Overwatch 2 season 3 balance patch notes show big tank, Mercy changes

Season 3 will see big balance shifts Overwatch 2, including substantial adjustments to the game’s tank heroes and a series of tweaks to Mercy, a hero constantly in flux. Tank players should play close attention to Blizzard’s patch notes, as that role is getting a game-changing nerf in certain modes.

All characters will be affected by one change Overwatch 2The ult cost players can keep when they swap to another hero starts with season 3. Blizzard currently allows players to keep 30% of their ultimate charges, but this will change starting Tuesday.

Blizzard will reduce the tank health of all heroes, in games that don’t have role queues (e.g. arcade, Competitive Open Queue). The change, Blizzard says, will help “to address the relative power of those heroes in game modes where there can be multiple of them on the same team.” In practice, that will mean a character like D.Va will have a mech base health of 350 in role queue modes, but a mech base health of 200 in non-role queue modes. Doomfist’s health in role queue will be 450, while that will be reduced to 300 in non-role queue modes. It is possible that teams will be discouraged from increasing the number of tanks they have in some modes.

The individual tanks heroes also get some improvements. Ramattra’s Annihilation ult is changing:

• This allows you to cause havoc on your enemies by using the ultimate. It will slow the duration timer down, instead of stopping it completely. It lasts for up to 20 seconds
• The ultimate cost went up by 12%

Reinhardt will be receiving a complete suite of abilities changes:

Additional Charge

• The cooldown time has been reduced to 8-7 seconds

Fire Strike

• The damage was increased by 90-100

Earthshatter

• Direct hit damage is reduced by 250 to 170
• The knockdown time increased from 2.5 seconds to 2.75 seconds
• Ultimate cost rose 7%

Rocket Hammer

• Reduced Knockback Impulse from 10 to 6.

Other tanks, such as Reinhardt and Ramattra, are experiencing their ultimate costs increasing to different degrees. The ultimate cost of damage and support characters, such as Mei and Brigitte, Lucio and Moira, may decrease by a few percent.

Mercy players are the ones who will be most affected by these changes. Here’s the full list of tweaks and Blizzard’s justification for meddling with Mercy once again:

Guardian Angel

• The cooldown time has been increased to 1.5 seconds from 2.5 seconds
• Jump is 20% more slow when you hold the backwards direction input.

Caduceus staff

• Reduced healing-per-second from 55 to 45
• Half-health allies receive 50% greater healing

Regeneration Passive

• “Regeneration” Passive removed

New Passive: “Sympathetic Recovery”

• Mercy receives 25% of the healing performed with the Caduceus Staff

Blizzard says replacing Mercy’s Regeneration passive “with a more interesting interaction was something we wanted to do after all support heroes gained a similar version of it through their Role Passive.” Her healing ability through her Caduceus Staff will make Mercy “even more [of] a triage healer and enable her to more often save low health allies.”

Continue reading for complete and detailed patch notes Overwatch 2’s heroes.

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ALL HEROES

• The maximum ultimate charge that can be retained by swapping heroes is reduced to 30-25 percent

Developer Comment

TANCK ROLE: PASSIVE

• All tank heroes’ health will decrease when they play any mode without a role queue. When tanks are playing Role Queue games, their health will not change.

Developer Comment.

TANK

D.Va

• The Mech base health for Role Queue modes is the same at 350
• The Mech base health has been reduced by 350 to 200 in the non-Role Quue mode modes

Doomfist

• At 450, the base health for Role Queue Modes remains the same.
• The base health of non-Role queue modes has been reduced by 450 to 300

Junkerqueen

• Increased base health for Role Queue mode modes to 450
• The base health of non-Role Queue models has been reduced by 425 to 300

Developer Comment: Junkerqueen’s overall health has been improved by 25 HP.

Orisa

• The base health of Role Queue mode bases remains at 275
• The base health of non-Role queue modes has been reduced by 275 to just 125

Augmented Fusion Driver

• The damage falloff range is reduced between 25 and 15 meters

Ramattra

• At 450, the base health for Role Queue Modes remains the same.
• The base health of non-Role queue modes has been reduced by 450 to 300

Annihilation

• The ultimate is a way to cause damage and stop enemies from stealing your duration. It lasts for up to 20 seconds
• The ultimate cost went up by 12%

Developer Comment: The idea of an ultimate ability potentially lasting forever is an exciting concept, but the reality is that if it’s too easy to do it causes a lot of frustrations and with Ramattra’s ultimate in particular, an excessive amount of visual noise. We’re limiting the maximum duration to 20 seconds, which is still highly impactful for most team fights, but it guarantees it’ll end in a reasonable amount of time.

Reinhardt

• The base health of Role Queue mode bases remains at 325
• Reduced base health for non-Role Queue mode modes from 325 to 175

Additional Charge

• The cooldown time has been reduced to 8-7 seconds

Fire Strike

• The damage was increased by 90-100

Earthshatter

• Direct hit damage is reduced by 250 to 170
• The knockdown time increased from 2.5 seconds to 2.75 seconds
• Ultimate Cost increased by 7%

Rocket Hammer

• Reduced Knockback Impulse from 10 to 6.

Developer Comment: In similar fashion to Roadhog’s Chain Hook combo changes last season, we’d generally like to avoid heroes in the Tank role from killing enemies in one shot. With this goal in mind, Earthshatter’s direct hit damage has been reduced. The knockdown stun is unlikely to cause death, although it can open the door for their allies.

For now, we’re fine with Charge pin staying lethal to many characters due to the difficulty and risk involved. The Fire Strike damage increase does mean it could once again one-shot when combined with Baptiste’s Amplification Matrix, but that requires an ultimate combo with another hero. We’ll see how it plays out and adjust if necessary.

While the Rocket Hammer knockback reduction might sound like an increase in power, its purpose is to decrease Reinhardt’s accidental knockouts of enemies within his melee reach.

Roadhog

• The 700-year-old base health for Role Queue mode remains the same.
• The base health of non-Role Queue Modes has been reduced by 700 to just 550

Whole Hog

• Increased maximum duration from 6-8 seconds
• Ultimate Cost increased by 8%

Developer Comment We’re adding a couple seconds to the maximum duration to increase the flexibility of player choices during the Whole Hog ultimate, but we’ll keep an eye on if it’s simply too much damage or knockback overall.

Sigma

• Basis health in Role Queue Modes remains unchanged at 350
• The base health of non-Role Queue models has been reduced by 350 to 200

Gravitic Flux

• Ultimate Cost increased by 7%

Winston

• Basis health in Role Queue Modes remains unchanged at 350
• Reduction in base health of none-Role Queue Modes from 350 to $200

Barrier Projector

• The health of the population has declined from 700 to 650

Wrecking Ball

• Reduction in base health of Role Queue Modes from 600 to 500
• The base health of non-Role Queue Modes has been reduced by 600 to 300
• Increased shield health from 0 to 100

Pile driver

• Cooldown decreased from 10 to 8 seconds

Minefield

• The ultimate cost rose by 9%
• Reduction in arming time: Reduced from 1.5 to 1 Second

Developer comments: Wrecking Ball saw the least changes during the switch to 5v5 because he was one the most efficient solo tanks in testing. He is able to pick when to fight more easily than any other hero due to his extreme mobility and large health pool. He is making these changes to reduce his downtime and increase that edge. The ability to regenerate shield health often means that he doesn’t have to hunt for many health packs in order to be back on his feet.

Zarya

• The base health of Role Queue mode bases remains at 250
• Reduced base health for non-Role Queue mode modes from 250 to 100

Graviton Overflow

• Ultimate Cost increased by 8%

DOMESTIC DAMAGE

Cassidy

Roll of Combat

• Moving is now possible despite enemy players colliding

Peacekeeper

• The primary fire range felloff increased to 20-25 meters

Developer Comment: Combat Roll not being blocked by players is mostly a small quality-of-life change to make the ability feel smoother, particularly when rolling in a direction that you’re not facing.

Junkrat

Concussion Mine

• Maximum damage decreased from 120 to100

Developer Comment: Since the Concussion Mine’s damage falls off the closer an enemy player gets to the explosion, Junkrat must be slightly more precise in order to lower the maximum damage.

Mei

Blizzard

Pharah

Barrage

Reaper

Death Blossom

Soldier:76

Heavy Pulse Rifle

• From 4 to 6, the number of shots needed to attain maximum recoil has increased to 6.
• Recoil Reduced 12%

Developer Comment. This adjustment is for how the gun feels, rather than to improve its power. However it can have an effect on both. The weapon handles more like the original in that it can be fired more precisely before the recoil begins.

Sombra

Machine Pistol

• Increased damage per projectile from 7 to 7.

Hack

• Increased duration for health pack hacks from 30 to 45 second

Developer Comments: Sombra’s performance is lower after the last round of adjustments. While we make progress on a small rework for her abilities, this damage increase will help strengthen Sombra even against targets that aren’t affected by her Hack effect. It’s a small increase per projectile, but it adds up quickly due to her fast fire rate. This minor boost to the health pack’s duration is intended to prevent you from having to constantly rehack them.

Symmetra

Photon Barrier

• The ultimate cost has increased by 10%

Torbjorn

Install Turret

• Reduced Turret health from 250 to 215

Developer Comment: With the move to 5v5 and one less player to shoot at it, Torbjorn’s turret tends to survive longer than ever. We’re reducing its health slightly to help it feel less like a sixth player and be easier to deal with once someone turns their attention to it.

Widowmaker

• Reduced base health from 200 to 175

Developer Comment: Due to fears that Widowmaker would be too susceptible to the tanks’ increased power, we tried with her at 200 health. Ultimately she gains more advantages from 5v5 than she loses so we’re returning her back to 175 HP to better enable more heroes to contest her lethal ranged capabilities.

SUPPORT

Ana

Biotic Grenade

• The effect duration is reduced to between 4 and 3.5 seconds

Brigitte

Repair Pack

• The rate of healing over time has dropped from 55 to 50 seconds per second
• A Repair Pack instantly repairs 25 of your health after impact.

Rally

• Final cost reduced by 10%

Developer Comment: A Repair Pack that provides a little instant healing can help Brigitte save an injured ally. It also makes Brigitte feel more responsive, impactful and effective.

Lucio

Sound Barrier

Mercy

Guardian Angel

• The cooldown time has been increased to 1.5 seconds from 2.5 seconds
• Jump is 20% more slow when you hold the backwards direction input.

Staff Caduceus

• Reduced healing-per-second from 55 to 45
• Half-health allies receive 50% greater healing

Regeneration Passive

• “Regeneration” Passive removed

New Passive: “Sympathetic Recovery”

• Mercy receives 25% of the healing performed with the Caduceus Staff

Developer Comment: Replacing Mercy’s Regeneration passive with a more interesting interaction was something we wanted to do after all support heroes gained a similar version of it through their Role Passive.

This will make Mercy a better triage healer. It also allows her to help low-health friends more frequently. From 1 HP, it takes approximately the same amount of time to completely heal a 200 health hero.

Guardian Angel will need to adjust the cooldown in order to lessen the significantly increased mobility that has resulted from recent changes to the jump cancel. Mercy was able to launch quickly and travel long distances without being impeded by the cooldown.

Moira

Coalescence

Zenyatta

Orb of Destruction

• The ammo was increased by 20-25

Developer Comment: We’ve been discussing options to potentially increase Zenyatta’s survivability. We’ve seen previously in the beta that Zenyatta is on somewhat of a knife’s edge for balance. Even just 25 more shield health pushed him into overpowered-must-pick territory at the pro level. To balance his powerful damage output, the lack of mobility is an intentional disadvantage by design, so we’d prefer not to change that too much. Instead, we’re adding more ammo to lengthen the times between when Zenyatta is most vulnerable, which is when he is reloading.