Overwatch 2 Season 6 Patch: Release Date, Hero Balance Changes, More

Overwatch 2 Season 6 Invasion is all set to launch on 10^th August with loads of new features including Story Missions, Co-Op Event Missions, New Flashpoint Game Mode, Hero Mastery Missions, and more.

Along with this, Blizzard has planned on tweaking nearly half of the heroes, hence plenty of hero balance changes will be coming to Overwatch 2 next season.

The complete information about these hero changes will be provided in the patch notes for Season 6. However, in the latest edition of Director's Take, some of the more important ones have been highlighted by Aaron Keller - Game Director of Overwatch 2.

Overwatch 2 Season 6 Patch: Upcoming Hero Balance Changes

The developers are gearing for the biggest season ever in the history of Overwatch 2 and this includes more than half the heroes undergoing a balance change.

Some of the major changes that will be made to specific heroes have been listed below.

Cassidy

Magnetic Grenade: Maximum Range Will Reduce

• The travel time of this ability has been shortened quite a bit and capped at 1.5 seconds.

Health Buff

• The base health for the hero will be increased.

Damage Falloff

• Some unmentioned changes will also take place for the hero in this regard.

Torbjorn

Primary Weapon: Increase Fire Rate

• After his turret was nerfed last patch, his primary fire will receive an increase in fire rate and weapon swap speed.

Soldier:76

Helix Rocket: Damage Reduce

• The hero received a buff in the last patch, but to lower his overall damage output the burst ability will undergo damage reduction.

Tactical Visor: Increase Cost

• It will take longer to bring his ultimate ability online by increasing the cost, reducing the frequency of the hero going all out to hammer the enemies.

Orisa

Fortify: Bonus Health

• The 75 overhealth will be increased to 125 providing the tank with a bit more sustain.

Reduce Damage Falloff

• The falloff damage will be delayed slightly which extends the duration for which the hero can dish out consistent damage.

Lifeweaver

Tree of Life: Ability Change

• The ultimate ability will be undergoing a change with part of its healing now being converted into overhealth, up to a maximum of 100 health per player.

Rejuvenating Dash: Healing Increase

• The self health regeneration from this ability will be increased while some of his health will be converted to shield.

Kiriko

Protection Suzu: Ability Change

The ability will now provide no healing unless a negative effect is being cleansed, upon which burst heal will be provided.

Mercy

Caduceus Staff: Damage Nerf

The damage amplification will be reduced from 30% to 25%.

Sombra, Ramattra, Doomfist, Bastion

No specific details about these four heroes have been provided but certain loose information has been given.

Sombra will be undergoing a few small changes in this update, but a major rework in Overwatch 2 Season 7, including the introduction of a new ability.

Ramattra and Doomfist will now block more effectively as they will reduce stuck damage.

Bastion's ability kit will undergo some kind of a change to make him more fluid while also increasing the potential of his Tactical Grenade.

These are some of the major hero balance changes coming to Overwatch 2 with the Season 6 update which is slated to release on 10^th August.

Overwatch 2 Season 6 Update - Release Date

• 10^th August 2023, Thursday

Overwatch 2 Season 6 Update - Release Time

• 23:45 IST (Indian Standard Time)

• 11:15 PT (Pacific Time)

• 21:15 GMT (Greenwich Mean Time)

• 20:15 CEST (Central European Summer Time)

• 16:15 ET (Eastern Time)

• 13:00 CT (Central Time)

Apart from all this, Aaron also made two things very clear that will be implemented in Overwatch 2 Season 6.

1. Unlike last time when Lifeweaver was released, the new upcoming support hero is going to be "exciting and impactful" since the first day.

   "It’s not our intent to release a hero that’s way overpowered, but we’d prefer that people play her because she brings value, not just because she’s new," states Aaron, adding that they will keep a close eye on her and roll out early changes if necessary.

2. The way in which damage against armor is calculated will be undergoing a change. Earlier, armor damage reduction used to be multiplicative with other similar sources, but going forward it will be additive in nature.

   This way certain heroes that were more difficult to damage since they were bypassing the damage reduction cap will now be easier to take down. According to Aaron, this change will mostly affect Ramattra and Orisa.

All of this can be expected in Overwatch 2 with the next update which is going to be huge in terms of both its size and impact. It will be interesting to see how the community reacts to the gargantuan amount of features and changes headed their way.