OVERWATCH 2 SEASON 16: Who’s Getting NERFED and Who’s Getting BUFFED?!

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In simple terms, the Season 16 update for Overwatch 2 is introducing numerous fresh gameplay elements such as a novel Stadium mode, alterations to competitive play, modifications to perks, and more. But rest assured, the core cast of characters hasn’t remained untouched either.

Despite the primary emphasis being on Perks, several minor enhancements are designed to have significant impacts. For example, Season 16 grants Hanzo the ability to draw and hold his bow while scaling walls, providing a substantial advantage in particular situations that might tempt you to veto him with the updated hero banning system.

In Season 16, quite a few perks are being taken away and an equal number are being introduced, leading to many modifications. To view the updates aside from hero balance changes, you can explore the patch notes right here.

This is every hero buff and nerf coming in Overwatch 2 Season 16:

Overwatch 2 Season 16 patch notes: All hero buffs and nerfs

Tank Heroes

D.Va

Perks:

  • Bunny Stomp has been combined with Ejection Suit to make one Perk: Bunny Power
    • Eject grants 75 temporary overhealth and Call Mech’s damage radius is increased by 50%.
  • New Minor Perk: Extended Boosters
    • Hitting an enemy with Boosters increases the duration by 0.5 seconds.

Hazard

Perks:

  • Off The Top
    • Leap Slash’s damage scaling increased: 30% >>> 50%

Orisa

Primary Weapon- Augmented Fusion Driver

  • Damage per bullet increased: 13 >>> 14

Fortify:

  • Now prevents Orisa from being Hacked

Perks:

  • Heat Dissipater
    • Increase amount of heat reduced per headshot: 75% >>> ~83.5%
      • The official patch notes say the heat reduction is increased by 33% compared to before, so this is just that calculation applied

Reinhardt

Perks:

  • Fiery Uptake Perk has been removed
  • New Minor Perk: Crusader’s Fire
    • Refund a charge of Fire Strike when you stun an enemy, overfilling up to 3.
  • Shield Slam
    • Distance increased: 3.8 meters >>> 5.7 meters

Roadhog

Perks:

  • Hog Toss Perk has been removed
  • New Minor Perk: Pent Up
    • When Pig Pen is triggered, refill 50% Take a Breather resource. Can overfill
  • Hogdrogen Exposure
    • Radius increased: 8 meters >>> 10 meters

Sigma

Perks:

  • Levitation
    • Jump can now be held down to hover

Winston

Base Stats:

  • Base health increased: 225 >>> 275
  • Base armor reduced: 250 >>> 200

Wrecking Ball

Base Stats:

  • Armor reduced: 150 >>> 100
    • Only applies in 6v6

Damage Heroes

Cassidy

Perks:

  • Past Noon has been removed
  • New Minor Perk: Even the Odds
    • Regenerate 20 health per second for each enemy targeted by Deadeye

Freja

Base Stats:

  • Time to earn Minor Perk reduced by 18%

Primary Weapon – Revdraw Crossbow:

  • Ammo capacity increased: 8 >>> 12

Ultimate – Bola Shot:

  • Damage and explosion radius increased: 5 meters >>> 5.5 meters
  • Bola Shot DoT increased: 75 >>> 90

Hanzo

Primary Weapon – Storm Bow:

  • Arrow draw progress is preserved while wall climbing

Secondary Fire – Storm Arrows:

  • Projectile speed increased from 110 to 140 meters per second

Junkrat

Perks:

  • Aluminum Frame
    • Now reveals trapped enemies to allies.

Mei

Perks:

  • Chilling Reach Perk removed
  • Biting Cold
    • This is now a Minor Perk
    • Secondary fire hits slow enemies by 20% for 1.5 seconds
  • New Major Perk: Deep Freeze
    • Continuously hitting enemies with primary fire freezes them for a short time

Sombra

Perks:

  • Viral Efficacy removed
  • Stack Overflow removed
  • New Minor Perk: Encrypted Upload
    • Hack can be used while invisible, successful hacks increase the duration of stealth by 2 seconds
  • New Major Perk: Viral Replication
    • Allows Sombra’s Virus to spread to nearby enemies within 8 meters

Torbjorn

Perks:

  • Overloaded Turret
    • Now transforms into Level 3 Sentry Turret if Overload was activated before fully constructed

Tracer

Perks:

  • Flashback
    • Blinks restored reduced: 3 >>> 2
  • Quantum Entanglement
    • Quantum Entanglement now additionally grants 20 over ammo

Support Heroes

Ana

Perks:

  • Groggy
    • Reduced initial slow: 75% >>> 50%
    • Now also deals 50 damage over the duration
  • Biotic Bounce
    • Second bounce damage and healing reduced: 50 >>> 25

Baptiste

Secondary Fire – Biotic Launcher:

  • Healing explosion increased: 50 >>> 60
  • Direct impact healing increased: 20 >>> 30
  • Maximum ammo reduced: 13 >>> 10

Perks:

  • Assault Burst
    • Will now do instant healing but cannot critically heal low targets

Juno

Perks:

  • Hyper Boost Perk removed
  • Re-Boots is now a Minor Perk
    • Duration increase removed
  • New Major Perk: Locked On
    • Lowers cooldown for Pulsar Torpedoes based on number of enemies hit

Lifeweaver

Secondary Fire – Thorn Volley

  • Projectile speed increased: 80 meters per second >>> 100 meters per second

Perks:

  • Lifeweaving
    • Bonus healing increased: 30 >>> 40

Lucio

Perks:

  • Groovin Perk removed
  • New Minor Perk: Beat Drop
    • Amp it Up is active during Sound Barrier

Mercy

Perks:

  • Angelic Recovery Perk removed
  • New perk: Angelic Resurrection
    • Grants Mercy 100 bonus overhealth while reviving a teammate

Zenyatta

Orb of Discord

  • Duration before expiring when target is out of sight reduced: 3 seconds >>> 1.5 seconds
    • Only applies in 6v6 modes

Perks:

  • Ascendance:
    • Can now hold jump to hover
  • Duality:
    • Increase converted damage: 20% >>> 30%

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2025-04-22 21:20