Overwatch 2’s Latest Patch Kills One Of Its Most Famous Strats

February 13, 2024

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Overwatch 2 is bringing a lot of sweeping changes in its season nine balance patch, and some of them are controversial. Between giving every hero a passive self-heal and every character getting a health buff across the board, Overwatch 2 feels like it’s shifting from a team-based shooter into one that values hero independence. Will any of this stick? We’ll have to wait and see, but in the meantime, one hero is getting a rework that feels emblematic of the whole patch, and it looks like it will undermine one of Overwatch’s longest-running combos in the process. The Pharah and Mercy dream team is dead, folks.

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You can find the full season nine patch notes below, but the tweaks that Pharah is getting in particular are worth spotlighting. The first is that she can no longer endlessly maintain her flight, as her fuel doesn’t recharge while airborne. This means Pharah will have to land on solid ground periodically to refuel before launching herself into the sky to once again rain down rockets on the enemy team.

To compensate for this, Pharah is also getting a new ability called Jet Dash that gives her horizontal movement on top of her usual vertical launch and hover. Blizzard says in the patch notes that this “empowers more individual plays” while also making it much harder for Mercy, who has been her airborne damage-boosting and healing partner for as long as Overwatch has been around, to keep up with her.

The community seems mixed on the change. The combo (known to players as Pharmercy or Pharmacy) has been a thorn in a lot of Overwatch fans’ sides for years. Two airborne heroes raining down damage-boosted rockets on the enemy team is one of the most reliable ways to get kills or just disrupt opposing forces. The only reliable counter for it is with precision hitscan characters like Soldier: 76 and Cassidy, and dealing with the flying bomb machine becomes a full-time job.

But despite hitscan players feeling a collective weight off their shoulders, Overwatch 2’s shift into independent plays and devaluing teamwork has been a sore spot for many with this patch. Seeing one of the most notable team composition staples get washed away feels like a bad omen for the future of Blizzard’s balance philosophy. Big, sweeping changes are scary for a competitive game like Overwatch 2, and Blizzard choosing to make all these changes in a live patch rather than a temporary Experimental card mode means that everyone has to get used to all these buffs and nerfs real quick. We’ll see how things play out when the patch goes live later today, February 13. The full patch notes are as follows:

COMPETITIVE PLAY UPDATES

Developer Comments: With your feedback, we’ve made new improvements to Competitive Play that aim to provide more transparency into your progress after every match, plus we introduced a new skill tier and new Competitive Rewards to earn.

Skill Rank Reset

Given the significant changes to our heroes and the addition of a new skill tier, this reset is designed to give all players a chance to climb higher than ever before.
All roles in Role Queue and Open Queue in Competitive Play have been reset to Unranked.

Placement Matches

Placements have been rebuilt from the ground up. Your predicted rank will be displayed after each placement match.
You must complete 10 matches in a role to receive your Skill Rank for that role.
Winning your placements will have a significant impact on your final rank.

Competitive Updates

Competitive Updates have been reworked. Instead of requiring five wins or 15 losses to get a Competitive Update, updates now happen after every match.
Going forward, the Competitive Updates page now hosts information about your ranks in Role Queue and Open Queue, as well as your progress toward Competitive Point rewards.

Skill Modifiers

Modifiers now appear on the Competitive Progress page after each match.
Skill modifiers provide information on how much a rank will gain or lose progress after a match, including win or loss streaks, rank instability, and match favorability.

New Skill Tier – Champion

A new rank has been added above Grandmaster, called Champion, that is more exclusive than any other rank in Overwatch. Only an exceedingly small percentage of players will ever occupy this echelon of Competitive Play.

Versus Screen

The range of ranks for players in a match of Competitive Play is now displayed on the same screen where both teams are shown with their name cards, player icons, and titles.

New Grouping Requirements

Bronze through Diamond Players may group with other players within 2 Skill Tiers of their own Skill Rank.
Master players may group with other players within 1 Skill Tier of their own Skill Rank.
Grandmaster players may group with other players within 3 Skill Divisions of their own Skill Rank.
Champion players may group with only one other player within 3 Skill Divisions of their own Skill Rank.

Art & UI Updates

Skill Tier and Skill Division art for rank icons have been redesigned for improved readability.
The Competitive Skill Tier legend has been redesigned to include updated and new relevant information.

Competitive Points

Each win now grants 10 Competitive Points.
Each draw now grants 5 Competitive Points.
Each loss still grants 0 Competitive Points.

Competitive Progression

Competitive Challenges that award additional Competitive Points at the end of the season have been replaced with a new Competitive Progression system.
Every match grants progress toward your Competitive Progression meter, and after earning 30 you will receive an additional 100 Competitive Points.
Wins award 3 progress toward your Competitive Progression meter. Draws and Losses award 1 progress.

Competitive Rewards

Jade Weapon Variants have been introduced.
Each Jade Weapon Variant costs 3000 Competitive Points to purchase.
All players will start this season with a balance of 0 Competitive Points.
All existing Competitive Points have been converted into a new currency, Legacy Competitive Points.
Each Golden Weapon Variant now costs 3000 Legacy Competitive Points to purchase.
At the end of a Competitive Year, any remaining balance of Competitive Points converts to Legacy Competitive Points.

Matchmaking Rating

At the start of this season only, the internal Matchmaking Ratings for all players have been adjusted to push players closer to the normalized average (approximately at Gold 3).
Matchmaking Ratings have been decayed. The higher the rank, the more it has been decayed.
Most players will start at a lower skill rank and division than their most recent rank.

Competitive Challenges

Competitive challenges removed. Rewards and progress for Competitive Play are now displayed on the Competitive Progress page and titles are rewarded at the end of the season.

GENERAL UPDATES

PLAYER PROGRESSION

Added a new set of visual upgrades. Hero/Game Mode badge upgrades start at Level 500. Progression Level badge upgrades start at Level 2500.
Wrecking Ball title rewards are renamed from “Champion” to “Champ” to align with Junker Queen’s usage of the title (and to avoid confusion with the new Champion rank).
Adjusted amount needed to level up certain sub-badges for Mauga and Illari.

FRIEND ENDORSEMENTS

The endorsement is only eligible if you’re in the match for a set duration.
Endorsements are subject to the configured cooldown period of 12 hours.
Endorsements are subject to cooldown even if you unfriend the recipient.

SETTINGS

Added a feature for controller/keyboard users that remembers what you had focus when backing out of screens.

CROSSHAIR UPDATE

New Reticle Types have been added.

Square
Box
Line
Triwing
Falloff

New Reticle Dots have been added.

Ring
Square
Triangle
Cross
Heart

New Reticle color options have been added.

Brown
Dark Red
Light Red
Light Purple
Gray
Teal

HERO UPDATES

GENERAL

Developer Comments: Season 9 features changes to the fundamentals of Overwatch 2 gameplay that affect every hero. We’ve heard the community feedback around some gameplay pain points, and these changes are in response to many of those.

Most damage-dealing projectile sizes have been increased by a new global modifier added to their base size.

+0.05 meters for hitscan projectiles with a high rate of fire or spread (e.g., Tracer’s Pulse Pistols or Reaper’s Hellfire Shotguns).
+0.08 meters for hitscan projectiles that are more precise (e.g., Cassidy’s Peacekeeper or Soldier:76’s Heavy Pulse Rifle).
+0.05 meters for travel time projectiles that are shotguns or have a very high rate of fire (e.g., Roadhog’s Scrap Gun or Ramattra’s Void Accelerator).
+0.10 meters for travel time projectile with a speed greater than 50 meters per second (e.g., Zenyatta’s Destruction Orb).
+0.15 meters for travel time projectile with a speed less than or equal to 50 meters per second (e.g., Pharah’s Rocket Launcher).
Very large projectiles with a base size greater than 0.5 meters have been excluded from these increases (e.g., Orisa’s Energy Javelin or Reinhardt’s Fire Strike).

Hero combined HP (base health/armor/shields) increased by 15-25%.

150-175 HP heroes increased by 25 HP.
200-300 HP heroes increased by 50 HP.
300+ HP (Tanks) increased by 75-100 HP.
Each hero’s precise health increases are listed in their patch notes below.

Ultimate Charge

All Ultimate ability costs increased by 10%.

Regenerative Passive for All Heroes

All heroes now regenerate 20 health per second after 5 seconds of not taking damage.

Support Role Passive

Now reduces the delay before regeneration begins by half (2.5 seconds).

Damage Role Passive

Reload speed bonus on elimination has been removed.
New role passive: Dealing damage reduces enemy healing received by 20% for 2 seconds.

Quick Melee

Damage increased from 30 to 40.

TANK

D.Va

Pilot health increased from 150 to 175.
Mech armor increased from 300 to 375.

Self Destruct

Explosion maximum damage increased from 900 to 1000.
Inner explosion radius (range for maximum damage before falloff begins) increased from 4 to 6 meters.

Doomfist

Health increased from 300 to 375.

Rocket Punch

Max impact damage increased from 50 to 75.
Max wall slam damage increased from 30 to 40.

Junker Queen

Health increased from 300 to 375.

Rampage

Wound damage over time increased from 60 to 90.

Mauga

Health increased from 300 to 400.

Orisa

Armor increased from 275 to 350.

Ramattra

Health increased from 200 to 275.

Reinhardt

Health increased from 200 to 250.
Armor increased from 250 to 275.

Rocket Hammer

Damage increased from 85 to 100.

Charge

Wall impact damage increased from 225 to 275.

Roadhog

Health increased from 550 to 650.

Sigma

Shields increased from 200 to 275.

Winston

Health increased from 200 to 225.
Armor increased from 200 to 250.

Tesla Cannon

Damage increased from 60 to 75 damage per second.

Primal Rage

Punch damage increased from 40 to 50.

Wrecking Ball

Armor increased from 100 to 175.

Zarya

Health increased from 100 to 175.

Particle Cannon

Primary fire beam width increased from 0.15 to 0.2 meters.

DAMAGE

Ashe

Health increased from 200 to 250.

B.O.B.

B.O.B.’s weapon damage increased from 14 to 17.

Bastion

Health increased from 200 to 250.

Cassidy

Health increased from 225 to 275.

Deadeye

Initial damage rate increased from 130 to 150.
Damage rate increased from 260 to 300.

Echo

Health increased from 200 to 250.

Focusing Beam

Width increased from 0.2 to 0.25 meters.

Duplicate

Maximum combined health value increased from 300 to 350.

Genji

Health increased from 200 to 250.

Dragonblade

Swing recovery decreased from 0.9 to 0.7 seconds.

Hanzo

Health increased from 200 to 250.

Storm Arrows

Damage increased from 65 to 75.
Cooldown reduced from 10 to 8 seconds.

Junkrat

Health increased from 200 to 250.

Frag Launcher

Base projectile size reduced from 0.25 to 0.2 meters.

Mei

Health increased from 250 to 300.

Pharah

Health increased from 200 to 250.

Rocket Launcher

Recovery reduced from 0.85 to 0.80 seconds.
Projectile speed increased from 35 to 40 meters per second.
Explosion self-damage reduced from 50% to 25%.

Jet Dash

New Secondary Fire Ability.
Provides a quick horizontal boost in the direction Pharah is moving.
8-second cooldown.
Added a setting to activate Jet Dash on Double Jump instead.

Jump Jet

Now restores 50% of Hover Jets fuel and can briefly overfill the maximum fuel amount.
Vertical boost height reduced by 20%.
Cooldown increased from 10 to 14 seconds.

Concussive Blast

Cooldown decreased from 9 to 7 seconds.
Explosion now deals 30 damage to enemy targets.
Explosion radius reduced from 8 to 6 meters.
Knockback reduced by 10%.

Barrage

Now instantly refills Hover Jets fuel.

Hover Jets

Speed boost increased from 20% to 40%.
Now requires landing to recharge fuel.
Can now be activated without fuel to slow your descent.

Developer Comments: Pharah has a significant update that empowers more individual plays and shifting her movement capabilities from high up in the air to more horizontal movement that can cover distance quickly.

Reaper

Health increased from 250 to 300.

Sojourn

Health increased from 200 to 250.

Railgun

Secondary Fire base projectile size reduced from 0.1 to 0.07 meters.

Soldier: 76

Health increased from 200 to 250.

Sombra

Health increased from 200 to 250.

Symmetra

Shields increased from 100 to 150.

Photon Projector

Primary fire beam width increased from 0.2 to 0.25 meters.

Torbjörn

Health increased from 200 to 250.

Tracer

Health increased from 150 to 175.

Widowmaker

Health increased from 175 to 200.

SUPPORT

Ana

Health increased from 200 to 250.

Baptiste

Health increased from 200 to 250.

Brigitte

Health increased from 150 to 200.

Rocket Flail

Damage increased from 35 to 45.

Illari

Health increased from 200 to 250.

Kiriko

Health increased from 200 to 250.

Kunai

Base projectile size reduced from 0.18 to 0.15 meters.

Lifeweaver

Health increased from 175 to 225.

Lúcio

Health increased from 200 to 250.

Soundwave

Damage increased from 25 to 35.
Knockback increased 12%.
Movement lockout duration increased from 0.3 to 0.45 seconds.

Mercy

Health increased from 200 to 250.

Guardian Angel

Active duration on jump/crouch cancel reduced from 1.5 to 1 second.

Sympathetic Recovery passive

Health recovered increased from 25% to 40% of healing dealt.

Moira

Health increased from 200 to 250.

Biotic Grasp

Secondary fire damage increased from 50 to 65 damage per second.
Secondary fire target acquisition radius increased from 0.6 to 0.7 meters.

Zenyatta

Health increased from 75 to 100.
Shields increased from 150 to 175.

MAP UPDATES

JUNKERTOWN UPDATE

New nighttime lighting theme.
New building near the first point to provide more cover & block long sightlines.
Added a water tower near the first point to block sightlines from upper choke positions.
Added more vehicles near the cliff to provide additional cover & block long sightlines.
Reduced the cliffside path to tighten the space and reduce the overall footprint of the area.
Removed a small health pack on the second area balcony that was easy for defenders to overuse.
Added vertical beam at second choke point to promote movement out of the upper floor & make the choke easier to defend.
Widened and added cover in a hallway in the third area to make close quarter fights easier to maneuver.

Developer Comments: We’ve added more cover—including new structures—to help counter some of the long sightlines around the first checkpoint. Additional changes in the third area allow attackers to push through certain chokes more easily.

BUG FIXES

GENERAL

Fixed an issue with some shadows that could appear jagged when on any setting below Ultra.
Fixed a bug that prevented your skin from changing when using the Change Skin option in Hero Select if you had a Loadout selected.
Fixed a bug with Golden Weapons being marked as unspecified and not being purchasable.
Fixed a bug with some callouts for pushing the payload playing at incorrect moments.
Fixed an issue with Wall Climb failing in some situations.
Additional bug fixes for general stability and performance.

MAPS

Antarctic Peninsula

Fixed lighting in some areas of the map.

King’s Row

Fixed areas of the map that were missing collision.

Midtown

Fixed some locations that could cause some heroes to become stuck

Shambali Monastery

Fixed a location of the map that displayed incorrect textures.

HEROES