Overwatch 2 season six is less than a week away, and the game’s director Aaron Keller made a post today to give players a little bit of a preview of what’s on the horizon.
While we’ve known about the game’s PvE Story Missions, new permanent mode Flashpoint, and a new support hero for a while, Keller took a moment to finally let players in on what to expect as far as hero balance is concerned—and boy, are we in for a shake-up.
To start his post, Keller acknowledged that “nearly half” of the game’s roster of just under 40 heroes will receive some sort of buff, nerf, or other update, meaning we could see upwards of 18 or 19 hero balance changes on Aug. 10 when Overwatch 2: Invasion arrives.
For those that don’t want to get too far into the weeds without knowing who is set for a change, here’s a quick list of every hero Keller talked about in his Dev Take post:
- Cassidy
- Torbjörn
- Soldier: 76
- Orisa
- Lifeweaver
- Kiriko
- Mercy
- Ramattra
- Doomfist
- Sombra
- Bastion
While Cassidy has received numerous changes to his Magnetic Grenade, the most recent changes to the ability’s range have led to some spectacular, and hilariously cartoonish, highlight reel plays that make it clear the ability is not well-balanced in the slightest. Perhaps the best example of that is a video posted to Reddit of a player lobbing a grenade on New Queen Street over a building to eliminate an enemy that they couldn’t see, and had no clue where their enemies really were.
Related: Leaked images supposedly from Blizzard’s offices show off potential Overwatch 2: Invasion skins
Meanwhile, Soldier: 76 is due for a slight nerf after getting buffed in the season five mid-cycle patch. Following his buff, many players on social media found his new state to be a bit oppressive. However, other players found that it wasn’t Soldier that was the problem, instead it was him being perpetually pocketed by Mercy players, which leads us to another highlight of Keller’s blog.
Mercy is getting a nerf to her damage boost. As one of the game’s most popular heroes, Mercy is known for having a rabid fan base, often referred to as the “Mercy Mafia,” making it tough for her to get nerfed too much without heavy backlash. With just a five percent reduction to her damage boost, down to 25 percent, she should still be viable. Given recent nerfs to Zenyatta’s Orb of Discord, this feels like it could be an attempt at leveling out some support damage amplification abilities.
Those are just some of the biggest highlights from what is an absolutely jam-packed post, and we will see more details surrounding specific value changes on Wednesday or Thursday next week. But the overall sentiment seems to be that Blizzard is making adjustments to heroes based on feedback from the community. Many of the changes Keller detailed were the result of some social media reaction to the game’s current balance, and while it might not end up being perfect, that’s about all you can ask for.
