Hero Balance Changes Coming to Overwatch 2 Earlier Than Expected

Previously, Blizzard announced that hero-based balance changes would be coming to Overwatch 2, but not until multiplayer season 2. But recently, Blizzard announced that a significant hero balance patch would be coming on the 15th of November.

Initially, Blizzard stated, "no hero's overall power level is far out of line with our goals." But it seems things didn't turn out the way they expected since we're getting an early patch.

Community manager AndyB spoke about a few changes coming on the Overwatch 2 forums. A few heroes will be nerfed because they stand out in the current meta. These heroes include Genji, Zarya, D.Va, Sombra, and Kiriko. Here are a few details about specific nerfs on each hero.

Genji

Genji's maximum ammo will be reduced from 30 down to 24. Additionally, his Shuriken damage will be reduced from 29 down to 27. Here's a comment from one of the devs regarding Genji.

"Genji is a Hero that has greatly benefited from the move to 5v5. Changing to a single Tank and the reduction of crowd control has meant Genji has had less obstacles in his way, however he hasn't received tuning updates since he wasn't actively in the meta until launch."

Zarya

Zarya's barrier duration will be reduced from 2.5 seconds down to 2 seconds. Additionally, the barrier cooldown will be increased from 10 seconds to 11 seconds. Here's a comment from one of the devs regarding Zarya.

"Early player sentiment predicted Zarya as one of the weakest solo tanks in 5v5 though her high damage potential and barrier uptime have proven to be extremely effective."

D.Va

D.Va's fusion cannon spread will be increased from 3.5 to 3.75. Besides, her booster's impact damage will be reduced from 25 to 15. Here's a comment from one of the devs regarding D.Va.

"D.va ended up feeling too deadly after the last round of changes given how resilient she can be with the improved Defense Matrix. Both our stats and high-level player feedback regarded her as not effective enough before that compared with other tanks."

Sombra

Sombra's hackability lockout duration will be reduced from 1.75 seconds to 1.5 seconds. Hacked enemies will no longer be valid targets for hacking for the duration of the effect. Additionally, the hacked damage multiplier will be reduced from 40% to 25%. Here's a comment from one of the devs regarding Sombra.

"With Sombra's rework, she gained a lot more damage to help account for the reduced ability lockout duration of Hack. This has proven to be too deadly for a flanker with easy access to the enemy backlines."

Kiriko

Kiriko's swift step invulnerability duration will be reduced from 0.4 seconds to 0.25 seconds. Here's a comment from one of the devs regarding Kiriko.

"This invulnerability window is primarily intended to help avoid instantly dying to something unseen after teleporting through walls, but it ended up being a little too long and led to some confusion when shooting at Kiriko."

After Overwatch 2's bumpy start, the "far out of line" power level of these heroes was the cherry on top of a disastrous game launch. Fortunately, Blizzard already somewhat made up for the rough start with free items along with XP events.

Furthermore, the new Halloween content was a great addition as well. I'm glad these hero balance changes are coming earlier than anticipated, and I hope following this patch, the balance between heroes in-game will be up to everyone's standard.

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