Season 13 for Overwatch 2, Spellbinder, is set to release on October 15, but the patch notes are here early, prepping players for what’s to come. Featuring an all-new battle pass, Overwatch 2 is also celebrating Halloween through an in-game event and teaming up with My Hero Academia for various collaboration skins along with various balance changes.
The Halloween Terror returns
One of the biggest highlights of the update is the Halloween Terror. Despite being a returning event, it is bringing a new game mode called Junkenstein’s Laboratory. The new game mode will allow players to enter a team death match but with a twist. Junkenstein’s Laboratory brings the new ‘cursed talent cards’ that alter hero abilities.
Apart from these, players will also have the option to jump into previously introduced co-op game modes like Junkenstein’s Revenge and Wrath of the Bride. There will also be new challenges and rewards for the Halloween Terror event.
Also Read: Countdown to Overwatch 2 Season 13: What's new and what to expect
Overwatch 2 x My Hero Academia collab
Another big collab comes to Overwatch 2, this time, Activision Blizzard partnered with Kōhei Horikoshi for My Hero Academia crossover featuring character outfits for some of the beloved characters from the series. The new cosmetics will arrive on October 17 and will remain in the shop till October 30. Here are all the character cosmetics -
Tracer - Izuku Midoriya (Deku)
Reinhardt - All Might
Reaper - Shigaraki Tomura
Juno - Ochaco Uraraka
Kiriko - Himiko Toga
Hero Mastery and Balance changes
Overwatch players are getting two new hero mastery modes for Cassidy and Brigitte following the latest update. Starting October 31, players can hop into the mastery mode to complete challenges for both heroes and earn rewards.
As usual, there are also various balance changes to hero abilities in order to bring underperforming heroes back in the race or tone down meta picks. While most changes are straightforward, Sombra has received a small rework of her abilities.
Incendiary Chaingun now deals Ignite damage over time for 4 seconds, up from 3.
Pummel no longer pierces barriers, instead deals 2.5x more damage to barriers.
Barrier Field health was reduced from 1600 to 1500.
Base health increased from 225 to 250.
Railgun energy no longer stops degenerating at 25 energy. The time before energy degeneration begins increased from 7 to 12 seconds.
Disruptor Shot damage per second increased from 60 to 80 and it generates 25% of the damage done to enemy players as Railgun energy.
Hack no longer ends Stealth but does reveal Sombra. The hacked ability lockout effect duration was reduced from 1.5 to 1.0 seconds (EMP duration unchanged) while the BOB hacked stun duration was reduced from 10 to 3 seconds.
Stealth is no longer passive and now activates by using a translocator with a duration of 5 seconds. Added stealth timer around the reticle and removed ability icon, and taking damage now reveals Sombra for 1 second instead of ending stealth.
Translocator cooldown increased from 5 to 7 seconds, while the ultimate ability cost increased by 12%. The Opportunist passive has also been added back and now Increases Sombra’s weapon damage versus hacked targets by 20% and allows her to see critically injured enemies through walls.
Biotic Launcher’s primary fire recoil was reduced by 30%.
Repair Pack cooldown increased from 5 to 5.5 seconds.
Mediblaster’s falloff range reduced from 30-50 meters to 20-35 meters, while healing per projectile reduced from 6.5 to 6.
Additional changes
Apart from all the new additions, there are also various map changes and quality-of-life updates like matchmaking and custom games. Map changes for the most part are small tweaks. Players now also have an interactive scoreboard to report toxic players faster or access various other actions. Previously, the leaderboard was just a wall of text.
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