The Overwatch 2 Season 9 patch notes are available, with health changes and a pretty significant rework to Pharah being the headlining focus this time around. Competitive changes have already been outlined, so we will not reiterate them in this article. Here are some of the biggest things to keep in mind at the start of this season.
Hero health and other changes
Pharah is getting a new ability called Jump Jet. With this update, she no longer flies as vertically as she did before, now being more of a horizontal flyer and needing to land more often. The hope is that she will also not need to rely on Mercy as much as she has lately. All of the big changes to her are in the list below.
Alongside most projectiles being enlarged (everything except Orisa’s Javelin Throw and Reinhardt’s Fire Strike), all heroes are gaining more health in Season 9. Here is the breakdown of where each hero was before and where they stand after the update (combined health, armor, and shield values) and what other changes have been made to accommodate for the change in health pools:
Tank
- D.Va (mech) – 500 > 575
- Self-destruct max damage increased to 1,000
- The inner range of the explosion that deals that maximum damage has been increased from 4 to 6 meters
- D.Va (pilot) – 150 > 175
- Doomfist – 300 > 375
- Rocket Punch maximum damage increased from 50 to 75
- Wall impact damage increased from 30 to 40
- Junker Queen – 300 > 375
- Rampage wound damage increased from 60 to 90
- Mauga – 500 > 575
- Orisa – 400 > 475
- Rammatra – 300 > 375 (no change to Nemesis form)
- Reinhardt – 450 > 525
- Hammer damage increased from 85 to 100
- Roadhog – 550 > 650
- Sigma – 400 > 475
- Winston – 400 > 475
- Main fire damage increased from 60 to 75 per second
- Primal Range punch damage increased from 40 to 50
- Wrecking Ball – 550 > 625
- Zarya – 325 > 400
- Main fire beam width increased from .15 to .2 meters
Damage
- Ashe – 200 > 250
- B.O.B. damage increased from 14 to 17
- Bastion – 300 > 350
- Cassidy – 225 > 275
- Deadeye initial damage rate increased from 130 to 150
- Overall Deadeye damage rate increased from 260 to 300
- Echo – 200 > 250
- Focusing Beam width increased from .2 to .25 meters
- Echo (Duplicate form) – 300 > 350
- Genji – 200 > 250
- Dragonblade swings recover faster from .9 to .7 seconds
- Hanzo – 200 > 250
- Storm Arrow damage increased from 65 to 75 per arrow
- Storm Arrow cooldown reduced from 10 to 8 seconds
- Junkrat – 200 > 250
- Grenade size reduced from .25 to .2 meters
- Mei – 250 > 300
- Pharah – 200 > 250
- Jet Dash (new ability)
- Boosts Pharah horizontally in the direction she is looking
- 8-second cooldown
- On secondary fire by default, it can be changed to double jump in settings
- Hover Jets
- Speed Boost increased from 20 to 40%
- Only refuels on the ground
- Don’t need fuel to slow descent
- Rocket Launcher
- Recovers faster
- Increased speed
- Self-damage decreased from 50 to 25%
- Jump Jet
- Cooldown increased from 10 to 14
- Instantly refuels her hover 50%
- Decreased height gained by 20%
- Concussive Blast
- Cooldown decreased from 9 to 7 seconds
- Now deals 30 damage
- Explosion radius reduced from 8 to 6 meters
- Knockback reduced by 10%
- Barrage fully refuels hover
- Jet Dash (new ability)
- Reaper – 250 > 300
- Sojourn – 200 > 250
- Secondary fire projectile size reduced from .1 to .07 meters
- Soldier: 76 – 200 > 250
- Sombra – 200 > 250
- Symmetra – 200 > 250
- Primary fire width increased from .2 to .25 meters
- Torbjorn – 250 > 300
- Tracer – 150 > 175
- Widowmaker – 175 > 200
Support
- Ana – 200 > 250
- Baptiste – 200 > 250
- Brigitte – 200 > 250
- Flail swinging damage increased from 35 to 45
- Illari – 200 > 250
- Kiriko – 200 > 250
- Lifeweaver – 225 > 275
- Lucio – 200 > 250
- Soundwave
- Damage increased from 25 to 35
- Knockback increased 12%
- Movement lockout for enemy increased from .3 to .45 seconds
- Soundwave
- Mercy – 200 > 250
- Jump/crouch cancel reduced from 1.5 to 1 second
- Self-healing while healing others increased from 25 to 40%
- Moira – 200 > 250
- Main damage increased from 50 to 65 per second
- Main damage radius for finding a target increased from .6 to .7 meters
- Zenyatta – 225 > 275
Other changes to heroes
- Ultimates are earned 10% slower across the board.
- Tank and Damage heroes now recover 20 health per second after 5 seconds of not taking damage. Support has the same health recovery but after 2.5 seconds.
- Damage heroes no longer have increased weapon reload speed after getting an elimination. Instead, when they deal any damage, the person taking that damage has their healing reduced for 2 seconds.
- Quick melee damage has been increased to 40.
- Heroes have also received various bug fixes that we will not list here.
Junkertown changes
The Junkertown Escort map has also received some changes in the Overwatch 2 Season 9 patch notes. There’s a new nighttime theme, plus the first point has had new structures and vehicles added to it to make it not so focused on long sight lines as it was before. The second and third points have also received some changes to adjust how people attack these areas.
