Overwatch 2 early patch notes update for November 15: Mei return, D.va, Genji, Sombra all nerfed

Overwatch 2 early patch notes update for November 15: Mei return, Genji, Sombra & D.va all nerfed

Overwatch 2 early patch notes update for November 15 is set to introduce a number of nerfs to many of the game’s most powerful heroes, including Genji and Kiriko.

Overwatch 2 November 15 update patch notes details

All upcoming Overwatch 2 hero balance changes

D.va

  • Fusion Cannon spread increased from 3.5 to 3.75
  • Boosters impact damage reduced from 25 to 15

Dev Comment: 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, so this is a partial revert to establish some middle ground there.

Genji

  • Maximum ammo reduced from 30 to 24
  • Shuriken damage reduced from 29 to 27

Dev Comment: 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 (something also informed by our general preference to avoid preemptive adjustments when possible). We also saw that, in early beta tests, other flanking Heroes such as Tracer and Reaper were also significantly more effective in OW2. These changes will bring Genji more in line with the other flanking damage heroes.

Kiriko

  • Swift Step invulnerability duration reduced from 0.4 to 0.25 seconds

Dev Comment: 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

Our current goal is to deploy these changes in an upcoming update on November 15th, 2022. Should that plan change, we will be sure to update you here. For those wanting a preview of how these changes will play, check out the Overwatch League Playoffs on October 30th.

Sombra

  • Hack ability lockout duration reduced from 1.75 to 1.5 seconds
  • Hacked enemies are no longer valid targets for hacking for the duration of the effect
  • Hacked damage multiplier reduced from 40 to 25%

Dev Comment: 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, and we’ve similarly had to address the damage output of heroes like Tracer, Reaper, and now, Genji, in the 5v5 format.

She can also no longer channel hack on an already hacked target as feedback indicated the reduced cooldown combined with hacking from stealth proved to be too frustrating for many players. This is essentially a per-target cooldown that enables Hack to keep its current 4 second cooldown for potentially hacking multiple targets.

Zarya

  • Barrier duration reduced from 2.5 to 2 seconds
  • Barrier cooldown increased from 10 to 11 seconds

Dev Comment: 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. For opponents, feedback has indicated this can feel as though Zarya has very limited windows of vulnerability, which feels difficult to deal with when combined with her ramping damage potential.

These changes will reduce the barrier uptime, making it slightly more difficult for her to gain energy and will provide enemies with more time to deal damage to her.

Overwatch 2 wiki :

Overwatch 2 is a first-person shooter developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. As a sequel to the 2016 hero shooter Overwatch, the game intends a shared environment for player-versus-player (PvP) modes while introducing persistent cooperative modes. A major change in PvP modes was to reduce team sizes from six to five, which required several characters to be reworked. Overwatch 2 is free-to-play on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S in early access as of October 4, 2022 and features full cross-platform play.

Developer(s) Blizzard Entertainment
Publisher(s) Blizzard Entertainment
Director(s) Aaron Keller
Platform(s)
  • Nintendo Switch
  • PlayStation 4
  • PlayStation 5
  • Windows
  • Xbox One
  • Xbox Series X/S
Release October 4, 2022
Genre(s) First-person shooter
Mode(s) Multiplayer