The mid-season patch for Overwatch 2 is here and adds a few new systems that fall into the QoL range. Many heroes have also received balance adjustments. We have all the patch notes for you!
This is the Mid-Season Patch in Overwatch 2
The mid-season patch for Overwatch 2 from November 17, 2022, is mainly about balance adjustments for the heroes. However, Blizzard also continues to monitor Competitive Play and matchmaking and further adjusts the servers so that players match with equal opponents.
Voice chat is recorded: A somewhat strange innovation is the so-called Defense Matrix. Snippets of in-game voice chat can now be recorded by Blizzard when a player is reported in the match. You will also now receive an in-game message the first time you enter a voice chat telling you that excerpts can be recorded. However, this excludes your own party chat.
The audio file is processed in writing using Speech-to-Text and then deleted. Blizzard emphasizes that the audio file will not be listened to by anyone. The text file, on the other hand, is used to prove toxic behavior of the reported players.
Aim assist for everyone! Those who play together with console players on the PC with the help of crossplay will also have the console-typical Aim-Assist from now on. This should give all players the same chance to win. The competitive game modes are excluded.
All Overwatch 2 mid-Season Patch Notes
Here we have the original patch notes of the mid-season update for you:
Helden Updates
D.VA: D.Va felt too deadly after the last round of changes given how resilient she can be with her improved Defense Matrix.
Fusion Cannons: Spread increased from 3.5 to 3.75.
Boosters: Impact damage reduced from 25 to 15.
Call Mech: Call Mech ultimate cost reduced by 12 %.
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.
Particle Barrier: Duration reduced from 2.5 to 2 seconds, Cooldown increased from 10 to 11 seconds.
Projected Barrier: Duration reduced from 2.5 to 2 seconds, Cooldown increased from 10 to 11 seconds.
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.
Shuriken: Maximum ammo reduced from 30 to 24, Damage reduced from 29 to 27.
Junkrat:
Steel Trap: Arming time increased from 0.5 to 0.75 seconds, Trapped duration reduced from 3 to 2.5 seconds.
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.
Hack: Ability lockout duration reduced from 1.75 to 1.5 seconds, Hacked enemies are no longer valid targets for hacking for the duration of the 8-second effect, Hacked enemy damage multiplier reduced from 40 to 25%.
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.
Swift Step: Invulnerability duration reduced from 0.4 to 0.25 seconds.
Bug Fixes
GENERAL
PC Only – The Default setting for audio mix has been changed to “studio reference”
Resolved an issue where some players could be stuck in Bronze 5 even after several rank updates
Console Only – Fixed an issue where the PC interface was being forced on for some console players
Console Only – Fixed a bug on console where your game could freeze if you opened and closed a Hero cinematic
Console Only – Fixed an issue where 'Capture Highlight' could not be unbound from Left D-Pad
Addressed multiple leaderboard issues causing inaccurate placement and ordering
Players who getting healed will no longer see the healing status effect on their screen while they’re full health
Fixed an issue where players would sometimes be placed into an empty game
Resolved a bug that prevented players from rejoining their competitive game after being disconnected
Fixed a bug where typing in chat could purchase an item from the Hero Gallery
The 'No Name Card' selection in the Name Card interface is now selectable
Fixed a display issue where players were shown the incorrect amount of Overwatch League tokens, which made them unable to purchase items. The display now shows the correct amount of tokens a player owns
The 'Avoid Teammates' button is no longer hiding behind the Recent Players list
Fixed an issue with the Challenge 'Farsighted' not correctly tracking and/or completing
Fixed an issue with the Challenge 'Damage Sponge' not correctly tracking and/or completing
Resolved instances of the player's screen becoming blurry/out of focus
Fixed an issue where some players were missing the Noire Widowmaker skin
Various visual improvements to the First Time User Experience
Fixed in last update - Practice bots now show up through walls correctly when you play a healer
MAPS
Junkertown
Fixed additional areas in the map that were causing performance issues in some cases
HEROES
Brigitte
Fixed a bug where Brigitte's shield could become invulnerable under certain conditions
Cassidy
Cassidy now correctly drops the flag during Combat Roll in the Capture the Flag game mode
Doomfist
Fixed in last update - Fixed a bug with Seismic Slam being stopped early by obstructions
Fixed in last update - Fixed a bug with being able to jump during Seismic Slam
Genji
Fixed an issue with the Genji Mythic Skin's hit volumes
Fixed in last update - Fixed an issue where players could get infinite Dragonblade Custom Games
Hanzo
Fixed in last update - Jump/wall climb no longer destroys breakables
JunkerQueen
Commanding Shout and Rampage now correctly drop the flag in the Capture the Flag game mode
Kiriko
Fixed an issue where Kiriko could escape map boundaries using Swift Step
Mei
Has been added back to the line-up
Fixed several issues with Mei's Ice Wall that allowed players and projectiles to occasionally pass through it or slip off it
Mercy
Audio made a change to the sound of Mercy’s first-person glide to address frequencies that some players found uncomfortable
Reinhardt
Fixed in last update - Fixed an issue where quick melee did not swing Reinhardt's hammer
Sojourn
Sojourn can no longer pick up the flag in Capture the Flag when using Power Slide
Sombra
Fixed in last update - EMP can no longer be damage boosted
Torbjorn
Fixed in last update - Fixed an issue where quick melee did not swing Torbjorn's hammer
Wrecking Ball
Fixed an issue with Adaptive Shield that could cause you to lose health in some cases
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Sascha Asendorf is the co-founder of Guided.news and has been running online magazines in the gaming sector since 2013. Starting with a strong focus on survival games, Sascha now deals a lot with role-playing games and is an expert on survival and RPG titles like Conan Exiles, Baldurs Gate 3 & Cyberpunk 2077.