Overwatch 2 April Fools patch buffs heroes in absurd ways, adds new ultimate voice lines

The annual Overwatch 2 April Fools patch has just gone live on PC, Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch consoles with a series of absurd changes to the game’s heroes.

It may still be March, but with April 1 on a Saturday this year, the devs dropped the special April Fools OW2 patch a day early bringing in some strange updates.

The big additions this year include brand new ultimate voice lines for every character and players will keep 50% of their ultimate charge when swapping heroes.

These changes will only affect Arcade modes, so don’t worry about them ruining your ranked or quick play experience.

Blizzard

Ramattra is now only in his Nemesis form!

Of note, Ramattra now stays exclusively in his Nemesis form, ditching his Omnic mode completely.

Reinhardt can now fly when charging, making him a bit of a counter to Echo, Mercy and Pharah who normally terrorize the skies.

Genji players can now rejoice! By spamming “I need healing,” the cyborg ninja will actually sometimes heal himself.

Be sure to check out all these fun new additions to the game ahead of Season 4’s launch with a “cute” new support hero later in April.

Full patch notes from Blizzard follow:

DEVELOPER NOTE – TEST PATCH

These changes are only being applied to Arcade Mode for the moment, because Aaron Keller claims he can convene with Pachimari, and they told him to make this patch. He only plays the new arcade modes, so he shouldn’t notice otherwise.

HERO UPDATES

General

Dev Comment: Veteran players have an advantage over newer ones when it comes to voice line recognition. In order to level the playing field, we’ve written and recorded new Ultimate voice lines for every hero.

To help players learn these new callouts, we’ve also increased the amount of Ultimate charge retained when swapping heroes.

• All heroes have new Ultimate Voice Lines.
• Keep 50% of Ultimate Charge when swapping heroes.

Role Passives

Damage:

Dev Comment: It’s frustrating when you dive the backline by yourself and get no healing, especially when your team’s support heroes are busy respawning. This change should help keep you alive, at least.

Heal 50 health on elimination.

Tank:

Dev Comment: Tank heroes are the raid bosses of teams. You should be fairly rewarded for defeating them, right?

• Gain Ultimate charge 10% faster.
• The hero that gets the final blow on a tank gains a significant amount of ultimate charge.

Support:

Dev Comment: It’s tough to stay alive when flankers are about. This change should even out the odds a bit when you get ambushed. Please don’t use this offensively.

Gain 30% increased movement speed for 4 seconds when reaching low health.

Tank

Doomfist

Dev Comment: The empowered Fist can also level a skyscraper or open a glass jar in a single attempt.

• Seismic Slam
  • Can be empowered by Power Block.
  • Damage increased from 50 to 75 when empowered.
  • Enemies hit by the shockwave are launched into the air.

D.Va

Dev Comment: It turns out the beams used to destroy projectiles also really hurt when used on people.

• Defense Matrix
  • After deflecting a projectile, Defense Matrix deals 30 damage to enemies within its area of effect over 1 second.
  • Defense Matrix killing blows grant an additional 5% Ult Charge.

Junker Queen

Dev Comment: Junker Queen yells so loud she damages the eardrums of her foes. Don’t worry though, it’s still a “friendly shout of encouragement” for her allies.

• Commanding Shout
  • Applies a bleed to enemies in range when activated.

Orisa

Dev Comment: It is believed that the threat of Orisa’s aerial body slam is the biggest crime deterrent in Numbani.

• Javelin Spin
  • While in the air, Javelin Spin pulls Orisa forward in her facing direction.
• Fortify
  • Increases falling speed and deals damage in an area when Orisa lands on the ground.

Ramattra

Dev Comment: Ramattra is a lot more effective when he’s in Nemesis Form so he’ll stay like that until everyone has suffered as much as he has.

• Omnic Form
  • Disabled.
• Nemesis Form
  • Ramattra is now always in Nemesis Form.
  • Bonus armor decreased from 225 to 125.
• Void Barrier
  • Moved to Ability 1.
• Block
  • Now has a 1 second cooldown when disengaged.

Reinhardt

Reinhardt Comment: I COULDN’T CHARGE THE ENEMIES THAT WERE IN THE AIR SO I ASKED TORBJORN TO HELP ME OUT. NOW I AM THE ULTIMATE CRUSHING MACHINE EVEN IN THE SKY!!!

• Charge
  • Now grants flight. Hold Jump to float up and Crouch to go down.
  • Steering increased by 33%.

Roadhog

Dev Comment: In order to further align Roadhog as a tank who punishes bad positioning, we’ve increased the range of Hook to make all positioning bad positioning.

• Hook
  • Range increased by 50%.

Sigma

Dev Comment: Gravitic energy is quite potent. If it’s strong enough to lift a giant rock, it can lift anyone.

• Accretion
  • Enemies hit by the impact are knocked back and experience low gravity for 4 seconds.
  • Cooldown decreased from 10 to 8 seconds.

Winston

Dev Comment: Winston!

• Winston?
  • Winston!

Wrecking Ball

Dev Comment: Wrecking Ball unleashes his signature moves that made him the Champion of the Scrapyard battle arena.

• Grappling Claw
  • Maximum speed is temporarily increased when bouncing off walls.
• Minefield
  • Mines slowly move toward nearby enemies.

Zarya

Dev Comment: Gravity gravitates. That’s just science!

• Graviton Surge
  • Moves towards Zarya after deploying.
• Particle Cannon
  • Self-knockback on secondary fire scales with Energy level.

Damage

Ashe

Dev Comment: In order to be more accurate to the fantasy, Dynamite fire now spreads between players.

• Dynamite
  • Fire spreads to nearby enemies up to 4 times.

Bastion

Dev Comment: Bastion downloaded a software update, upgrading “Configuration: Assault” and allowing it to simulate his old “Configuration: Tank” .

• Configuration: Assault
  • While active, Tactical Grenade has a 0.5 second cooldown.

Cassidy

Dev Comment: Cassidy can dodge anything using his cat-like reflexes. It’s a bit rough on his spine, though.

• Combat Roll
  • Now costs regenerating stamina instead of having a cooldown.
  • Dodge all damage when Combat Roll is active.
  • Ammo reloaded decreased from 6 to 2.

Echo

Dev Comment: Echo now uses more of her fingers when shooting enemies.

• Tri Shot
  • Now fires 2 additional projectiles.
• Damage per projectile decreased from 17 to 12.

Genji

Dev Comment: Spamming a voice line for healing finally does something after everyone else has tuned you out!

• Sometimes Genji heals himself when requesting healing.

Hanzo

Dev Comment: Hanzo spent many years mastering the bow and geometry to pull off this feat. It DEFINITELY has nothing to do with magic.

• Storm Arrow
  • Storm arrows ricochet toward the Sonic Arrow.

Junkrat

Dev Comment: Junkrat was a bit careless when packing his grenades so now they spill out of his pockets whenever he knocks himself back.

• Total Mayhem
  • Drop grenades when launching yourself with Concussion Mine

Mei

Dev Comment: We noticed a decrease in Mei players helping their team “group up” in spawn with Ice Wall. This is core to Mei’s gameplay, so we added additional ice pillars to help facilitate it.

• Ice Wall
  • Spawns more pillars and has slightly different configurations.

Pharah

Dev Comment: Rocket Jump? Sounds dangerous. But it is a viable means of travel when you can’t afford enough fuel.

• Rocket Launcher
  • Rockets deal no self-damage and have increased knockback.
• Barrage
  • Pharah can be knocked back while Barrage is active.
  • Barrage rockets now have self-knockback.
• Hover Jets
  • Fuel decreased by 33%.

Reaper

Dev Comment: After getting shot one too many times, Reaper no longer poses in place before teleporting despite it looking very cool.

• Shadow Step
  • Movement is no longer locked after confirming a teleport location.

Soldier: 76

Dev Comment: Why leave it on the ground when you can keep it in your pocket instead?

• Biotic Field
  • Now attached to Soldier: 76 when activated.

Sojourn

Dev Comment: Sojourn hasn’t been performing quite up to our expectations after reducing her one shot potential. To remedy this, we’ve added a very fair stun to her kit .

• Power Slide
  • Now impacts enemies dealing 75 damage, launching them upward, and knocking them down for 1.5 seconds.

Sombra

Dev Comment: As a safety measure, the Translocator will forcibly separate solid objects that have been teleported into each other. Unfortunately, this process is also quite painful.

• Translocator
  • Now deals 120 damage in an area at the teleport destination.
  • Projectile speed increased from 25 to 40.
  • Cooldown decreased from 10 seconds to 6 seconds.

Symmetra

Dev Comment: It turns out there was a setting on Sentry Turrets that lets them immediately target enemies when thrown! Symmetra estimates this change increases their efficiency by 32.33%…repeating, of course.!

• Sentry Turret
  • Turrets can now target enemies while in-flight.
  • Turrets have 60% damage resistance before sticking to terrain.

Torbjörn

Dev Comment: We noticed that Torbjorn relies a little too heavily on his turret to deal consistent damage, so you won’t believe this one simple balance change that fixes that and makes him 1000% overpowered!

• Overload
  • Now also causes Rivet Gun and Forge Hammer to ignite enemies, dealing 30 additional damage over time.

Tracer

Dev Comment: Tracer now leaves a vacuum when she Recalls into the past. We are pretty sure this is how time travel works and will be taking no questions.

• Recall
  • Pulls in nearby enemies when activated.
• Pulse Bomb
  • Arming time increased from 1 second to 2 seconds.

Widowmaker

Dev Comment: Poisonous bullets don’t work as quickly as normal ones do but at least there’s more room for counterplay.

• Widow’s Kiss
  • Critical hits deal their damage over 3 seconds as poison.
  • Widowmaker can see poisoned enemies through walls.

Support

Ana

Dev Comment: Turns out whatever is in those syringes hurts a lot more when applied to the forehead.

• Biotic Rifle
  • Can now headshot enemies.

Baptiste

Dev Comment: Rumor has it that Baptiste is the record holder for both high and long jump.

• Exo Boots
  • Jumping with Exo Boots has more horizontal distance, scaling with the charge amount.
  • Hold Jump after using Exo Boots to keep bouncing.

Brigitte

D ev Comment: Whip Shot now whips YOU! Works better if you say, “wheeeeee” while flailing about.

• Whip Shot
  • Brigitte is pulled towards the flail head.

Kiriko

Dev Comment: Kanezaka is a big town and Kiriko has lots of protecting to do. This change should help her get to where she needs to go in a timely fashion, especially during rush hour.

• Swift Step
  • Range increased from 35 to 350m.
  • Cooldown now scales with distance traveled.

Lucio

Dev Comment: We were alerted that Soundwave was able to knock back entire heroes but couldn’t do anything to projectiles. We’ve corrected this logical inconsistency

• Soundwave
  • Now deflects projectiles.
  • Cooldown decreased from 4 to 3 seconds.

Mercy

Dev Comment: Our stats show that the “Battle Mercy” playstyle isn’t as common as we hoped. Here’s a small change that should nudge her damage potential in the right direction.

• Caduceus Blaster
  • Ammo increased from 25 to 125.
  • Projectile speed increased from 50 to 125.

Moira

Dev Comment: You know that random Orb that killed you from across the map? That was 100% intentional. Biotics Orbs follow Moira’s every command, though they only understand “Stop” and “Go.”

• Biotic Orb
  • Pressing the ability input while Biotic Orbs are active causes them to stop or start moving.

Zenyatta

Dev Comment: Zenyatta calls this technique the “Flying Kick,” but since he’s always floating should it just be called “Kick”?

• Snap Kick
  • Launches Zenyatta in his facing direction when used in the air.