Blizzard has pushed out Overwatch 2 update 3.44, and this brings the Season 2 balance changes! Tanks such as Roadhog and Orisa get significant nerfs, which are listed in the Overwatch 2 January 24 patch notes.

Overwatch 2 Update 3.44 Patch Notes | Overwatch 2 January 24 Patch Notes:

HERO UPDATES

Tank

Orisa

Fortify

• Health bonus reduced from 125 to 75

Roadhog

Chain Hook

• Impact damage reduced from 30 to 5
• The enemy final position distance from Roadhog after being pulled increased from 3 to 4 meters

Scrap Gun

• Damage per pellet reduced from 6.6 to 6
• Recovery time reduced from 0.85 to 0.8 seconds
• Reload time reduced from 2 to 1.75 seconds
• Maximum ammo increased from 5 to 6

Developer comments: These changes aim to reduce the frustration of dying in one shot immediately after being hooked and pulled by Roadhog. Chain Hook is still a powerful utility to forcibly reposition enemy players, so it will still often lead to eliminations. Its effectiveness will now be more dependent on specific hero matchups and how the hooked target is able to respond.

Damage

Sojourn

Railgun

• Energy gain is no longer based on damage done by primary fire. Each primary fire hit against an enemy player now grants 5 energy
• Primary fire damage per projectile reduced from 10 to 9

Developer comments: The energy gain adjustment will help smooth out Sojourn’s average Railgun charge time because it won’t benefit as much from critical damage or damage boost abilities. Hitting armored targets or other sources of damage reduction will result in quicker energy gains than before.

Previously, damage boosts and critical damage had an amplified effect for Sojourn since it reduced the time to build energy and lowered the threshold at which her Railgun secondary fire became lethal. The reduction to primary fire damage will further slow that down as well.

Support

Kiriko

Healing Ofuda

• Recovery time increased from 0.85 to 1 second

Developer comments: Despite Kiriko’s healing projectiles being slow-moving and single target, her average healing output per match is higher than we’d like. We’ve seen players tend to get overly focused on maximizing her healing potential and only use primary fire for extended periods of time. Rather than reduce the amount of healing per projectile, which may lead to feeling locked into focusing on primary fire even more, we’re increasing the recovery time before she can start firing the Healing Ofuda. Increasing recovery times opens the opportunity to weave in secondary fire Kunai more freely.

BUG FIXES

GENERAL

• Fixed an issue with the “Winged Sandals’ weapon charm’s ‘How to Unlock’ text
• Adjusted footstep audio mixing to make enemy footsteps more audible

HEROES

Lucio

• Fixed an issue with Lucio’s Hermes skin exhibiting incorrect physics

Reinhardt

• Fixed an issue with Reinhardt’s Hammer appearing deformed during the Sweethardt emote

Sojourn

• Fixed an issue where Sojourn’s Cyber Detective Skin would fail to load

Wrecking Ball

• Fixed an issue with Adaptive Shield where it could be incorrectly applied before the cooldown was complete

Agree with the changes? This should shake up the meta quite a bit. Once more Overwatch 2 changes are out, we’ll be sure to let our readers know.

Source: Blizzard forums