A Tumultuous Overwatch 2 Week for the Season 18 Release

The release of season 18 of Overwatch 2 has been shaky at best. Between numerous game-changing bugs, an unnecessary ban, and a failed attempt at Stadium Draft, Blizzard has been under fire. The updates this season were significant. There were bound to be issues with a season of this size. The number and extent of these issues have been extreme, but Season 18 has succeeded in some facets.

Overwatch 2 Hero Bugs Rampant

Within hours of the season’s release, Overwatch 2 players discovered numerous bugs, including one for Wrecking Ball. He was generating a fireball much faster than intended and was disabled shortly after release. As the days progressed, more bugs appeared, prompting Blizzard to release multiple hotfix patches. Below is the list of all the bugs Blizzard has fixed since Season 18’s release in Overwatch 2:

• Using the SMART extender during Drill Dash would break the animation.
• Hazard’s infinite block when the Reconstitution Perk was equipped.
• Wrecking Ball’s launch momentum was occurring faster than intended.
• Sombra was able to gain overhealth from unhacked health packs.
• Symmetra’s teleporter was able to recover shield HP while being hacked.
• Doomfist Aftershock Perk was not correctly applying slow if you land directly on top of enemies.
• Zarya’s Energy Converter Perk was not granting a charge for each enemy hit.
• Echo, with the Partial Scan perk, was not gaining Ultimate Charge when duplicating D.Va.
• Real-time text moderation was not working correctly.
• Universal Emotes could not be equipped.
• Cassidy’s Silver Bullet Perk allowed you to fire a normal shot alongside the Silver Bullet.
• D.Va’s Precision Fusion Perk allowed for nearly infinite duration.
• Ultimate meter gain was slowed after cloning D.Va as Echo.
• Echo gained extra health when cloning D.Va.
• Junker Queen’s Battle Shout Perk amped up reload speed more than intended.
• Juno’s Primary Fire falloff was shorter than intended.
• Mercy caused Speed VFX to play for all allies.
• Orisa’s Javelin did not slam enemies into walls.
• Pulled Pork granted Overhealth based on Hook duration and not distance.
• Roadhog’s Pulled Pork Perk was affected by Ana’s Biotic Grenade.
• Friction Generators Perk prevented Sojourn from gaining Ultimate if her Ultimate was activated while firing and sliding.
• Sombra’s Adept Hacker becomes unusable if selected while respawning.
• Widowmaker’s Sniper’s Instinct Perk allowed her to trigger the Perk without triggering a cooldown for Grapple.
• The workshop has been re-enabled.
• Overhealth granted from Tree of Life was removed when Tree of Life despawned as Lifeweaver.
• Pharah’s Barrage was missing splash damage.
• Venture was not able to queue Drill Rush during Burrow.
• Wrecking Ball’s knock-back distance was incorrect after the initial bug fix.
• Stadium Competitive rewards were not distributed to players on the Season 18 login. Rewards should be granted on the next login.
• Stadium Draft would not continue immediately after a player locked in a hero choice.

Thoughts

Blizzard still has plenty of other bug fixes to attend to in the new season. Overall, despite all the issues, Season 18 has been a relative success. The new perks, Wuyang, Hero Progression, Hero SR, and Stadium updates (except for hero locks in Stadium Draft), have been successful. Overwatch 2 feels fresh. All the perk changes have added a new dimension to the game, while still maintaining what everyone loves about Overwatch 2. The extensive list of bugs makes it less enjoyable, but the team has responded quickly to fix the issues.