The Overwatch 2 team previously said that balance changes wouldn’t be coming to the game until the start of Season 2, an announcement which didn’t go over so well for those who already felt buffs and nerfs were needed. That Season 2 update with more sweeping changes is still planned, but Blizzard has decided it necessary to push out an update prior to Season 2’s start in order to stamp out some outliers who are too powerful. Balance changes will therefore be coming sooner rather than later and will release on November 15th with nerfs planned for D.Va, Zarya, Genji, Sombra, and Kiriko.
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News of the impending Overwatch 2 nerfs was shared in the game’s forums on Friday. AndyB, a community manager working on Overwatch 2, said the game’s in a more stable place as far as its live service nature is concerned, and as such, an update will be out before Season 2’s big balance changes. You can see the early patch notes for that November 15th update below:
Overwatch 2 Early Patch Notes for November 15th Update
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- Hacked enemies are no longer valid targets for hacking for the duration of the effect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%
Genji
- Maximum ammo reduced from 30 to 24
- Shuriken damage reduced from 29 to 27
D.va
- Fusion Cannon spread increased from 3.5 to 3.75
- Boosters impact damage reduced from 25 to 15
Kiriko
- Swift Step invulnerability duration reduced from 0.4 to 0.25 seconds
As is the case with most of these updates, Blizzard provided some context for the decisions to nerf these characters as well as the reasonings behind the specific nerfs chosen. The November 15th update will include all of these changes unless Blizzard adjusts them between now and the time the update releases, and one would imagine that the full update will have a number of bug fixes and changes unrelated to balance, so look for the full patch notes to be shared closer to the update’s release.
