Overwatch 2’s latest upate puts the most recent hero balance patches and reworks into place, affecting the likes of Roadhog, Orisa, Sojourn, and Kiriko. If you’re looking at picking these characters back up in your games, you’ll want to ensure you know about these little tweaks so you can play them to their full potential. Here’s the full explanation of Overwatch 2’s Feburary 24 patch notes and Hero reworks.
Overwatch 2 Feburary 24 Patch General Bug Fixes
- Fixed an issue with the “Winged Sandals’ weapon charm’s ‘How to Unlock’ text.
- Adjusted footstep audio mixing to make enemy footsteps more audible.
Overwatch 2 Feburary 24 Patch Hero Bug Fixes
Lucio
- Fixed an issue with Lucio’s Hermes skin exhibiting incorrect physics
Reinhardt
- Fixed an issue with Reinhardt’s Hammer appearing deformed during the Sweethardt emote
Sojourn
- Fixed an issue where Sojourn’s Cyber Detective Skin would fail to load
Wrecking Ball
- Fixed an issue with Adaptive Shield where it could be incorrectly applied before the cooldown was complete
Overwatch 2 Feburary 24 Patch Hero Changes
Kiriko
Let’s begin with everyone’s favorite donut-loving protector of Kanezaka, Kiriko. Developer comments note that although Kiriko’s healing projectiles are slow moving and single-target only, her average healing output still makes her an overachiever in comparison to other characters. Due to some players focusing on using her healing, and only using kunai on occasion, Kiriko’s recovery time between Healing Ofuda has been increased, to allow more opportunity to throw in more frequent primary fire kunai.
Healing Ofuda
- Recovery time increased from 0.85 to 1 second
Sojourn
Developer comments suggest that by adjusting Sojourn’s energy gain, it will help balance the average charge time for her Railgun, as it won’t benefit as much from the likes of damage boost or critical hits. However, hitting armored targets or other sources of damage reduction will result in quicker charge than before. The reduction to her primary fire damage is also aimed to help stopping Sojourn from being so lethal, as it shall no longer have the same amplified effect under damage boost and critical damage.
Railgun
- Energy gain is no longer based on damage done by primary fire. Each primary fire hit against an enemy player now grants 5 energy
- Primary fire damage per projectile reduced from 10 to 9
Orisa
Orisa receives a simple change with no developer comments added in, with her Fortify ability’s health bonus being reduces from 125 to 75. This makes a lot of sense, as Orisa is one of the strongest Tanks in the current game, and already has the likes of her Spin, which she can use to negate taking further damage while her healers fix her up.
Fortify
- Health bonus reduced from 125 to 75
Roadhog
We’ve known that Roadhog was going to be receiving some changes for a while now, and it seems that this update has taken the first steps in doing so. Developer comments state that these changes aim to reduce frustration from dying to his notorious oneshot combo after being hooked in by the big guy.
It’s now stated that although the Chain Hook is still strong ability, it will depend more on Hero matchups and teamwork to ensure eliminations after hooking an enemy in to your team, as well as how the hooked target is able to respond. Hog also appears to have recieved some changes to his Scrap Gun to help round this all out.
Chain Hook
- Impact damage reduced from 30 to 5
- The enemy final position distance from Roadhog after being pulled increased from 3 to 4 meters
Scrap Gun
- Damage per pellet reduced from 6.6 to 6
- Recovery time reduced from 0.85 to 0.8 seconds
- Reload time reduced from 2 to 1.75 seconds
- Maximum ammo increased from 5 to 6
What Does This Nerf Mean For Roadhog Going Forward?
Well, I can imagine that Roadhog mains all around the world are crying a little on the inside, as this seems like quite a major nerf to his character. There’s no denying that changes were needed, considering he was absolutely dominating matches and was hands down the best Tank pick for most scenarios, especially when paired with the likes of Kiriko. However, just how badly will this affect his play style? It seems the days of flanking to get picks as Hog will be no more, since his Hook oneshot combo now ceases to exist.
Fortunately, this is not the last change we’ll see to Roadhog, as Blizzard also added the following commented on their Patch Note post that “Adjusting Roadhog’s Chain Hook and Scatter Gun are just the first steps towards a bigger rework. Expect more changes to Roadhog’s kit soon.”
It seems that at this stage, they’re hitting Hog with a hard nerf, then will be building him back up as they discover the best way to balance him. After all, there’s no telling what’s in store with his rework going on behind the scenes. Perhaps his abilities will even be altered, therefore changing his entire playstyle. I’m definitely intrigued to see what’s next in store for the guy, but for now, I’m at least glad that I’ll no longer be hooked and killed before I can blink while wall riding around Ilios as Lucio.
That’s everything you need to know about Overwatch 2’s Feburary 24 Patch Notes & Hero Reworks. For more helpful gameplay guides, lists, and news, check out the rest of our content. We have a variety of Overwatch topics to keep you up to date on all of your favorite Heroes, so feel free to scroll down and have a glimpse through our related posts below.
