The Overwatch 2 S6 mid-season patch has finally gone live on PC, Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch with a ton of changes to the game’s cast of heroes.
Overwatch 2 has finally added the Hero Mastery Mode in this recent update, giving players the opportunity to compete in obstacle courses and set high scores for a global leaderboard.
This patch also introduces the Overwatch Aniversary event to OW2 with unique challenges and returning game modes such as Battle for Olympus, Catch-A-Mari, and Mischief and Magic coming September 19.
On the hero balance side, this patch has a lot. Orisa, the menacing and dominant S6 meta tank is getting her Fortify ability nerfed with the cool down increasing and her overhealth decreasing by 25.
One of Orisa’s only real counters, Zarya, is also getting buffed in the form of her Protective Barrier. The ability is gaining more HP increase, a decreased cooldown, and is bigger.
The devs are also making some Bastion adjustments after buffing him to begin the season. His A-36 Tactical Grenade’s damage is dropping from 30 to 15.
Multiple support heroes are being adjusted in this patch with the entire roster receiving a global passive nerf to their self-healing now kicking in after 1.5 seconds.
Elsewhere, Baptiste’s Regenerative Burst is getting slashed with lower instant healing and a decreased heal over time.
Overwatch 2 Retail Patch Notes – September 7, 2023
OVERWATCH 2 ANNIVERSARY 2023
We’re celebrating the first year of Overwatch 2! Come and play returning event game modes, includingBattle for Olympus, Catch-A-Mari, Starwatch, and Mischief and Magic! You’ll also be able to take part innew challenges that reward Overwatch Credits, which can be spent on returning Legendary skins fromthe in-game shop. Join the celebration when it begins on September 19!
NEW GAME MODE – HERO MASTERY
Hero Mastery is a new, single-player game mode that allows players to test their skills with individualheroes on custom courses. Push your expertise to the limit for high scores and dominate theleaderboards. Are you up to the challenge?● Each hero can be played on three unique courses of increasing difficulty. Flex your skills andunlock up to five stars on each course.● Hero Mastery courses are scored on various factors, including time, eliminations, heals, andescorts. Each hero has individual stats that are tracked as well. Plus collect all the MasteryEmblems to show off your prowess!● Hero Mastery is launching with a limited-time event that includes exclusive rewards. Courses forTracer, Reinhardt, and Mercy are now available, along with courses for Sojourn, Winston, andmore premiering in the weeks ahead.
GENERAL UPDATES
PING SYSTEM UPDATES
● Owned entities (such as Torbjörn’s Turret, Symmetra’s Teleporter, or Illari’s Healing Pylon) nowhave a lower priority as ping targets than enemy heroes.
HERO UPDATES
TANK
ZaryaProjected Barrier● Health increased from 200 to 225.● Cooldown decreased from 10 to 8 seconds.● Size increased 15%.Developer Comment: Zarya often spends both barrier charges on herself as it is usually more consistentfor building energy. The change to Projected Barrier incentivizes using the barrier for her allies moreoften.
Junker QueenJagged Blade● Impact damage increased from 50 to 65.
Developer Comment: This change rewards throwing accuracy with the Jagged Blade without directlyaffecting Junker Queen’s self-healing.
OrisaFortify● Cooldown begins when the ability is activated instead of when it ends.● Cooldown increased from 12 to 16.5 seconds.● Overhealth bonus decreased from 125 to 100.Developer Comment: The Fortify cooldown has been adjusted so that the effective uptime remains thesame. However, Orisa is no longer incentivized to cancel the ability early to begin the cooldownimmediately, which makes the interval between uses consistent and more susceptible to counterplay.
DAMAGE
AsheThe Viper● Reload time decreased from .25 to .2 seconds.Developer Comment: Ashe has the longest total reload time of all heroes to balance out the advantage ofbeing able to shoot after a partial reload. However, we are shortening it slightly to make the full reloadfrom empty less punishing.
BastionA-36 Tactical Grenade● Impact damage decreased from 30 to 15.Configuration Artillery:● Can no longer deal critical hits.Developer Comment: The A-36 Tactical Grenade is now more reliable after having its projectile sizeincreased recently, so it doesn’t need to be quite as damaging. The change to Configuration Artillery is abug fix from what was intended for the ultimate, and we’ll monitor to see how this impacts Bastion’sperformance.
MeiEndothermic Blaster● Damage increased from 65 to 70 per second.
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● Duration before slow falls off between primary fire hits increased from 0.5 to 0.6 seconds.Deep Chill● Bonus damage can now also be triggered with Mei’s quick melee.Developer Comment: Mei is still underperforming after her last set of changes, so we are increasing theeffectiveness of primary fire and improving the quality of life to Deep Chill.
SUPPORT
Support Passive● Duration until support passive activates increased from 1.5 to 2 seconds.Developer Comment: Support heroes have received individual improvements to their survivability and arequite strong overall, so we’re reducing the impact of the role-wide passive.
BaptisteRegenerative Burst● Instant healing decreased from 50 to 40.● Heal over time decreased from 50 over 5 seconds to 40 over 4 seconds.Developer Comment: Regenerative Burst’s overall healing output has been too effective after gaining thebonus instant heal for low-health allies, so we are reducing its total healing slightly.
KirikoProtection Suzu● Now passes through enemy heroes.Developer Comment: The Protection Suzu no longer knocks back enemy heroes, so the projectile doesn’tneed to impact them either. This quality-of-life change prevents accidental activations when thrown intogroups with both enemies and allies.
BUG FIXES
GENERAL
● Fixed an issue with the Daybreak challenge being reset to 0 and not receiving progress aftercompleting games.● The Save-a-Mari challenge now specifies the difficulty requirements for completion.● Resolved an issue where the Progression Level badge wasn’t promoting. Players who havealready reached levels where the badge should now be promoted to the correct badge now.● 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 anotherplatform.● 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.● Fixed a bug on controller/gamepads that prevented some characters from flying diagonally.● Resolved a bug with the Overtime bar not burning all the way down in Competitive, making itdifficult to tell when the round is over.● Fixed an issue that prevented players from immediately equipping Golden weapons afterpurchase.
MAPS
Dorado● Fixed a bug in the environment near the final point that sometimes allowed Mei’s Blizzard to gothrough 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 JunkCity.’
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 thesky 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 beingreduced.
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 ofDuplicate.
Illari● Fixed an interaction with Genji’s Deflect and Illari’s Healing Pylon. Deflecting the pylon shouldnow correctly heal Genji’s allies.● Fixed a bug that prevented the Stay Dead voice line from being equipped.● Resolved an interaction that allowed Illari to see underneath the map if they were slept by anAna Sleep Dart while using Captive Sun.● Fixed an interaction with Illari’s Pylon indicator being disabled if it was Hacked by Sombra.● 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● Fixed a bug where Junker Queen recalling Jagged Blade in the same frame as it stuck in an object(by holding Secondary Fire and aiming at an object the same distance away as the Knife’s recallrange) would cause a pingable knife to be stuck in the world.
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 correctlyapplied while Ramattra was Blocking.
