Season 3 introduces a new skin for Kiriko (Image via Activision)

Overwatch 2 Season 3 patch notes (February 7) - New map, massive hero changes, and more

Modified Feb 07, 2023 05:24 GMT

Overwatch 2 Season 3 will undergo a significant change with the latest patch, which brings buffs to several heroes that weren’t working as well as intended. These heroes were being pushed down in the hierarchy, especially in the competitive scene. Players requesting changes for them are finally getting what they want.

However, hero buffs aren’t the only changes coming to the game. The Antarctic Peninsula will now be available, providing more significant challenges to fans. The snowy lands will be the new battlefield for players as they take on each other. Streamer Protect settings are also part of the latest update. They aim to make players more aware of data and other details related to their streaming.

Overwatch 2 has been a successful release to a large extent, and Blizzard has managed to do justice to the first game. Despite some issues still existing, the game developers have continued to work on different improvements, and hero balance changes have been one such area. This ensures that no hero feels too overpowered and enables players to rethink their strategies and plans.

Overwatch 2 Season 3 patch will undoubtedly make players think more about their strategies

Whether it is because of the new map or the buffs to certain heroes, Overwatch 2 players will have to rethink their match approach once the changes are implemented. While most of the changes aren’t groundbreaking by any means, they create subtle differences that can change a character's effectiveness.

Blizzard has officially mentioned all of the latest changes in its official forum, and the update is set to go live on February 7, 2023.

Overwatch Cavalry

@OWCavalry

Take a look at the Overwatch 2 Season 3 Balance Changes 🧰

Here are some of the highlights:
Mercy gets a BRAND-NEW passive
Buffs to a variety of underperforming heroes
Widowmaker takes a hit to her health pool

Patch Notes will be officially published later today!

OVERWATCH 2 GENERAL UPDATES

Accessibility Improvements

Improved Subtitles Options in Overwatch 2: text scalability, character portrait icons, speaker name, text color, background color, and subtitle preview in the options menu
Added mouse cursor size setting for PC
Added setting to select custom colors for Group and Alert colors in the UI. Preview feature added to preview custom colors in the accessibility options

Challenges

Added challenges to unlock “Silhouette” player icons for all heroes in Overwatch 2.
Added tracking for each of the roles for the Weekly “Role Mastery” challenge
Added Ramattra unlock challenges in Overwatch 2.
Partial progress through the season three Battle Pass is now carried over to the “Wins for Ramattra” challenge

Endorsements

Players can now endorse the opposing team in Overwatch 2.
All players can now be endorsed in Free-For-All game modes

Game Report

Players can view scoreboards from previous matches within the View Game Reports menu found in the History tab of the Career Profile

Mystery Heroes Changes

Mystery Heroes now limits each team to a maximum of three of each role in Overwatch 2.
Example: You are Reinhardt in Mystery Heroes. Your team also includes Mercy, Ana, and Lucio. When you die, you cannot respawn as a Support hero because there are already three Support heroes on your team. You will either be respawned as a Damage or a Tank hero
This new maximum role limit can be changed in Custom Games under Settings > Modes > All > Random Hero Role Limit Per Team,
This setting only functions when the Respawn as Random Hero setting is enabled

Overwatch Credits are back

Overwatch Credits, which were previously labeled “Legacy Credits” and were not earnable in Overwatch 2, can now once again be earned through progressing in the Season 3 Battle Pass
All players can earn up to 1500 credits as free rewards, and another 500 credits are available as premium rewards in the Season 3 Battle Pass
Credits can be spent in the Hero Gallery, which now contains nearly all seasonal Epic and Legendary-tier skins released prior to the launch of Overwatch 2. This includes many skins that were previously only available for purchase with Coins in the “Just for You” section of our Shop

Ping System Update

Pressing Ability 1 or Ability 2 when the ping wheel is open and when these abilities are on cooldown now prints these cooldowns in chat for Overwatch 2.
Example: If Baptiste’s Immortality Field is on cooldown and you press the key/button to activate the ability while the Ping Wheel is open, the cooldown for the ability will be printed in chat.

OVERWATCH 2 COMPETITIVE PLAY

Skill tiers and divisions will adjust after every 5 wins or 15 losses and ties (formally 7 wins or 20 losses and ties)
Players can select the “View Competitive Progress” button from the Competitive menu to view their progress toward receiving a rank update

OVERWATCH 2 WORKSHOP UPDATES

Workshop Editor is back!

Workshop Moderation Tools

Inappropriate Communication
Inappropriate Name
Cheating
Gameplay Sabotage
Inappropriate Custom Content

OVERWATCH 2 HERO UPDATES

ALL HEROES

Maximum ultimate charge retained when swapping heroes reduced from 30 to 25%

Developer Comment: As part of this patch, there was a tuning pass for how often ultimate abilities are being generated, so expect to see several ultimate cost adjustments across multiple heroes.

TANK ROLE PASSIVE

The health totals for all tank heroes will be lower when playing any game mode that does not have a role queue. Health totals will remain the same for tanks when playing any Role Queue-enabled game.

Developer Comment: This change to the tank HP pools helps to address the relative power of those heroes in game modes where there can be multiple of them on the same team.

OVERWATCH 2 TANK

D.Va

Mech base health in Role Queue modes remains the same at 350
Mech base health in non-Role Queue modes reduced from 350 to 200

Doomfist

Base health in Role Queue modes remains the same at 450
Base health in non-Role Queue modes reduced from 450 to 300

Junkerqueen

Base health in Role Queue modes increased to 450
Base health in non-Role Queue modes reduced from 425 to 300

Developer Comment: The overall base health for Junkerqueen is increased by 25 HP.

Orisa

Base health in Role Queue modes remains the same at 275
Base health in non-Role Queue modes reduced from 275 to 125

Augmented Fusion Driver:

Damage falloff range reduced from 25 to 15 meters

Ramattra

Base health in Role Queue modes remains the same at 450
Base health in non-Role Queue modes reduced from 450 to 300

Annihilation:

Damaging enemies with the ultimate now slows the duration timer down instead of pausing it entirely. Lasts up to 20 seconds
Ultimate cost increased 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

Base health in Role Queue modes remains the same at 325
Base health in non-Role Queue modes reduced from 325 to 175

Charge:

Cooldown reduced from 8 to 7 seconds

Fire Strike:

Damage increased from 90 to 100

Earthshatter:

Direct hit damage reduced from 250 to 170
Knockdown duration increased from 2.5 to 2.75 seconds
Ultimate cost increased 7%

Rocket Hammer:

Knockback impulse reduced 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. Earthshatter direct hit damage is being reduced with that goal in mind. In most cases, targets on the receiving end would die anyway during the knockdown stun, but it does open up some potential for their allies to intervene.

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.

The Rocket Hammer knockback reduction sounds like a loss of power, though it is actually aiming to reduce the number of times Reinhardt accidentally knocks enemies out of his melee range.

Roadhog

Base health in Role Queue modes remains the same at 700
Base health in non-Role Queue modes reduced from 700 to 550

Whole Hog:

Maximum duration increased from 6 to 8 seconds
Ultimate cost increased 8%

Developer Comment: Allowing Roadhog to use abilities during his ultimate made it much more reliable in a solo tank environment, though doing so was often much like just canceling the ultimate as it ran out of time. 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

Base health in Role Queue modes remains the same at 350
Base health in non-Role Queue modes reduced from 350 to 200

Gravitic Flux:

Ultimate cost increased 7%

Winston

Base health in Role Queue modes remains the same at 350
Base health in none non-Role Queue modes reduced from 350 to 200

Barrier Projector:

Health reduced from 700 to 650

Wrecking Ball:

Base health in Role Queue modes reduced from 600 to 450
Base health in non-Role Queue modes reduced from 600 to 300
Shield health increased from 0 to 150

Pile Driver:

Cooldown reduced from 10 to 8 seconds

Minefield:

Ultimate cost increased 9%
Arming time reduced from 1.5 to 1 second

Developer Comment: Wrecking Ball received some of the fewest changes in the transition to 5v5 as he proved to be one of the most effective solo tanks in early testing. His extreme mobility and massive health pool enable him to choose when to fight much more freely than other heroes. These changes are aimed at reducing his downtime so he can press that advantage even further. The regenerating shield health pool often leads to not needing to search for as many health packs before getting back in position.

Zarya

Base health in Role Queue modes remains the same at 250
Base health in non-Role Queue modes reduced from 250 to 100

Graviton Surge:

Ultimate cost increased 8%

OVERWATCH 2 DAMAGE

Cassidy

Combat Roll:

Movement is no longer blocked by enemy player collision

Peacekeeper:

Primary fire falloff range increased from 20 to 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 reduced from 120 to 100

Developer Comment: As the Concussion Mine already has damage falloff the further from the explosion the enemy player is, lowering the maximum damage will require Junkrat to be slightly more accurate to achieve the same lethality with some of his combos.

Mei

Blizzard:

Ultimate cost reduced 5%

Pharah

Barrage:

Ultimate cost reduced 5%

Reaper

Death Blossom:

Ultimate cost reduced 8%

Soldier:76

Heavy Pulse Rifle:

Number of shots to reach maximum recoil increased from 4 to 6
Recoil reduced 12%

Developer Comment: This is more an adjustment for the gun feels rather than strictly trying to add power, but it does have an effect on both. It makes the weapon handle more similar to the original version in that you can burst fire more accurately before the recoil kicks in.

Sombra

Machine Pistol:

Damage per projectile increased from 7 to 7.5

Hack:

Health pack hacked duration increased from 30 to 45 seconds

Developer Comments: Sombra is underperforming after her last round of changes. 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. The health pack duration increase is a minor buff to avoid needing to re-hack them quite so often.

Symmetra

Photon Barrier:

Ultimate cost increased 10%

Torbjorn

Deploy Turret:

Turret base health reduced from 250 to 225

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

Base health reduced from 200 to 175

Developer Comment: We experimented with Widowmaker at 200 health for a while due to concerns that the increased power of tanks made her too vulnerable to them. 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.

OVERWATCH 2 SUPPORT

Ana

Biotic Grenade:

Effect duration reduced from 4 to 3.5 seconds

Brigitte

Repair Pack:

Healing over time reduced from 55 to 50 per second
Applying a Repair Pack now instantly heals for 25 health on impact

Rally

Ultimate cost reduced 10%

Developer Comment: Repair Pack having a small amount of instant healing will help Brigitte have more agency in saving an injured ally and generally makes the ability feel more responsive and impactful.

Lucio

Sound Barrier:

Ultimate cost reduced 7%

Mercy

Guardian Angel:

Cooldown increased from 1.5 to 2.5 seconds
Holding the backwards directional input and canceling the ability with Jump now moves 20% slower

Caduceus Staff:

Healing-per-second reduced from 55 to 45
Healing is increased by 50% for allies under half health

Regeneration Passive:

Regeneration Passive removed

New Passive: “Sympathetic Recovery”

Mercy heals herself for 25% of healing done 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.

For the Caduceus Staff change, this will empower Mercy even more as a triage healer and enable her to more often save low health allies. The overall time it takes to fully heal a 200-health hero from 1 hp is about the same as before.

For Guardian Angel, the cooldown increase is necessary to reduce the greatly increased mobility resulting from the recent rework to the jump cancel. It enabled Mercy to quickly launch herself long distances in any direction and be overly evasive for such a short downtime.

Moira

Coalescence:

Ultimate cost reduced 5%

Zenyatta

Orb of Destruction:

Ammo increased from 20 to 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.

SEASON 3 OVERWATCH 2 MAP POOLS

Push

New Queen Street - Morning
Colosseo - Morning (NEW)
Esperança – Morning

Hybrid

Blizzard World - Morning
King’s Row - Evening
Midtown - Morning
Numbani - Morning
Paraíso - Morning

Escort

Dorado - Night
Havana - Night (NEW)
Junkertown - Morning
Circuit royal – Morning (NEW)
Rialto - Morning
Shambali Monastery - Night

Control

Antarctic Peninsula - Night (NEW MAP)
Ilios - Morning
Lijiang Tower - Night
Nepal - Evening
Oasis - Evening

OVERWATCH 2 BUG FIXES

GENERAL

Ping System

Unified the range for most targeted ally pings to 35 meters in Overwatch 2 matches.
Fixed D.Va hearing the “Behind You” VO in unintended circumstances when enemies are pinged
Fixed a bug where pings could be fired by the Communication Wheel if the Ping Wheel had been canceled (by not moving the mouse or with a manual cancel)
Fixed free camera spectators hearing “Need Healing/Need Help” sound effects (not voice-over) if the hero requesting healing was injured and within 30 meters of the spectator’s free cam
Fixed Mercy’s Soul Pings not displaying her Resurrect cooldown time remaining in some circumstances in Overwatch 2.
Made all pings available to be placed in the Communication Wheel
Fixed the issue where OW1 players with pings in the Communication Wheel couldn’t change their options in the Communications menu
Fixed self-pings being able to fire Hero-specific pings (Example: Group Up could cause Mercy to say she’d like to Resurrect a teammate)

Other Fixes

Fixed an issue where some players were unable to receive or send invites
Fixed an issue with Junkerqueen’s Mythic skin ‘Zeus’ not having glowing hair on console
Resolved a bug where all maps were toggled off by default when starting a new Custom Game
Fixed a bug where sometimes Health Packs were displaying the cooldown circle while the health pack was available
Fixed a bug where the Social Screen would not display friends correctly on some consoles
Improved the performance when viewing the friend’s section of the Competitive leaderboard
Fixed an issue with Cyber Genji displaying broken animations when using emotes or souvenirs
Healing VFX on players being healed should no longer clip through the environment
Resolved an issue with the level of bloom on several maps

OVERWATCH 2 MAPS

Blizzard World

Fixed lighting in several areas around the map

Busan

Meka Base: Fixed areas near forklifts that players could become stuck on

Dorado

Fixed lighting in some areas of the map in Overwatch 2.

Esperança

Fixed some areas that should have been slippery for players but were not
Fixed some areas where players could become stuck
Added a missing flag to the loading screen of Esperança

Oasis

City Center: Fixed several reflection issues
Gardens: Fixed multiple lighting issues

Colosseo

Fixed ambient lighting across the map

Shambali Monastery

Fixed areas of the map that should have been slippery but were not
Fixed areas of the map that allowed players to leave the playable space
Fixed areas players could become stuck
General bug fixes across the map in Overwatch 2.

OVERWATCH 2 HEROES