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Overwatch 2 Will actually get some balance changes before season two, though snowstorm Originally.
Earlier this month, Blizzard told us that we won’t see any hero changes until Season 2. Well, that’s no longer true, as a blog post on the Overwatch Forums by community manager AndyB told us we’d see changes as early as November 15th with some characters already introduced, including D. Va, Genji, Sombra, Kiriko, and possibly Zarya, the best tank in the game right now.
Unfortunately, for the Genji mainline, you’ll only see some nerfs. His max ammo has been reduced from 30 to 24, and his shuriken damage has been reduced from 29 to 27. These changes are to bring Genji more in line with other flank damage heroes, as he is a character that has benefited greatly from this move to 5v5.
Sombra has also received three nerfs, such as her hacking ability lock-on duration being reduced from 1.75 seconds to 1.5 seconds. Hacked enemies are also “no longer an effective target for hackers for the duration of the effect”, and the Hacked damage multiplier has been reduced from 40% to 25%.
D.Va actually got a buff, her Fusion Cannon spread increased from 3.5 to 3.75, although she also got a physical nerf, her booster impact damage was reduced from 25 all the way down to 15.
Kiriko has also been nerfed, and her Quick Step invulnerability duration has been reduced from 0.4 seconds to 0.25 seconds. “This invincibility time window was primarily meant to help avoid dying from the unseen immediately after teleporting through walls, but it ended up being a bit too long and caused some confusion when shooting at Kiriko,” the developer commentary explained.
Finally, Zarya has also received some nerfs, one of which is that her barrier duration has been reduced from 2.5 seconds to 2 seconds, and her barrier cooldown has been increased from 10 seconds to 11 seconds. Interestingly, developer comments note that early players thought Zarya would be one of the weakest solo tanks in the 5v5 variation, but “her high damage potential and barrier uptime have proven to be very effective.”
This makes Zarya’s “very limited window of vulnerability, coupled with her increasing damage potential, feels unwieldy to deal with” by tank opponents, which is why these changes are being made.
The blog post also notes that while the planned rollout of these changes is November 15th, they are still subject to change, so keep an eye out for updates if things change.
