Massive Overwatch 2 Update: Zarya and Mei Superpowered, Bastion and Orisa Left in Dust

Highlights

Overwatch 2's latest update includes significant balance changes for several heroes, such as Zarya, Mei, Bastion, and Orisa.

Zarya is now stronger with a health boost and a shorter cooldown for her Projected Barrier. The recent update also increases the activation time for support passives.

Blizzard has rolled out a fresh update for Overwatch 2, the popular hero shooter game, introducing significant balance changes to heroes like Zarya, Mei, Bastion, Orisa, and others. As Overwatch 2 consistently receives updates, this latest one is expected to have a substantial impact on hero choices for the remainder of Season 6.

Notably, this Overwatch 2 update brings a notable improvement to Zarya, a tank hero already considered formidable by many players. Blizzard is boosting Zarya's Projected Barrier by raising its health from 200 to 225, decreasing its cooldown from 10 to 8 seconds, and expanding the bubble's size by 15%. The intention is to encourage Zarya players to prioritize shielding their allies rather than themselves, potentially augmenting the potency of an already mighty tank hero.

As for the other Tanks, the latest update in Overwatch 2 brings an improvement for Junker Queen. Her Jagged Blade's impact damage is now increased from 50 to 65. On the other hand, Orisa is receiving a nerf. With the update, the cooldown for her Fortify ability will begin upon activation rather than upon its conclusion. The cooldown timer will be extended from 12 seconds to 16.5 seconds, and her overhealth will be reduced from 125 to 100.

On the Damage side, Mei's Endothermic Blaster will receive a buff, increasing its damage. In contrast, Bastion's A-36 Tactical Grenade will be nerfed, reducing its impact damage from 30 to 15. Additionally, Bastion's Configuration Artillery ultimate ability will no longer be able to deal critical hits.

In the new Overwatch 2 update, support heroes will receive nerfs across the board. The time required for their passive abilities to activate will be increased from 1.5 seconds to 2 seconds. Regarding specific support hero changes, Baptiste and Kiriko are the only ones being adjusted. Baptiste's Regenerative Burst will be nerfed, reducing the instant healing from 50 to 40 and the heal over time from 50 over 5 seconds to 40 over 4 seconds. Lastly, Kiriko's Protection Suzu will be modified so that it can now pass through enemy heroes.

Of course,

Overwatch 2 Update Patch Notes

PING SYSTEM UPDATES

● Owned entities (such as Torbjörn's Turret, Symmetra's Teleporter, or Illari's Healing Pylon) now have a lower priority as ping targets than enemy heroes.

HERO UPDATES

TANK

Zarya

Projected Barrier

● Health increased from 200 to 225.

● Cooldown decreased from 10 to 8 seconds.

● The size has been increased by 15%.

Developer Comment: Zarya typically prioritizes using both barrier charges on herself in order to consistently build up energy. The update to Projected Barrier encourages her to use the barrier more frequently on her allies.

Junker Queen

Jagged Blade

● Impact damage increased from 50 to 65.

Developer Comment: This change rewards throwing accuracy with the Jagged Blade without directly affecting Junker Queen's self-healing.

Orisa

Fortify

● Cooldown begins when the ability is activated instead of when it ends.

● Cooldown increased from 12 to 16.5 seconds.

● The overhealth bonus has been reduced from 125 to 100. The changes in Fortify cooldown ensure that the overall availability remains the same. However, Orisa is no longer encouraged to prematurely end the ability to start the cooldown right away, resulting in a consistent interval between uses and making it more open to counterplay.

DAMAGE

Ashe

The Viper

● Reload time decreased from .25 to .2 seconds.

, on the other hand, has a relatively shorter total reload time compared to Ashe, as he does not possess the benefit of shooting during a partial reload. To alleviate the severity of reloading from an empty state, we are making slight adjustments to decrease the duration of the full reload.

A-36 Tactical Grenade

● Impact damage decreased from 30 to 15.

Configuration Artillery:

● Can no longer deal critical hits.

The A-36 Tactical Grenade has been improved in terms of reliability by increasing its projectile size. As a result, its destructive power no longer needs to be as high. The alteration made to Configuration Artillery is a fix for a bug that affected the intended effect of the ultimate ability. We will closely observe the impact of this change on Bastion's performance.

Endothermic Blaster

● Damage increased from 65 to 70 per second.

● Duration before slow falls off between primary fire hits increased from 0.5 to 0.6 seconds.

Deep Chill

● Mei's quick melee can now also trigger bonus damage.

Developer Comment: In order to address Mei's underperformance, we are enhancing the effectiveness of her primary fire and improving the quality of life for Deep Chill.

SUPPORT

Support Passive

The duration for the activation of the passive ability for support heroes has been increased from 1.5 to 2 seconds, in order to lessen its impact on the overall strength of the role. This change has been made as support heroes have already received individual enhancements to their survivability and are now considered quite powerful.

Baptiste

Regenerative Burst

● Instant healing decreased from 50 to 40.

● Heal over time decreased from 50 over 5 seconds to 40 over 4 seconds.

The healing output of Regenerative Burst has been exceptionally strong upon receiving the bonus instant heal for allies with low health. As a result, we are slightly decreasing its overall healing capacity.

Protection Suzu

● Now passes through enemy heroes.

Protection Suzu no longer causes enemy heroes to be knocked back, eliminating the need for its projectile to have any impact on them. This improvement aims to enhance user experience by preventing inadvertent activations when thrown into mixed groups of opponents and allies.

FIXED BUGS

GENERAL

● Fixed an issue with the Daybreak challenge being reset to 0 and not receiving progress after completing games.

- The difficulty requirements for completing the Save-a-Mari challenge have been clearly defined.

- The issue causing the Progression Level badge to not be promoted has been resolved. Players who have already reached the required levels will now see the badge properly promoted.

● Fixed a bug with the Option 'Relative Aim Sensitivity' not accepting a value of 0%.

● Fixed an instance where equipped Competitive Titles would reset after a relog.

● Fixed a bug with Matches Played showing as abandoned for matches played on another platform.

● Fixed gaps and other environment issues in Mischief and Magic.

● Fixed navigation issues that could occur with a controller in Winston's Lab.

● Fixed the missing sound effects for Training Bots respawning.

● Improved controller/gamepad functionality to allow characters to fly diagonally without any glitches.

● Addressed the issue in Competitive mode where the Overtime bar did not fully deplete, resulting in difficulty determining the end of a round.

● Fixed an issue that prevented players from immediately equipping Golden weapons after purchase.

MAPS

Dorado

● Fixed a bug in the environment near the final point that sometimes allowed Mei's Blizzard to go

through the environment.

New Junk City

● Fixed areas on the map that players could become stuck in.

● Fixed lighting issues in specific areas on the map.

● Added the intro when loading into the map. You will now be greeted with 'Welcome to New Junk City.'

Suravasa

● Fixed some fountains on the map that allowed some turrets to be hidden.

● Fixed a few areas that did not have correct lighting.

● Fixed areas on the map that players could become stuck on.

● Fixed areas on the map that allowed players to stand outside the playable space.

● Fixed gaps in the geometry in several areas across the map.

CO-OP MISSIONS

Rio

● Fixed a bug that could occur after the Artillery lands that resulted in your camera looking at the sky after regaining control of the camera.

Toronto

● Fixed an interaction with the train that could force players outside of the map boundaries.

● Fixed a bug with lighting that could occur on this map when changing graphics settings.

Gothenburg

● Fixed a location in spawn where players could become stuck.

HEROES

Bastion

● Fixed an error that resulted in the vertical knockback on Bastion's Tactical Grenade being reduced.

Echo

● Fixed a bug with Duplicated Illari's displaying the incorrect VFX colors when casting Captive Sun.

● Fixed an interaction with Duplicated Symmetra turrets persisting through the duration of Duplicate.

Illari

- Genji's Deflect and Illari's Healing Pylon interaction has been resolved. Deflecting the pylon will now properly heal Genji's teammates.

- The issue with equipping the Stay Dead voice line has been fixed.

- Addressed a bug where Illari could see through the map if hit by Ana's Sleep Dart while using Captive Sun ability.

- Rectified an issue where Sombra's Hack would disable Illari's Pylon indicator.

● Fixed an interaction with Symmetra's Teleporter that allowed Illari to place a Pylon in mid-air.

● Fixed several instances that resulted in the Pylon being destroyed instantly after deploying.

Junker Queen:

● Resolved a bug that caused a pingable knife to become stuck in the world when recalling Jagged Blade simultaneously with it being lodged in an object (by holding Secondary Fire and aiming at an object of the same distance as the Knife's recall range).

Kiriko

● Fixed a bug that made it difficult to Swift Step to allies in rooms with low ceilings.

Lifeweaver

● Fixed a bug allowing friendly EMPs to destroy your Petal Platform.

Ramattra

● Resolved a bug that prevented the damage increase from Zenyatta's Discord from being correctly applied while Ramattra was Blocking.

Overwatch 2 is out now for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.