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

By James On Apr 7, 2023

Overlook 2 Season 4 kicks off April 11 and brings a new supporting hero to Blizzard’s free-to-play hero shooter. The existing roster is also getting a new set of balance changes, affecting some of the bigger tanks and supporting heroes.

Blizzard previously talked about an edit of Brigitte that will update her ultimate ability, Rally, giving her shield some upgrades: her ult will make the shield stronger and wider, and will give her the ability to (again) stun enemies with her Shield Bash . That buff is offset by changes to her movement speed during Rally and a reduced range for her repair pack regenerative ability.

According to Blizzard season 4 patch notes for Overlook 2, Moira also gets a major upgrade. Not only will her Biotic Grasp provide better healing, she will now also have the option to use her Fade ability while firing her ultimate, Coalescence. That will be a huge boon to Moira players who can predict an ultimate disruptive Roadhog Chain Hook or Reinhardt Earthshatter. Moira DPS mains power goes to Love It.

The full patch notes for the hero update are below and include major 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 Comments: Reinhardt is over-performing following the recent increase in his offensive capabilities. Those changes work well, so to adjust his overall strength, we’ll reduce his overall health by reducing this armor.

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 comments: Like Roadhog’s Chain Hook, Sigma’s Accretion and primary fire combo can be very lethal and feel like a guaranteed kill against 200 health targets. We’re reducing damage slightly to require an extra burst of primary fire, but we’re also increasing stun duration to give allies more chance to follow up on successful effects.

Cassidy

Base health reduced from 225 to 200

Magnetic grenade

Damage reduced from 131 to 120

Developer Comments: Magnetic grenade requiring only one additional primary fire shot after being stuck on a target was too reliable to run on, even though it only works at close range. We reduce the total damage of magnetic grenades evenly divided between the damage to the direct target and the explosion. The reduced falloff damage buff that his primary fire recently received now allows Cassidy to play from safer combat ranges, so we’re bringing his health back to 200.

Sombra

EMP can now take out Blizzard

Developer comments: We’re expanding what disables Sombra’s EMP to keep it consistent with how it affects other device-controlled ultimates.

Ana

Sleep Dart

Reduced max duration on tank heroes by 30%, from 5 to 3.5 seconds

Developer Comments: We’ve seen how effective Sleep Dart has been in 5v5 gameplay. It wasn’t too disruptive overall, but since it’s significantly more reliable to land against tank heroes due to their large hitboxes and even more valuable to do so with only one tank on the field, we’re lowering the max duration relative to those targets .

Bridget

Collect

Brigitte now gains 100 repairable armor for the duration of the rally
Brigitte no longer gradually builds temporary health like her close allies
Rally now upgrades her barrier shield, increasing both size and health
Barrier health increased from 300 to 750 during the ultimate
During Rally, Shield Bash now hits multiple enemies and briefly stuns them
Bonus move speed reduced from 30 to 15%

Repair package

Range reduced from 30 to 25 meters

Developer Comments: Rally lost some of its power with the change from granting extra armor to allies to temporary health, and generally took a relatively long time to build up its defensive advantages. This rework aims to keep it as a defensive ultimate ability, but with a more immediate impact thanks to gaining a larger armor health pool beforehand and the improved barrier, which can be used to block for teammates while their temporary health builds up or interrupts enemies with the stun.

Grace

Caduceus Staff

Heal per second increased from 45 to 55
Healing is no longer increased for allies who are less healthy

Guardian angel

Cooldown reduced from 2.5 to 1.5 seconds
Jump and Crouch cancels active skill state duration increased from 1.0 to 1.5 seconds
Canceling the active Jump and Crouch skill state can no longer be manually interrupted to start the cooldown early

Valkyrie

Passive Healing Support Role is now active for the duration of Valkyrie

Developer Comments: The recent increase in Guardian Angel’s jump-cancel mobility still needs to be contained somehow, 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 for an additional 1.5 second cooldown when using the increased mobility of the jump/crouch cancel options or else wait for the basic cooldown time.

The increased heal multiplier condition on Caduceus Staff was intended to help Mercy players feel more agency when trying to save allies with critical health and to add depth to the heal mechanism without changing the total time to heal to full health. However, the overall rearrangement of the healing values received significant negative feedback, both from those playing as Mercy and those playing against it. There was no satisfying middle ground where we could reduce the strength of this effect while still having an impactful feel, so we’re reverting it.

Moira

Fade

Can now be activated during Coalescence

Amalgamation

Bonus move speed reduced from 50 to 40%

Biotic grip

Sustained healing time increased from 2 to 3 seconds

Developer Comments: The ability to use Fade during her ultimate Coalescence gives Moira more gameplay by allowing her to reposition even faster and avoid potential threats with quick reactions. Due to the more spread out playstyle of 5v5, we’re extending the sustained heal time of her primary fire, meaning it will heal more overall.