All Hero buffs & nerfs in Overwatch 2 Season 8: Balance changes explained

❘ Published: 2023-12-05T22:01:20

Blizzard

Overwatch 2 Season 8 has finally arrived, and, besides introducing Mauga as the new Tank Hero, it features an overall update to most of the game’s characters. Here’s every Hero buff and nerf in Overwatch 2 Season 8.

Overwatch 2 Call of the Hunt confirmed a massive overhaul to most Heroes in the Season 8 roster. The update also introduced the new Tank Mauga, although with some tweaks based on players’ feedback after his free-preview weekend.

Blizzard most notably changed Sombra’s EMP, which was originally reworked at the beginning of Season 7. Ramattra has also been notably buffed to potentiate its base Omnic Form, while Heroes such as Baptiste, Mei, and Sigma have been significantly nerfed.

Here’s every Hero buff and nerf in Overwatch 2 Season 8.

Overwatch 2 Season 8: Every Hero buff & nerf

Overwatch 2 Season 8: Every Hero buff & nerf

Blizzard made some overall changes that affect every Hero on the Overwatch 2 roster. Here’s a complete breakdown of every Hero balancing change in Overwatch 2 Season 8:

HERO UPDATES

Maximum ultimate charge preserved on hero swap reduced from 25 to 15%.
Added Hero-Specific Options to every character to adjust the rumble strength of each of their abilities.

Developer Comments: Swapping heroes is fundamental to the gameplay of Overwatch, and this ultimate charge refund mechanic has done a great job of decreasing friction there. It has helped matches feel less one-sided as it functions as a soft comeback mechanic.

However, it also helped reinforce the perception that it’s almost always an advantage to counter-swap upon dying, which ideally isn’t always true and requires some consideration due to how powerful ultimate abilities can be.

Overwatch 2 Season 8 Hard Light Weapon skins

Overwatch 2 Call of the Hunt also added the new Hard Light weapon skins.

All Tank Heroes Season 8 updates

Doomfist

Developer Comments: One of the most effective uses for an ultimate ability like Meteor Strike is to save it as an escape in order to grab a health pack instead of using it against his foes. Doomfist will now recover health during the targeting phase so that it can be used more offensively.

Meteor Strike: Now regenerates 75 health per second while in the air. Ultimate cost increased 16%.

Junker Queen

Developer Comments: Tightening the spread on Junker Queen’s Scattergun will make it more effective at range against small targets and give her slightly more team fight presence before fully committing to getting in close to the enemy team.

Scattergun: Spread reduced 8%.

Mauga

Developer Comments: We got a lot of constructive feedback from players when Mauga was available to try during his free preview weekend, so we’ve adjusted his kit for his official launch to give him the ability to last longer in a fight.

Base health reduced from 500 to 350.
Base armor increased from 0 to 150.
Head hit volume reduced 15%.
Incendiary and Volatile Chainguns
Spread for firing both guns reduced 15%.
Fire rate multiplier for firing both guns reduced from 25% to 0%.
Damage per shot increased from 4.5 to 5.
Damage falloff range increased from 25 to 30 meters.
Max ammo increased from 300 to 350.
Movement speed penalty reduced from 20% to 15% per gun.
Overrun can no longer be interrupted by Hack.
Damage reduction increased from 30 to 50%.
Cardiac Overdrive: Lifesteal increased from 60 to 70%.
Berserker: Overhealth conversion rate increased from 40% to 50%.

Ramattra

Developer Comments: Ramattra is quite powerful during his Nemesis Form though his base Omnic Form may be too easy to ignore for a tank hero. We’re adding some power there to even out the tradeoffs between the two forms, with the Omnic Form having even better ranged damage while Nemesis Form’s Pummel can pierce enemy defenses.

Base health reduced from 300 to 200.
Base armor increased from 0 to 100.
Void Accelerator: Projectile size increased from 0.075 to 0.1 meters. Damage increased from 4.5 to 5.

Sigma

Developer Comments: Sigma has very effective defensive options between his Experimental Barrier and Kinetic Grasp. The barrier regeneration rate is being reduced in order to create more opportunity to attack Sigma directly.

Experimental Barrier: Regeneration rate reduced from 100 to 85 health per second.

Winston

Tesla Cannon: Now ignores armor damage reduction.

All DPS Heroes Season 8 updates

Sombra’s EMP has been changed to feel more “impactful” according to devs.

Mei

Developer Comments: We’re reducing the maximum ammo to limit how long Mei is able to continuously slow an enemy target now that the primary fire deals more damage.

Endothermic Blaster: Maximum ammo reduced from 150 to 120.

Soldier: 76

Biotic Field: Cooldown increased from 15 to 18 seconds.

Sombra

Developer Comments: The 1.5 second lockout duration didn’t feel impactful enough for an ultimate ability but generally EMP is more interesting and effective when it’s focused on the disabling aspect rather than the damage.

EMP: Ability lockout duration increased from 1.5 to 3 seconds.
Damage reduced from 30 to 25% of current health.

Torbjorn

Developer Comments: The health decrease on Overload severely impacted Torbjorn’s overall effectiveness so we’re reverting that change.

Overload: Overhealth increased from 75 to 100.

Tracer

Developer Comments: This damage value has been changed a few times over the course of Overwatch 2 and is now back to Tracer’s original damage. It was previously adjusted due to a couple of bugs with the Pulse Pistol falloff range and spread being much better than they should have.

Pulse Pistols: Damage increased from 5.5 to 6.

All Support Heroes Season 8 updates

Overwatch 2 Year of the Dragon Mercy skin

Overwatch 2 Season 8 teased Mercy’s Lunar New Year 2024 new skin.

Baptiste

Developer Comments: Baptiste has a high amount of sustained damage in addition to his various survival tools. We would prefer to keep his long cooldown abilities feeling impactful so we’re going to be pulling back on some of his damage potential here.

Biotic Launcher: Primary fire ammo reduced from 45 to 36.

Brigitte

Developer Comments: Brigitte ended up being the best performing support hero in the game by a fair margin since the last patch. It’s likely a result of more than just the damage breakpoint change that she received but it was a significant increase to her offense so we’re reverting it and will continue to evaluate further.

Whip Shot: Damage reduced from 80 to 70.

Kiriko

Developer Comments: Reducing the Protection Suzu invulnerability time further will help it feel less frustrating to play against but still enable it to have big play making moments although with a stricter timing requirement. To counterbalance that power loss we’re making Kiriko’s healing more reliable.

Healing Ofuda: Projectile speed increased from 14 to 18 meters per second.
Protection Suzu: Invulnerability duration reduced from 0.85 to 0.65 seconds. Healing explosion increased from 40 to 80 health.

Mercy

Developer Comments: This is just a small quality-of-life improvement to help keep Mercy healing or powering up her allies without penalty for activating her ultimate.

Valkyrie: Activating Valkyrie no longer disconnects Caduceus Staff from its target.

And that’s everything on the all Heroes balance changes for Overwatch 2 Season 8. If you want to know more about Blizzard’s FPS, you can check our guides below: