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Overwatch 2’s next balance patch will make some supports scarier

 



Overwatch 2 season 4 kicks off April 11, bringing a new support hero to Blizzard’s free-to-play hero shooter. The existing roster is getting a fresh set of balance changes as well, with some of the bigger ones affecting tanks and support heroes.

Blizzard previously covered a rework to Brigitte that will update her ultimate ability, Rally, that gives her shield some upgrades: Her ult will make the shield stronger and wider, and will give her the ability to (once again) stun enemies with her Shield Bash. Offsetting that buff are changes to her movement speed during Rally, and a reduced range for her Repair Pack healing ability.

According to Blizzard’s season 4 patch notes for Overwatch 2, Moira is also getting a big upgrade. Not only will her Biotic Grasp offer better healing, she will now have the option to use her Fade ability while she’s firing her ultimate, Coalescence. That will be a huge boon for Moira players who are able to predict an ult-disrupting Roadhog Chain Hook or Reinhardt Earthshatter. Moira DPS mains are going to love it.

The full hero update patch notes are below, and include important changes to Ana’s Sleep Dart (specifically when used against tanks), and less lethality for characters like Sigma and Cassidy.

REINHARDT

  • Armor health reduced from 300 to 250
  • Base health increased from 175 to 200

Developer Comment: Reinhardt has been overperforming after the recent increases to his offensive capabilities. Those changes have been playing well, so to adjust his overall power, we’re reducing his overall health through this armor reduction.

SIGMA

Accretion

  • Impact damage reduced from 60 to 40 (80 damage total with explosion)
  • Knockdown duration increased from 0.8 to 1.1 seconds

Developer Comment: Like Roadhog’s Chain Hook, Sigma’s Accretion and primary fire combo can be highly lethal and can feel like a guaranteed kill against 200 health targets. We’re reducing the damage slightly to require an additional volley of primary fire but are also increasing the stun duration to provide allies with more opportunity to follow up on successful impacts.

CASSIDY

  • Base health reduced from 225 to 200

Magnetic Grenade

  • Damage reduced from 131 to 120

Developer Comment: Magnetic Grenade only requiring one additional primary fire shot after sticking to a target was too reliable to execute on, even though it only works at close range. We’re reducing the total damage on Magnetic Grenade, evenly split between the direct target damage and explosion. The reduced falloff-damage buff his primary fire received recently enables Cassidy to play from safer engagement ranges now, so we’re reducing his health back to 200.

SOMBRA

  • EMP can now disable Blizzard

Developer Comment: We are expanding what Sombra’s EMP turns off to keep it consistent with how it affects other device-controlled ultimates.

ANA

Sleep Dart

  • Maximum duration on Tank heroes reduced 30%, from 5 to 3.5 seconds

Developer Comments: We’ve been watching how effective Sleep Dart has been in 5v5 gameplay. It hasn’t been overly disruptive as a whole, but since it is significantly more reliable to land against Tank heroes due to their large hit boxes and even more valuable to do so with only one tank on the field, we’re reducing its maximum duration against those targets.

BRIGITTE

Rally

  • Brigitte now gains 100 restorable armor health pool for the duration of Rally
  • Brigitte no longer gradually builds temporary health like her nearby allies
  • Rally now upgrades her Barrier Shield, increasing both its size and health
  • Barrier health increased from 300 to 750 during the ultimate
  • During Rally, Shield Bash now impacts multiple enemies and briefly stuns them
  • Bonus movement speed reduced from 30 to 15%

Repair Pack

  • Range reduced from 30 to 25 meters

Developer Comments: Rally lost some of its power with the change from granting allies additional armor to temporary health, and overall took a relatively long time to build up its defensive benefits. This rework is intended to keep it as a defensive ultimate ability but with a more immediate impact due to gaining an increased armor health pool upfront and the enhanced barrier, which can be utilized to block for teammates while their temporary health builds or interrupt enemies with the stun.

MERCY

Caduceus Staff

  • Healing-per-second increased from 45 to 55
  • Healing is no longer increased for allies under half health

Guardian Angel

  • Cooldown reduced from 2.5 to 1.5 seconds
  • Jump and Crouch cancel active ability state duration increased from 1.0 to 1.5 seconds
  • The Jump and Crouch cancel active ability state can no longer be manually interrupted to begin the cooldown early

Valkyrie

  • Support role passive healing is now active for the duration of Valkyrie

Developer Comment: The recent increase to Guardian Angel’s jump-cancel mobility still needs to be kept in check in some way, but while the last iteration was simple, it also had some unintended effects, such as not being ready to use GA again after flying in and using Resurrect. This revision provides more flexibility, and allows Mercy to opt into an additional 1.5 second cooldown when using the increased mobility from the jump/crouch cancel options or otherwise waiting for the base cooldown time.

The increased healing multiplier condition on Caduceus Staff was intended to help Mercy players feel more agency in trying to save critical-health allies and to add depth to the healing mechanic without changing the total time to heal to full health. However, the overall rebalance of the healing values received significant negative feedback, both from those playing as Mercy and those playing against it. There wasn’t a satisfying middle ground where we could reduce the potency of this effect while still having it feel impactful, so we’re reverting it.

MOIRA

Fade

  • Can now be activated during Coalescence

Coalescence

  • Bonus movement speed reduced from 50 to 40%

Biotic Grasp

  • Lingering heal duration increased from 2 to 3 seconds

Developer Comments: Being able to use Fade during her Coalescence ultimate gives Moira more playmaking ability by being able to reposition even more quickly and avoid potential threats with quick reactions. Due to the more spread-out playstyle of 5v5, we’re increasing the lingering heal duration from her primary fire, meaning it will heal more in total.

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