Overwatch 2: Invasion is upon us, and with the start of season six on Aug. 10, this patch is loaded with more changes and fresh content than anything we’ve ever seen in the game.
Along with the highly-anticipated addition of PvE Story Missions, the game received two new maps that are a part of a new permanent game mode called Flashpoint. Oh, and did we forget to mention that the new support hero—Illari—has arrived from Peru to provide some solar-charged healing?
With “nearly half” the game’s massive 38-hero roster getting balance changes, there’s going to be a lot to digest for players over the next couple of weeks. So take your time going through the patch notes so you don’t end up like that one sad sap who got lost playing against Seagull following Watchpoint: Gibraltar’s renovations.
You can find all of the season six patch notes on the official Overwatch 2 patch notes page, but here we’ll be focusing on Illari and PvP hero balance changes that you need to be prepared for.
Overwatch 2 season six patch notes
Illari
At long last, players can finally play the game’s newest support hero. After three months of teasers and trailers, Illari is finally a part of the game’s roster, and we have you covered with a full rundown of her abilities.
Related: When is Illari unlocked for competitive mode in Overwatch 2?
With a Solar Rifle that automatically charges, the hitscan hero can both heal and do impressive damage for a support. Meanwhile, the movement ability Outburst will help you get out of sticky situations, and Healing Pylon is a massively powerful healing turret that will let you focus on damage when you need to.
Captive Sun is her ultimate ability. The projectile slows enemies who get hit by it and marks them for death. Once the enemies affected by it take a certain amount of damage, they explode, killing them and dealing damage to other nearby enemies.
Hero balance changes
All heroes
- Armor health damage reduction has been altered to be an additive with other sources of damage reduction and has a maximum cap of 50 percent.
Armor damage reduction was previously multiplicative with damage reduction from abilities. The dev notes say this led to situations where some heroes were “much more difficult to damage than intended.”
D.Va
- Boosters cooldown reduced to 3.5 seconds, down from four.
- Eject Mech: Pilot is immune to damage for 0.4 seconds while ejecting.
The slight buff to boosters will likely be felt most by people who play D.Va a lot, but the short pilot immunity will be a huge quality-of-life adjustment for people who are regularly slaughtered before they even get a chance to run away after enemies destroy D.Va’s mech.
Doomfist
- Seismic Slam cooldown reduced to six seconds, down from seven.
- Power Block reduces damage from stuck projectiles.
The developers said Doomfist is “performing well overall,” which I find to be a little bit difficult to believe considering his win rate and how frequently he’s played according to Overbuff. But these small quality-of-life buffs should give him a little bit of help.
Orisa
- Fusion Driver damage falloff range increased to 20 meters, up from 15.
- Fortify health bonus increased from 75 to 125.
This is an expansion of the buffs Orisa received in the season five mid-cycle patch. Keller noted in his Dev Take post last week that the incremental changes were intentional. The team wanted to see how her first round of Fortify changes would play out before doing more.
Ramattra
- Block reduces damage from stuck projectiles.
- Annihilation Ultimate cost increased 12 percent.
Ramattra’s ultimate ability is extraordinarily powerful in the right hands, and the developers said players were getting his ult “slightly too quickly for how impactful it can be.” Apparently, people were getting it 12 percent too fast, and I’m not going to complain about seeing that annoyingly good ultimate slightly less.
Sigma
- Base movement ground deceleration increased to match standard heroes’ movement.
Sigma previously had “somewhat floatier” movement to match, you know, the fact that he’s floating. But that seemed to make players feel like his tank role passive (knockback reduction) wasn’t working. Now, he’ll just move around like the rest of us.
Winston
- Tesla Cannon secondary fire charge time reduced to one second, down from 1.2.
- Tesla Cannon Secondary fire recovery time increased to 0.75 seconds, up from 0.5.
It always felt like Winston’s ranged fire took a weird amount of time to actually fire off. This might make it feel a little bit smoother. The change to the recovery time makes it less of a buff and more of a quality-of-life change.
Bastion
- A-36 Tactical Grenade maximum explosion damage falloff reduced to 50 percent, down from 70 percent.
- A-36 Tactical Grenade detonation time reduced to 0.35 seconds, down from 0.5.
- A-36 Tactical Grenade recoil adjusted to recover more quickly and projectile size increased to 0.25, up from 0.2. Impact damage increased from 15 to 30.
- Configuration Recon reload time reduced to 1.2 seconds, down from 1.5.
- Configuration Assault transforming into Configuration Assault now repairs 50 armor health.
- Configuration Artillery targeting state movement speed increased to 25 meters per second, up from 20.
Bastion’s viability has always felt especially niche, and his place in the meta is usually dependent on your place on the ranked ladder. At higher levels, he has very seldom been useful, but in some niche situations at lower ranks, Bastion can be a frustrating hero to counter. With another round of balance changes, it’s difficult to know exactly where he’ll fall, but it looks like these are some solid improvements to his kit.
Cassidy
- Base health increased from 200 to 225.
- Peacekeeper damage falloff rescaled to 25-35 meters, down from 25-45 meters.
- Magnetic Grenade projectile maximum travel time set to 1.5 seconds and slow amount reduced to 25 percent, down from 30 percent.
Players have been complaining about how powerful Magnetic Grenade’s range was ever since Blizzard added a crowd control effect to it in season five. Reddit was littered with highlights of Cassidy players seemingly mindlessly lobbing grenades across the map to get eliminations on people they couldn’t see. Well, that stops now.
Hanzo
- Storm Bow arrow draw progress is no longer preserved while wall climbing.
The devs admitted that this was “conceptually strange,” but they left it in the game because it “felt good and fluid” for Hanzo players. Unfortunately, it usually was quite the opposite feeling for enemy players who could get popped by a Hanzo repeatedly wall climbing to peek over walls.
Sombra
- EMP ultimate cost increased 15 percent and no longer destroys Lifeweaver’s Tree of Life.
At high levels and in the pros, Sombra has a tendency to be used as an ult bot. EMP is often an automatic fight win. So it makes sense that the devs are reeling that back a little bit. Additionally, having it no longer be a hard counter to Tree of Life is an effective Lifeweaver buff, and we all know that Lifeweaver could use as many of those as he can get.
Soldier: 76
- Helix Rocket explosion damage reduced to 80, down from 90.
- Tactical Visor ultimate cost increased 10 percent.
Many players got tired of Soldier quickly following his mid-cycle season five buffs. These nerfs are intended to reel him back a smidge without completely negating the buffs that Blizzard gave him a month ago.
Torbjörn
- Weapon swap time reduced to 0.4 seconds, down from 0.5.
- Rivet Gun primary fire recovery time reduced to 0.48 seconds, down from 0.55.
- Forge Hammer swing recovery time reduced to 0.6 seconds, down from 0.75.
Blizzard took some power away from Torb’s turret in the mid-cycle season five patch with the intention of giving his Rivet Gun more power, but it didn’t seem to be enough. Similar to Orisa’s changes, it seemed like the team was starting out with a modest adjustment and now they’re giving his weapon a little bit more power. Torb has always been a niche hero, so I have no clue how much this genuinely helps him out, but I’m here for the Swede getting some love.
Ana
- Biotic Rifle damage and healing per projectile reduced to 70, down from 75.
- Unscoped projectile size increased to 0.1, down from zero.
Blizzard has been extremely careful about giving nerfs to Ana despite her being one of the game’s most popular and powerful support heroes all year long. The healing and damage drop still means she’ll be able to kill 200-HP enemies in three shots, but maybe the mild healing nerf will make her feel ever-so-slightly weaker. I still expect to see at least one of her in every competitive match.
Brigitte
- Barrier Shield health reduced to 250, down from 300.
- Rally ultimate cost increased six percent.
Brigitte is intended to be a comp-dependent hero selection, and her high win rate with a low pick rate show just how useful she is in the right circumstances. It never feels great having a hero with a lower pick rate getting nerfed, but seeing how impactful she is in situations where she shines, it makes a lot of sense. The devs noted that her survivability felt a little bit too strong.
Kiriko
- Protection Suzu knockback removed and healing reduced to 40, down from 50. Suzu now heals an additional 30 health when cleansing a negative effect.
- Kunai damage increased to 45, up from 40, and recovery time was reduced to 0.5 seconds, down from 0.55. Critical damage multiplier reduced to 2.5x, down from three.
Changes to Suzu are meant to make players feel like they’re being rewarded for “more deliberate usage” of the ability. Meanwhile, the changes to Kunai damage will make her feel more consistent and less dependent on getting headshots to deal burst damage. I was never a fan of how impactful the three-times multiplier was for headshots. It always felt terrible to play against.
Lifeweaver
- Base health reduced to 175, down from 200, and shield health increased to 50, up from zero.
- Thorn Valley reduced spread for one of the two Thorn Volley projectiles fired per shot by 25 percent.
- Rejuvenating Dash healing increased to 50, up from 25.
- Life Grip mobility lockout duration increased to 0.75 seconds, up from 0.45.
- Tree of Life: 50 percent of the tree’s overhealing is now converted into Overhealth, up to 100 maximum Overhealth.
This is a massive survivability buff for Lifeweaver. Giving him shields that can regenerate, a little bit more total HP, and buffing his Rejuvenating Dash will make him way less prone to dying against dive comps that used to be able to easily pick on him. He shouldn’t be able to get one-clipped by Tracer’s as regularly anymore.
Lúcio
- Crossfade self-healing penalty is now reduced to zero percent, down from 60, for the duration of Amp It Up.
This is intended to give Lúcio a little bit more survivability to put him in line with the survivability that some other support heroes have.
Mercy
- Caduceus Staff secondary fire damage boost reduced to 25 percent, down from 30.
Countless DPS players in the past month have commented on how Mercy’s damage boost is the reason their favorite heroes get nerfed despite seeming to be balanced. Especially following Zenyatta’s Orb of Discord nerfs, tuning down Mercy’s damage boost seemed like a way to balance her in relation to other supports that can amplify damage.
