Overwatch 2’s midseason balance patch brings massive Baptiste buff and new Challenges to season 3

Its a wild day in the Overwatch 2 community for both hardcore players and casual fans who love a good crossover episode. The games collaboration with One Punch Man launches today and players can complete challenges to unlock cosmetics or purchase additional skins to complete their shiny new collection.    

Overwatch League fans will also get to update their in-game wardrobes today as new skins launch for multiple teams, especially those who have undergone rebrands or major transitions. The Vegas Eternal and Seoul Infernal, formerly the Paris Eternal and Philadelphia Fusion, respectively, have introduced completely new color schemes for the upcoming 2023 season. Those skins can be unlocked with Overwatch League tokens.  

Beyond all the shiny skins, theres still a midseason balance patch to dig into. While season threes midseason patch isnt as hefty as others have beenand fans will absolutely be critical of the lack of major changesit does bring interesting tweaks that could shake up the meta. 

Well go into the big game and hero changes, but multiple bugs relating to heroes, interactions, and maps have also been fixed. The full list of changes can be found in the balance patch post on the Blizzard forums.  

General updates 

Battle pass devotees will be happy to see that multiple challenges have been reworked, removed, or updated for easier progression. One of the most contentious challenges, which asks players to win five games in an Arcade mode, has been removed. In its place, players will now have to win five games in Mystery Heroes, Deathmatch, or Arcade. It offers a little more wiggle room for those who have no patience for Arcades shenanigans. 

Here is the full list of challenge updates and changes: 

• Challenge To The Victors: Win 15 games in Unranked or Competitive has been removed.
  • Added a new challenge, Casual Dedication: Win 15 games in any Unranked mode.
  • Added a new challenge, Competitive Advantage: Win 10 games in any Competitive mode.
• Challenge Coin Line: Win 5 games in Arcade has been removed. 
  • Added a new challenge, Change of Pace: Win 5 games in Mystery Heroes, Free-for-All Deathmatch, or any Arcade mode.
• Changed Role Mastery to Win 5 games each as 2 different roles in Quick Play or Competitive Play.

Tank hero updates

Orisa

• Terra Surge can now be interrupted by Sombras Hack.

Ramattra

• Using Annihilation while in Nemesis Form refreshes your bonus armor.

Roadhog

• Chain Hook cooldown now starts when the ability ends instead of at the start.
• Chain Hook cooldown reduced from eight to six seconds.

Wrecking Ball

• Added the hero-specific option Relative aim sensitivity while rolling.
• Added the hero-specific option Relative gyro sensitivity while rolling, which only applies on the Nintendo Switch.
• Added a timeout indicator for Grappling Claw located above the ability icon. 
• Minefield arming time increased from one to 1.25 seconds.

Wrecking Ball specialists will now be able to change the aim sensitivity used while rolling around and causing chaos. Since theres a timeout for Grappling Claw, developers added a visual indicator so tanks can see when that ability is about to end. 

Zarya

• The shared cooldown for Particle Barrier and Projected Barrier has been reduced from 11 to 10 seconds.

This is a partial reversion, according to developers, of an earlier change that nerfed a few of Zaryas abilities. 

Damage hero updates

Ashe

• B.O.B. now prefers to shoot at enemy targets that Ashe damages with her rifle. 

Ashes stalwart companion will now prioritize enemies if theyve been dinged by her rifle. We want to enable Ashe and B.O.B. to easily assist one another more, developers said. 

Hanzo

• Lunge cooldown decreased from five to four seconds.

Mei

• Blizzard ultimate cast time reduced from 0.5 to 0.4 seconds.

Pharah

• Jump Jet movement is now influenced by directional inputs

According to developersand most Pharah mainsJump Jet used to move Pharah forward a bit, which made the ability feel less responsive when trying to move to the side or backwards. Now, movement is directional. 

Sojourn

• Torso hit volume width increased by 20 percent. 

Sojourns character model was apparently a bit more squirrely than developers anticipated, so theyve added a bit more volume to her hitbox. This change applies to how Sojourn is hit, not how she hits other enemies. 

Support hero updates 

Baptiste

• Immortality Field minimum health threshold increased from 10 to 25 percent. 

Developers snuck in the patchs biggest buff at the end of the notes, boosting Baptistes Immortality Field to a whopping 25 percent. This means that allies will not only be saved from elimination with Immortality Field, but theyll also walk out of it with 25 percent of their initial health instead of only 10 percent. 

While professional players will likely not be swapping to Baptiste because of a single ability, this massive change could increase his pick rate at lower player ranks.