The Overwatch 2 developers have revealed a slew of major changes coming to the game ahead of its release on October 4 including a brand new damage role passive and a huge update to ultimate charge.
Originally, Overwatch 2 included a new passive for damage heroes that granted them increased movement speed. While that was eventually scrapped in favor of ultimate charge being refunded when switching to a new hero, that has, once again, been altered.
In a September 21 blog post, Blizzard outlined a series of changes that will be live when the game releases and they’re going back to the drawing board in terms of how they give DPS heroes a bit of a boost.
The change comes because the prior passive that let DPS players keep some ultimate charge when switching heroes is now being applied to all roles.
New Overwatch 2 ultimate changes revealed
Now, when players of any role change heroes, up to 30% of their ultimate charge will be refunded. The devs explained that this decision came after receiving tons of fan feedback.
“Upon announcing the change for up to 30% ultimate power to transfer when swapping DPS heroes, we saw a lot of feedback asking why that wasn’t a broader change for all heroes,” they said. “After continued testing, we agree, and are making a change so the entire roster should have access to as we launch.”
It will be very interesting to see how this plays out, especially considering the devs have stressed that many players don’t really switch heroes as often as some would have thought.
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This universal change also meant that DPS heroes no longer had a unique role passive so the devs have created a new one and it’s absolutely bonkers.
DPS heroes receive new OW2 role passive
Going forward, when a DPS hero gets an elimination they will get a small buff in the form of a 25% increased reload and movement speed for 2.5 seconds.
While this won’t stack upon multiple eliminations, it will, however, refresh the cooldown, something the devs say is a step in the right direction.
“We believe that this change is the right balance of rewarding players who perform well in the Damage role without being overpowered,” they explained. “However, in future seasons, we may continue to experiment with what these passives do as we look to shake up the meta regularly.”
Many of the other changes are hero specific and were leaked ahead of the Overwatch League’s return.
Players can test out all these changes and more once Overwatch 2 finally launches on October 4.