Overwatch 2’s long-awaited November update is finally available, addressing hero balance concerns by nerfing six characters and bringing fan favorite Damage hero Mei back into the fold. Blizzard had originally planned to release thebigOverwatch 2November update on November 15, but it had to delay the patch at the last minute due to unforeseen technical difficulties. Blizzard then promised that the update would arrive on November 17, and it held true to its word.
Overwatch 2players may be most interested in the nerfs that have come as part of the latest update. D.Va, Zarya, Genji, Junkrat, Sombra, and Kiriko have all been nerfed. Specifics of each nerf can be found in the patch notes (scroll down to see the full notes), but it’s safe to say that the Zarya nerf will be most relevant to players. After the update,Zarya’s bubblewill last 2 seconds (down from 2.5 seconds), and the bubble cooldown has been increased from 10 seconds to 11. While this may not seem that significant, it could drastically change how Zarya is played inOverwatch 2moving forward.
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There have been many calls for Blizzard to nerfDamage hero GenjisinceOverwatch 2’s launch, and the studio has done that now as well. Genji players should note that after the update, the cyborg ninja will have his maximum ammo reduced from 30 to 24 and his damage output will be reduced from 29 to 27. Of course, it’s always possible that Blizzard will decide to tweak the heroes further, so fans should keep that in mind.
Besides the nerfs, the newOverwatch 2update’s most notable change is bringing Mei back to the roster of playable characters.Mei was removed due to bugs involving her Ice Wall ability, but it seems those issues have since been resolved. Blizzard has disabled three heroes sinceOverwatch 2’s early access launch next month, but hopefully the developers are able to avoid that drastic measure in future.
One hero that fans were worried was at risk at being removed from the game was Support hero Brigitte.Overwatch 2players discovered abug that made it so Brigitte’s shield never broke. Luckily, that bug has been fixed in this latest update, along with a host of other technical issues that have been plaguing the game. The live service nature ofOverwatch 2and the fact that it will have frequent updates indefinitely means that problems are going to arise every now and again, but hopefully the game is able to avoid any truly serious issues moving forward.
Here are the fullOverwatch 2patch notes for the update released on November 17:
TANKS
D.VA
D.Va felt too deadly after the last round of changes given how resilient she can be with her improved Defense Matrix.
Call Mech
ZARYA
Early player sentiment predicted Zarya as one of the weakest solo tanks in 5v5, although her high damage potential and barrier uptime have proven to be extremely effective. For opponents, feedback has indicated this can feel as though Zarya has very limited windows of vulnerability, which feels difficult to deal with when combined with her ramping damage potential.
These changes will reduce the barrier uptime, making it slightly more difficult for her to gain energy and will provide enemies with more time to deal damage to her.
DAMAGE
GENJI
Genji has greatly benefited from the move to 5v5. Changing to a single Tank and the reduction of crowd control has removed a lot of obstacles for Genji. However, he hasn’t received tuning updates since he wasn’t actively in the meta until launch—an intentional decision based on our general preference to avoid preemptive adjustments when possible. These changes will bring Genji more in line with the other flanking damage heroes like Tracer and Reaper.
Steel Trap
SOMBRA
With Sombra’s rework, she gained a lot more damage to help account for the reduced ability lockout duration of Hack. This has proven to be too deadly for a flanker with easy access to the enemy backlines, especially in 5v5.
She can also no longer channel hack on an already hacked target as feedback indicated the reduced cooldown combined with hacking from stealth proved to be too frustrating for many players. This is essentially a per-target cooldown that enables Hack to keep its current 4-second cooldown for potentially hacking multiple targets.
SUPPORT
KIRIKO
This invulnerability window is primarily intended to help avoid instantly dying to something unseen after teleporting through walls, but it ended up being a little too long and led to some confusion while shooting at Kiriko.
Torbjorn
Wrecking Ball
Overwatch 2is available now in early access for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
