Overwatch 2’s Big Mid-Season 9 Changes Explained

Highlights

• Overwatch 2 undergoes significant changes in season 9, including role tweaks and new hero buffs for better gameplay balance.
• Ana and Lifeweaver receive powerful buffs this mid-season, enhancing their healing capabilities and overall utility in Overwatch 2.
• Doomfist’s Meteor Strike becomes more lethal with increased minimum damage, while Mauga also gets reworked for better tank sustain.

Overwatch 2’s ninth season ushered in the biggest changes to the game so far, with a competitive system overhaul, larger bullets, healing over time outside of combat for all roles, larger health pools, and a new damage role passive. The design and development team kept a close eye on how these adjustments and additions impacted the game and have scheduled some significant tweaks in the coming mid-season. According to Overwatch 2 game director Aaron Keller’s blog post, these changes will buff some tank and support heroes and adjust the damage role’s new passive.

The Overwatch franchise is no stranger to sweeping changes to gameplay. Here are some of the most significant ones:

• Role Queue: The first game started with an open queue for quickplay and competitive, but locked roles for the main modes during the tail end of the season.
• 6v6 to 5v5: The switch from Overwatch to Overwatch 2 also moved from 6v6 to 5v5 by removing one tank slot. This made the game feel more hectic overall, as there’s one less tanky opponent to worry about for both teams.

It seems like the OW team is starting to pump the brakes this mid-season 9, improving sustain for all roles and giving its popular supports better healing options.

Main Healers Get a Boost in Overwatch 2 Midseason 9

The damage role’s new passive in Overwatch 2, which reduced the healing received by its targets by 20% for a few seconds, will be adjusted to 15%. This new ability had too significant an impact on the game, causing tanks to burn health points faster than expected in fights even when receiving constant healing, according to Keller. While it’s just a 5% decrease, it should make it easier for supports like Ana and Lifeweaver to top up their allies.

The Best Healing Utility in Overwatch 2 Gets Even Better

Speaking of Ana, one of Overwatch 2‘s best supports, is also getting buffed this mid-season. Her already powerful biotic grenade’s damage/healing will be increased from 60 to 90 to give her better self-sustain. It will also make her a better heal bot for her team. A well-placed grenade can now give a 90-HP burst to most, if not all of her allies, which is enough to turn the tides of a fight. It can also counteract the healing received debuff from DPS characters, making it one of the most important abilities in the game right now. Lifeweaver’s maximum heal will also be improved from 70 to 80 and its max charge will be increased to 1.15 seconds, making his healing bursts more effective overall.

Doomfist’s Meteor Strike Gets Scarier in Overwatch 2

Doomfist lost a lot of his assassination capabilities when he transitioned into the tank role in Overwatch 2. However, he’s seen some incremental adjustments that make it easier for him to secure kills with his team. This mid-season patch will only improve his elimination capability, as his Meteor Strike’s minimum damage will be increased from 15 to 50. Keller reminds readers that this may seem negligible, but his ult damage scales significantly from the edge to the center. As such, enemies should be more terrified when they hear him activate his ult than before.

Magua also receives some adjustments in this patch. The Overwatch 2 team wants his Cardiac Overdrive skill to give the hero better sustain, so the decision was to decrease its cooldown to 10 seconds. It will now add 100 points to his passive overhealth. However, its duration will be a second shorter. The stomp damage to his Overrun ability will also be improved by 15 points. Mauga is one of the most underutilized tanks in the game right now, according to Overbuff’s competitive and quickplay stats. These buffs, together with his Overwatch 2 x Cowboy Bebop collaboration skin could make him a more popular pick.