New Overwatch 2 beta patch notes from Blizzard reveal details for the FPS game’s July 14 update, and it’s bad news for fans of series newcomers Junker Queen and Sojourn. The patch also sees a nerf for support hero Zenyatta, while buffs have arrived for more maligned heroes including Doomfist, Orisa, and Symmetra.
First up is brash Aussie Junker Queen, the latest in the series of new Overwatch 2 heroes. The latest addition to the tank roster has already been stirring things up on the field, as anyone taking part in the beta can attest, but she’s being pulled back a little bit.
The primary target is her Commanding Shout buff ability, which has had its radius decreased from 20 to 15 metres. In addition, the bonus health applied to allies now decays over the duration, somewhat like the effect of Lucio’s ultimate Sound Barrier – but its maximum duration has been increased from 4 to 5 seconds to compensate. Her ultimate, Rampage, has also had its radius reduced from 6 to 5 metres to make it slightly less all-encompassing.
The other Overwatch 2 newcomer, Sojourn, has had her primary railgun fire rate reduced from 15 to 14 shots per second. Furthermore, the radius of her alt fire will now scale up with her current energy level, from 0 at no energy up to its previous size of 0.1 metres at maximum charge. This should make landing those headshot finishes a little tougher if you haven’t quite built up your power. It won’t resolve fan complaints that her personality is “boring,” however.
Also seeing a small (but significant) nerf is support hero Zenyatta, whose health is being reduced from 175 to 150. This means his total max HP is back down to 200 once again. On the other side of the coin, three heroes who have been struggling a bit in the most recent patch are getting some love from the team at Blizzard.
Doomfist, in his new tank role, will now deal damage to all enemies knocked back with his Rocket Punch (rather than only the first target he hits). His Power Block now only reduces movement speed by 35% instead of 50%, which should make dodging those sleep darts and other crowd control abilities slightly more manageable. It also now only requires mitigating 90 damage instead of 100 to empower Rocket Punch – a compensation for the lower percentage blocked introduced in another recent patch.
Orisa gets her critical damage immunity back during Fortify – going back on the recent change after it left the now-shieldless battle cattle a little too vulnerable to enemy fire. The movement speed on her Javelin Spin has also been increased from 40% to 50%, allowing her to close the distance on opponents a little more quickly.
Finally in this update, the team continues to try and find a workable spot for Symmetra. Her Teleporter cooldown time is reduced from 16 to 12 seconds, while her Photon Projector alt fire orbs have had their charge time reduced from 1.2 seconds to 1 second and their radius increased from 0.4 to 0.5 metres. Whether that’ll be enough to finally put her in a spot fans are happy with remains to be seen, however.
You can check the full Overwatch 2 beta patch notes on Blizzard’s site.
As the second beta rolls on, an Overwatch 2 portrait glitch makes Doomfist appear as Mercy. Meanwhile, players are suggesting that Junker Queen should be bigger – and they have actual gameplay reasons for it, too.