Overwatch 2 is the onset of the massively popular title Overwatch, which already has a huge following around the globe. The heroes are the heart and soul of OW and OW2 with their unique abilities and playstyles.
OW2 Beta is live for selective players around the globe, and this means that there are a lot of hero changes that have been made to the game that a player should know about. This will make their time in the game worthwhile and fun. I will discuss the same in the post.
All Major Hero Changes for Overwatch (OW) 2
If there are significant changes that are made in the beta version of OW2, then it is sure that these will come into play when the full game releases soon. Having that said, let us take a look at all the tweaks and changes made to the characters.
General Hero Changes
Passives
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
- Over health 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
TANK HERO CHANGES
DOOMFIST
- Moved from Damage to Tank role
- Base health increased from 250 to 450
Rising Uppercut
- Ability removed
- Damage reduced from 6 to 5 per pellet
- The ammo regeneration rate increased from once every 0.65 seconds to 0.4 seconds
- 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
- 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 the charge amount
- 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
- 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
- The primary Fire movement penalty reduced from 50% to 40%
- Weapon spread reduced from 4 to 3.5
ORISA
Thanks to years of combat and Efi Oladele’s tireless work, Orisa’s mind, and abilities have evolved. She has fully grown into her role as the defender of Numbani.
- Base armor increased from 200 to 250
- Base health increased from 200 to 250
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- Removed and replaced by Tank passive
- Health reduced from 1600 to 1200
- Regeneration rate reduced from 200 to 144 health per second
- Steering turn rate increased by 50%
- Can now be manually canceled
- Charge Pin wall impact damage reduced from 300 to 225
- Cooldown from 10 to 8 seconds
- Now has 2 ability charges
- Damage reduced from 100 to 90
ROADHOG
- Base health increased from 600 to 700
- Total healing increased from 300 to 350 health
SIGMA
- Base shields increased from 100 to 200
- Damage increased from 70 to 100
- Barrier regeneration rate reduced from 120 to 100
WINSTON
- Base armor increased from 150 to 200
- 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
- Health increased from 650 to 800
- Duration reduced from 9 to 8 seconds
- Cooldown reduced from 13 to 12 seconds
- Ultimate cost increased by 10%
WRECKING BALL
- Base armor increased from 100 to 150
- Base health increased from 500 to 550
- 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 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 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 degeneration increased from 1.8 to 2.2 per second
DAMAGE HERO CHANGES
ASHE
- 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
- 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
- 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
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
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
- Secondary fire “Fan the Hammer” fire rate increased by around 7.5%
- 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
- 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
- The maximum duration increased from 6 to 7 seconds
- Ultimate cost increased by 10%
ECHO
- Maximum damage-per-second reduced from 200 to 175
- Echo copies the target’s combined health value including health, armor, and shields up to a total of 300 health
- E.g., A duplicated Tracer will have 150 health and a Reinhardt will have 300 health
HANZO
- Damage reduced from 70 to 65
JUNKRAT
- 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
- 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
- No longer removes Sigma Gravitic Flux effect
- Pillar health reduced from 400 to 250
- Range reduced from 35 to 20 meters
- Ultimate cost increased by 15%
REAPER
- Damage per pellet reduced from 6 to 5.4
- Spread increased from 6 to 8
SOJOURN
- Rapid firing projectiles that generate energy on hit
- High impact shot that consumes stored energy
- Launch an energy burst that snares and deals damage to enemies within it
- Ground slide that can cancel into a high jump
- Ultimate Ability
- Railgun energy auto-charges for a short duration and shots pierce enemies
SOMBRA
- Damage reduced from 8 to 7
- Spread reduced by 10%
- 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
- 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
- Damage dealt with hacked targets is now increased by 40%
- 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
- Damage reduced from 6 to 5
WIDOWMAKER
- Base health increased from 175 to 200
SUPPORT HERO CHANGES
ANA
- Cooldown increased from 12 to 15 seconds
BAPTISTE
- Primary fire minimum falloff range reduced from 25 to 20 meters
- Total healing increased from 75 to 100 health
BRIGITTE
- No longer stuns enemies
- Cooldown reduced from 7 to 5 seconds
- Distance traveled increased from 7 to 12 meters
- Movement is no longer stopped when impacting barriers
- Damage increased from 1 to 50
- Now also triggers from Shield Bash damage
LUCIO
- Ultimate cost reduced to 12%
MERCY
- Now increased the Support of passive healing by 50%
Those are the known changes so far for all the heroes in Overwatch 2. I will be updating this or making a new post regarding any future changes made to the heroes of the game. Thanks for dropping by!
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Last Updated on November 15, 2022

A computer science graduate by qualification, Zoid loves to keep himself updated with the latest gaming content related to PC, Android, and other platforms as well. Likes to keep his diet and health in check from time to time!