Overwatch 2 Season 7 Full Patch Notes - October 10, 2023

In the latest update for Overwatch 2, Season 7 introduces some of the most notable changes we've seen in recent times. Sombra has undergone a significant rework, and Cassidy's combat roll damage reduction has been amped up from 50% to 75%. While the adjustments to tank characters are varied, with Orisa's remaining mostly unchanged, Ramattra has received a substantial buff. Conversely, Zarya's bubbles have been heavily nerfed in this patch.

Sombra Rework

Developer Comments: We approached the Sombra Rework by identifying key goals to guide decisions throughout the design iteration process: make Sombra more committal when engaging, increase the active feel in her ability kit, and uphold the current Hacker fantasy. With these goals, there were multiple angles to tackle around her existing kit. Naturally, many ideas were also meant to address frustrations playing against the character, ensuring there is proper counterplay for enemies.

• Machine Pistol

  • Damage increased from 7.5 to 8.

  • Minimum Spread reduced from 0.5 to 0.

  • Number of shots until max spread has been increased from 3 to 6 shots.

  • Reload time reduced from 1.4 seconds to 1.2 seconds.

• Hack
  • Cast time reduced from 0.75 seconds to 0.65 seconds.
  • Now cancels Stealth when hacking an enemy hero.
  • Cooldown increased from 4 to 6 seconds.
  • Hack has a reduced cooldown of 3 seconds if Hack is interrupted or if a non-hero enemy is hacked.
  • The “Hacked” warning text will now only appear while you are silenced and not for the remainder duration of the hack debuff.
• Opportunist
  • Removed.
• Stealth
  • Ability reworked to be a passive. Sombra automatically becomes invisible after 3.5 seconds while not shooting, using a damaging ability, or receiving damage.
  • Stealth movement speed bonus reduced from 60% to 45%.
  • Fade Out duration into Stealth reduced from 0.375 seconds to 0.25 seconds.
  • Fade In duration from Stealth reduced from 0.5 seconds to 0.375 seconds.
  • Updated the UI messaging to the Sombra player when hacking Health Packs to “Revealed” instead of “Detected”. Now the message “Detected” is only used when an enemy player is in the detection radius.
• Virus
  • This is a new ability assigned to Ability 1 by default.
  • Fire a projectile that damages an enemy over time. Damage is dealt faster on Hacked enemies.
  • Impact Damage: 10 (20 on hacked target).
  • Damage over time: 100 over 4 seconds (100 over 2 seconds on hacked target).
• Translocator
  • Can no longer can be manually activated. Translocator will now automatically teleport Sombra after 0.25 seconds from being thrown or when impacting the environment.
  • Reduces the Stealth passive cooldown after teleporting.
  • Projectile speed increased from 25 to 72.
  • Cooldown reduced from 6 seconds to 5 seconds. Cooldown now begins after Sombra teleports to the location of the Transponder.
  • Projectile launch initial vertical offset removed.
• EMP
  • Ultimate charge cost increased by 15%.
  • Health percent damage decreased from 40% to 30%.

Hero Changes and Updates

Aside from the crucial Sombra rework, we also received significant changes to heroes from all 3 roles.

Tank Changes

Orisa

• Fortify
  • Damage reduction decreased from 50% to 45%.

Developer Comments: We are further readjusting Orisa’s survivability, which was originally increased due to the armor-damage reduction stacking change we made several patches ago. This particular change is relatively light as we still want her to be an effective pick against teams that lean on crowd control.

Ramattra

• Nemesis Form
  • Cooldown decreased from 8 to 7 seconds.

Developer Comments: This change lets Ramattra project his influence more frequently with Nemesis Form, which translates into increased survivability and damage. The flexibility also makes it less punishing if he swaps back to Omnic Form early to use the Void Barrier.

Wrecking Ball

• Quad Cannons
  • Number of shots to reach max spread increased from 20 to 30.

Developer Comments: This change lets Wrecking Ball finish off enemies a bit more reliably when he’s outside of point-blank range and makes him less reliant on his Piledriver combos.

Zarya

• Projected Barrier
  • Size decreased 15% now matching back to the size of Particle Barrier.
  • Health decreased from 225 to 200 matching back to the health of Particle Barrier.

Developer Comments: Zarya is using the barrier on her allies more often to peel or initiate combination plays, which makes the ability more team-oriented and less self-serving. This change preserves that interesting choice by keeping the cooldown reduced when used on an ally while targeting her energy sustain instead, which has increased significantly with the bonuses to the barrier health and size.

Damage Changes

Cassidy

• Combat Roll
  • Damage reduction increased from 50% to 75%.

Developer Comments: Most damage mitigation from Combat Roll feels incidental, as the ability is used more for mobility or reloading. This adjustment allows Cassidy to be more intentional with his rolls to avoid large amounts of damage with correct timing.

Mei

• Deep Chill
  • Removed.

• Endothermic Blaster
  • Damage per second increased from 70 to 100.
  • Now immediately slows enemies by 40% instead of building up over time.

Developer Comment: We liked the one-two combo that Deep Chill provided, as it added an interesting layer for hero mastery. However, in practice, it increased the amount of crowd control suffered by enemy players while also reducing Mei’s effectiveness. Rather than further increasing the slow or increasing cumulative combo damage, both of which would lead to a more frustrating experience for the opposing player, we are reverting Mei back to her balance prior to adding the Deep Chill passive.

Torbjörn

• Rivet Gun
  • Primary fire recovery increased from .48 to .51 seconds.

• Overload
  • Overhealth bonus decreased from 100 to 75.

Developer Comments: Torbjorn’s Rivet Gun can feel overwhelming with how quickly it shoots. This change reduces the firing cadence and makes it more manageable on the receiving end. Overload provides too much defensive value, so we are lowering the overhealth bonus.

Support Changes

Brigitte

• Whip Shot
  • Damage increased from 70 to 80.

Developer Comment: This change increases her proficiency at protecting her allies by rewarding accuracy with her most aim-focused ability.

Illari

• Solar Rifle
  • Secondary fire healing per second decreased from 120 to 105.

Developer Comments: Illari’s burst healing output is still a little too high, so we are lowering the effectiveness of the Solar Rifle secondary fire to bring her more in line with other support heroes.

Group Respawn

• Heroes who die within 5 seconds of each other will respawn together, resulting in some players having either a slightly longer or shorter queue than the standard 10 seconds.
• Heroes who die more than 5 seconds from another player eliminated will still respawn in 10 seconds on their own.
• These changes do not apply to Competitive Play mode.

Developer Comments: We think that team fights are some of the most enjoyable moments in our game, but we’ve all been in matches where team cohesion–or lack thereof–makes these moments a rarity. These matches often turn into stomps for the team that can’t group up, and preventing stomps is a high priority for us. As such, this season, we’re modifying how heroes respawn for Quick Play. Heroes that die within 5 seconds of each other will be respawned in a wave together. This means that respawn times will sometimes change in order for heroes to respawn together. If a hero dies further apart than 5 seconds from another death on their team, they’ll still respawn in 10 seconds as they would have in the past.

We’ll be listening closely to feedback on this new system, and depending on the response and making any changes, we will consider adding these adjustments to Competitive Play in a later season.

However, the community is feeling rather divided about whether this change is well-thought-out.

Unranked Leaver Penalties

• 75% XP penalty removed.
• The penalty thresholds have not changed, but the mechanics have also never been completely explained. The last 20 games played a player participated in are recorded. Leaving four of these 20 games activates the first penalty threshold. Leaving six of these 20 games activates the second penalty threshold.
• Queuing for most game modes is now suspended when a player leaves a match inside a penalty threshold.
• Players that reach the first penalty threshold will be suspended for 10 minutes.
• Players that reach the second penalty threshold will be suspended for 30 minutes.
• The queue suspension will reapply each time a player leaves a game when they are above the first penalty threshold but not when they complete their games.
• Consecutive Match XP bonus has been renamed to Endurance Bonus.
• Endurance Bonus is XP granted when finishing matches without leaving the previous match.

Developer Comments: Previously, if players left too many games, we would apply a 75% penalty to their Battle Pass XP that is gained. We found this had very little impact on those who leave deliberately and severely impacted those who don’t have much time to play but want to earn the rewards in our season Battle Pass. We’re changing this to make it more difficult for players who leave games to be disruptive while not applying too much impact to those who don’t intend on ruining the experience for others.

New Map - SAMOA

Going Live - October 10th.

Samoa is a new Control map where you’ll fight on a tropical beach, a gleaming city, and inside a volcano! Watch out for deadly pitfalls, or you might just be swimming in lava! Samoa will be available to play right away in a dedicated Arcade card and will appear in Quick Play and other unranked modes starting on October 10 with it appearing in Competitive Play later in the season.

In addition to the crucial changes above, Blizzard have also fixed bugs and introduced the 2023 Halloween Terror Event.

Make sure to watch our full season 7 breakdown, created by Theomatic (professional OW2 player and GameLeap Coach):