Overwatch 2 Season 10 patch notes: All hero nerfs and buffs

Activision Blizzard

The Overwatch 2 Season 10 patch notes are live ahead of the multiplayer game’s next big update, and while new hero Venture takes the spotlight, quite a few popular heroes have some small changes. Most changes are the usual minor tweaks to damage output and health, except one: Wrecking Ball. Blizzard reworked his kit a bit to make him more viable as a tank instead of forcing players to rely solely on his disruption.

Another big change is how Blizzard lets you get new heroes. All previous Overwatch 2 heroes and future heroes will unlock automatically for everyone after they finish the tutorial. You don’t need to grind objectives or buy the battle pass anymore.

There’s also a preview for the new Clash mode, another variation on the usual “capture the objective” with a fresh twist on win conditions. You win if you capture all five or if you manage to snag the area near your opposing team’s base. That's not even getting into the long-promised competitive reworks that affect grouping, among other things.

Overwatch 2 Season 10 hero nerfs and buffs

Back in action / Activision Blizzard

Doomfist buff

Rocket Punch

• The empowered punch is no longer consumed when the windup is canceled by using Seismic Slam or Power Block.

Developer Comments: This quality-of-life improvement streamlines the transition between charging up an empowered Rocket Punch and another ability by removing the requirement of pressing the cancel input first.

Junker Queen buff

Carnage

• Impact damage increased from 90 to 105.

Reinhardt buffs

Earthshatter

• Knockdown duration increased from 2.75 to 3 seconds.

• Shockwave range increased from 20 to 25 meters.

Sigma buff

Experimental Barrier

• Movement speed increased from 16.5 to 20 meters per second.

Dev Comment: This change will improve Sigma’s ability to protect allies that are further away from him.

Wrecking Ball rework

Grappling Claw

Hold the jump input while the Grappling Claw is attached to terrain to retract it, pulling yourself towards the anchor point. This action can be rebound in his hero settings.

Now has a 1 second cooldown if Wrecking Ball never reaches ramming speed before canceling the ability. Interrupting him with Hack, Hinder, and stuns will still trigger the full cooldown. The maximum duration timer no longer triggers unless he reaches ramming speed.

Adaptive Shield

• Can now be reactivated to redistribute up to 300 overhealth to nearby allies, capping at 75 per person. Enemy and ally detection radius increased from 10 to 13 meters.

Minefield

• Health increased from 50 to 60.

Developer Comments: The general goals here are to add a direct way for Wrecking Ball to support his allies aside from purely enemy team disruption, make the hero more approachable while also adding more avenues for skill expression, and improve quality of life around the grapple.

Sombra virus nerf

Sombra's virus is getting a vaccine / Activision Blizzard

Virus

• Total damage over time decreased from 100 to 90.

Tracer buff and nerf

Recall

• Cooldown increased from 12 to 13 seconds.

Pulse Bomb

• Base projectile size decreased from 0.2 to 0.1 meters. The total projectile size is now 0.25 meters.

Developer Comments: There is now more downtime before Tracer can safely reengage after driving her away and Pulse Bomb will require more precision.

Venture nerfs and buffs

Drill Dash

• Impact damage decreased from 60 to 40.

• Damage over time increased from 40 to 60.

Clobber

• Impact damage decreased from 40 to 30.

• Damage over time increased from 30 to 40.

Tectonic Shock

• Vertical knockback decreased by 30 percent.

Developer Comments: We are redistributing the damage on some of their abilities so that positioning relative to the enemy and tracking a target are more important for dealing maximum damage.

Illari buffs

Illari's getting another buff / Activision Blizzard

Solar Rifle

• Primary fire recovery increased from 0.2 to 0.25 seconds.

• Secondary fire heal-per-second increased from 105 to 115.

Lucio nerf and buff

Sonic Amplifier

• Damage per projectile decreased from 20 to 18.

Sound Wave

• Damage increased from 35 to 45.

Lifeweaver buffs

Rejuvenating Dash

• Heal increased from 50 to 60.

Tree of Life

• Pulse healing increased from 75 to 90.

Moira nerf and buff

Biotic Grasp

• Damage per second decreased from 65 to 60.

Coalescence

• Self-heal per second increased from 50 to 55.

Overwatch 2 Season 10 competitive changes

Competitive grouping gets a revamp at last / Activision Blizzard

Blizzard also tweaked a fair bit with competitive matches. Titles and progress now display the correct roles, and match history has more details, including map, mode, score, and which heroes were involved.

• Grouping restrictions are reworked in Season 10, which led to quite a few changes.

• All previous Competitive Grouping Restrictions have been removed.

• All groups in Competitive Play are now classified as Narrow or Wide.

• Players between Bronze and Diamond must be within 5 divisions of each other player in their group to be in a Narrow Group.
  

• Players at Master must be within 3 divisions of each other player in their group to be in a Narrow Group.

• Players at Grandmaster and Champion cannot be in Narrow groups, regardless of how close their ranks are. This restriction ensures that our highest-ranked players have the highest quality

• Narrow Groups will always be matched against other Narrow Groups or solo players. If a group has both Wide and Narrow configurations of players, the Narrow configuration will always be prioritized.

• Any group that does not meet the criteria is considered a Wide Group.

• Wide Groups of 4 players may not queue. This restriction exists so that solo players are never required to make a Wide match.
• Wide Groups have increased queue times and reduced match quality because it’s more difficult to find another group of players with the same ranks in the same roles to match against.
• The amount a player’s Rank Progress changes after each match is modified by the group’s width. The wider the group is, the less their ranks will change when winning or losing.
• The higher the rank of the highest-ranked player in a Wide Group, the less the ranks of all players in the group will change when winning or losing.
• Players will now be informed if the configuration of roles they have selected would result in a Wide Group.
• New Modifier: Wide:This modifier reduces changes in Rank Progress when winning or losing matches. The wider your group, the less your Rank Progress will change with each win or loss.
• The modifier “Volatile” has been renamed to “Demotion.”
• Arrows displayed under the modifiers have been changed to point from left to right instead of right to left.
• New Modifier: Demotion Protection: This modifier appears on the Rank Progress bar to denote when you did not go down in Skill Division because of a loss. If you lose the next match after, then you are dropped down to the previous Skill Division.
• Victory and Defeat have been added below the Rank Progress bar where modifiers are displayed.