Overwatch 2 kicked off the annual Summer Games event today, but Blizzard Entertainment didn’t stop there. The developer also introduced a mid-season update that features quite a few changes across the board. This includes everything from fixes for the On Fire mechanic, updates for team queue, and a smattering of buffs and nerfs for several characters. The team queue update is probably the most important change as it introduces a new Competitive mode that players can hop into alongside four of their friends. It has no rank restrictions and is available through the end of Overwatch 2 Season 5, which makes it the perfect way to group together regardless of rank disparity between you and your friends.
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The adjustments to the On Fire system should also please Overwatch 2 players. Many of them have felt like the system has been a bit overpowered since Season 5 started, so these changes should help with that. And, of course, there are several changes to various heroes that should shift them around a bit. At a glance, it looks like Soldier: 76, Symmetra, and Torbjörn players will notice the biggest changes, though several other heroes are also getting adjustments to bring them more in line with Blizzard’s desires.
The full July 11 patch notes for Overwatch 2 can be found below.
SUMMER GAMES 2023
It’s time for some fun in the sun with the Summer Games seasonal event! Log in and play Lúcioball, Lúcioball Remix, and the all-new Winston’s Beach Volleyball, plus score big with new cosmetic rewards, including a new Epic skin for Doomfist!
GENERAL UPDATES
On Fire Adjustments
- Fixed a bug that caused players to gain On Fire at the start of a new round in Competitive Play when playing any game mode or in Quick Play when playing Control.
- On Fire and Blazing are more difficult to attain early in a round.
- On Fire’s cooldown reduced to 3 seconds. This should prevent most of the cases where a hero gained On Fire with a delay after a positive contribution.
- On Fire score decays slightly more quickly when a hero is not On Fire.
- Maintaining On Fire for long periods of time is more difficult.
New Event Hub
A new centralized location for Event information is now available from the main menu, where all Event Challenges, Rewards, and Modes are listed here.
COMPETITIVE UPDATES
Team Queue
Team Queue is an all-new Competitive mode for Overwatch 2, requiring everyone to play in a full group of five players. Team Queue has no ranking restrictions and will be available through the end of Season 5. Other important rules for the mode are:
- Players can group up regardless of how far apart they are in rank.
- Grandmaster players can play, even with up to four other Grandmaster players.
- Team Queue is limited to 1 Tank, 2 Damage, and 2 Support.
- Players do not queue for specific roles, instead choosing their roles within each match.
- Platform pool restrictions remain, meaning players on console must still only group up with other players on console, not those on PC.
HERO UPDATES
TANK
ORISA
Developer Comments: We are increasing the effectiveness of Fortify to make Orisa a stronger counter against team compositions that lean on crowd control.
Fortify
- Damage reduction increased from 40 to 50%.
RAMATTRA
Developer Comments: Sometimes, the Ravenous Vortex projectile hits an enemy and bounces off unpredictably, delaying its activation. This quality-of-life change improves the ability’s consistency and makes it easier to use against groups of enemies without fear of accidental collisions.
Ravenous Vortex
- The projectile now passes through enemy heroes but is still blocked by barriers.
REINHARDT
Developer Comments: We are increasing Reinhardt’s barrier uptime to help him better protect his allies. We’ll be keeping an eye on this, as we want to avoid situations where players feel like they are always shooting at barriers.
Barrier Field
- Maximum health increased from 1200 to 1400.
WRECKING BALL
Developer Comments: Wrecking Ball rarely reloads his Quad Cannons manually due to the automatic reload that triggers while transformed into a Ball. This change makes reloading without changing forms a more viable option.
Quad Cannons
- Manual reload time reduced from 2 to 1.6 seconds. This does not affect the automatic reload while transformed into a ball, which is still 2 seconds.
DAMAGE
SOJOURN
Developer Comments: We are decreasing the overall spread on the Railgun primary fire to help Sojourn build energy more consistently. The increased shots before reaching maximum spread will give players more direct control over aiming the projectiles when firing in short bursts.
Railgun
- Number of shots to reach maximum spread increased from 8 to 12.
- Spread reduced by 12%.
SOLDIER: 76
Developer Comments: One of Soldier: 76’s strengths is his reliable damage output, but it hasn’t quite been effective enough after his last round of changes. We’d like to avoid going all the way back up to 20 damage on his primary fire since it has proven too powerful in the past. So instead, we’re adjusting both primary and secondary fire damage slightly. He will also be able to stay in the fight longer and support his team more effectively with extra healing from the Biotic Field.
Heavy Pulse Rifle
- Damage increased from 18 to 19.
Helix Rockets
- Explosion damage increased from 80 to 90.
Biotic Field
- Healing per second increased from 35 to 40.
SYMMETRA
Developer Comments: Symmetra is exceptionally map dependent, to the point where she is oppressive in certain situations yet ineffectual in others. The following changes increase her weapon effectiveness while lessening some of the frustrations caused by her turrets. The Photon Projector primary fire is now an even more pointed counter against certain heroes due to its conditional shield health regeneration, and the secondary fire now takes one less fully charged projectile to eliminate most heroes. Symmetra’s turrets are especially powerful when focusing on the same target due to their combined total damage output coupled with their slowing effect. We are lowering their raw damage and angling them towards utility to make spreading them out a more viable option.
Photon Projector
- Secondary Fire maximum impact damage increased from 45 to 50.
- Secondary Fire maximum explosion damage increased from 45 to 50.
- Regenerate up to 30 shield health per second when primary fire deals damage to barriers or enemies with shield health.
Sentry Turret
- Damage per second reduced from 40 to 25.
- Turrets now reveal enemy heroes to allies while dealing damage and for 1 additional second afterwards.
TORBJÖRN
Developer Comment: Torbjörn’s Turret has a bit too much impact for little investment, so we are shifting some of its power to the rest of his kit to reward more accurate gunplay. Overload now partially reloads ammo, which guarantees that there is no downtime between activating the ability and shooting projectiles.
Rivet Gun
- Secondary Fire spread reduced from 5 to 4.5 degrees.
Deploy Turret
- Damage reduced from 14 to 11.
- Cooldown increased from 10 to 12 seconds.
Overload
- Now reloads 6 ammo on use.
SUPPORT
KIRIKO
Developer Comments: Originally, we increased the Ofuda recovery time to promote more Kunai usage between healing bursts. Despite that benefit, we are partially reverting that change so the primary fire feels more responsive in situations where Kiriko is pressured to focus entirely on healing.
Healing Ofuda
- Recovery reduced from 1 to 0.9 seconds.
ZENYATTA
Developer Comments: The combination of these changes will make it riskier for Zenyatta to apply Discord and increase counterplay for the affected target.
Orb of Discord
- Maximum range reduced from 40 to 30 meters.
- Time to wear off the target when not in line-of-sight reduced from 2 to 1.5 seconds.
BUG FIXES
General
Ping System
- Fixed pinging opponent’s owned objects through walls as Sombra. This includes objects like Torbjörn’s Turret, Soldier 76’s Biotic Field, and Sombra’s Translocator, etc.
- Fixed cases where Junker Queen’s knife would remain pingable if she died while the knife was not in her hand.
- Fixed Lifeweaver Petal Platform pings using ping stems when the platform is mid-air.
- Fixed cases where ping stems would be used incorrectly on midair Last Seen pings or not used on grounded Last Seen pings.
- Fixed training bots blocking the ability to share your ultimate status.
- Fixed D.Va incorrectly giving her ultimate status for Call Mech instead of Self-Destruct when she was inside her mech and targeting an ally by pressing the Ultimate Status button.
Other Bug Fixes
- Fixed an issue that caused some players to see the Unranked map loading screen instead of the Competitive Play team lineup and map loading screen.
- Fixed a bug that prevented players from selecting the ‘No Title’ option.
- Fixed an issue with the Questwatch background being incorrectly placed if you entered a match during a conversation.
- Fixed a bug with the Role Mastery Challenge not appearing during the end-of-round flow in some cases.
- Fixed an issue where Hero Icons were missing from Highlights when viewed on a 21:9 ratio.
- Fixed an issue that resulted in the Career Profiles of friends sometimes appearing blank or missing items.
- Fixed Mystery Hero Game reports lacking information.
- Fixed a bug in the Options menu where values such as ‘100.0%’ were cut off for some languages.
- Resolved several localization issues.
- Fixed several crashes.
MAPS
Blizzard World
- Fixed lighting in multiple locations around the map.
Circuit Royale
- Fixed lighting in multiple locations around the map.
Watchpoint Gibraltar
- Fixed gaps in the map that could affect gameplay elements.
Illios
- Fixed lighting in multiple locations around the map.
Numbani
- Fixed areas on the map that allowed some heroes to escape the playable area.
Oasis
- Fixed gaps in the map that could affect gameplay elements.
HEROES
Ashe
- Fixed an issue with the aim-down sight animation not matching the firing of the gun when used after a melee.
Baptiste
- Fixed a bug with Immortality Field not protecting Mei for a small window of time after she leaves Cryo-Freeze.
Cassidy
- Fix a bug where Cassidy’s Magnetic Grenade did not disable the following: Baptiste’s Exo Boost and Flight for both Sigma’s Gravitic Flux and Mercy’s Valkyrie.
Echo
- Fixed a condition where Echo would fail to play any voice lines after Duplicating a hero.
Junkrat
- Fixed an interaction with Lifeweaver’s Petal platform that assisted Junkrat in leaving the playable space.
Kiriko
- Fixed the melee animation not playing if used right after Protection Suzu.
Lifeweaver
- Fixed a bug with Lifeweaver’s Hero Icon challenges not correctly progressing.
- Fixed an issue with Petal Platform that prevented the jump boost from being applied when jumping from some areas of the platform.
- Fixed a bug that gave Lifeweaver high damage mitigation numbers for environmental kills.
- Fixed a condition that allowed Life Gripped teammates to die to the boundary of a pitfall.
Orisa
- Fixed an issue with overheating effects not playing correctly on some skins.
Ramattra
- Fixed a bug where stunning Ramattra and interrupting Ravenous Vortex allowed the ability to be cast again immediately.
Reaper
- Fixed an interaction with Petal Platform that allowed players to escape the playable space.
Reinhardt
- Fixed an issue with Reinhardt’s beard appearing distorted for select skins in Hero Select.
- Fixed an interaction with the Hold to Charge option breaking animations when used on a controller.
Soldier: 76
- Fixed a bug with the animation of the Heavy Pulse Rifle that could occur when Tactical Visor was used while under the effect of Kitsune Rush.
Sombra
- Fixed the lighting on several skins being too bright.
- Fixed a bug with Primary Fire not having priority over a pending Hack if the Toggle Hack option is enabled.
Symmetra
- Fixed an interaction with Petal Platform and Teleporter, allowing players to escape the playable space.
Tracer
- Fixed an interaction with Lifeweaver’s Petal Platform that allowed Tracer to contest the objective from outside the playable space on some maps.
- Fixed a bug that caused the Hero Select sound effects of the Mythic Tracer skin to keep playing after switching heroes.
