All Character Changes in Overwatch 2

Overwatch 2 is officially available on consoles and PC, and it’s shaping up to be a pretty fun experience so far even with all the server issues plaguing it. If you’re looking for a full list of character changes being implemented in Overwatch 2, we’ve got you covered on that front as well.

It’s a pretty comprehensive list, so grab some snacks while you read on.

All Character Class Changes in Overwatch 2

First off, there are a few general changes being applied across the board to all Tank, DPS, and Support characters, which we’ve listed below:

Tank

• 30% knockback resistance
• 30% lower Ultimate generation from damage taken and healing taken

Damage

• 10% faster movement speed

Support

• Regenerate 15 health-per-second after 1 second without being damaged

Health Changes

• Temporary Shield and Armor health pools have been combined into Overhealth, with no special attributes
• Overhealth no longer provides Ultimate charge when damaged
• Base Armor health pools reduce incoming damage by 30%
• Base Armor no longer mitigates damage by the previous flat amount of –5 damage per hit
• Armor damage reduction now applies equally to all sources including damage over time effects and beams

“Phase” Effect Changes

• Phase effects no longer clear the Zarya Graviton Surge or Sigma Gravitic Flux movement restriction effects
  • E.g., Reaper can still use Wraith Form while in Graviton Surge to prevent damage but can’t walk out of it
• Mei Cryo-Freeze no longer removes Sigma’s Gravitic Flux effect
• Sombra Hack effect is now removed by phase effects

Biggest Character Specific Changes in Overwatch 2

With that out of the way, it’s time to get into all the individual character changes you can expect to see in Overwatch 2:

Doomfist

• Moved from Damage to Tank role
• Base health increased from 250 to 450
• Rising Uppercut ability removed

Hand Cannon

• Damage reduced from 6 to 5 per pellet
• Ammo regeneration rate increased from once every 0.65 seconds to 0.4 seconds

Rocket Punch

• Impact damage range reduced from 50 – 100 to 15 – 30 damage
• Wall slam damage range reduced from 50 – 150 to 20 – 40 damage
• Maximum charge up time reduced from 1.4 to 1.0 seconds
• Impacting a target now causes a secondary larger cone area check to grab extra targets to potentially knock them back as well

Power Block

• New Ability 2
• Enter a blocking stance, reducing damage taken from the front by 90%
• Blocking at least 100 damage causes Doomfist’s gauntlet to become supercharged, empowering the next Rocket Punch in the following ways:
  • Increases damage by 50%
  • Travels 50% faster and further
  • The area-of-effect blast that knocks back additional targets is twice as large
  • Targets impacting a wall will be stunned for an additional 0.5 to 1.0 seconds, depending on charge amount

Seismic Slam

• Moved from Ability 2 to Ability 1
• Now launches Doomfist into the air in the direction the player is aiming
• Creates a wide arc shockwave upon landing, dealing 50 damage and slowing enemy movement speed by 30%
• No longer has different behavior between being activated in the air or on the ground
• No longer pulls in enemies
• Can be canceled by pressing the ability key again

Meteor Strike

• Damage range reduced from 15 – 200 to 15 – 100
• Impact damage at the center 1 meter radius unchanged from 300 damage
• Knockback removed
• Now additionally slows the movement speed of all enemies hit by 50% for 2 seconds
• Cast time reduced from 1.0 to 0.5 seconds

D.Va

• Base Health increased from 300 to 450
• Base Armor reduced from 300 to 200

Fusion Cannons

• Primary Fire movement penalty reduced from 50% to 40%
• Weapon spread reduced from 4 to 3.5

Orisa

• Base armor increased from 200 to 250
• Base health increased from 200 to 250

Augmented Fusion Driver

• New Primary Fire
• Now rapidly fires 10 plasma projectiles per second
• Projectiles start out large and shrink as they travel
• Damage starts at 10.5 and scales down to 4 damage over 35 meters
• Uses a heat mechanic instead of ammo
  • Firing the weapon increases heat, and it cools down while not firing
  • If the weapon overheats, a forced release of heat prevents the weapon from being fired for 3 seconds

Energy Javelin

• New Secondary Fire
• Orisa throws a spear forward, impacting the first enemy in its path
• Deals 80 damage
• Stuns enemies for 0.2 seconds and knocks them back 6 meters
• If the enemy collides with a wall while being knocked back, they take 40 more damage and are stunned an additional 0.3 seconds

Fortify

• Now slows Orisa’s movement speed by 20% while active
• Now provides 125 extra health while active
• Reduces heat generation from Orisa’s weapon by 50% while active
• Duration increased from 4 to 4.5 seconds

Javelin Spin

• New Ability 2
• Orisa rapidly spins a spear for 1.75 seconds, destroying incoming projectiles
• Increases forward movement speed by 60% while active and by 20% for 2 seconds after the spinning ends
• Rapidly damages enemies in her path, dealing up to 90 damage and constantly knocking them back

Terra Surge

• New Ultimate Ability
• Orisa pulls in nearby enemies and becomes fortified, charging up an area-of-effect attack over 4 seconds. Releasing the charge deals up to 225 damage based on how long it was channeled
• While charging, deals minor damage over time and slows nearby enemy movement speed by 30%

Reinhardt

• Base armor increased from 200 to 300
• Base health increased from 300 to 350
• Steadfast ability removed

Barrier Field

• Health reduced from 1600 to 1200
• Regeneration rate reduced from 200 to 144 health per second

Charge

• Steering turn rate increased by 50%
• Can now be manually cancelled
• Charge Pin wall impact damage reduced from 300 to 225
• Cooldown from 10 to 8 seconds

Fire Strike

• Now has 2 ability charges
• Damage reduced from 100 to 90

Roadhog

• Base health increased from 600 to 700

Take a Breather

• Total healing increased from 300 to 350 health

Sigma

• Base shields increased from 100 to 200

Accretion

• Damage increased from 70 to 100

Experimental Barrier

• Barrier regeneration rate reduced from 120 to 100

Winston

• Base armor increased from 150 to 200

Tesla Cannon

• New Secondary Fire
• Hold Secondary Fire to charge, release to fire a 30-meter range jolt of electricity
• Deals up to 50 damage
• Costs up to 20 ammo

Barrier Projector

• Barrier Projector health increased from 650 to 800
• Barrier Projector duration reduced from 9 to 8 seconds
• Cooldown reduced from 13 to 12 seconds

Primal Rage

• Ultimate cost increased by 10%

Wrecking Ball

• Base armor increased from 100 to 150
• Base health increased from 500 to 550

Adaptive Shield

• Radius increased from 8 to 10 meters
• Health gained per target increased from 75 to 100 health

Zarya

• Base health increased from 200 to 250
• Base shields increased from 200 to 225

Particle Barrier

• Particle Barrier now has a 10 second cooldown on a shared 2 charge system with Projected Barrier
• Cooldown now begins immediately on ability use instead of when the barrier has expired
• Barrier’s duration increased from 2 to 2.5 seconds

Projected Barrier

• Projected Barrier now has a 10 second cooldown on a shared 2 charge system with Particle Barrier
• Cooldown now begins immediately on ability use instead of when the barrier has expired
• Barrier’s duration increased from 2 to 2.5 seconds
• Barrier targets cannot be targeted again by the ability for 2 seconds

Energy

• Energy degeneration increased from 1.8 to 2.2 per second

Ashe

B.O.B.

• BOB base health reduced from 1200 to 1000

Bastion

Self-Repair

• Ability removed and replaced by A-36 Tactical Grenade

Configuration: Tank (Ultimate)

• Ability removed and replaced with Configuration: Artillery

Ironclad (Passive)

• Ability removed

Configuration: Recon

• Weapon damage increased from 20 to 25
• Fire rate reduced from 8 to 5 shots per second
• Weapon spread removed
• Ammo reduced from 35 to 25

Configuration: Assault

• Renamed from Configuration: Sentry
• Bastion is now able to move in this form at 35% reduced movement speed
• Now has a 6-second duration and 12-second cooldown
• Now has infinite ammo for its duration
• Weapon spread is now a constant 2 degrees and no longer becomes more accurate as you fire
• Damage reduced from 15 to 12

A-36 Tactical Grenade

This ability replaces self-repair, but it is bound to Alternate Fire instead of E by default.

• New Secondary Fire
• Launches a grenade that can bounce off walls but sticks to players or the ground. It explodes after a short delay, dealing up to 130 damage

Configuration: Artillery

The targeting works similarly to Doomfist’s Meteor Strike Ultimate, but you can click 3 times to launch projectiles.

• Locks Bastion into place to fire up to 3 long range artillery shells
• These shells deal high damage in a large area, but the damage falloff is significant
• The projectiles come straight down from the air at the targeted locations, but they are projectiles in every other sense and can be blocked or destroyed by abilities

Cassidy

Flashbang

• Ability removed and replaced by Magnetic Grenade

Peacekeeper

• Secondary fire “Fan the Hammer” fire rate increased by around 7.5%

Magnetic Grenade

• Throws a grenade that can stick to enemies
• Automatically homes in on an enemy close to the reticle when thrown within 10 meters of the target and can chase up to 13 meters
• Deals 131 damage split between: 1 impact damage, 65 explosion damage, and an additional 65 damage to the stuck target at the time of detonation

Deadeye

• Now grants 40% damage reduction while channeling the Ultimate
• Damage now builds at 130 damage-per-second for the first 2 seconds and then at 260 damage-per-second for the remaining duration
• Maximum duration increased from 6 to 7 seconds
• Ultimate cost increased by 10%

Echo

Focusing Beam

• Maximum damage-per-second reduced from 200 to 175

Duplicate

• Echo copies the target’s combined health value including health, armor, and shields up to total of 300 health
  • E.g., A duplicated Tracer will have 150 health and a Reinhardt will have 300 health

Hanzo

Storm Arrows

• Damage reduced from 70 to 65

Junkrat

Steel Trap

• No longer prevents all movement for its target
• Now slows its target by 65% until they reach its max chain length, then it breaks
• Still prevents movement abilities from being activated
• Damage increased from 80 to 100
• Projectile speed increased from 10 to 17

Mei

Endothermic Blaster

• Freeze stun removed
• Immediately slows targets by a constant 50% instead of building up over time
• Slow duration reduced from 1.0 to 0.5 seconds
• Damage-per-second increased from 55 to 100
• Ammo increased from 120 to 150

Cryo-Freeze

• No longer removes Sigma Gravitic Flux effect

Ice Wall

• Pillar health reduced from 400 to 250
• Range reduced from 35 to 20 meters

Blizzard

• Ultimate cost increased by 15%

Reaper

Hellfire Shotguns

• Damage per pellet reduced from 6 to 5.4
• Spread increased from 6 to 8

Sojourn

Railgun

• Rapid firing projectiles that generate energy on hit

Railgun Alt Fire

• High impact shot that consumes stored energy

Disruptor Shot

• Launch an energy burst that snares and deals damage to enemies within it

Power Slide

• Ground slide that can cancel into a high jump

Overclock

• Ultimate Ability
• Railgun energy auto-charges for a short duration and shots pierce enemies

Sombra

Machine Pistol

• Damage reduced from 8 to 7
• Spread reduced by 10%

Hack

• Cooldown reduced from 8 to 4 seconds
• Cooldown is no longer reduced when hacking health packs
• Cast time increased from 0.65 to 0.85 seconds
• Health pack hack duration reduced from 60 to 30 seconds
• Ability lock duration reduced from 5 to 1 second
• Reveals hacked enemies through walls to Sombra’s team for 8 seconds
• Interrupting Hack during the channel time now incurs the full cooldown
• Stun duration on Bob reduced from 5 to 2 seconds
• Now destroys Baptiste’s Immortality Field when it is hacked

Stealth

• Fade-in time reduced by 50%
• Enemy detection radius increased from 2 to 4 meters
• Can now use Hack during Stealth without ending the Stealth ability, but is revealed to enemies while hacking and for 0.75 seconds after hacking

Opportunist

• Damage dealt to hacked targets is now increased by 40%

EMP

• In addition to hacking them, now also deals 40% of current health as damage to enemies
• No longer deals additional damage to base shield health pools
  • EMP still deals massive damage to barriers

Tracer

Pulse Pistols

• Damage reduced from 6 to 5

Widowmaker

• Base health increased from 175 to 200

Ana

Sleep Dart

• Cooldown increased from 12 to 15 seconds

Baptiste

Biotic Launcher

• Primary fire minimum falloff range reduced from 25 to 20 meters

Regenerative Burst

• Total healing increased from 75 to 100 health

Brigitte

Shield Bash

• No longer stuns enemies
• Cooldown reduced from 7 to 5 seconds
• Distance travelled increased from 7 to 12 meters
• Movement is no longer stopped when impacting barriers
• Damage increased from 1 to 50

Inspire

• Now also triggers from Shield Bash damage

Lucio

Sound Barrier

• Ultimate cost reduced 12%

Mercy

Regeneration

• Now increased the Support passive healing by 50%

Whew. There are quite a few other general gameplay mode and map changes as well, which you can read up on here. But that does it for all of the character changes in Overwatch 2.

Be sure to search for Twinfinite for more tips and information on the game, including our official review, and how to fix the “different version” error.