A hotfix balance patch has gone live in Overwatch 2 that will further nerf Sojourn and bring buffs to other ranged DPS heroes. This hero balance patch was issued just over a week into Season 2, showing that the developers are paying close attention to what players have been saying about the current state of Overwatch 2 and what heroes are causing problems.In what is being described as a hotfix balance patch, Overwatch 2 developers are getting ahead of any potentially crippling metas that may be creeping in. In the days after Season 2 started, a meta was beginning to form where Sojourn, when played with Mercy, was bringing back the one-shot capability that led to her being engrained in the meta for months before. Only days before this hotfix, members of the Overwatch 2 development team was hinting at possible changes and the heroes that would be affected. But those changes have come swiftly, and some surprising heroes are involved.In total, Doomfist, Orisa, Sojourn, Ramattra, Ana, Tracer, and Kiriko all received adjustments in this Overwatch 2 hotfix balance patch. Tracer and Kiriko's changes were relatively minor in comparison. Tracer got a slight damage reduction to her Pulse Pistols, with damage moving from 6 to 5.5 per bullet. The invulnerability from Kiriko's Protection Suzu was reduced from 1 second to 0.85 seconds.
Doomfist got a nerf, with his Rocket Punch cooldown increasing from 3 to 4 seconds, an increase from 80 to 100 damage absorbed by Power Block to get a fully charged Rocket Punch, and a decrease in health gained from hitting enemies with abilities from 40 to 35 per enemy hit. Orisa got a buff, with her Terra Surge Ultimate now being able to affect enemies behind shields and her Augmented Fusion Driver fall-off damage moving back from 15 meters to 25 meters. Ramattra in Nemesis Form got a 20% movement speed increase and a major increase to his armor gained, from 150 to 225.
Another round of nerfs was applied to Sojourn on top of the adjustments she got at the start of Season 2 in Overwatch 2 to get her back within arm's length of other long-range DPS heroes. An adjustment to the primary fire spread, increasing it another 28%, so hitting targets far away becomes harder, thus slowing down the charge rate of her railgun shot. Her Disruptor Shot's ability to slow targets has been removed. Her Power Slide ability cooldown has also been increased from 6 to 7 seconds. Ana got a buff, with the healing and damage from her biotic rifle shots moving up from 70 to 75 and the timing of the anti-heal effect from her Biotic Grenade increased from 3 to 4 seconds.
There are more hero balance changes in the works that will represent the mid-season balance the development team intentionally plans for every Overwatch 2 Season. This patch set for some time in January will potentially bring more buffs to Junker Queen and a possible rework to Roadhog to take away some of his "one-shot" ability, as said by Alec Dawson in a discussion with content creators.
Overwatch 2 is now available on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: Blizzard
