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Discover a World Turned Over – the Mirrorwatch Event Begins TodayApr 23, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsThe familiar transforms into the unexpected when you embark on a journey through the looking glass with Mirrorwatch, Overwatch 2's latest limited-time event, now available through May 13. You’re invited to explore this parallel reality where the line between good and evil blurs as heroes and villains switch sides. Glimpse into the Mirror In this limited-time, non-canon event, Overwatch 2 introduces players to a mirrored universe where familiar faces adopt new personas, alignments, and abilities. You’ll be playing a 5v5 role queue in a world where Mercy leads Talon with a powerful rocket launcher, and Doomfist rallies Overwatch with a new Power Block shield. Try out the new Mirrorwatch event, where heroes swap teams and players must adapt to a whole new dynamic of gameplay. In Mirrorwatch, not only are heroes swapping sides, but they’re also equipped with entirely reimagined abilities to reflect their new alignments. Experience your favorite characters in a whole new light as they wield powers of their alternate personas. Strike Commander Ogundimu (Doomfist) Hand Cannon Short-range weapon with spread. Reloads automatically. Rocket Punch Hold to charge then release to launch forward and knock an enemy back. Damage increases if the enemy hits a wall. Empowered punch grants increased movement speed to self and allies. UPDATED - Seismic Slam Leap and smash the ground. Grant overhealth to self and nearby allies when leaping. UPDATED - Power Block Project a shield that blocks frontal attacks. Blocking heavy damage empowers Rocket Punch. UPDATED - Meteor Strike Press Q to leap up into the air. Move the targeting circle, then press (LMB) to strike the targeted area and grant allies overhealth. Fallen Knight Reinhardt Rocket Hammer Devestating melee weapon. UPDATED - Barrier Field Hold Secondary Fire to deploy a frontal energy barrier that increases the damage of allied projectiles. Increase movement speed upon breaking. Charge Charge forward and smash an enemy against a wall. Fire Strike Launch a fiery projectile. UPDATED - Earthshatter Knock down all enemies in a narrow path in front of you. NEW - Frenzy (Passive) Damage from Rocket Hammer increases attack speed. Talon Zarya UPDATED - Particle Cannon Primary fire fires a short-range linear beam. Secondary fire shoots piercing energy orbs in a straight line. UPDATED - Particle Barrier Damage blocked by barriers increases Particle Cannon damage. Barriers knock back and damage enemies upon expiring. UPDATED - Projected Barrier Create a damage barrier around an alley. Damage blocked by barriers increases Particle Cannon damage. Barriers knockback and damage enemies upon expiring. NEW - Expulsion Zone Launch a gravity surge that pushes enemies away. Energy Damage blocked by barriers increases Particle Cannon damage. Gwishin Bastion UPDATED - Configuration Recon Mobile, with a powerful shotgun. NEW - Configuration Intel Reveal nearby enemies and increase attack and reload speed. UPDATED - A-36 Tactical Grena...Ready to Make History - A Look into Venture's DevelopmentApr 17, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsWe’re thrilled that Venture is finally in the hero lineup, and it’s been fun to see you get your hands on their groundbreaking kit and mechanics. Today two developers who were part of our newest hero's strike team will share a behind-the-scenes look at how Venture, became Venture. Hero strike teams consist of many different disciplines across Team 4. There is no one formula for how heroes come to life, but it always starts with assembling a group of developers who will embark on the journey of creating a new hero together. Today, we’re going to hear from two of those developers – one concept artist and one narrative designer - to talk about how Venture’s art and aesthetic were created, as well as how their character and personality came to life. Let’s get into it! Venture’s Concept Art Hi! I’m Daryl Tan, Lead Character Concept Artist on Team 4. Being on the team that brought Venture to life was an incredible experience, and I’d like to share some of that with you! I’m going to walk us through some early concepts and talk about how we landed on Venture’s finalized artwork. When we started the early concept phases for Venture, the only thing we knew about the hero was that we wanted this hero to dig underground – so, they needed a huge drill. Senior concept artist Kejun Wang tried multiple themes and configurations for the drill, including sound-based drills and exosuit setups. This early phase is where the concept team really gets to experiment and set the creative direction for the art of the hero. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44392706/d3dd0326569685530a87076e4816f9ce9b277f94.jpg Concept art is one piece of the puzzle when it comes to making a hero. Every hero has this taskforce (so to speak) that includes developers from hero design, concept art, animation, narrative—roughly, about 13-14 developers in total work on a single hero. For Venture, narrative designer Miranda Moyer worked closely with us to land on the direction of a swashbuckling archeologist. We thought this was an awesome idea, so we started to lean into this overall aesthetic—a daring explorer with a big drill. This character background also inspired their development code name: ‘Miner’. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44392706/f7d80479f59c30c72198578baca49999737a3723.jpg Their early concept combined a bunch of ideas from the blue-sky concepts above (a “blue-sky” concept is when you set no barriers for your creativity). If you look closely, you can see which elements we picked out from those thumbnails! There are other elements we need to consider while creating new concepts. For example, we want our heroes to have recognizable silhouettes—not just for gameplay reasons, but also to solidify them individually and celebrate the uniqueness of all our heroes. We gave Venture a big backpack and longer coat because these elements felt unique to Venture’s identity, as well as differentiating their silhouette from other heroes’. We were really excited by the drill concept and thought it was really cool, but we h...Overwatch 2 Retail Patch Notes – April 16, 2024Apr 16, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsOverwatch 2 Retail Patch Notes – April 16, 2024 Check out the latest patch notes for Overwatch 2! Limited-Time Mode: Clash Trial Clash is an upcoming core game mode in Overwatch 2. Teams must battle back and forth over 5 capture points, with each captured objective adding a point to the prevailing team's score. Teams can win in two ways: either by having control of all five objectives at once, or by scoring five points total before the other team. Clash will be available as a limited-time trial through April 29. How Clash is played • Five total objectives placed in a linear pattern on a mirrored map. • Only one objective is active at a time. • Matches start with the center objective active. • Players capture an objective by standing on it and filling in a progress bar. Capture progress cannot be made if enemy players are contesting the objective. • When a team captures the current objective, they are awarded one point to their total score and a new objective moving forward from the scoring team’s side is activated. • Objectives can be secured multiple times. If a team is pushed off an objective and the other team successfully captures it, the next active point will be in the opposite direction. Win Conditions Complete one of these conditions to win the match: • A team has successfully captured five objectives throughout the match to reach a total score of five. • Regardless of score, a team manages to take the final objective (A or E) on the opponents’ side. Hanaoka – New Map Explore never-before-seen corners of Hanamura in the new map Hanaoka, inspired by the visual themes of the beloved Assault map. Explore the shops and restaurants around town or follow the scent of Sakura trees into the once-proud Shimada castle. Mythic Hero Skin Updates Mythic Hero Skins • Mythic Hero Skins are now unlocked in the new Mythic Shop in exchange for Mythic Prisms. • Mythic Hero Skins are unlocked for 50 Mythic Prisms with a starting set of customizations and then can be leveled up with 10 Mythic Prisms per level. You can unlock the skin and all available customizations for a Mythic Hero Skin for 80 Prisms. Introducing Mythic Prisms • Mythic Prisms can be earned in the Premium Battle Pass and used in the Mythic Shop to purchase the current featured Mythic Hero Skin for the season and select previous Mythic hero skins. You can earn a total of 80 Mythic Prisms when you complete Premium Battle Pass. • Earning Mythic Prisms in the Premium Battle Pass is the easiest way to unlock a Mythic Hero Skin and all customizations each season. You can also purchase additional Mythic Prisms in game or in your platform’s store marketplace. General Updates Challenges • Completing Weekly Challenge milestones will now reward additional Battle Pass XP. • Overwatch Coins that were earned in the Weekly Challenges can now be earned in the Battle Pass for all players. • Reduced the number of Weekly Challenges. Developer Comments: The number of Weekly Challenges has grown over time, and w...Choose Your Mythic Skin with the New Mythic ShopApr 16, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsMythic hero skins are the ultimate customization for heroes in Overwatch 2. Every Mythic hero skin is uniquely crafted to push the limits in artwork, animation, and effects. Players have had the chance to Dragon Blade in high-tech style with Cyberdemon Genji, conquer the galaxy with Infinite Emperor Sigma, and save Overland with Adventurer Tracer. Now, whether you are coming back for a new season or are a brand-new player, you can collect the Mythic hero skins for your favorite heroes and level up with the customizations you want in the all-new Mythic Shop. We’re excited to give you the choice of what Mythic skins you want to collect, and this update is just the start as we continue to evolve Mythic cosmetics. Keep reading how you can progress through the Premium Battle Pass and earn your way to your next Mythic skin. Collect New Mythic Prisms in the Premium Battle Pass We’re giving you the choice to select your own Mythic Hero skin. Whether you are adding the new Vengeance Mercy Mythic, or getting a skin for one of your favorite heroes, you get to pick what Mythic hero skin to unlock by collecting Mythic Prisms. The best way to get Mythic Prisms is by collecting them as you progress through the Premium Battle Pass. Here’s how it will work. Starting on Tier 8, you’ll collect 8 Mythic Prisms every 10 tiers until Tier 78. At Tier 48, you’ll be able to unlock the base level of Mythic hero skin that you want to collect and can unlock more customization levels every time you earn 10 Mythic Prisms. Once you complete Tier 78 of your Premium Battle Pass, you’ll earn enough Mythic Prisms to unlock the remaining customization levels for your Mythic hero skin. Completing your Premium Battle Pass every season is the best way to earning Mythic Prisms, allowing you to unlock the choice of your next Mythic hero skin and all of that skin’s customizations every season. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44392706/3309cd7bfa09e04a84f85bcb028beeeac828540b.png Choose Your Mythic Mythic Prisms can be redeemed in the Mythic Shop, dedicated entirely to collecting Mythic hero skins. Each season, you can spend your Mythic Prisms on the newest Mythic hero skin released that season or choose from your favorite Mythic hero skins released in earlier seasons. Right now, you can be among the first players to unlock the new Vengeance Mercy Mythic Hero Skin, which is the featured Mythic skin for Season 10. The featured Mythic hero skin for each season will only be available for a limited time to redeem—the length of that season—then cycle out of the Mythic Shop for the following two seasons. You can continue to upgrade your owned Mythic hero skins with levels of customization even after that skin leaves the Mythic Shop after their featured season ends. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44392706/ca2c4642b720d183a4820dd71033e69bd467e591.png The Mythic shop allows you to get the Mythic hero skins you want to get first or catch up from past seasons you may have missed. While not every previous Mythic skin will be ...Drill Into the Competition in Overwatch 2 – Season 10Apr 15, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsAs we dig into Season 10 of Overwatch 2, we're thrilled to introduce our newest hero, Venture. We also have a first look at our new game mode, Clash, and updates to how you acquire new Heroes. So, get ready to embark on an epic excavation of greatness! You Can’t Spell Adventure without Venture Break ground with the newest Damage hero, Venture, a spirited archaeologist who channels their passion for history into daring acts of heroism. Armed with a massive drill and an arsenal of seismic abilities, Venture brings a fresh dynamic to the battlefield (and underneath it). Outwit your adversaries and unearth victory as you dive, dig, drill, and deliver massive damage in the process. Harnessing the power of their Smart Excavator, Venture primarily launches unstable seismic energy that explodes, and deals burst damage. With their Burrow ability, they can become invulnerable underground while gathering momentum for a calculated ambush upon re-emergence. Then use Drill Dash to dash forward to make some space as you knock opponents back. When you’re ready to totally obliterate anyone foolish enough to be in your path, Venture can unleash a massive shockwave with their Tectonic Shock Ultimate. Whether you’re traversing a covert subterranean path or bursting out to engage in close-quarter combat, Venture offers versatile gameplay that will wreak havoc on your adversaries. Dig Into the Battle with Venture and All Overwatch Heroes Right Away We want every player to be able to experience all the excitement that each hero has to offer. So, starting with Venture, all past, present, and future heroes will be unlocked immediately for everyone who has completed their new player experience. Also, since Venture got some fantastic field experience from their Hero Trial, we’ve made some adjustments to their kit, and we’re thrilled to share that we’ll be releasing Venture into Competitive right away when Season 10 begins tomorrow. This is a pretty major change from past heroes, but we’ve always wanted to allow new heroes into Competitive when a new season for Overwatch 2 launches. In the past, we wanted to make sure new heroes were free of any bugs or outstanding balance issues, as well as giving players enough time to unlock a hero from the Battle Pass. Because of the recent hero trial, and now unlocking all heroes, we’re confident Venture is ready to jump into the action right away. So, Venture forth and break some ground – all of it. So, Venture forth and break some ground – all of it. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44392706/5f8ecb454d6b5e3844fb0faee7040f8de6012680.png Allegiances Change in Mirrorwatch Discover a world turned over in the reversed reality adventure, Mirrorwatch: a limited-time event set in a mirror universe where the virtuous have crumbled into villainy, and the wicked emerge as heroes. Swap alignments and experiment with reimagined Heroes and abilities like Strike Commander Doomfist’s Power Block shield, Vengeance Mercy's Soul Burn detonation, and Agent Colomar So...Defense Matrix Update: Season 10 and BeyondApr 10, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsDefense Matrix Update: Season 10 and Beyond Learn about upcoming changes to Overwatch that help get friends playing together while cutting down disruptive behavior. We’re back with a new Defense Matrix update on our efforts to keep Overwatch 2 a fun, safe, and inclusive experience for everyone. Our latest Developer Update revealed new features that aim to bring friends together while protecting you from disruptive players, so let’s dive a bit deeper into these changes and what you can expect in the coming seasons. Playing Competitive with Friends Overwatch 2 has always been a game best played with friends. However, in Competitive Play, it may not always work to group up if your friends are too far from your rank. That’s why we’re introducing “Wide Groups” in Season 10, and you’ll now be able to play with your friends in Competitive no matter their rank. So what, exactly, is a Wide Group? A Wide Group is when the highest and lowest ranked players are too far apart in Skill Tier and Divisions. Any groups with Diamond or lower ranked players that are more than five Skill Divisions apart are a Wide Group. Any groups with Masters players that are more than three Skill Divisions apart are also Wide Groups. Finally, any groups that have a Grand Masters or Champion Player are also Wide Groups regardless of how many Skill Divisions apart they are. With this new queue option comes some tradeoffs. For one, queue times will be longer as we work to pair you with other wide groups, using Role Delta tech to ensure the match is as close as possible. For example, a Wide Group with a Platinum player and Bronze player will be matched against another group with similar skill distribution to try and deliver the fairest match possible. However, some matches may not appear to be as balanced as you may encounter opponents who are very different in skill level than you are. Thankfully though, such encounters won’t necessarily have as much of an impact on your progress in the Competitive ranks. There will also be a new Modifier at the end of a match when playing in a Wide Group. It wouldn’t be fair for lower-skilled players to be directly boosted to higher ranks when they group with higher-skilled players, so some groups, depending on the skill gap, are likely to see little to no change in their skill progression. This helps ensure that high-skilled players don’t boost their lower-ranked friends. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44392706/8dcd6da6c8da48ceea01482bda4378f2bb4220f4.png Solo players will only play with other solo players or “Narrow Groups,” ensuring they never play against any Wide Groups. This also means we won’t allow a Wide Group of four players to queue because solo players do not join matches with Wide Groups. This change should encourage players not to play on alternate accounts when they want to play with their friends. You can look forward to this new update for Competitive matchmaking to begin in Season 10. Update on Stopping Leavers We’ve already made adjustments ...Director’s Take: Welcoming Venture to OverwatchApr 9, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsHello! It’s been a while since my last blog – but we’ve been hard at work! Let’s get right into it! First off, I am thrilled that you have welcomed our newest hero, Venture, to the line-up. Venture’s ecstatic personality has charmed many of you, and you have already asked us so many questions about their backstory and personality. While I am unsure if they like to munch on rocks, they have drilled their way to being the top-picked hero in Quick Play this past weekend. We’ll be revealing more about Venture’s story and how they were developed shortly after Season 10 launches. One of the biggest reasons so many of us instantly fell in love with Venture is the incredible voice talent of Valeria Rodriguez. We instantly knew they were a hit when we saw how much energy they could put into their voice and how they matched Venture’s personality perfectly. We are also thrilled that many of you have welcomed Valeria into our community. Watching all of your reactions from the hero trial, we’re pretty happy with how Venture’s initial kit turned out. The team was really happy with where Venture landed from a balance perspective during the trial, and it gave us confidence that they could release early into Competitive. We’re still deciding how early, but we feel they are in a suitable state (fun to play and fair to play against). While we don’t foresee needing to make many changes to their kit, we’re going to be listening closely to your thoughts on how Venture is doing in-game. We’ve heard a lot of feedback that you like the tempo momentum Venture brings, being able to engage and disengage in fights. But we’re looking at tweaking a few things for Venture at the start of Season 10. First, we’re slightly shifting some of their burst damage from their Drill Dash and Clobber (their melee) into damage over time. Next, we’re looking to reduce the vertical knockback of Tectonic Shock. Alongside those minor changes to Venture, we have a number of other hero changes coming in Season 10. Starting with our Tanks, we're upping the impact of Junker Queen's Carnage and Reinhardt's Earthshatter, so both abilities cut through better in the post-Season 9 world. The biggest Tank changes coming into Season 10 though are for Wrecking Ball. There are some great improvements to Wrecking Ball's Grappling Hook, including a reduced cooldown when not entering ramming speed and the ability to retract himself to where the Grapple is attached by holding down Primary Fire or Jump. There are also some changes to Adaptive Shields. Now after using Adaptive Shields, you can reactivate the ability to transfer up to 300 overhealth to nearby allies, capped at 75 overhealth per ally. This change should give Wrecking Ball more capability of protecting his allies and initiating engagements, defining features of what we want to see in Tanks. For our Damage heroes, there will be some light adjustments for Sombra and Tracer. Sombra's Virus damage is taking a small hit on the damage over time amount (...Season 10: Venture Forth | Overwatch 2 Official Trailer Premieres April 11Apr 4, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsOnly a matter of time before the premiere of “Venture Forth” – the all new trailer for Season 10! Overwatch 2 is free to play for everyone on console & PC!Developer Update: Hero Releases, Mythics, and Gameplay UpdatesMar 19, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsGreetings, heroes! We have big updates on the horizon we're excited to share with you. Hero Releases Let's kick things off with the stars of our game – the heroes. Starting Season 10, all new heroes will be immediately unlocked when they launch. All existing heroes will also be unlocked for players. This means that heroes will no longer need to be unlocked through the Battle Pass to be playable in all game modes. New players will still need to complete the first-time user experience to unlock heroes as they learn the ropes. Once the heroes from the original Overwatch roster have been unlocked, all Overwatch 2 heroes will also become available. Last year at BlizzCon, we gave a sneak peek at our 40 th hero, Venture, showcasing their unique underground mechanics and daring, adventurous spirit. We’re excited to share that all players will have immediate access to Venture when they officially join the Overwatch 2 lineup in Season 10. Mythic Changes We want to provide you with more control over how you earn Mythic hero skins. Season 10 will introduce changes to how you earn, upgrade, and unlock Mythic hero skins through the new Mythic Shop. The Mythic Shop will allow you to work towards past and current seasonal Mythic hero skins as you progress through the Premium Battle Pass. You get to decide how far into each Mythic skin you would like to build. So, for example, if you don't want to fully unlock all of a skin's color or model variations, you can spread your progression towards other Mythic hero skins. We’re also adding past Mythic hero skins to the Mythic Shop, giving you the opportunity to pick up your favorites. Seasonal Mythic hero skins will be available two seasons after their debut. This means Mythic hero skins from Seasons 1 through 7 will be available in the Mythic Shop starting Season 10. We’ll share more information on the Mythic Shop and additional changes to the Premium Battle Pass as we get closer to Season 10. Challenges and Coins Starting Season 10, you will earn coins as you progress through the Free and Premium tracks of the Battle Pass, making them easier and more consistent to earn. We’re also increasing the number of coins you can earn for free from 540 to 600 coins per season. Weekly challenges will be more flexible to fit with your playstyle, and they will now reward Battle Pass XP. Keeping Gameplay Fresh Beyond heroes and customization, we’re also continuing to look at ways to refresh the core of Overwatch 2's gameplay. Season 9 saw big changes to Competitive and core gameplay mechanics. Our vision in the long term is to maintain a regular heartbeat in the game by consistently introducing new or updated systems, shaking up the meta, implementing rank resets, and introducing new rewards. We’re looking at how often this happens and listening closely to your feedback. We're committed to making Overwatch 2 as fair, fun, and competitive as possible. More Maps to Explore We’re excited to share plans on how we release and u...Test your Teamwork in Hero Mastery GauntletMar 18, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsGather your teammates and jump into the Gauntlet today! Hero Mastery: Gauntlet is an all-new 3-player cooperative game mode with tower defense-style gameplay. Your objective is to protect your three towers from 10 rounds of enemy training bot attacks. Purchase powerful upgrades and collect Emblems along the way to boost your score. Fight to Survive Gather your friends to form a squad of three players and play in a unique tower-defense game mode. First, choose any hero from the entire roster, then face ten waves of training bots, ranging from the simple attack bot to the deadly sniper bot, along with explosive bots that will rush the towers. There are four levels of difficulty to pick from, ranging from the causal co-op fan to the ultimate survival squad. You can also queue up with trained AI to learn the ropes before competing with teammates. Protect Your Towers With three towers across the course, you’ll need to coordinate with your teammates to determine which ones need the most protection. Use jump pads and new fast travel platforms to get from one tower to the next quickly. The course is laid out with four different attack paths for each tower (randomized in every game), and the bots will attack towers randomly in waves. Sometimes, you’ll need to defend multiple towers at once, putting your ping and comms skills to the test. Upgrade Your Towers As you progress through the course, pick up any of the 14 different upgrades for your towers’ defenses. You can acquire new upgrades when you obtain energy by defeating the attack bots throughout the course. Upgrades can include the ability to repair your towers or activate turrets that can help defend your towers. What upgrades you encounter are randomized, making every game unique. Maximize Your Score Build your score and earn bonuses when you can keep your towers standing and/or undamaged. How many bots you can eliminate and how well you can land critical hits or support your team will determine how high you can score. Conquer the gauntlet and secure your place on the Top 500 leaderboards for your region. New Limited-Time Event To celebrate the launch of Hero Mastery Gauntlet, log on and play now through March 28 in a limited-time event with all new challenges and rewards to earn. Collect new Victory Poses, Battle Pass XP bonuses, a Souvenir, a Weapon Charm, and a new title for the ultimate Hero Mastery Gauntlet challengers. Come back whenever you want to hone your skills with your favorite and new heroes. Gather your squad and defend the towers today! Overwatch 2 x Cowboy Bebop collab event now live!Mar 12, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsCelebrate the legendary crew of Bebop in Overwatch 2! Immerse yourself in the iconic saga of Cowboy Bebop with an array of new skins found exclusively in the Overwatch 2 shop. From now until March 25, you can also tackle in-game challenges to answer the call of the bounty hunter and snatch up your cosmic cosmetic rewards. Keep reading to find out how you can claim these legendary bounties of this limited-time event. New Cowboy Bebop Legendary Skins Collect four brand-new Legendary skins that tip their hat to the beloved Cowboy Bebop anime series, including Spike Cassidy, Faye Ashe, Ed Sombra, and Jet Mauga. Each bundle includes the Legendary skin along with additional cosmetics, including name cards, victory poses, emotes, and more. If you're aiming for the big haul, then pick up the Cowboy Bebop Mega Bundle and get all four in one! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44392706/8efa44979e5fef03112630b3259aa2df47569c4a.png Log on and play to earn Ein Wrecking Ball for free The bounty-hunting crew of Cowboy Bebop is not complete without Ein – the adorable, intelligent corgi always rides shotgun with the crew on any bounty hunts. Latch onto the action with the Ein Wrecking Ball Legendary skin, and you can earn it for free when you log on and play the new event challenges! Play your hand right, and you'll score a bunch of slick new cosmetics along with a whopping 35,000 Battle Pass XP. Complete 12 event challenges, and you’ll unlock the Ein Wrecking Ball Legendary Skin. It's a doggone good deal. Director’s Take – Mixing Up the Meta in MidseasonMar 7, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsHello, wonderful people, and welcome to the mid-Season 9 Director's Take! This season had the most significant changes to the game that we've made in a long time. When we launched Season 9 in February, we wanted to make sure to keep an eye on your feedback and react to what we saw. We've had two patches so far, and we have another one, which is quite the stunner, coming up next week. Let's get into that… no, wait! ...Let's talk about where we're at… and then get into that. The changes made this season were designed to address multiple issues in the game, based largely in part on your feedback. We're happy with how these modifications have shifted the game, but there are two areas we want to improve a bit: the Damage passive, and how some individual heroes have landed after the shakeup. We think the direction we’re heading in is correct but agree that some changes still need to be ironed out. Let's start with the Damage passive. It's had quite a big impact on the game. It was designed to push our Damage heroes to the forefront of a fight. In terms of securing kills, it's definitely doing this. Overwatch is about eliminating the opponents and sending them back to spawn, so we think it's healthy for Damage heroes to have a large impact here… but it may be pushed a bit too far. There can be moments where it feels a bit too dangerous, even as a Tank, to expose yourself, or where your health can burn down quicker than expected while being healed. One of the goals of the recent health increase was to soften some of the burst damage in the game. This is one of those effects that can be very difficult to tune just right, so we're going to take a small step back in the next patch and lessen the healing reduction from 20% to 15%. We'll keep an eye on it and go from there. With balance, we're touching roughly half the heroes in the roster in this patch. The power of heroes moved around a lot this season, and while we think this type of change can be healthy for the game, we'd still like to make sure that all heroes feel viable. We'll release the full set of patch notes in a few days, but I'd like to get into a few of the more notable changes that we're making here. On the Support side, we're making a fairly significant buff to Ana's grenade. Its damage and healing will move from 60 to 90 health to give her more self-survivability. Ana is an interesting hero, and one of the most played in the entire game. So, we're hoping that this adjustment brings her to a place where she feels viable but not dominant. We're also making a few adjustments to Lifeweaver to help with his healing burst potential . His maximum heal will increase from 70 to 80, with the maximum charge increasing from 1 to 1.15 seconds. Along with the reduced Damage role passive, we think both he and Mercy will be more reliable moving forward. Doomfist and Mauga are two of the Tanks getting a tune up. Meteor Strike's minimum damage will increase from 15 to 50. While this might not seem like a big ...Director’s Take – Looking Ahead to Improvements and ExperimentsFeb 23, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsHi everyone, and Happy Friday! :) It's been a very exciting week and a half for Overwatch 2! Season 9: Champions shipped with a new and improved version of our Competitive system and a pretty comprehensive set of changes to the core mechanics of our game. We're incredibly invested in these changes having a positive impact on the game and are committed to making rapid iterations to them to make that happen. In fact, earlier this week, we made our first pass at tuning with a set of refined projectile sizes and health changes for some of our heroes. We'll keep an eye on how these play out in order to inform you of our next set of changes. Let's talk about the reworked Competitive Play system, which also launched with Season 9. There's been a lot of excitement around it. In fact, there's been a pretty sizeable shift in our player population because of it. Previously, Quick Play was the most popular mode in Overwatch. It accounted for roughly 40% of the total match hours in the game, while Competitive Play sat at around 35%. Those numbers have since shifted, and Competitive Play now makes up about 45% of match hours, with Quick Play around 32%. An interesting thing to note here is that the total number of hours that people are playing Quick Play isn't down; it's just that people are playing a lot more Competitive Play! We're really excited about this and take it as confirmation that people would like to see more changes and improvements to that side of the game, as well as systemic PvP improvements. Speaking of improvements, we'll be making more changes in mid-Season 9 and Season 10. One of the largest of these will include the removal of grouping restrictions in Season 10. We'd like people to be able to play with their friends in every area of the game, however we'd also like to keep Overwatch's competitive integrity intact. Groups with a large range of player skill—what we call wide groups—will only play against other wide groups. Narrow groups will only be matched with other narrow groups. For most players we think this will have a big benefit to their match quality. We'll also be adding features to the Competitive Progress screen, such as Match History and a Scorecard, implementing role-specific titles, showing the rank range on the scoreboard, and more. We're also looking into a small set of Top 500 improvements but haven't nailed down which season they'll go live yet. Lastly, I'd like to take a quick moment to talk about our Quick Play: Hacked feature. The biggest goal is to help inform the types of improvements we could make to the core game. For instance, based on the first one we ran, Quicker Play, we're looking at making a few changes to the game. We'll be increasing the speed of the Push bot when he's pushing the barrier. We're implementing a speed boost out of spawn for Flashpoint maps, as well as during setup for defenders on Hybrid and Escort modes. We’ll also be reducing the match length of Push from 10 minutes to 8 minutes in Quick Pla...Overwatch 2 Retail Patch Notes – February 21, 2024Feb 21, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsHero Updates Tank Dva Light Gun Base projectile size reduced from 0.25 to 0.2 meters. Total projectile size is now 0.3 meters. Roadhog Take a Breather Damage reduction increased from 40 to 50%. Zarya Particle Cannon Primary fire minimum damage increased from 85 to 95 damage per second. Primary fire maximum damage increased from 170 to 190 damage per second. Damage Hanzo Base projectile sizes reduced from 0.1 to 0.075 meters. Total projectile size is now 0.175 meters. Junkrat Concussion Mine Cooldown decreased from 8 to 7 seconds. Maximum damage increased from 110 to 120. Minimum damage increased from 20 to 55. Soldier: 76 Heavy Pulse Rifle Now uses the smaller 0.05 meter hitscan projectile size modifier. Total projectile size is now 0.05 meters. Tracer Pulse Pistols Minimum falloff range reduced from 12 to 10. Widowmaker Widow's Kiss Now uses the smaller 0.05 meter hitscan projectile size modifier. Total projectile size is now 0.05 meters. Scoped shot damage falloff min-max range increased from 40-60 to 50-70 meters. Support Illari Healing Pylon Cooldown decreased from 8 to 6 seconds. Cooldown when destroyed by enemies decreased from 15 to 12 seconds. Captive Sun Sunstruck explosion damage increased from 100 to 160. Sunstruck explosion now has damage falloff again, reducing damage by up to 25%. Lucio Sonic Amplifier Base projectile size reduced from 0.15 to 0.1 meters. Total projectiles size is now 0.25 meters. Mercy Caduceus Blaster Base projectile size reduced from 0.25 to 0.2 meters. Total projectile size is now 0.3 meters. Zenyatta Base health decreased from 100 to 75. Snap Kick Knockback decreased 25%. Overwatch 2 Retail Patch Notes – February 13, 2024Feb 13, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsWELCOME TO SEASON 9: CHAMPIONS Season 9 brings core gameplay updates, a reworked Competitive game mode, and a new Co-op event that will test the courage of even the bravest heroes as they face a dangerous threat of cosmic proportions. NEW EVENT: COSMIC CRISIS Face off against eldritch abominations in the twisted reality of Cosmic Crisis, a brand-new co-op mission. Work with three other players to repair your ship and escape the ruins of Ecopoint Antarctica while fighting off the monstrous Null Sector. But keep an eye out for your teammates… an ancient power lurks in the shadows, waiting for its chance to strike. 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...Solve the Mystery of Cosmic CrisisFeb 13, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsAn unknown horror lurks beneath the ruins of Ecopoint: Antarctica. It will be up to you to solve the mystery of...Cosmic Crisis! Starting today with Overwatch 2 – Season 9: Champions, this new 4-player Co-op event explores a non-canon story that will test your loyalty to your teammates. Read on to learn more about Cosmic Crisis, and the new rewards and ways to play that will keep you coming back to this limited-time event. Escape or Embrace the Darkness In the wake of a crash landing, join forces with three unlikely allies to repair your ship, and escape a ruined Ecopoint: Antarctica. Monstrous null sector units have overrun the station, and an ancient threat lurks in the shadows. As you fight back these eldritch horrors, you must stay strong to resist the call of the Ravager. Cosmic Crisis has unique co-op objectives that change between playthroughs, and each game presents one player with a choice that will determine the fate of your team. Will you work together to escape the Ravager, or will you give into temptation and be consumed by darkness? New Ways to Play Every Week Return every week to experience new Mission Modifiers that change up gameplay and test your allegiance all over again. Starting February 20, the Death from Above modifier will up the danger and add deadly artillery strikes to the mission. On February 27, things will heat up with the Molten Core modifier, which causes Null Sector to drop pools of lava on the battlefield when they are destroyed. Finally, on March 5, get electrified with the Thunderstorm modifier, which damages players who get too close to Null Sector’s monstrous forces. Complete Your Cosmic Collection Earn fun cosmetics and get a jump start to your Season 9 Battle Pass with a dozen new challenges to complete! Collect new voice lines, sprays, titles, a name card, a player icon, and a tasty weapon charm, along with up to 25,000 bonus Battle Pass XP. After you survive Cosmic Crisis, be sure to upgrade to the Premium Battle Pass for more eldritch-themed rewards, including the new Mythic Skin: Ancient Caller Moira. Embrace the darkness or brave the challenges that await you. Cosmic Crisis is available now through March 12. Rise as a Champion in Overwatch 2 — Season 9 Feb 12, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsOverwatch 2 Season 9 arrives tomorrow with exciting core gameplay updates, a reworked Competitive game mode, and a season theme that will test the courage of even the bravest heroes as they face a dangerous threat of cosmic proportions. Get your friends together, queue up, and face the unknown that awaits you. Competitive Play Updates Thanks in part to your feedback, we’ve updated Competitive Play. Now more transparent than ever, the new Competitive Overview after every match provides clear insights into how your rank changes, including skill modifiers to help you understand your progress through the ranks. At the start of Season 9, we're resetting your Matchmaking Rating (MMR), giving everyone a clean slate and a fresh opportunity to climb higher while allowing for more accuracy in ranking. We’re also bringing placements back, which means your performance in these games substantially influences your initial rank placement. For the truly daring, we're introducing a prestigious new rank above Grand Master – Champion rank. This new rank offers a fresh challenge and a chance to claim your place among elite Overwatch 2 players. We’re also providing new Competitive rewards by introducing new Jade Weapon Variants, available only during the 2024 Competitive Year beginning with Season 9. Earn new Competitive Points as you win matches and unlock Jade Variants for your favorite heroes. Click here to learn more about what changes are in store when you log in to play. It’s Time for Your Competitive Comeback! Face a Cosmic Crisis {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44392706/318f50be5592403e6c42ed83425b6d3ec5001ec8.png Join forces with your teammates in a new non-canon Co-op event to complete challenges and branching objectives as you explore the unknown, making each mission you play uniquely different. Survive the Crisis as Sigma, Roadhog, Soldier 76, Mei, Torbjorn, Widowmaker, Lifeweaver, Moira, Ana, and Illari. Work together to uncover the truth behind your crash landing and escape the mysterious threat that lies beneath the station at Antarctica Peninsula. But beware, because a traitor in pursuit of incredible powers may be in your midst! Brave Eldritch Horrors in the Battle Pass Give in to whispers of madness in the Overwatch 2 - Season 9 Battle Pass. Over 80 tiers of rewards, including Ringmaster Winston, Tentacle Horror Torbjörn, Horror Hog Roadhog, and more, can be earned when you upgrade to the Premium Battle Pass. If you can brave the horrors of all 80 tiers of the Battle Pass, you’ll unlock Ancient Caller Mythic Moira skin. You can also get the Beholder Sigma and Harbinger Lifeweaver Legendary skins along with 2,000 Overwatch Coins and 20 tier skips when you pick up the Ultimate Battle Pass bundle. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44392706/065782362a4a954aa6c854d1ca49f59714927b97.png New Skins to Fall in Love With Visit the shop throughout the season for out-of-this-world cosmic cosmetics, plus Valentine‘s-themed skins you’re sure to fall in love with. Collect the themed remixes ...Director’s Take – Building on FeedbackFeb 9, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsAs many of you know, two weeks ago, there were a series of changes made to the Overwatch team, as well as other teams across Blizzard. Writing a public blog is difficult in the wake of these events. I want to express gratitude for the absolutely amazing people who worked on our game that are no longer on our team. I want the community to feel informed, and I want to convey our excitement about what is to come in Season 9. To be honest, it’s a lot to balance – but one of the things we’ve been most proud of is how we’ve kept lines of communication open between the team and our community, and we intend to continue that. In that spirit, yesterday, we shared the exciting changes you are going to experience with Competitive starting in Season 9. I’d like to give a bit more insight into why we are making these changes. In our previous Director's Take, we talked about improving the game’s core PvP experience. There are different ways that we look at improving the game, but one of the biggest is listening to your feedback. Season 9 starts in less than a week, and the two biggest and best changes coming to the season and a lot of it is driven by feedback from you – our players along with our team’s vision to make the game more fun and challenging for everyone. The first is the reworked Competitive system, and there is a lot of improvements to rank transparency, new skill tiers, and new competitive rewards. We started talking publicly about this in September when we referenced a video that summarized many of the problems that existed with the current system. Some of these were: Updates to a player's rank were too infrequent. It was difficult to understand why a player ranked up or down and by how much. Some divisions, like GM1, had players with too large a range of skill in them. Golden Weapons were no longer appealing. Our top goal with this rework is to make the system easier to understand. The old system hid too much information from players and gave it to them too infrequently. This is why we’re updating your rating after every match as well as including additional information, through modifiers, about why your rating went up or down a certain amount. Including the division range of all the players on the VS screen is another way that we’re trying to give you more information about a particular match. With the system being easier to understand, players will have more incentive to get better and climb the ranks. We’d like players to have this incentive and the opportunity to earn new rewards. Competitive points will now be awarded more consistently as opposed to a large drop at the end of a season, and you can use them to unlock our new Jade weapons! There’s also a whole new, incredibly exclusive tier above Grandmaster, called Champion. We've already started receiving feedback on the system and are planning a series of improvements giving more information about player skill in a match, allowing players from different divisions to play with each other mo...Revitalizing the Overwatch 2 Experience Feb 8, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsThe newest season of Overwatch 2 is just around the corner, and with it comes some exciting improvements. During our Overwatch 2: What’s Next Panel at BlizzCon 2023, we shared a sneak peek at some of the philosophy guiding many of the system changes coming this year: striving to make PvP gameplay more rewarding and fun and providing greater transparency for players in-game. We are introducing major changes to Competitive in the new season—from a new progression system to an all-new skill tier above Grand Master—as well as major gameplay changes to combat and hero survivability. Read for details on what you can expect for Overwatch 2 Season 9: Champions. Updating the Competitive Experience We’ve heard your feedback on Competitive Play over the last eight seasons, and we have some big updates coming that will give you the opportunity to build on your skills and see how you progress through the Competitive ranks. We built a better system that’s more accurate while also helping convey the meaning behind the mathematical complexity of a modern matchmaker and bring clear insights about what impacts your rank in every match. Seeing How and Why Your Rank Changes One piece of feedback we heard is that just knowing your rank doesn’t say anything about why your rank went up or down. Competitive Updates originally worked to provide updates that reflected your growth as a player across multiple matches, but with the goal to provide greater transparency in each individual match, we’re going back to updating your rank after every match and showing how much progress you gain or lose between each Skill Division. We’re also displaying Modifiers that affected your last match below the rank progression bar. Some modifiers help provide transparency in the matchmaking for each match, like getting a boost when you defeat a team that was more favored to win. While other modifiers show if your rank is calibrating, like going on a huge win streak, proving you belong in a higher rank. Feedback is a driving force behind these changes, and we want to hear your thoughts on Competitive Play now that you’ll have more context for each game. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44392706/1a96320990aba441240082ae92525db4c61189db.png Bring a Fresh Start with Placement Matches and Rank Resets With both the changes to Competitive Play and the broader changes to gameplay starting this season, we feel this is a perfect opportunity for everyone to start fresh as they compete on the ranked leaderboards. To accomplish this, we’re reintroducing Placement Matches and resetting everyone’s competitive Skill Rank. Your journey to the top begins with 10 all-new Placement Matches. With everyone’s ranks being reset, these 10 Placement Matches provides you with a high-stakes opportunity to make big gains in determining your new starting rank. As you progress through placement matches, there will be a predicted starting rank after each match. You’ll only have one chance this year to run your Placement Matches, so pi...Defense Matrix Season 9 Update – Endorsing Positive PlayersFeb 7, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsDefense Matrix Season 9 Update – Endorsing Positive Players Learn more about our efforts to improve Endorsements for players and deter disruptive behavior leading into Season 9. The Defense Matrix Initiative is continuing to go strong in 2024. Previously, we shared our efforts to deter leavers in Overwatch 2, promote positive communication, and show the impact of your reports. As we head into Season 9, we have more to share on our ongoing improvements to Endorsements and disruptive behavior. Giving Endorsements More Impact A common theme of feedback we’ve heard is to give Endorsements greater impact. In the last few seasons, we have already made significant steps to deliver on that. In the Season 7 midseason update, we implemented multiple bug fixes that prevented players from dropping their endorsement rating too quickly and stopped penalizing players who chose to group up with their friends. In Season 8, it is now easier for players to build their endorsement rating than ever before, without worrying about their rating decaying too quickly. There’s also a rule that friends can’t endorse each other. While this was intentional when we first introduced Endorsements, we don’t want to discourage anyone from celebrating their teammates, even if they are already friends on Battle.net. So, starting in Season 9, we’re removing the restriction to endorse players if you are already friends. Update to Discouraging Leavers We’ve previously shared that we adjusted how players who leave too many games in Quick Play are penalized. This has yielded some positive results, with the number of leavers dropping significantly. In previous game update, players are restricted from queuing for games and can be suspended for up to four hours if they leave six of their last 20 games played. Starting in Season 9, we’re extending these leaver queue restrictions to Mystery Heroes, along with Hero Mastery: Gauntlet, when it is released later this year. Again, we acknowledge there may be reasons for players to step away from their unranked games. However, leaving four or more games will activate queue restrictions until you can play your games to completion. Hammer Down on Cheating Our efforts to fight against cheating are ongoing, and we’re pleased to share our continued progress. Cheats like aimbots and wall hacks take away the competitive integrity of our game. Using cheats also goes against our In-Game Code of Conduct and End User License Agreement. Those identified using cheats will be removed from playing Overwatch 2. Since the launch of Overwatch 2, we have identified and banned over 380,000 accounts that were found to be cheating. In addition, we have suspended or banned over 35,000 accounts that have knowingly grouped up with cheaters. Remember, if you encounter a player in your games that you suspect to be cheating, report them in-game. Transparency Around Account Actions Overwatch 2 is a highly competitive PvP Hero Shooter, and players enjoy different heroes and p...
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