Overwatch 2 Game Lead Announces Hotfix for Problem Heroes

We're getting possible hero changes for Roadhog, Sojourn and more!

Overwatch Game Design Lead Aaron Keller tweeted a post stating that their team are looking to adjust certain heroes in the meta. The balance update releases near the end of the week.

This update came less than a week after the Season 2 changes were implemented. It's great that the developers are still actively working at balancing their hero roster. Many fans found the latest patch ineffective at solving long-time grievances towards playable characters like Sojourn, who still feels frustrating to play against.

The team is looking at potential changes to Sojourn, Doomfist, Ramattra, Roadhog and Tracer with the planned balance changes coming later this week. https://t.co/zzZ9X3OYER

— Aaron Keller (@aaronkellerOW) December 13, 2022

So why are these heroes the target for balance updates so early into the competitive season?

Sojourn's Railgun alt-fire shoots a hitscan beam whose headshot damage was nerfed at the start of Season 2. The developers intended the change to encourage Sojourn players to fight at midrange, making her an easier target. And they succeeded in a sense. This nerf made her a stronger pick in midrange gunfights. However, it resulted in Mercy's damage boost being used more often to offset her damage falloff. So far, the core problem of her kit doesn't seem fixed at all.

Many players have complained about the absolutely obscene power-up The Successor got in the last patch. If you've ever experienced getting spawn-camped by an overly zealous, near-unhittable disruptor Doomfist, you aren't the only one. Doomfist mains in the early days of Overwatch 2's launch were asking for a properly-sized buff, but it looks like the Blizzard dev's overcorrected.

Boasting faster Hand Cannon reloads, shorter cooldowns and less reliance on wall slams, Talon's warmongering leader is meaner than ever. And he's just one of the tanks that are performing well so far this season.

If you're willing to take advantage of the current state of the “tank meta”, here's our quick guide on Doomfist.

Ramattra's entry into Overwatch's hero roster has been relatively well-received. That is to say, he isn't that broken thankfully. But putting aside fears of a possible “powercreep”, there is the issue of survivability. Players have observed how Null Sector's leader feels fairly easy to send back to spawn. And that's with his Block's ability to reduce a whopping 75% of all frontal damage.

We haven't gotten any updates about how Ramattra's winrate looks at higher tiers of play, but seeing as he's up for a hotfix, we can assume that his performance could be improved.

Roadhog's “Chain Hook-Scrap Gun-Melee” combo has had an enormous portion of the playerbase scratching their heads right now. How can a tank (with the largest HP pool in the tank role) have the capability to basically one-shot an enemy with less than 250 HP?

What's worse is that even if you survived getting uncomfortable close with Junkrat's BFF, you're already facing down the rest of the enemy team's barrel. All things considering, we're hoping for something substantial to stop Roadhog's rampage and take him down a few (hundred) notches.

Lastly, Tracer is also on deck for her general performance. The hero used to have a bug that didn't give her any damage falloff past 10 meters. Now that it was patched out, her Pulse Pistols have been buffed to pack a bigger punch. Recent playtests have people thinking that the unnecessary damage buff wasn't required to compensate for the range problem.

Time will tell if she's due for a bigger nerf or a slight buff, but so far the Overwatch pilot feels like the least problematic character on this list.

Overwatch 2 has a long way to go before its colorful cast of powerful heroes finds proper mechanic balance again. But until that day comes, we'll still be hoping for a Brigitte rework.

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