Overwatch 2 Dec 10 patch notes: New hero Hazard, Updated DPS passive, Winston buffs, more

Season 14 of Overwatch 2 has gone live on PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch introducing the new tank hero Hazard, a revamped DPS role passive, and a series of buffs to the game’s cast.

Like any season with a new hero, the focus will be on them as players try to figure out their place in the meta and that shouldn’t be any different with Hazard.

The new tank hero was praised by players when they had a chance to try him out during the trial weekend and he’s been improved since then.

Blizzard

Biggest changes in Overwatch 2 December 10 patch

Of note, Hazard’s higher primary fire damage has been increased, Jagged Wall has more health and is more lethal, and his vault ability is more consistent.

The DPS passive is also being changed a bit. While doing damage will still decrease the amount of healing a target receives, the healing reduction has been increased to 25% and will last a second longer.

However, projectile sizes have been decreased, so there’s a bit of a trade-off to keep in mind.

For individual hero changes, Orisa is having some of her HP converted to armor and her Terra Surge ultimate is getting a nice buff to its radium, making it more effective.

Ramatraa’s Ravenous Vortex now ignores barriers, thus making it stronger and will briefly interrupt horizontal momentum.

Winston’s Jump Pack ability is seeing its damage increased from 50 to 60, meaning he’ll have an easier time securing frags, as a jump followed by a melee will deal 90 damage.

Finally, Ashe’s Coach Gun is getting a nice quality of life change as she’ll now be able to use the ability even when her mobility is locked, such as being trapped in a Junkrat Trap. While she won’t be able to move, she can still knock back foes.

The patch also brings back the Winter Wonderland event, a new hero mastery mode for Ashe, and much more. Full patch notes follow:

Full Overwatch 2 December 10 update patch notes

Winter Wonderland 2024

The Winter Wonderland event returns now through January 7, bringing fan-favorite modes and exclusive rewards for the holiday season! From Mei’s Snowball Offensive to Freezethaw Elimination, there’s something for everyone. Complete challenges to earn seasonal rewards, including the festive Winter Casual Hanzo skin.

6V6 Role Queue Experiment

Explore Overwatch 2’s latest evolution with the 6v6 Role Queue experiment, where strategy meets nostalgia. Dive into this unique mode to experience the dynamics of 6-player teams while maintaining structured gameplay, showcasing how modern Overwatch 2 heroes and abilities adapt to the classic team format.

Hero Mastery – Ashe

Practice your sharpshooting skills and get B.O.B. to do something, when Hero Mastery courses for Ashe arrives on January 14.

Hero Updates

General

• Damage Role Passive
  • Debuff duration increased from 2 to 3 seconds.
  • Healing reduction increased from 20% to 25%.
• Global Projectile Size Bonus
  • Hitscan radius large reduced from 0.08 to 0.07 meters.
  • Hitscan radius small reduced from 0.05 to 0.04 meters.
  • Projectile radius large reduced from 0.15 to 0.12 meters.

Developer Comment: We’re increasing the potency of the damage role passive in order to make the threat of sustained damage more meaningful by slowing down health recovery while in combat. At the same time, we’re slightly decreasing how reliable hitscan and large travel time projectiles are to hit.

Tank Hero Changes

• Doomfist
  • Seismic Slam
    • Shockwave range reduced from 18 to 15 meters.
    • Cooldown increased from 6 to 6.5 seconds.

Developer Comment: The recent increase to Rocket Punch wall slam angle has added a lot of consistency and made Doomfist significantly more threatening. To help account for this we’re pulling out some of the survivability from Seismic Slam.

• Hazard
  • Bonespur
    • Damage per spike increased from 6.75 to 7.5.
    • Each volley’s center projectile no longer has a random launch spread and now always launches straight.
  • Spike Guard
    • The angle of protection provided by Spike Guard increased from 104 degrees to 180 degrees.
    • Damage per second reduced from 75 to 70.
  • Violent Leap
    • Post-slash recovery time for Primary Fire and Quick Melee increased from 0.3 seconds to 0.5 seconds.
  • Jagged Wall
    • Health increased from 350 to 400.
    • Knockback damage increased from 40 to 50.
    • Damage interval increased from 1.5 seconds per target to 1.75 seconds per target.
  • Downpour
    • Airborne momentum lost by casting Downpour reduced from 90% to 50%.
  • Vault
    • Minimum obstacle height to trigger Vault reduced from 1.75 meters to 1.25 meters. This should allow Hazard to scale short obstacles more consistently.

Developer Comment: The community feedback from Hazard’s trial has been largely positive, and we got some valuable data to improve his abilities’ performance. We’re adjusting his kit to increase the damage of his primary fire, making Bonespur more consistent and a reliable tool for finishing off enemies. Spike Guard protection sometimes felt inconsistent due to being used from a third-person perspective. To address this, we’ve widened the forward blocking angle, providing Hazard with more reliable protection. Additionally, the damage of Spike Guard has been slightly reduced to balance the increased Bonespur damage and protection radius. We’re also strengthening the Jagged Wall to make it more impactful, while increasing the time required to retrigger the knockback effect to minimize frustration from frequent knockbacks.

• Mauga
  • Base armor reduced from 200 to 150.
  • Base health increased from 375 to 425.

Developer Comment: The Overrun changes from the last patch have been great for enabling more active Mauga playstyles. We’re converting some of his armor back to normal health to balance out some of the added survivability gained from the Overrun changes.

• Orisa
  • Armor increased from 300 to 325.
  • Base health reduced from 175 to 150.
  • Terra Surge
    • Pull radius increased from 8.5 to 10.5 meters.

Developer Comment: Although Orisa’s effectiveness dropped off further than expected, the removal of the Fortify heat reduction mechanic has had positive effects on gameplay by making her ammo resource more meaningful. We’re keeping that change while walking back some of the armor health loss. We also think her Terra Surge ultimate ability could be more effective so it now pulls enemies in from a further distance but the damage range hasn’t changed so it won’t be harder to get out of the area.

• Ramattra
  • Ravenous Vortex
    • Now briefly interrupts horizontal momentum when first affecting a target.
    • Slowing field now ignores barriers for line of sight.

Developer Comment: Ravenous Vortex will now be more effective at dealing with bursts of high-speed momentum, though this change does not have much effect on abilities that continuously move you for a duration like Reinhardt Charge or D.Va Boosters.

• Winston
  • Jump Pack
    • Damage increased from 50 to 60.

Developer Comment: Winston’s leap now has a higher maximum damage to better reward accuracy when landing directly next to a target, though it still has damage falloff when landing further away.

Damage Hero Changes

• Ashe
  • Coach Gun
    • Can now be activated while affected by mobility locking abilities but won’t move Ashe

Developer Comment: There were some inconsistencies for when Coach Gun was disabled by mobility lock abilities. Now Ashe will be able to activate Coach Gun while mobility is locked out (such as Junkrat’s Steel Trap) to knockback enemies but won’t move herself.

• Pharah
  • Jet Dash
    • Cooldown increased from 8 to 9 seconds.

Developer Comment: Pharah is a difficult hero to deal with for many due to her high flying mobility and burst damage. We’re reducing how often her horizontal movement cooldown is available to make it slightly more of a positioning commitment when used.

• Sojourn
  • Railgun
    • Secondary fire damage scaling increased from 1-100 damage to 20-120 damage.

Developer Comment: Sojourn has received adjustments to increase the rate of her energy gain and shifted some power into her Disruptor Shot ability recently, though the secondary fire lacking in impact undermines her core gameplay fantasy as “the Railgun hero”. We’re adding some damage back to it and will keep a close eye on how powerful she ends up being.

• Soldier 76
  • Biotic Field
    • Cooldown reduced from 18 to 15 seconds.

Developer Comment: Soldier could use a small increase to his effectiveness and with changes to the damage role passive it’s a good time to make his Biotic Field more available.

• Symmetra
  • Teleporter
    • Base shield health increased from 200 to 250.

Developer Comment: Symmetra is performing quite well but we’d like to further enable teamplay around an interesting ability like the Teleporter by making it more difficult to destroy.

• Torbjörn
  • Forge Hammer
    • Damage increased from 55 to 70
  • Deploy Turret
    • Build time reduced from 3 seconds to 2.5.
    • Base health increased from 225 to 250.

Developer Comment: We’d like to make the turret more effective without increasing its damage. It now builds more quickly to better enable repositioning it for a faster pace of gameplay. We’ve also fixed a grievous oversight from moving to larger health pools and Torbjörn’s Forge Hammer will strike fear into his enemies once again.

• Venture
  • Drill Dash
    • Cooldown rate is now faster anytime Burrow is active, rather than requiring the player to be underground.

Developer Comment: This is mostly a quality-of-life change that makes Venture’s cooldown cycle more consistent, as they tend to activate Burrow while soaring through the air quite often.

Support Hero Changes

• Baptiste
  • Regenerative Burst
    • Cooldown decreased from 15 to 14 seconds.
    • Radius increased from 10 to 12 meters.

Developer Comment: Adjusting the values of Regenerative Burst will increase Baptiste’s self-survivability while also providing greater support to his teammates.

• Brigitte
  • Inspire
    • Duration reduced from 5 to 4 seconds.

Developer Comment: The duration has been reduced to limit Brigitte’s Inspire uptime, while the healing per second remains unchanged, ensuring that healing output is unaffected when Inspire is triggered consistently.

• Illari
  • Captive Sun
    • Explosion radius increased from 8 to 10 meters.

Developer Comment: Illari’s Captive Sun can be difficult to use effectively due to enemies’ ability to dodge its effects. Increasing the radius will improve the consistency and overall value of the ultimate.

• Lucio
  • Crossfade
    • Self-healing penalty decreased from 60% to 40%.
  • Sound Barrier
    • Now falls faster when used in mid-air.

Developer Comment: The adjustment to Lúcio’s health pool has impacted his survivability in fights, this change will increase his durability in combat by improving his self-healing capabilities. Additionally, Sound Barrier now falls faster while in mid-air, enabling more reactive and safer usage from higher positions.

Custom Game Updates

• A new option to enable or disable passive health regeneration is now available in Settings > Heroes > General.

Bug Fixes

Maps

• Temple of Anubis: Fixed an issue where spectating on the Temple of Anubis map could cause extreme performance issues.

Heroes

• Brigitte: Fixed an issue where Brigitte could still get damaged while holding up her shield at the end of the Bash ability.
• Hazard: Fixed bugs with Vault’s wall climbing and movement.
• Mercy: Fixed an issue causing Mercy’s resurrect lines to not play.
• Moira: Fixed a bug where Moira’s orbs would sometimes visually stop moving.
• Reinhardt: Fixed an issue where Reinhardt’s Earth Shatter ability was not affecting enemy heroes on certain floor sections.