Overwatch 2 Season 16 Patch Notes: A Path to a Balanced Meta

With the release of Season 16 comes plenty of changes to Overwatch 2. Some of those changes are on the balance side of the game. Twenty-four heroes are seeing changes to their kits, some more impactful than others. But how many of these changes will significantly impact Overwatch 2?

Overwatch 2 Season 16 Patch Notes

The list of Overwatch 2 Patch Notes is as follows:

Tank

D.Va

Bunny Stomp

• Now combined with Ejection Suit.

Bunny Power

• New Minor Perk
• Eject grants 75 temporary overhealth, and Call Mech’s damage radius is increased by 50%.

Extended Boosters

• New Minor Perk
• Hitting an enemy with Boosters increases the duration by 0.5 seconds.

Hazard

Off the Top

• Increase Leap Slash’s damage from 30% to 50%.

Orisa

Augmented Fusion Driver

• Damage increased from 13 to 14.

Fortify

• Now prevents Hack’s ability lockout from interrupting abilities.

Heat Dissipater

• Increase the amount of heat reduced per headshot by 33%.

Reinhardt

Fiery Uptake

• Removed.

Crusader’s Fire

• New Minor Perk
• Refund a charge of Fire Strike when you stun an enemy, overfilling up to 3.

Shield Slam

• Shield Slam distance increased by 50%.

Roadhog

Hog Toss

• Removed.

Pent Up

• New Minor Perk
• When Pig Pen is triggered, refill 50% Take a Breather resource which can overfill.

Hogdrogen Exposure

• Increased radius from 8 to 10 meters.

Sigma

Levitation

• Jump can now be held down to hover.

Winston

• Base health increased from 225 to 275.
• Base armor reduced from 250 to 200.

Wrecking Ball

• In 6v6 game modes, Armor health is reduced from 150 to 100.

Damage

Cassidy

Past Noon

• Removed.

Even the Odds

• New Minor Perk
• Regenerate 20 health per second for each enemy targeted by Deadeye.

Freja

• Time to earn Minor Perk reduced by 18%.

Revdraw Crossbow

• Number of shots before the max spread increased from 8 to 12.

Bola Shot

• Bola Shot Damage and Explosion radius increased from 5 to 5.5 meters.
• Bola Shot damage over time increased from 75 to 90.

Hanzo

• Arrow draw progress is preserved while wall climbing.

Storm Arrows

• Projectile speed increased from 110 to 140 meters per second.

Junkrat

Aluminum Frame

• Now also reveals trapped enemies to allies.

Tick Tock

• The description has been changed to “Concussive Mine strengthens .5 seconds after landing, increasing damage by 50%, explosion radius by 50%, and health by 200%.”

Mei

Chilling Reach

• Removed.

Biting Cold

• Moved to a Minor perk.
• Secondary fire hits slow enemies by 20% for 1.5 seconds.

Deep Freeze

• New Major Perk.
• Continuously hitting enemies with primary fire freezes them for a short time.

Sombra

Viral Efficacy

• Removed.

Encrypted Upload

• New Minor Perk.
• Hack can be used while invisible, successful hacks increase the duration of stealth by 2 seconds.

Stack Overflow

• Removed.

Viral Replication

• New Major Perk.
• Hitting a hacked enemy with Virus spreads the Virus to enemies within 8 meters.

Soldier: 76

Field Emergency

• The description has been changed to “Biotic Field’s healing is increased by 100% on Low health targets.”

Torbjörn

Overloaded Turret

• Now transforms into Level 3 Sentry Turret if Overload was activated before fully constructed.

Tracer

Flashback

• Blinks restored reduced from 3 to 2.

Quantum Entanglement

• Quantum Entanglement now additionally grants 20 over ammo.

Support

Ana

Groggy

• Reduced initial slow from 75% to 50%.
• Now also deals 50 damage over the duration.

Biotic Bounce

• Second bounce damage and healing reduced from 50 to 25.

Baptiste

Biotic Launcher

• Healing explosion increased from 50 to 60.
• Direct impact healing increased from 20 to 30.
• Maximum ammo reduced from 13 to 10.

Assault Burst

• Will now do instant healing, but cannot critically heal low targets.

Juno

Hyper Boost

• Removed.

Re-Boots

• Moved to Minor Perk.
• Duration increase removed.

Locked On

• New Major Perk.
• Reduce the cooldown of Pulsar Torpedoes by 1.5 seconds for every enemy hit.

Lifeweaver

Thorn Volley

• Projectile speed increased from 80 to 100 meters per second.

Lifeweaving

• Bonus healing increased from 30 to 40.

Lúcio

Groovin

• Removed.

Beat Drop

• New Minor Perk.
• Amp it Up is active during Sound Barrier.

Mercy

Angelic Recovery

• Removed.

Angelic Resurrection

• New Minor Perk.
• Mercy gains 100 overhealth after casting Resurrect.

Zenyatta

Orb of Discord

• In 6v6 game modes, the Duration before expiring when the target is out of sight is reduced from 3 to 1.5 seconds.

Ascendance

• Jump can now be held down to hover.

Duality

• Increased converted damage from 20% to 30%.

Bug Fixes

Heroes

Juno

• Fixed an issue with Juno’s Ember skin.

Kiriko

• Fixed an issue preventing Kiriko’s wall climb animation from playing after Swift Step.

Ramattra

• Fixed an issue with Rammatra’s Void Barrier animation.

Patch Notes Thoughts

The majority of the changes in the Overwatch 2 patch notes come to the Perks for the heroes. We are unlikely to see significant shifts to the meta, with most of the changes making minor changes to Heroes or adding more enjoyable Perks for players to experience. Two Heroes to keep track of in this patch are Sombra and Hazard. Sombra as a base Hero is performing well, but her Perks are lackluster. Now with better Perks, she may start to dominate matches.

The buff to Hazard’s slash damage against higher health targets will give him a better chance at slicing his foes, a terrifying prospect for all players. The other notable changes come to Mei. With Mei getting the ability to freeze targets with her primary fire, it may cause discontent with her opponents and allow her to dominate lobbies, especially against Tanks like Reinhardt, Wrecking Ball, and D.Va. Let us know what you think of the Season 16 Overwatch 2 Patch Notes!