Overwatch 2 has just released a hotfix balancing patch that significantly weakens Sojourn while strengthening other ranged DPS heroes. Just over a week into Season 2, this hero balancing patch shows that the devs are listening to player feedback regarding the game’s present situation and which characters are causing difficulties.
The makers of Overwatch 2 have released a “hotfix balancing patch” in an effort to prevent game-breaking metas from being introduced. Sojourn, when played alongside Mercy in the days after Season 2 began, was bringing back the one-shot power that made her ingrained in the meta for months prior. In the days leading up to this patch, members of the Overwatch 2 development team dropped hints about potential changes and the heroes that could be affected. Rapid transformation, however, has occurred, and unlikely heroes have emerged.
The Overwatch 2 hotfix balancing patch touched a wide variety of heroes, including Doomfist, Orisa, Sojourn, Ramattra, Ana, Tracer, and Kiriko. It’s fair to say that Tracer and Kiriko’s evolution was on the slow side. Tracer’s Pulse Pistols went from doing 6 damage each round to 5.5 damage per bullet. The duration of immunity granted by Kiriko’s Protection Suzu has been cut in half, from 1 second to 0.85 seconds.
Doomfist’s Rocket Punch now has a four-second cooldown, Power Block now has to take one hundred damage for it to completely charge Doomfist’s Rocket Punch, and Doomfist’s health regeneration per opponent hit has been reduced from forty to thirty-five. Damage falloff from Orisa’s Augmented Fusion Driver has been increased from 15 meters to 25 meters, and her Terra Surge Ultimate may now hit foes behind shields. Ramattra’s speed in Nemesis Form increased by 20%, and his armor gain increased significantly from 150 to 225.
Overwatch 2’s Sojourn received yet another wave of nerfs on top of the ones she received at the beginning of Season 2 in order to bring her back into line with the rest of the team’s long-range DPS heroes. The charge rate of her railgun shot has slowed since the primary fire spread has been increased by 28%, making it more difficult to hit distant targets. The slowing effect of her Disruptor Shot no longer applies to her targets. The duration of time required to recharge her Power Slide ability has also gone up from 6 to 7 seconds. The healing and damage dealt by Ana’s biotic rifle bullets have been raised from 70 to 75, and the duration of the anti-heal effect of her Biotic Grenade has been lengthened from 3 to 4 seconds.
The Overwatch 2 development team is currently working on further hero balancing improvements that will mirror the mid-season balance they deliberately design for every season. In a meeting with content producers, Alec Dawson mentioned that the patch scheduled for sometime in January might include more benefits to Junker Queen and a likely tweak to Roadhog to remove part of his “one-shot” ability.
