Overwatch 2 Season 9 patch notes: All hero nerfs and buffs

Plus some big changes for competitive play

The Overwatch 2 Season 9 patch notes are here, and with the promised changes to ranked matches in the multiplayer game also come some big hero tweaks. This season is the season of buffs. Every hero gets an upward bump with HP, and those who rely on projectiles will have a slightly easier time of hitting their targets. The standout change this time is with Pharah. Blizzard implemented a few kit alterations that should, in theory, make her easier to use without relying on characters such as Mercy.

Contents

1. Overwatch 2 Season 9 ranked changes
2. Overwatch 2 Season 9 Hero Buffs and Nerfs – General
3. Overwatch 2 Season 9 Hero Buffs and Nerfs – Tanks
4. Overwatch 2 Season 9 Hero Buffs and Nerfs – Damage
5. Overwatch 2 Season 9 Hero Buffs and Nerfs – Support
6. Overwatch 2 Season 9 – Additional changes

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Overwatch 2 Season 9 ranked changes

Here’s everything Blizzard is doing to ranked competitive matches in Overwatch 2 Season 9. There’s a lot.

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.

Winston is surprised by how different ranked mode seems / Activision Blizzard

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 Legacy Competitive Points to purchase.
• At the end of a Competitive Year, any remaining balance of Competitive Points converts to Legacy Competitive Points.

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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.

Overwatch 2 Season 9 Hero Buffs and Nerfs – General

More health for everyone means healers won't have to work quite so frantically / Activision Blizzard

In addition to the controversial passive that lets all heroes recover health without a healer, Blizzard is boosting everyone’s health, making ultimates more expensive, and increasing projectile 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.

Overwatch 2 Season 9 Hero Buffs and Nerfs – Tanks

Season 9 quietly gives Reinhardt a big boost / Blizzard Entertainment

Tank changes are pretty standard in Season 9, though D.Va can blow things up more easily, and Winston might actually have a fighting chance more often.

D.Va buffs

• 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 buffs

• 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 buffs

• Health increased from 300 to 375.

Rampage

• Wound damage over time increased from 60 to 90.

Mauga buffs

• Health increased from 300 to 400.

Orisa buffs

• Armor increased from 275 to 350.

Ramattra buffs

• Health increased from 200 to 275.

Reinhardt buffs

• 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 buffs

• Health increased from 550 to 650.

Sigma buffs

• Shields increased from 200 to 275.

Winston buffs

• 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 buffs

• Health increased from 100 to 175.

Particle Cannon

• Primary fire beam width increased from 0.15 to 0.2 meters.

Overwatch 2 Season 9 Hero Buffs and Nerfs – Damage

Big changes for the sky flyer / Blizzard

Pharah’s kit change is the only big alteration for the damage dealers in this season.

Pharah rework in Season 9

• 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.

Ashe buffs

• Health increased from 200 to 250.

B.O.B.

• B.O.B.’s weapon damage increased from 14 to 17.

Bastion buffs

• Health increased from 200 to 250.

Cassidy buffs

• Health increased from 225 to 275.

Deadeye

• Initial damage rate increased from 130 to 150.
• Damage rate increased from 260 to 300.

Echo buffs

• 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 buffs

• Health increased from 200 to 250.

Dragonblade

• Swing recovery decreased from 0.9 to 0.7 seconds.

Blizzard is testing new Overwatch 2 Quick Play changes

Hanzo buffs

• Health increased from 200 to 250.

Storm Arrows

• Damage increased from 65 to 75.
• Cooldown reduced from 10 to 8 seconds.

Junkrat buffs and nerf

• Health increased from 200 to 250.

Frag Launcher

• Base projectile size reduced from 0.25 to 0.2 meters.

Mei buffs

• Health increased from 250 to 300.

Reaper buffs

• Health increased from 250 to 300.

Sojourn buffs and nerf

• Health increased from 200 to 250.

Railgun

• Secondary Fire base projectile size reduced from 0.1 to 0.07 meters.

Soldier: 76 buffs

• Health increased from 200 to 250.

Sombra buffs

• Health increased from 200 to 250.

Symmetra buffs

• Shields increased from 100 to 150.

Photon Projector

• Primary fire beam width increased from 0.2 to 0.25 meters.

Torbjörn buffs

• Health increased from 200 to 250.

Tracer buffs

• Health increased from 150 to 175.

Widowmaker buffs

• Health increased from 175 to 200.

Overwatch 2 Season 9 Hero Buffs and Nerfs – Support

Mercy gets a few noteworthy changes this month, and Moira can deal more damage.

Mercy heals more efficiently (again) / Blizzard

Ana buffs

• Health increased from 200 to 250.

Baptiste buffs

• Health increased from 200 to 250.

Brigitte buffs

• Health increased from 150 to 200.

Rocket Flail

• Damage increased from 35 to 45.

Illari buffs

• Health increased from 200 to 250.

Kiriko buffs

• Health increased from 200 to 250.

Kunai

• Base projectile size reduced from 0.18 to 0.15 meters.

Better sharpen your aim / Activision Blizzard

Lifeweaver buffs

• Health increased from 175 to 225.

Lucio buffs

• 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 buffs

• 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 buffs

• 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 buffs

• Health increased from 75 to 100.
• Shields increased from 150 to 175.

Former Blizzard lead blames Bobby Kotick for Overwatch 2’s Steam launch

Overwatch 2 Season 9 – Additional changes

Overwatch 2 Season 9 introduces a new limited-time mode in the Arcade section called Cosmic Crisis. It’s a co-op event where you fight against treacherous foes as:

Sigma

Roadhog

• Soldier: 76
• Mei
• Torbjorn
• Widowmaker
• Lifeweaver
• Moira
• Ana
• Illari

Junker Town’s opening segment is getting a brand-new burned-out building to help reduce the amount of open space and give attackers a chance against teams with Widowmaker and Pharah. And finally is the Season 9 battle pass, themed after eldritch horrors and with Moira’s mythical skin at the end of the premium track.