Overwatch 2: Biggest Season 5 Hero Changes to Look Forward To

Overwatch 2: Biggest Season 5 Hero Changes to Look Forward To

Looking at all the teased buffs and confirmed season 5 hero change in the new Director’s Take blog for Overwatch 2


News on the next meta is usually expected a week before a new season starts. Knowing this, the Overwatch 2 creators published their latest Director’s Take update for the planned changes in Season 5. The blog detailed the dev team’s recent focus in four main areas: Junker Queen and Lifeweaver balance changes, one-shot mechanics and crowd control.

So far, we’ve only gotten crumbs on what’s to come, so we made an outline for the confirmed changes coming to Overwatch 2 Season 5. Here are the biggest confirmed season 5 changes to look forward to.

Biggest Season 5 Hero Changes to Look Forward To

Junker Queen Balance Changes

Since the mid-season 4 hotfix, Junker Queen has dominated role queue and Competitive lobbies. Her increased survivability with her improved passive is just too good to pass up on. According to the Director’s Take, the improvements to her kit translated to a 5% increased winrate across all ranks, even beating Reinhardt’s stats.

And in spite of her huge success, the developers felt the need to balance her out to give more tanks room to shine. With that in mind, Junker Queen’s confirmed Season 5 hero change will be increasing her ultimate ability charge and decreasing her Commanding Shout’s effectiveness from 200HP to 150HP. The hero ability lets her give herself and nearby teammates a movement speed buff along with overheal. Being such an integral part of her sustain, it’ll definitely make players think twice before charging in and away from her support’s line-of-sight. All reigns must end.

Lifeweaver Balance Changes

Overwatch 2 Lifeweaver Changes confirmed season 5 hero change

Overwatch 2 Lifeweaver Changes confirmed season 5 hero change

Lifeweaver mains rejoice!

The newest addition to the growing Overwatch 2 roster is getting some love in the next competitive cycle. Since he was released in early May, the devs have been continuously tracking Lifeweaver’s performance data to look for the best aspects to modify. Other than that, we’re looking at several buffs for the latest Support hero. Blizzard has confirmed Lifeweaver’s season 5 hero change to include (but won’t be limited to) higher healing and damage, extra healing on Life Grip, a smaller hitbox and more quality-of-life (QOL) changes to Lifeweaver’s platform ability.

Some of these confirmed season 5 hero changes, including Lifeweaver’s hitbox were hinted at as early as late April. Lead Hero Designer Alec Dawson went on record last month to say that it was being discussed internally. And despite the recent disappointment surrounding the game’s PvE, it’s refreshing to see the developers pay actual attention at the issues plaguing the multiplayer.

Widow and Hanzo’s Nerfed One-Shots

Another confirmed season 5 hero change will affect both Widow and Hanzo’s headshot power. If you’ve been playing Overwatch 2 for a period of time, you’ll be familiar with the frustration of getting taken out of play by a well-timed (but usually only lucky) headshot.

The Overwatch 2 team has been talking about whether or not one-shots even have a place in the game. It’s the one thing that separates the snipers from everyone else in the Damage role. That said, it’s been confirmed that Widow’s headshot will be getting a nerf. The confirmed season 5 hero change will reduce her damage falloff from 70-100 meters to 40-60 meters. This means that her headshots won’t be as lethal when you’re farther away from the fight, adding another huge nerf to the French spider.

Moreover, Hanzo’s arrows are also getting a downgrade, more specifically in their damage output. On top of that, his Sonic Arrows’ effect will become more noticeable. Now whether or not this confirmed season 5 hero change will translate to a status warning or more visual and audio cues (or both), we won’t know for sure. But as soon as the patch notes arrive, expect to see less sniper picks in the future.

Cassidy’s Magnetic Grenade Will Slow Down Opponents

The last topic in the Director’s Take was about reintroducing “crowd control” to Blizzard’s 5v5 shooter. Accounting for the big format changes to the game, the developers believed that reintroducing some “cc” would give the game more gameplay variety. And so, the confirmed season 5 hero changes will impact 2 heroes.

First, Cassidy’s magnetic grenade will be getting a damage nerf but will get the added effect of slowing opponents. This crowd control mechanic will give newer Cassidy players a bigger margin of error when it comes to landing their shots. Further, it’ll make escaping from dive heroes like Genji and Winston somewhat easier.

Lastly, Mei’s Endothermic Blaster will be applying stronger versions of slow. Her confirmed season 5 hero change will hinder enemy movement until it builds to a much harsher slow that will last for 1.5 seconds. This feels like a compromise between her current state and her old frozen effect (which drew the ire of plenty of veteran Overwatch players), and only time will tell if it will improve the gameplay experience.

It’s important to note that more heroes have been confirmed to receive “tweaks” when the final patch notes arrive.


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