All Overwatch 2 Hero changes and reworks

There are plenty of Overwatch 2 Hero changes and reworks that you need to be aware of if you’re familiar with Overwatch 1, as almost every Hero has been updated. Some have had only slight adjustments while others have gone through major reworks to completely alter their playstyle, bringing them into Overwatch 2’s more frenetic gameplay and 5v5, single Tank team composition. Most notably Doomfist is much less lethal but is also a Tanks, and Orisa sports a fancy new javelin Ability and Ultimate. Some important overarching changes have also been made with Overwatch 2, including the new Temporary Health and Armor rules, the introduction of Role Passives to make Hero classes feel more specialized, and Ultimate charge refunds for Hero swapping. We’ve got all the details on every Overwatch 2 Hero change and rework listed below.

Overwatch 2 hero changes

Overwatch 2 is introducing a few important changes to general gameplay that might confuse you if you’re a returning player:

• Swapping to another Hero during a match refunds up to 30% of your Ultimate charge.
• Armor (represented as orange sections of a character’s health bar) now reduces instances of damage taken by 30% instead of reducing each hit by five damage like before. This damage reduction effect applies to all damage sources equally.
• Temporary Shields and Temporary Armor have been consolidated into Temporary Health which is represented with a bright green color on a player’s health bar. Hero Abilities, such as Lucio’s Sound Barrier Ultimate, Junker Queen’s Commanding Shout Ability, and Doomfist’s The Best Defense Passive now grant Temporary Health instead of Temporary Armor or Shields. Players that deal damage to enemies with Temporary Health will gain Ultimate Ability charge at half the usual rate.

Returning players should also make sure they have Overwatch 2 cross-progression and account merging activated to keep all their Hero unlocks and stats.

New Overwatch 2 Role Passives

Another big change for Overwatch 2 is the introduction of Role-based Passive Abilities. All Heroes now get an extra passive perk based purely on which role they’re grouped into – Damage, Tank, or Support:

• Damage: Getting an elimination as a Damage Hero now grants a 25% increase to your reload and movement speed for 2.5 seconds. Getting another elimination within the 2.5 second duration will just refresh the timer and the passive buff cannot stack.
• Tank: Tank Heroes receive 30% less knockback and enemies gain 30% less Ultimate charge when dealing damage to a Tank. However, allies also gain 30% less Ultimate charge when healing a friendly Tank and Ultimate charge gain from self-healing suffers the same penalty. See how the Tanks stack up against each other in our Overwatch 2 Tank tier list.
• Support: All support characters gradually regenerate health after taking no damage for a short time. The health regeneration rate is 15HP/second, and it kicks in after 1.5 seconds.

All Overwatch 2 Hero changes and reworks

Ana changes

• Biotic Rifle: Magazine size has been increased from 12 to 15.
• Biotic Grenade: Effect duration has been reduced from 4 to 3 seconds.
• Sleep Dart: Cooldown has been increased from 12 to 15 seconds.

Ashe changes

• BOB: BOB’s base health has been reduced from 1200 to 1000

Baptiste changes

• Biotic Launcher: Primary Fire damage has been increased from 24 to 25 and the minimum falloff range has been increased from 20 to 25 meters. The healing grenade Secondary Fire has had its magazine size increased from 10 to 13.
• Regenerative Burst: The burst now heals 50 health instantly and an additional 50 over time, instead of 100 over time. Additionally, the instant heal portion will be doubled on targets whose health is at 50% or lower health, but the burst does not heal Baptiste for double anymore.

Bastion changes

• The Self-Repair Ability and Configuration: Tank Ultimate have been removed.
• Configuration: Recon: Weapon damage has been increased from 20 to 25, the fire rate has been reduced from 8 shots per second to 5, and the magazine size has been reduced from 35 to 25. The weapon has also had its spread removed.
• Configuration: Assault: This feature has been renamed from Configuration: Sentry. Configuration: Assault now has a 6-second duration and 12-second cooldown. During this time, Bastion can move with a 35% movement speed reduction but the minigun weapon has infinite ammo. The weapon’s damage has been reduced from 15 to 12 per shot, but the spread is now a constant two degrees and no longer becomes more accurate as you fire.
• A-36 Tactical Grenade: This is a new Ability for Bastion that has an 8-second cooldown and is bound to the Secondary Fire button. Fire out a grenade that can bounce off walls but sticks to players and the ground. The grenade explodes after a short delay and deals up to 130 damage.
• Ironclad: Passive that grants you 20% damage reduction while transformed in Bastion’s Assault or Artillery configurations. This passive was previously disabled but has been re-enabled.
• Configuration: Artillery: A new Ultimate for Bastion that replaces the Tank configuration. When used, Bastion is locked in place and transforms into an artillery cannon, allowing you to target three areas with one artillery shell each that deals high damage in a large area with significant damage falloff. Targeting the shells works similarly to Doomfist’s Meteor Strike Ultimate. Once you’ve chosen the three target areas, the shells fall straight down from the air and can pass through ceilings, but they are projectiles that can be blocked or destroyed by Abilities.

Brigitte changes

• Shield Bash: No longer stuns enemies but has had its cooldown reduced from 7 to 5 seconds, damage increased from 1 to 50, and has had its knockback effect doubled. The distance traveled from Shield Bash has also increased from 7 meters to 12 and Brigitte’s movement is no longer stopped by shield-bashing into a barrier.
• Inspire: Duration has been reduced from 6 to 5 seconds but can also be triggered with Shield Bash.

Cassidy changes

• The Flashbang Ability has been removed.
• Peacekeeper: The Fan the Hammer Secondary Fire for Cassidy’s revolver has had its fire rate increased by around 7.5%.
• Magnetic Grenade: A new ability that replaces Flashbang. Throw a grenade that can stick to enemies. The grenade has light tracking capabilities if it is thrown at an enemy that is within 10 meters of you and near your aiming crosshair. After a short time, the grenade will detonate, dealing up to 131 damage. The damage is split between 1 impact damage, 65 explosion damage, and an additional 65 damage to whichever enemy the grenade sticks to. It will detonate in mid-air if it does not track to an enemy player or stick to anything after it travels 10 meters. 
• Combat Roll: Cassidy now gains 50% damage reduction for the 0.4 seconds it takes to roll.
• Deadeye: Cassidy now benefits from 40% damage reduction while channeling Deadeye and the maximum duration has been increased from 6 to 7 seconds. Furthermore, the damage for each Deadeye shot now increases at a rate of 130 damage-per-second for the first two seconds and then at 260 damage-per-second for the remaining duration five seconds. However, Deadeye’s cost has been increased by 10%.

D.Va changes

• Mech base Health has been increased from 300 to 350.
• Fusion Cannons: The movement penalty while firing the cannons has been reduced from 50% to 40% and the spread has been reduced from 4 to 3.5 degrees.
• Boosters: Impact damage has been increased from 10 to 25.
• Micro Missiles: Cooldown has been reduced from 8 to 7 seconds.
• Call Mech: Ultimate cost has been reduced by 12%.

Doomfist changes

• Now a Tank Hero instead of Damage.
• Health has been increased from 250 to 450.
• The Rising Uppercut Ability has been removed.
• Hand Cannon: Pellet damage has been reduced from 6 to 5 but the ammo regeneration rate has been increased from one shot every 0.65 seconds to every 0.4 seconds.
• Rocket Punch: Impact damage range has been reduced from 50 – 100 damage to 15 - 30 damage and the wall slam damage range has been reduced from 50 – 150 damage to 20 - 40 damage. The maximum charge time has also been reduced from 1.4 seconds to 1 second. Finally, impacting a target now causes a secondary larger cone area check to grab extra targets to potentially knock them back as well.
• Power Block: A new defensive Ability for Doomfist. Enter a blocking stance, reducing damage taken from the front by 80%. Blocking at least 90 damage causes Doomfist’s gauntlet to become supercharged, empowering the next Rocket Punch with 50% more damage, 50% extra distance, and 50% extra speed. The area-of-effect blast that knocks back additional targets with an empowered Rocket Punch is also twice as large and enemies that hit a wall from a Rocket Punch can be stunned for up to 1 second depending on Rocket Punch charge amount.
• Seismic Slam: Now launches Doomfist into the air in the direction the player is aiming and creates a wide arc shockwave upon landing, dealing 50 damage to enemies. It no longer has different behavior between being activated in the air or on the ground and doesn’t pull enemies in closer, but it can be canceled mid-use by pressing the ability key again.

Echo changes

• Focusing Beam: The maximum damage-per-second has been reduced from 200 to 175.
• Duplicate: When copying an enemy Hero with her Ultimate, Echo copies the target’s combined health value, including health, armor, and shields, up to total of 300 health. This means if she copies a Tank hero with a large health pool such as Reinhardt or Roadhog, her copy will be capped at just 300 health.

Genji changes

• No changes to Genji.

Hanzo changes

• Storm Arrows: Damage has been reduced from 70 to 65.

Junker Queen changes

If you need some help learning how Junker Queen's kit works, you can read our Overwatch 2 Junker Queen tips guide. We've go the details on all here abilities below:

• Scatter Gun: Pump action shotgun that deals high damage up close.
• Adrenaline Rush: This Passive causes you to heal from any damage over time you deal with wounds. Wounds are inflicted by hitting an enemy with Jagged Blade, Quick Melee, Carnage, and Rampage.
• Jagged Blade: This Secondary Fire ability causes you to lob out a large knife that deals moderate damage on a hit and sticks into enemies, wounding them and dealing a small amount of extra damage over time. Pressing Secondary Fire again, or waiting a few seconds, recalls the knife and pulls in an enemy that you’ve impaled. Enemies that get in the way of the knife as it flies back to your hand are not impaled but are still wounded and suffer damage over time. There’s a 6-second cooldown on throwing the knife again. Junker Queen’s regular Quick Melee also wounds and deals damage over time.
• Commanding Shout: Briefly give yourself and nearby allies Temporary Health and increased movement speed. Junker Queen gains 200 Temporary Health and the movement speed boost for 5 seconds, while allies within 15 meters only gain 50 Temporary Health and the movement speed boost for 3 seconds. This Ability has a 15-second cooldown time.
• Carnage: Swing a large axe to deal high damage and wound all enemies in front of you, dealing further damage over time. This Ability has an 8-second cooldown time.
• Rampage: Rapidly charge 25 meters forward and wound enemies in a 5-meter radius, dealing damage over time. Enemies you hit also can’t be healed for several seconds.

Junkrat changes

• Frag Launcher: The size of the launcher’s projectiles has been increased from 0.2 to 0.25.
• Steel Trap: The trap has had its damage increased from 80 to 100 when it catches an enemy and it has a faster projectile speed of 15, up from 10.

Kiriko

Kiriko is the first Hero to be unlocked through the new Battle Pass in Overwatch 2:

• Healing Ofuda: Kiriko’s Primary Fire release a long burst of healing talismans that can slightly track towards allies and provide a good amount of healing in a short time – a full burst of 10 talismans will provide about 130 Health.
• Kunai: Throw out kunai projectiles that deal high critical damage with Kiriko’s Secondary Fire.
• Wall Climb: With this Passive, you can jump at walls to climb them, exactly like Genji and Hanzo.
• Swift Step: Use this Ability to quickly teleport to an ally within range. It has a 7-second cooldown time.
• Protection Suzu: With this Ability, you can toss out a protective charm that applies the following benefits to allies caught in its blast, including yourself: adds a brief invulnerability effect, heals 50 Health, and cleanses of most negative effects and debuffs from enemies. The charm shatters when it hits any surface, including friendly and enemy players, and enemy players even suffer a small amount of knockback when hit by the suzu charm. This Ability has a 14-second cooldown.
• Kitsune Rush: Kirkio’s Ultimate lets her summon a fox spirit that rushes ahead, leaving a trail that you and your allies can follow to gain temporary boosts to your movement speed, attack speed, and Ability cooldowns.

Lucio changes

• Sound Barrier: Ultimate cost has been reduced by 12%.
• Crossfade: Self-healing penalty has been increased from 30% to 60% to balance it with the new Support Role Passive.

Mei changes

• Endothermic Blaster: The blaster now immediately slows targets by a constant 50% instead of building up over time, and the Freeze stun has been removed. The slowing effect has also had its duration reduced from 1 second to 0.5 seconds, but the weapon has had its damage-per-second increased from 55 to 100 and its magazine capacity increased from 120 to 150.
• Cryo-Freeze: Using Cryo-Freeze no longer removes the effects of Sigma’s Gravitic Flux Ultimate.
• Ice Wall: The health of each pillar has been reduced from 400 to 250. The wall’s range has also been reduced from 35 to 20 meters.
• Blizzard: Has had its Ultimate cost increased by 15%.

Mercy changes

• Guardian Angel: Pressing Crouch during Guardian Angel now launches you vertically, while pressing Jump launches you in the direction Mercy is facing, or in the opposite direction if you are holding the backwards directional input. When using Guardian Angel, a new meter appears that charges up the further you travel with Guardian Angel. The more charge the meter has, the faster the launch you’ll get from cancelling Guardian Angel with a jump.
• Angelic Descent: Can now be activated by holding Crouch while airborne and slows your ascent speed as well as descent speed.
• Regeneration: Passive now improves the self-healing effect of the Support Role Passive by 50%.

Moira changes

• No changes to Moira.

Orisa changes

• Base health has been increased from 200 to 275.
• Base armor has been increased from 200 to 275.
• The Halt! Secondary Fire, Protective Barrier Ability, and Supercharger Ultimate have been removed.
• Augmented Fusion Driver: The Primary Fire now shoots 10 plasma projectiles per second. Their damage starts at 12 and scales down to 6 damage over 15 to 25 meters, but critical hits deal 100% extra damage. Instead of using ammo, this weapon now has an overheat mechanic, building up heat as it fires and cooling of when not firing. If the weapon overheats, heat is forcibly vented, preventing the weapon from being fired for 3 seconds.
• Energy Javelin: This is Orisa’s new Secondary Fire and replaces Halt!. She throws a spear that deals 60 damage, stuns for 0.2 seconds and knocks the target back on a hit. If the target is knocked into a wall, they take 40 more damage and are stunned for an extra 0.3 seconds. The cooldown is 6 seconds.
• Fortify: Provides 125 extra health and reduces heat generation from the Augmented Fusion Driver by 50% while active. The duration of Fortify has also been increased from 4 to 4.5 seconds.
• Javelin Spin:  A new Ability that replaces Protective Barrier. Orisa rapidly spins a spear for 1.75 seconds, destroying incoming projectiles. While active, she moves forward 50% faster which then decreases to 20% faster for two seconds after the spinning ends. Enemies caught in the spear take up to 90 damage and are constantly knocked back. This Ability has a 7-second cooldown.
• Terra Surge: A new Ultimate that replaces the Supercharger. Orisa spins a spear on the spot, becoming fortified and pulling in nearby enemies. She also charges up an area-of-effect attack over 4 seconds which can be released at any time over those 4 seconds, dealing up to 500 damage based on how long it was charged. While the attack is charging, Terra Surge deals minor damage over time and slows nearby enemy movement speed by 30%.

Pharah changes

• Rocket Launcher: Reload now starts 0.25 seconds sooner when out of ammo.
• Concussive Blast: Direct hits with the blast now deal 30 damage and additional knockback.

Reaper changes

• Hellfire Shotguns: Pellet spread has been increased 6 to 7 degrees and the damage per pellet has been reduced from 6 to 5.4.

Reinhardt changes

• Base armor increased from 200 to 300.
• Base health increased from 300 to 325.
• The Steadfast Passive has been removed in favor of the Tank Role Passive.
• Barrier Field: Barrier health reduced from 1600 to 1200 and the regeneration rate has been reduced reduced from 200 to 144 health per second.
• Charge: The steering turn rate has been increased by 50% while charging and a charge can be manually canceled by pressing the Ability button again after a short delay. The damage caused by charging a pinned enemy into a wall has been reduced from 300 to 225 but Charge’s cooldown has been lowered from 10 seconds to 8 seconds.
• Fire Strike: Now has two Ability charges but its damage has been reduced from 100 to 90.

Roadhog changes

• Base health increased from 600 to 700.
• Take a Breather: Total healing gained has been increased from 300 to 350 health.
• Whole Hog: Roadhog’s Ultimate has changed from a ‘Channeled’ Ultimate into a ‘Transform’ Ultimate, which means it’s behaviour changes in a few ways: The weapon no longer automatically fires and can only be fired using the Primary Fire button, normal Abilities can now be used during Whole Hog without canceling the ultimate and being stunned no longer cancels Whole Hog.

Sigma changes

• Base shields increased from 100 to 200.
• Accretion: Damage has been increased from 70 to 100.
• Experimental Barrier: Barrier health regeneration rate has been reduced from 120 to 100 health per second.

Sojourn changes

Sojourn is a new Hero for Overwatch 2 and all of her abilities are listed below:

• Railgun: The Railgun’s Primary Fire rapidly shoots small projectiles (14 per second) that generate Energy with each hit. You can generate up to 100 Energy and the amount you generate per shot varies based on what exactly you hit – for example, critical hits generate more energy than normal and hitting non-player targets, such as turrets, generates much less. The Railgun also has a Secondary Fire mode where you can spend all your Energy on a powerful, precision Railgun shot. The size and damage of this shot scales with how much Energy you have stored, where more Energy means more damage and a slightly larger projectile.
• Disruptor Shot: Launch a ball of energy that creates a slowing and damaging area on impact. Disruptor Shot’s cooldown is 15 seconds.
• Power Slide: A fast knee-slide that travels far but can also be interrupted with a jump to reach much higher than usual. It has a 6-second cooldown.
• Overclock: Activate this Ultimate to give Sojourn's Railgun automatic Energy generation for 8 seconds. During this time, the charged Secondary Fire Railgun shot can also pierce enemies. 

Soldier: 76 changes

• Heavy Pulse Rifle: Damage per shot has been reduced from 20 to 18.
• Sprint: Movement speed boost has been reduced from 50 to 40%.
• Tactical Visor: Now allows for critical hits, if a shot would have been a critical hit outside his ultimate, but also no longer removes damage falloff from his Heavy Pulse Rifle.

Sombra changes

• Machine Pistol: Bullet damage has been reduced from 8 to 7, but the spread has been reduced by 10%.
• Hack: Hacking an enemy now reveals them through walls for you and your team for 8 seconds, and prevents them from using their abilities for 1.75 seconds. Hack’s cooldown has also been reduced from 8 to 4 seconds. However, the time to complete a hack has been increased from 0.65 seconds to 0.85 seconds and having your Hack interrupted by taking damage causes you to wait for the full Hack cooldown. Furthermore, the Hack cooldown is no longer reduced when hacking health packs and the health pack hack duration has been reduced from 60 to 30 seconds. Hacking BOB also stuns him for just 2 seconds (down from 5 seconds) but Baptiste’s Immortality Field is completely destroyed if it gets hacked.
• Stealth: The fade-in time has been reduced by 50% and you can now use Hack without ending Stealth. However, hacking while in Stealth will reveal you to enemies and you’ll remain revealed for an additional 0.75 seconds. The distance at which enemies will detect you has also been increased from 2 meters to 4 meters and the movement speed bonus has been reduced from 65% to 50%.
• Opportunist: Sombra’s Passive now also means damage dealt to hacked targets is increased by 40%.
• EMP: In addition to hacking, the EMP Ultimate now also deals damage equal to 40% of each affected targets’ current health. While EMP still deals massive damage to barriers, it no longer deals additional damage to base shield health pools.

Symmetra changes

• Photon Projector: The weapon’s ammo capacity has been increased from 70 to 100. When using the Primary Fire, it no longer generates ammo when damaging barriers. The Secondary Fire projectiles have also been changed in the following ways: Their speed has been doubled from 25 to 50, their maximum damage has been reduced from 120 to 90 (split equally between impact and explosion damage), the ammo cost for each projectile has been increased from 7 to 10, and the projectile radius has been increased from 0.4 meters to 0.5 meters.
• Teleporter: The Teleporter’s build time has been reduced from 2 seconds to 1 second, and it now has a maximum lifespan of 10 seconds. The cooldown has also been increased from 10 seconds to 12 seconds but this cooldown starts as soon as the Teleporter is placed. Its Health Pool has also been lowered from 300 to 200 – 50 Health and 150 Shields.
• Sentry Turrets: The travel speed of the turrets has been increased from 15 to 20, but the movement speed reduction that enemies suffer when being zapped by a turret has been reduce from 15% per turret to 20%.

Torbjorn changes

• Rivet Gun: Fire recovery for the gun’s Primary Fire has been reduced from 0.6 to 0.55 seconds. It has also been reduced from 0.8 to 0.7 seconds for the Secondary Fire.

Tracer changes

• Pulse Pistols: Damage has been reduced from 6 to 5.

Widowmaker changes

• Base health increased from 175 to 200.

Winston changes

• Base armor increased from 150 to 200.
• Tesla Cannon: Now has a Secondary Fire mode. Charge and release a jolt of electricity that deals up to 50 damage, consumes up to 12 ammo, and has 30 meters of range
• Barrier Projector: The barrier’s health has been increased from 650 to 700 and its cooldown has been lowered from 13 to 12 seconds, but the barrier’s duration has been reduced from 9 to 8 seconds.
• Primal Rage: Ultimate cost has been increased by 10%.

Wrecking Ball changes

• Base armor increased from 100 to 150.
• Base health increased from 500 to 550.
• Adaptive Shield: The radius has been increased from 8 to 10 meters and the Temporary Health gained per target has been increased from 75 to 100 health.
• Roll: Knockback dealt by Roll has been increased by 36%.

Zarya changes

• Base health increased from 200 to 250.
• Base shields increased from 200 to 225.
• Particle Barrier and Projected Barrier now share a two-charge system and both abilities have a 10-second cooldown.
• Particle Barrier: The barrier's duration has been increased from 2 to 2.5 seconds and the cooldown now begins immediately after using it instead of when the barrier expires.
• Projected Barrier: The barrier's duration has been increased from 2 to 2.5 seconds and the cooldown now begins immediately after using it instead of when the barrier expires. Allies that you apply a barrier to cannot be targeted again by the ability for 2 seconds.
• Graviton Surge: Duration has been reduced from 4 to 3.5 seconds.
• Energy: The rate at which Zarya’s Passive Energy for her Particle Cannon decreases over time has increased from 1.8 to 2.2 Energy per second.

Zenyatta changes

• Orb of Discord: The orb will now fall off its target when not within line of sight after 2 seconds instead of 3 seconds.
• Snap Kick: A new Passive for Zenyatta that increases his Quick Melee attack damage by 50% and significantly increases its knockback.