Overwatch 2 season 9, Champions, starts Tuesday, Feb. 13, bringing with it big changes to all heroes. Blizzard Entertainment confirmed ahead of Overwatch 2’s next season that every hero will change in some way, such as getting bigger health pools, larger projectile sizes, and new passive healing abilities. That’s all designed to change the fundamentals of Overwatch 2 and address gameplay pain points.
Players can also expect changes to how Competitive Play works and how they’ll rank up (or down) from match to match.
On Monday, Blizzard confirmed other gameplay changes coming in season 9 of Overwatch 2, with a light rework of Pharah’s abilities and map changes to Junkertown.
Pharah’s Hover Jets passive has been changed to limit her time in the air, Blizzard says. She’ll only recharge her fuel when touching the ground, but Blizzard is compensating that nerf by giving her “more speed and acceleration while in the air, allowing her to traverse between areas quicker.”
Pharah’s also getting a new ability: Jet Dash. “When Pharah uses Secondary Fire she will dash in the direction she’s moving,” Blizzard says. “When combined with Concussive Blast and the enhanced mobility from Hover Jets, Pharah can quickly navigate herself into positions where she’s highly lethal.” The result is a “more active Pharah” and a healthier game, the studio says.
The Junkertown map, added to Overwatch in 2017, is also getting some alterations. Blizzard explains:
The first section of the map (the area by the first checkpoint) is quite open. It can be tough for the offensive team to push the cart through here if the defending team has a Widow or Pharah. So, we’ve replaced the small cover with a trusty, burned-out building. We’ve also replaced the outhouse that was close to the gate with a tall water tower to block the line of sight from the openings above the choke point. Additionally, a few more cars have been added to this area, and the cliffside path has been reduced.
The small health pack on the balcony overlooking the hairpin turn on the second area has been removed to lessen the defender advantage from that choke. In the third area, we added a vertical support beam on the left side of the hallway to block the sightline from the upper ledge to give more cover for attackers to enter the area. We also widened and added cover to a hallway on the outer mid-section of area 3 to open up team fights that happen there. Finally, the updated map features a new night-time lighting theme to try out.
In addition to a Competitive Play rank reset, the return of placement matches, and new reticle options, below are the other changes coming to Overwatch 2 in season 9 with Feb. 13’s patch, per Blizzard.
Overwatch 2 retail patch notes (Feb. 13)
COMPETITIVE PLAY UPDATES
Developer Comments: With your feedback, we’ve made new improvements to Competitive Play that aim to provide more transparency into your progress after every match, plus we introduced a new skill tier and new Competitive Rewards to earn.
Skill Rank Reset
Given the significant changes to our heroes and the addition of a new skill tier, this reset is designed to give all players a chance to climb higher than ever before.
All roles in Role Queue and Open Queue in Competitive Play have been reset to Unranked.
Placement Matches
Placements have been rebuilt from the ground up. Your predicted rank will be displayed after each placement match.
You must complete 10 matches in a role to receive your Skill Rank for that role.
Winning your placements will have a significant impact on your final rank.
Competitive Updates
Competitive Updates have been reworked. Instead of requiring five wins or 15 losses to get a Competitive Update, updates now happen after every match.
Going forward, the Competitive Updates page now hosts information about your ranks in Role Queue and Open Queue, as well as your progress toward Competitive Point rewards.
Skill Modifiers
Modifiers now appear on the Competitive Progress page after each match.
Skill modifiers provide information on how much a rank will gain or lose progress after a match, including win or loss streaks, rank instability, and match favorability.
New Skill Tier – Champion
A new rank has been added above Grandmaster, called Champion, that is more exclusive than any other rank in Overwatch. Only an exceedingly small percentage of players will ever occupy this echelon of Competitive Play.
Versus Screen
The range of ranks for players in a match of Competitive Play is now displayed on the same screen where both teams are shown with their name cards, player icons, and titles.
New Grouping Requirements
Bronze through Diamond Players may group with other players within 2 Skill Tiers of their own Skill Rank.
Master players may group with other players within 1 Skill Tier of their own Skill Rank.
Grandmaster players may group with other players within 3 Skill Divisions of their own Skill Rank.
Champion players may group with only one other player within 3 Skill Divisions of their own Skill Rank.
Art & UI Updates
Skill Tier and Skill Division art for rank icons have been redesigned for improved readability.
The Competitive Skill Tier legend has been redesigned to include updated and new relevant information.
Competitive Points
Each win now grants 10 Competitive Points.
Each draw now grants 5 Competitive Points.
Each loss still grants 0 Competitive Points.
Competitive Progression
Competitive Challenges that award additional Competitive Points at the end of the season have been replaced with a new Competitive Progression system.
Every match grants progress toward your Competitive Progression meter, and after earning 30 you will receive an additional 100 Competitive Points.
Wins award 3 progress toward your Competitive Progression meter. Draws and Losses award 1 progress.
Competitive Rewards
Jade Weapon Variants have been introduced.
Each Jade Weapon Variant costs 3000 Competitive Points to purchase.
All players will start this season with a balance of 0 Competitive Points.
All existing Competitive Points have been converted into a new currency, Legacy Competitive Points.
Each Golden Weapon Variant now costs 3000 Competitive Points to purchase.
At the end of a Competitive Year, any remaining balance of Competitive Points converts to Legacy Competitive Points.
Matchmaking Rating
At the start of this season only, the internal Matchmaking Ratings for all players have been adjusted to push players closer to the normalized average (approximately at Gold 3).
Matchmaking Ratings have been decayed. The higher the rank, the more it has been decayed.
Most players will start at a lower skill rank and division than their most recent rank.
Competitive Challenges
Competitive challenges removed. Rewards and progress for Competitive Play are now displayed on the Competitive Progress page and titles are rewarded at the end of the season.
GENERAL UPDATES
PLAYER PROGRESSION
Added a new set of visual upgrades. Hero/Game Mode badge upgrades start at Level 500. Progression Level badge upgrades start at Level 2500.
Wrecking Ball title rewards are renamed from “Champion” to “Champ” to align with Junker Queen’s usage of the title (and to avoid confusion with the new Champion rank).
Adjusted amount needed to level up certain sub-badges for Mauga and Illari.
FRIEND ENDORSEMENTS
The endorsement is only eligible if you’re in the match for a set duration.
Endorsements are subject to the configured cooldown period of 12 hours.
Endorsements are subject to cooldown even if you unfriend the recipient.
SETTINGS
Added a feature for controller/keyboard users that remembers what you had focus when backing out of screens.
CROSSHAIR UPDATE
New Reticle Types have been added.
Square
Box
Line
Triwing
Falloff
New Reticle Dots have been added.
Ring
Square
Triangle
Cross
Heart
New Reticle color options have been added.
Brown
Dark Red
Light Red
Light Purple
Gray
Teal
HERO UPDATES
GENERAL
Developer Comments: Season 9 features changes to the fundamentals of Overwatch 2 gameplay that affect every hero. We’ve heard the community feedback around some gameplay pain points, and these changes are in response to many of those.
Most damage-dealing projectile sizes have been increased by a new global modifier added to their base size.
+0.05 meters for hitscan projectiles with a high rate of fire or spread (e.g., Tracer’s Pulse Pistols or Reaper’s Hellfire Shotguns).
+0.08 meters for hitscan projectiles that are more precise (e.g., Cassidy’s Peacekeeper or Soldier:76’s Heavy Pulse Rifle).
+0.05 meters for travel time projectiles that are shotguns or have a very high rate of fire (e.g., Roadhog’s Scrap Gun or Ramattra’s Void Accelerator).
+0.10 meters for travel time projectile with a speed greater than 50 meters per second (e.g., Zenyatta’s Destruction Orb).
+0.15 meters for travel time projectile with a speed less than or equal to 50 meters per second (e.g., Pharah’s Rocket Launcher).
Very large projectiles with a base size greater than 0.5 meters have been excluded from these increases (e.g., Orisa’s Energy Javelin or Reinhardt’s Fire Strike).
Hero combined HP (base health/armor/shields) increased by 15-25%.
150-175 HP heroes increased by 25 HP.
200-300 HP heroes increased by 50 HP.
300+ HP (Tanks) increased by 75-100 HP.
Each hero’s precise health increases are listed in their patch notes below.
Ultimate Charge
All Ultimate ability costs increased by 10%.
Regenerative Passive for All Heroes
All heroes now regenerate 20 health per second after 5 seconds of not taking damage.
Support Role Passive
Now reduces the delay before regeneration begins by half (2.5 seconds).
Damage Role Passive
Reload speed bonus on elimination has been removed.
New role passive: Dealing damage reduces enemy healing received by 20% for 2 seconds.
Quick Melee
Damage increased from 30 to 40.
TANK
D.Va
Pilot health increased from 150 to 175.
Mech armor increased from 300 to 375.
Self Destruct
Explosion maximum damage increased from 900 to 1000.
Inner explosion radius (range for maximum damage before falloff begins) increased from 4 to 6 meters.
Doomfist
Health increased from 300 to 375.
Rocket Punch
Max impact damage increased from 50 to 75.
Max wall slam damage increased from 30 to 40.
Junker Queen
Health increased from 300 to 375.
Rampage
Wound damage over time increased from 60 to 90.
Mauga
Health increased from 300 to 400.
Orisa
Armor increased from 275 to 350.
Ramattra
Health increased from 200 to 275.
Reinhardt
Health increased from 200 to 250.
Armor increased from 250 to 275.
Rocket Hammer
Damage increased from 85 to 100.
Charge
Wall impact damage increased from 225 to 275.
Roadhog
Health increased from 550 to 650.
Sigma
Shields increased from 200 to 275.
Winston
Health increased from 200 to 225.
Armor increased from 200 to 250.
Tesla Cannon
Damage increased from 60 to 75 damage per second.
Primal Rage
Punch damage increased from 40 to 50.
Wrecking Ball
Armor increased from 100 to 175.
Zarya
Health increased from 100 to 175.
Particle Cannon
Primary fire beam width increased from 0.15 to 0.2 meters.
DAMAGE
Ashe
Health increased from 200 to 250.
B.O.B.
B.O.B.’s weapon damage increased from 14 to 17.
Bastion
Health increased from 200 to 250.
Cassidy
Health increased from 225 to 275.
Deadeye
Initial damage rate increased from 130 to 150.
Damage rate increased from 260 to 300.
Echo
Health increased from 200 to 250.
Focusing Beam
Width increased from 0.2 to 0.25 meters.
Duplicate
Maximum combined health value increased from 300 to 350.
Genji
Health increased from 200 to 250.
Dragonblade
Swing recovery decreased from 0.9 to 0.7 seconds.
Hanzo
Health increased from 200 to 250.
Storm Arrows
Damage increased from 65 to 75.
Cooldown reduced from 10 to 8 seconds.
Junkrat
Health increased from 200 to 250.
Frag Launcher
Base projectile size reduced from 0.25 to 0.2 meters.
Mei
Health increased from 250 to 300.
Pharah
Health increased from 200 to 250.
Rocket Launcher
Recovery reduced from 0.85 to 0.80 seconds.
Projectile speed increased from 35 to 40 meters per second.
Explosion self-damage reduced from 50% to 25%.
Jet Dash
New Secondary Fire Ability.
Provides a quick horizontal boost in the direction Pharah is moving.
8-second cooldown.
Added a setting to activate Jet Dash on Double Jump instead.
Jump Jet
Now restores 50% of Hover Jets fuel and can briefly overfill the maximum fuel amount.
Vertical boost height reduced by 20%.
Cooldown increased from 10 to 14 seconds.
Concussive Blast
Cooldown decreased from 9 to 7 seconds.
Explosion now deals 30 damage to enemy targets.
Explosion radius reduced from 8 to 6 meters.
Knockback reduced by 10%.
Barrage
Now instantly refills Hover Jets fuel.
Hover Jets
Speed boost increased from 20% to 40%.
Now requires landing to recharge fuel.
Can now be activated without fuel to slow your descent.
Developer Comments: Pharah has a significant update that empowers more individual plays and shifting her movement capabilities from high up in the air to more horizontal movement that can cover distance quickly.
Reaper
Health increased from 250 to 300.
Sojourn
Health increased from 200 to 250.
Railgun
Secondary Fire base projectile size reduced from 0.1 to 0.07 meters.
Soldier: 76
Health increased from 200 to 250.
Sombra
Health increased from 200 to 250.
Symmetra
Shields increased from 100 to 150.
Photon Projector
Primary fire beam width increased from 0.2 to 0.25 meters.
Torbjörn
Health increased from 200 to 250.
Tracer
Health increased from 150 to 175.
Widowmaker
Health increased from 175 to 200.
SUPPORT
Ana
Health increased from 200 to 250.
Baptiste
Health increased from 200 to 250.
Brigitte
Health increased from 150 to 200.
Rocket Flail
Damage increased from 35 to 45.
Illari
Health increased from 200 to 250.
Kiriko
Health increased from 200 to 250.
Kunai
Base projectile size reduced from 0.18 to 0.15 meters.
Lifeweaver
Health increased from 175 to 225.
Lúcio
Health increased from 200 to 250.
Soundwave
Damage increased from 25 to 35.
Knockback increased 12%.
Movement lockout duration increased from 0.3 to 0.45 seconds.
Mercy
Health increased from 200 to 250.
Guardian Angel
Active duration on jump/crouch cancel reduced from 1.5 to 1 second.
Sympathetic Recovery passive
Health recovered increased from 25% to 40% of healing dealt.
Moira
Health increased from 200 to 250.
Biotic Grasp
Secondary fire damage increased from 50 to 65 damage per second.
Secondary fire target acquisition radius increased from 0.6 to 0.7 meters.
Zenyatta
Health increased from 75 to 100.
Shields increased from 150 to 175.
MAP UPDATES
Junkertown Update
New nighttime lighting theme.
New building near the first point to provide more cover & block long sightlines.
Added a water tower near the first point to block sightlines from upper choke positions.
Added more vehicles near the cliff to provide additional cover & block long sightlines.
Reduced the cliffside path to tighten the space and reduce the overall footprint of the area.
Removed a small health pack on the second area balcony that was easy for defenders to overuse.
Added vertical beam at second choke point to promote movement out of the upper floor & make the choke easier to defend.
Widened and added cover in a hallway in the third area to make close quarter fights easier to maneuver.
Developer Comments: We’ve added more cover—including new structures—to help counter some of the long sightlines around the first checkpoint. Additional changes in the third area allow attackers to push through certain chokes more easily.
BUG FIXES
GENERAL
Fixed an issue with some shadows that could appear jagged when on any setting below Ultra.
Fixed a bug that prevented your skin from changing when using the Change Skin option in Hero Select if you had a Loadout selected.
Fixed a bug with Golden Weapons being marked as unspecified and not being purchasable.
Fixed a bug with some callouts for pushing the payload playing at incorrect moments.
Fixed an issue with Wall Climb failing in some situations.
Additional bug fixes for general stability and performance.
MAPS
Antarctic Peninsula
Fixed lighting in some areas of the map.
King’s Row
Fixed areas of the map that were missing collision.
Midtown
Fixed some locations that could cause some heroes to become stuck
Shambali Monastery
Fixed a location of the map that displayed incorrect textures.
HEROES
Doomfist
Fixed a bug with Meteor Strike that could result in Doomfist getting inside the environment.
Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented Seismic Slam’s damage from going through turrets.
Fixed a bug that could prevent Doomfist from acquiring Overhealth in some cases.
Fixed a bug where Rocket Punch left a small window of time open to use abilities.
Echo
Fixed an interaction when Duplicating Bastion that prevented the Duplicated Configuration: Artillery’s shots from landing if Duplicate ended before they landed.
Lifeweaver
Fixed a bug that prevented Tree of Life from healing Reaper when in Wraith form.
Lúcio
Amp it Up now goes on cooldown if interrupted by stun during its cast time or when dying while it’s active.
Mauga
Fixed a bug with the burning applied by Mauga not being removed when picking up a health pack.
Orisa
Terra Surge now correctly pulls in and damages enemies that are on uneven slopes/collision, as long as Orisa has a direct line of sight, they will get pulled/damaged.
Roadhog
Fixed a bug with Roadhog’s model becoming distorted with some skins during the Heroic Highlight intro.
Fixed a bug with Pig Pen displaying a Junkrat icon when pinged.
Sombra
Fixed an interaction that prevented Hack from being interrupted by Rocket Punch or Shield Bash.
Fixed a bug where Sombra would enter Stealth while escorting the robot in some situations.
Torbjörn
Fixed a bug with disabling the Interact Cancel Deploy Turret setting causing you to only destroy a deployed turret and not toss out a new one when the ability is used.
Winston
Fixed a bug with Primal Rage that interrupted the ability to attack if the Ultimate was initiated while Jumping and using Melee at the same time.
Zenyatta
Golden weapon tint should now properly be reflected on all skins.
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