Wild Overwatch 2 April Fools Patch Notes Are Actually Real

1 year ago 104

Well, they’re actually sort of real. As many companies have done over the years, the Overwatch team at Blizzard has decided to kick off April Fools Day a bit early with their “very serious” patch notes. They contain a handful of jokes and absurd changes, but it turns out that these changes will be applied to Arcade Mode.

The notes start by saying that every character will get new callouts for their ultimate to balance the playing field for new players who don’t have the callouts memorized. Also good for new players is the change where you get to keep 50% of Ultimate charge after switching characters. It only gets wackier from there.

On top of those sweeping changes, the patch notes have new passives for each role. Tanks gain Ultimate charge 10% faster and anyone who lands the final blow on a tank gets a large amount of Ultimate charge.

The passive for damage is 50 health on elimination. The dev comment is the best part of this note:

“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.”

Supports are not forgotten with a 30% movement speed buff for four seconds when they’re at low health. The dev comment talks about using this to help supports evade flankers, but they also jokingly warn players to not use the buff offensively.

With the overall and role-specific notes out of the way, it’s time to get to the individual character changes.

Doomfist
- 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
- 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
- Commanding Shout
  - Applies a bleed to enemies in range when activated
Orisa
- 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
- Omnic Form Disabled
- Ramatta is now always in Nemesis Form
- Bonus armor decreased from 225 to 125
- Void Barrier
  - Move to ability 1
- Block
  - Now has a 1 second cooldown when disengaged
Reinhardt
- Charge
  - Now grants flight. Hold Jump to float up and Crouch to go down
  - Steering increased by 33%
Roadhog
- Chain Hook
  - Range increased by 50%
Sigma
- Accretion
  - Enemies hit by the impact are knocked back and experience low gravity for 4 seconds
  - Cooldown decreased from 10 to 8 seconds
Winston
- Winston?
- Winston!
Wrecking Ball
- Grappling Claw
  - Maximum speed is temporarily increased when bouncing off walls
- Minefield
  - Mines slowly move toward nearby enemies
Zarya
- Graviton Surge
  - Moves towards Zarya after deploying
- Particle Cannon
  - Self-knockback on secondary fire scales with Energy level.
Ashe
- Dynamite
  - Fire spreads to nearby enemies up to 4 times
Bastion
- Configuration: Assault
  - While active, Tactical Grenade has a 0.5 second cooldown
Cassidy
- 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
- Tri Shot
  - Now fires 2 additional projectiles
  - Damage per projectile decreased from 17 to 12
Genji
- Sometimes Genji heals himself when requesting healing
Hanzo
- Storm Arrow
  - Storm arrows ricochet toward the Sonic Arrow
Junkrat
- Total Mayhem
  - Drop grenades when launching yourself with Concussion Mine
Mei
- Ice Wall
  - Spawns more pillars and has slightly different configurations
Pharah
- 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
- Shadow Step
  - Movement is no longer locked after confirming a teleport location
Sojourn
- Power Slide
  - Now impacts enemies dealing 75 damage, launching them upward, and knocking them down for 1.5 seconds
Soldier: 76
- Biotic Field
  - Now attached to Soldier: 76 when activated
Sombra
- 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
Torbjorn
- Overload
  - Now also causes Rivet Gun and Forge Hammer to ignite enemies, dealing 30 additional damage over time
Tracer
- Recall
  - Pulls in nearby enemies when activated
- Pulse Bomb
  - Arming time increased from 1 second to 2 seconds
Widowmaker
- Widow’s Kiss
  - Critical hits deal their damage over 3 seconds as poison
  - Widowmaker can see poisoned enemies through walls
Ana
- Biotic Rifle
  - Can now headshot enemies
Baptiste
- 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
- Whip Shot
  - Brigitte is pulled towards the flail head
Kiriko
- Swift Step
  - Range increased from 35 to 350m
  - Cooldown now scales with distance traveled
Lucio
- Soundwave
  - Now deflects projectiles
  - Cooldown decreased from 4 to 3 seconds
Mercy
- Caduceus Blaster
  - Ammo increased from 25 to 125
  - Projectile speed increased from 50 to 125
Moira
- Biotic Orb
  - Pressing the ability input while Biotic Orbs are active causes them to stop or start moving
Zenyatta
- Snap Kick
  - Launches Zenyatta in his facing direction when used in the air

Sadly (or fortunately), these changes will only be active in Arcade Mode for a limited time. Since this is an April Fools joke, don’t expect these changes to stick around for too long. Don’t forget to jump on this weekend for some April Fools Day fun.