Overwatch 2 Nerfs Zarya And Genji: Blizzard is already keeping an eye on some other standout heroes for potential adjustments ahead of the first major hero balance patch for Overwatch 2, which will arrive on November 15 with nerfs to Sombra, Genji, Zarya, D.Va, and Kiriko.
Blizzard has released the patch notes for the upcoming hero balance adjustments in preparation for the larger Season 2 update.
The first is Sombra’s Hack ability. Its damage over time has dropped from 1.75 seconds to 1.5, and its multiplier has dropped from 40% to 25%. It is also impossible to hack into hacked enemies while the effect is active.
In a similar vein, Zarya’s barrier will be repaired. Its original 2.5-second duration has been reduced to 2, and its 11-second cooldown has been added. The patch notes recognize Zarya as a raid boss, saying, “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.”
The new 5v5 format has had some interesting effects on Genji in this update. The patch notes state, “Genji has had fewer obstacles in his way since switching to a single Tank and reducing crowd control,” but he hasn’t received tuning updates because he wasn’t “actively in the meta” until launch.
To “bring Genji more in line with the other flanking damage heroes,” his maximum ammo has been lowered from 30 to 24, and the damage of his shurikens has been reduced from 29 to 27.
There will soon be a split in D.V. Her Fusion Cannon has a 3.75 percent wider spread, and her Booster has 15 percent less impact damage.
We have finally managed to cut Kiriko’s Swift Step’s invulnerability window in half, from 0.4 seconds to 0.25 seconds.
After the patch notes were released, lead hero designer Alec Dawson discussed potential nerfs in a Twitter Space stream, and he began with Sojourn.
Overwatch 2: HUGE NERFS to Genji, Zarya & Sombra!https://t.co/n24AoDydqm
— Your Overwatch (@YourOverwatchYT) October 20, 2022
From a statistical perspective, “Sojourn” is very intriguing, he said. “At the Master’s level and above, Sojourn’s personality shines. Before that, Sojourn is underachieving at a number of the lower ranks. When considering changes for characters with large win rate disparities, we must be careful not to make the character worse off in the lower ranks while also reducing their effectiveness in the higher ones.
In particular, one-shotting enemies with 200 health points from a distance. We’re exploring options to make that transition easier while protecting her uniqueness. The ability to click to the right is fundamental to her sense of self.”
In a retort on Twitter, Dawson stated that Sojourn is “top of mind for Season 2 changes,” emphasizing her one-time use once again.
Dawson brought up the topic of making changes for the long-term health of the game, and Brigitte, one of the better but not top-tier heroes on our Overwatch 2 support tier list, was mentioned. “[Brigitte] and her ult have been a topic of conversation. Is that something we’d like to have around for the foreseeable future? That could be implemented in one of the major updates.”
Blizzard is working to improve Overwatch 2’s worst tanks, starting with Doomfist, and bolstering the support role is still a “long-term focus” due to its persistent difficulties. Players believe that long queue times are often caused by nobody wanting to play support because the role has become so unpopular.