Overwatch 2 Season 9 Promises HP Buffs, Passive Healing, And Revamped Competitive Mode
Overwatch 2 will be receiving a huge game-changing update when Season 9 begins next week. The update will not only throw a gigantic wrench into the current meta but will drastically change the overall combat dynamics.
Apart from the addition of the highly criticized self-healing abilities, Season 9 will also buff the health pool of all 39 heroes in the multiplayer shooter’s roster. Glass cannons, such as Tracer, will see a 25 HP increase while tank heroes, like Winston and Reinhardt, will get an additional 75-100 HP. To balance things out, Blizzard will also be increasing projectile size and attack speed for almost all heroes, with Reindhardt and his massive hammer being one of the exceptions.
“One of our main goals with these adjustments is to make firing your weapons and abilities feel more consistent without impacting the time to eliminate a target, without removing the overall feel of gameplay we all know and love,” Blizzard explained.
The changes will also ensure that players don’t die from one quick burst of damage while also increasing the time it takes to heal a dying hero back to full health. Blizzard says that it will take at least one more hit to eliminate an enemy hero, compared to the current health values.
As previously announced, all heroes will also receive passive healing abilities. Tanks and DPS heroes will recover 20 HP per second after five seconds of not taking damage, while support heroes will start regenerating health after 2.5 seconds. To keep match lengths roughly the same, DPS heroes will also be updated with a new passive ability that will reduce the amount of healing that an enemy they’re dealing damage to receives by 20%.
The new DPS passive will also force support heroes to adapt their playstyle from full-blown heal bombing to clutch healing and making sure that their allies have damage superiority. The passive healing and longer health bars will also force DPS heroes to work with their team instead of going off on their own to gank someone.
Season 9 will also feature a revamped competitive mode and will kick off with a rank reset. Players will be required to complete 10 placement matches when the new season begins. Subsequent end-of-match screens will show a progress bar that will track how far or close you are to the next rank, as well as details on why you made or lost progress called “modifiers.” These modifiers include winning or losing streaks and match handicaps.
How well the changes will be received, however, is still up in the air, but we should be able to get the pulse of the community when Season 9 officially begins on February 13. In the meantime you can learn more about the upcoming changes in this comprehensive dev blog.
