Overwatch 2 season 5 early patch notes

Overwatch 2 season five is less than a week away. While Blizzard hasn’t unveiled all of its plans for the season, the devs have tipped their hand on a number of balance changes and teased some content.

Along with posting a roadmap previewing content for the next few seasons, the devs announced on June 6 that season five will include some changes to a few heroes in the game. In a “Director’s Take” post to the official Overwatch website, game director Aaron Keller noted hero tuning coming to six different heroes in next week’s patch.

As far as new content is concerned, the roadmap released in mid-May teased a limited-time fantasy-themed event called “Questwatch,” which will include something called “Mischief & Magic.” The season will also include the Summer Games and mini five-vs-five competitive season.

With the season so close to launch, I suspect that Blizzard will release a trailer with more details on the season’s content sometime soon. Ahead of season four, Blizzard posted a trailer on the Thursday before the season began. But with Summer Game Fest this weekend, the developer might have a slightly different approach this time around.

On the game balance side of things, Keller noted that the team is adjusting its approach to one-shot heroes as well as crowd control abilities in season five. This is reflected in upcoming changes to popularly notorious heroes like Mei, Hanzo, Widowmaker, and Cassidy.

All hero balance changes coming in Overwatch 2 season five

Lifeweaver

Overwatch 2’s newest hero has continually been a point of emphasis for the hero design team, and his performance has remained subpar throughout the entirety of his first season in the game. In his Dev Take post, Keller said Lifeweaver will receive “mostly buffs” to his kit, including “increases to his healing and damage output.”

• Increased healing and damage throughput. Specifics have not been disclosed.
  Life Grip will include a heal to the target being gripped.
• Lifeweaver’s hitbox will be “slightly reduced.”
• Petal Platform will receive some quality-of-life adjustments.

I find that the biggest change will be decreasing his hitbox. The way that his flower petal backpack counts toward his hitbox has made him an enormous target for an enemy team’s dive. Anytime I see a Lifeweaver on my team, I always have my fingers crossed that the other team doesn’t have Tracer, Sombra, or Genji because Lifeweaver is effectively a free early fight pick against a decent dive.

Junker Queen

Junker Queen has been one of the premier tanks at high ranks since her mid-cycle season four buffs. So it’s a surprise to no one that she’s getting a nerf or two headed into season five. It looks like the devs aren’t going to nerf her into the dirt, though. 

The biggest part of her recent buffs was to increase her Adrenaline Rush passive, giving her more survivability. But her incoming nerfs are set to address other parts of her kit. I wouldn’t expect her to fall too far from grace, but she won’t be nearly the dominant force that she is now.

• Commanding Shout gives Junker Queen 150 overhealth, down from 200.
• Rampage will cost more ultimate charge, effectively making it take longer to build up to.

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Hanzo

Hanzo’s ability to one-shot enemies who are mindlessly rounding corners makes him one of the most frustrating heroes in the game to play against, and Blizzard is finally addressing years of complaints from his haters with a few nerfs to his kit that makes him a menace.

• Storm Bow primary fire damage will be nerfed so that a headshot is no longer lethal to 250-health targets.
• Sonic Arrow will be made “more recognizable” to enemies.

“The intent here is to reduce his kills that feel like they come out of nowhere,” Keller said. “We are constantly discussing the nature of one-shots in Overwatch 2 and whether they are healthy for the game in general.”

Widowmaker

Having a hitscan hero who can one-shot enemies from across the map has an even larger impact in Overwatch 2 than it did in the six-vs-six iteration of the game. And while Widowmaker will still be able to send people back to spawn by clicking heads, she won’t be able to do so from quite the same range.

• Widow’s Kiss scoped damage falloff will be reduced to 40-60 meters, down from 70-100.
• Widow’s Kiss scoped damage falloff scalar will be increased to 50 percent, up from 30 percent.

Mei

The ever-annoying crowd control that Mei had in the original version of Overwatch is making a return in season five. It’s difficult to tell if this will make her better or worse overall because it comes with a significant blow to her primary fire’s DPS. But as a DPS and support player who has been taken out by both versions of Mei, it won’t change the way I avoid getting too close to her.

• Endothermic Blaster primary fire will have a slow build-up that eventually applies a larger slow at 1.5 seconds.
• Endothermic Blaster primary fire DPS reduced to 55, down from 100.

Cassidy

Cassidy is another DPS who’s getting some CC added back to his kit in season five. Magnetic Grenade ability was originally added to his kit as an alternative to crowd control that gives him a way to protect himself against diving enemies at close range.

But with Blizzard reversing its stance on giving DPS heroes CC effects, the devs seem to be giving Magnetic Grenade some of the traits that Flashbang used to provide. I’m excited that I don’t have to worry about half my health getting chunked by Cassidy’s obnoxious grenades anymore, but I’m still not sure how I feel about giving him crowd control again.

• Magnetic Grenade damage will be decreased.
• Magnetic Grenade will apply a slowing effect that also blocks movement abilities.

Overwatch 2 season five is expected to begin on June 13.

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