Over Halloween weekend, Blizzard announced nerfs coming to five overpowered Overwatch 2 heroes ahead of its previously scheduled season 2 update in December.
In an official post on its Overwatch 2 forum, Overwatch community manager Andy Belford announced that five heroes are going to receive fewer treats for their heroic tricks come November 15. The shortlist of nerfed heroes are player-of-the-game poster boy Genji, the Russian powerhouse Zarya, the off-brand Dorito-eating gremlin D.Va, the hacker girl Sombra, and the furry-kin healer, Kiriko.
Prior to these nerfs, the Overwatch 2 team stated, in an October 13 blog post, that it would not be making changes to characters until the second competitive season. In the post, Blizzard noted that although some heroes were performing better than others,“no hero’s overall power level is far out of line with our goals.” The only exception at the time was Zarya’s new ability to choose where to place each of her two Particle Barriers, which the team said they’d keep a close eye on for “potential changes next season.”
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However, now that Overwatch 2 is no longer suffering from DDoS attacks and ungodly loading times, and its full roster of characters is playable, Blizzard decided to roll out some nerfs early to the five mentioned heroes to bring “some tactical adjustments” to the game. Here are the nerfs coming to these heroes:
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Genji
- Maximum ammo reduced from 30 to 24
- Shuriken damage reduced from 29 to 27
Zarya
- Barrier duration reduced from 2.5 to 2 seconds
- Barrier cooldown increased from 10 to 11 seconds
D.Va
- Fusion Cannon spread increased from 3.5 to 3.75
- Boosters impact damage reduced from 25 to 15
Sombra
- 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- Hacked enemies are no longer valid targets for hacking for the duration of the effect
- Hacked damage multiplier reduced from 40 to 25%
Kiriko
- Swift Step invulnerability duration reduced from 0.4 to 0.25 seconds
Overall, these nerfs aren’t detrimental to the way each of these heroes play, but it will make them a little less deadly in Overwatch 2’s 5v5 matches compared to how they’re playing now. So if you’re wanting to get some more W’s under your belt with these heroes before they get hit with Kryptonite, now’s the time.
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“Our current goal is to deploy these changes in an upcoming update on November 15th, 2022. Should that plan change, we will be sure to update you here,” Belford wrote. “For those wanting a preview of how these changes will play, check out the Overwatch League Playoffs on October 30th.”
