • Health increased from 200 to 250.

Frag Launcher

  • Base projectile size reduced from 0.25 to 0.2 meters.

Mei

  • Health increased from 250 to 300.

Pharah

  • Health increased from 200 to 250.

Rocket Launcher

  • Recovery reduced from 0.85 to 0.80 seconds.
  • Projectile speed increased from 35 to 40 meters per second.
  • Explosion self-damage reduced from 50% to 25%.

Jet Dash

  • New Secondary Fire Ability.
  • Provides a quick horizontal boost in the direction Pharah is moving.
  • 8-second cooldown.
  • Added a setting to activate Jet Dash on Double Jump instead.

Jump Jet

  • Now restores 50% of Hover Jets fuel and can briefly overfill the maximum fuel amount.
  • Vertical boost height reduced by 20%.
  • Cooldown increased from 10 to 14 seconds.

Concussive Blast

  • Cooldown decreased from 9 to 7 seconds.
  • Explosion now deals 30 damage to enemy targets.
  • Explosion radius reduced from 8 to 6 meters.
  • Knockback reduced by 10%.

Barrage

  • Now instantly refills Hover Jets fuel.

Hover Jets

  • Speed boost increased from 20% to 40%.
  • Now requires landing to recharge fuel.
  • Can now be activated without fuel to slow your descent.

New Pharah? Her rework is here and with it comes a slightly removal in effectiveness for those deploying PharMercy. Pharah is now a much more lateral aerial Hero, as opposed to an up-high hoverer. Adjust accordingly.

Reaper

  • Health increased from 250 to 300.

Sojourn

  • Health increased from 200 to 250.

Railgun

  • Secondary Fire base projectile size reduced from 0.1 to 0.07 meters.

Soldier: 76

  • Health increased from 200 to 250.

Sombra

  • Health increased from 200 to 250.

Symmetra

  • Shields increased from 100 to 150.

Photon Projector

  • Primary fire beam width increased from 0.2 to 0.25 meters.

Torbjörn

  • Health increased from 200 to 250.

Tracer

  • Health increased from 150 to 175.

Widowmaker

  • Health increased from 175 to 200.

SUPPORT CHANGES - OVERWATCH 2 PATCH NOTES

Ana

  • Health increased from 200 to 250.

Baptiste

  • Health increased from 200 to 250.

Brigitte

  • Health increased from 150 to 200.

Rocket Flail

  • Damage increased from 35 to 45.

Illari

  • Health increased from 200 to 250.

Kiriko

  • Health increased from 200 to 250.

Kunai

  • Base projectile size reduced from 0.18 to 0.15 meters.

Lifeweaver

  • Health increased from 175 to 225.

Lúcio

  • Health increased from 200 to 250.

Soundwave

  • Damage increased from 25 to 35.
  • Knockback increased 12%.
  • Movement lockout duration increased from 0.3 to 0.45 seconds.

Mercy

  • Health increased from 200 to 250.

Guardian Angel

  • Active duration on jump/crouch cancel reduced from 1.5 to 1 second.

Sympathetic Recovery passive

  • Health recovered increased from 25% to 40% of healing dealt.

Moira

  • Health increased from 200 to 250.

Biotic Grasp

  • Secondary fire damage increased from 50 to 65 damage per second.
  • Secondary fire target acquisition radius increased from 0.6 to 0.7 meters.

Zenyatta

  • Health increased from 75 to 100.
  • Shields increased from 150 to 175.

Overwatch 2 patch notes, Jan. 9, 2024

MAUGA

  • Base Health increased from 250 to 300.
  • Base Armor decreased from 250 to 200.
  • Incendiary and Volatile Chainguns
    • Ammo decreased from 350 to 300.
  • Cardiac Overdrive
    • Lifesteal decreased from 70% to 60%
    • Cooldown increased from 10 seconds to 12 seconds.
  • Cage Fight
    • No longer grants infinite ammo. Still reloads Mauga’s Chainguns at the start of the ultimate.
  • Berserker
    • Overhealth conversion rate decreased from 60% to 50%.

You're welcome. I think this basically puts Mauga in line with the other tanks. However, he'll definitely still benefit greatly from specific combinations of Heroes such as Kiriko, Bastion, Mercy, and more. Will this be enough to fix things? Guess we won't know until we play.

ORISA

  • Augmented Fusion Driver
    • Removed falloff damage penalty.
  • Fortify
  • Now immune to taking forced critical hit damage. Fortify already prevents direct critical damage from headshots.

Alright, which one of you silly geese at Blizzard decided to take damage falloff away from Orisa? Good joke, very funny. Oh. That's real. Huh. Well, good luck out there, Widowmaker mains.

ROADHOG

  • Take a Breather
    • Total amount healed reduced from 500 to 450.
    • Cooldown between usages increased from 1 to 1.5 seconds.

VAPE LIFE.

SOJOURN

  • Railgun
    • Gradual energy no longer decays below 25%.

This is a huge buff for Sojourn across the board, now always having at least a minimum charge. As if she needed the help.

SOMBRA

  • Stealth
    • Grace period where Stealth can be canceled immediately after entering it increased from 0.5 to 0.75 seconds
    • Cooldown now pauses at 1 second while capturing or contesting objectives from 1.5 seconds.
    • Cooldown on respawning decreased from 1.5 to 1 second.

This seems fair, as Sombra now has a real problem with escaping on certain maps. This should make her vanishing act feel "snappier".

ANA

  • Biotic Grenade
    • Effect duration reduced from 3.5 to 3 seconds.

There's an argument that Ana is due to be nerfed to the ground. After all, she possesses three of the best cooldowns in the game. Don't be surprised if we keep seeing more nerfs, or even a change to anti-healing effects entirely.

Overwatch 2 patch notes - ILLARI

  • Solar Rifle
    • Primary fire charge gain is no longer paused by secondary fire, nor channeling Captive Sun.
    • Ammo increased from 14 to 16.
  • Captive Sun
    • Now fully refills secondary fire resource and resets overheated status.
    • Removed the damage falloff penalty on the Sunstruck explosion.

As one of my group said about this change, "it's only for true sickos." And this might be true, as it seems like a nothing buff. However, this will eliminate downtime for Illari when it comes to pew-pewing.

LIFEWEAVER

  • Thorn Volley
    • Projectile speed increased from 70 to 80 meters per second.
  • Petal Platform
    • No longer pierced by piercing projectiles.

Sure, great. I love killing Reapers as Wifeleaver. Weirdly enough, my favorite change in this round of Overwatch 2 patch notes.


And keep watch on esports.gg for more esports news and Overwatch info.