Nearly a month and a half have passed since the first Overwatch 2 beta test period ended, giving developers ample time to add new content for this next round, which began today, June 28.
An extensive set of patch notes outlines all of the changes players can expect when they get into the game. These include widely-discussed additions like the Junker Queen, Overwatch’s newest tank, and new Hybrid map Paraíso, formerly known as Rio de Janeiro. That said, the patch also includes a lot of previously-unknown changes to heroes that could affect gameplay.
The full June 28 patch notes are quite a read, but we’ve honed in on the most important parts to note before you jump into a five-vs-five battle today.
General changes
Quick Play games will now use the competitive ruleset, allowing teams to play both sides of a map. Role Queue and Open Queue are now available in Quick Play, but otherwise, the mode remains mostly the same.
The Ping system has been updated in various ways and now includes low and critical health indicators, which can be triggered with abilities like Windowmaker’s Infra-sight. Updated visuals include new icons and animated offscreen pings to draw attention. Players can also now ping the enemy that eliminated them for up to three seconds after death.
Similarly, the scoreboard system has been overhauled with a reorganized layout and increased transparency to be less visually intrusive. New statistics, like Damage Mitigated, will also be included on the scoreboard.
Map changes
Paraíso, formerly known as Rio de Janeiro, is the game’s newest Hybrid map. Travel through the colorful streets of Rio all the way to Lucío’s club.
Control map Busan, with night lighting, has been added to the Overwatch 2 beta map pool. Junkertown—with morning lighting—is also now available in the Escort pool. Kanezaka and Malevento are available for deathmatch.
Hero changes
Damage heroes have a new passive that replaces the previous movement speed buff. Instead, swapping to a new hero maintains up to 30 percent of your ultimate charge. This way, players can make adjustments to their composition without sacrificing progress. The support role passive’s time to activate self-healing has been increased from one second to 1.5 seconds.
Overwatch 2 visual updates have also been added to all heroes. These new looks can be equipped by selecting “Classic II” in the Hero Gallery.
Tank heroes
Reinhardt
- Armor reduced from 350 to 300.
- Health increased from 300 to 325.
Winston
- Barrier Projector health reduced from 800 to 700
- Primal Rage ultimate cost increased 10 percent.
D.Va
- Mech Armor increased from 200 to 300.
- Mech Health decreased from 450 to 350.
Doomfist
- Seismic Slam no longer slows enemies.
- Power Block damage reduction reduced from 90 percent to 80 percent.
Orisa
- Augmented Fusion Driver damage increased from 10 to 12.
- Projectile size no longer scales with distance.
- Projectile initial size reduced from 0.3 to 0.1.
- Critical damage bonus increased from 50 percent to 100 percent.
- Damage falloff at maximum range reduced from 70 percent to 50 percent.
- Maximum falloff range reduced from 15-35 meters to 15-25 meters.
- Fortify’s 20 percent movement speed penalty removed. Headshot immunity removed.
- Javelin Spin cooldown decreased from 10 to seven seconds.
- Speed boost reduced from 65 percent to 40 percent. Knockback increased.
- Energy Javelin impact damage reduced from 80 to 60. Cooldown increased from 6.5 to eight seconds
- Terra Surge max damage increased from 275 to 500.
- Damage begins to ramp after the old 200 damage timing.
Support heroes
Mercy
- Guardian Angel can no longer be canceled using crouch for a big vertical boost.
- Now automatically launches you upwards if you reach the end of Guardian Angel
- Angelic Descent will now additionally slow ascent speed if held, not just descent speed
- This means you can dampen vertical knockbacks (such as Junkrat’s Concussive Mine) but also reduce the amount of height that the GA vertical boost gives you.
Zenyatta
- Orb of Discord’s time to fall off target when not in line of sight reduced from three to two seconds.
Damage heroes
Bastion
- A-36 Tactical Grenade cooldown reduced from 10 to eight seconds.
Cassidy
- Combat Roll now grants 50 percent damage reduction for its 0.4 second duration.
Junkrat
- Steel Trap fully locks movement again. Projectile speed increased from 10 to 15.
- Frag Launcher projectile size increased from 0.2 to 0.25.
Pharah
- Rocket Launcher reload starts 0.25 seconds sooner when out of ammo.
- Concussive Blast now deals 30 damage and deals additional knockback on direct hits.
Symmetra
- Photon Projector (Primary Fire) maximum ammo increased from 70 to 100. No longer generates ammo when damaging barriers.
- Photon Projector (Secondary Fire) projectile speed increased from 25 to 50.
- Max damage reduced from 120 to 90 (45 impact, 45 explosion).
- Max charge projectile size reduced from 0.5 to 0.4.
- Ammo cost increased from seven to 10.
- Charge time increased from one to 1.2 seconds.
- Teleporter build time reduced from two to one second.
- Now has a maximum lifetime of 10 seconds.
- Cooldown increased from 10 to 16 seconds.
- Cooldown starts when Teleporter is placed.
- Health reduced from 300 to 200 (50 health, 150 shields).
- Range reduced from 30 to 22.
- Sentry Turret travel speed increased from 15 to 20. Movement speed reduction on targets reduced from 20 percent per turret to 15 percent per turret.
Torbjörn
- Rivet Gun (Primary Fire) recovery reduced from 0.6 to 0.55 seconds.
- Rivet Gun (Secondary Fire) recovery reduced from 0.8 to 0.7 seconds.
