Summary
Blizzard has pulled the curtain back on the full patch notes forOverwatch 2Season 10, set to launch on Tuesday, April 16.Overwatch 2Season 10 is a particularly exciting season for the hero shooter for a number of reasons. The headlining new addition inOverwatch 2Season 10 is the long-awaited debut of brand-new Damage hero Venture.
Overwatch 2will add Venture to its roster of playable heroeswith the Season 10 update, and better yet, they won’t be blocked behind the Battle Pass. For the first nine seasons of the game,Overwatch 2heroes had to be earned by either purchasing the Battle Pass to get instant access, or by reaching tier 55. This kept players who weren’t willing to pay for the Battle Pass from accessing the new heroes, but Blizzard is doing away with that controversial system starting with Season 10.
Venture’s debut inOverwatch 2is really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Season 10, as evident by the vast patch notes released by Blizzard. Season 10 will let players try the new Clash game mode until April 29,unlock Mythic skinsthat they may have missed out on, earn more Overwatch Coins, and a lot more. The update will also include a variety of hero balance changes, with Wrecking Ball getting the most attention.
The Season 10 update will also introduce theWrecking Ball rework, which will make it so jumping with the Grappling Claw attached to terrain will retract it and pull players to the anchor point. There will also be a 1-second cooldown if Wrecking Ball never reaches ramming speed before canceling the ability. The maximum duration timer no longer triggers unless Wrecking Ball reaches ramming speed. Additionally, the Adaptive Shield can be reactivated to redistribute up to 300 overhealth to nearby allies, capping at 75 per person, while enemy and ally detection radius is increased from 10 to 13 meters. Finally, Wrecking Ball’s Minefield health is being increased from 50 to 60.
OtherOverwatch 2tanks are getting tweaked as well, with buffs for Sigma, Reinhardt, and Junker Queen.Controversial hero Sombrais getting slightly nerfed by having her Virus damage reduced.Overwatch 2fans can also take advantage of fixes for various bugs that remain in the game, as well as problems that plague some of its maps.
On top of all that,Overwatch 2is making major Competitive Play changeswith Season 10, completely removing the restriction on player rank when it comes to queuing up for matches. It will be interesting to see how it all shakes out onceOverwatch 2Season 10 starts on April 16.
Overwatch 2 Season 10 Update Patch Notes
Limited-Time Mode: Clash Trial
Clash is an upcoming core game mode in Overwatch 2. Teams must battle back and forth over 5 capture points, with each captured objective adding a point to the prevailing team’s score. Teams can win in two ways: either by having control of all five objectives at once, or by scoring five points total before the other team. Clash will be available as a limited-time trial through April 29.
Complete one of these conditions to win the match:
Hanaoka – New Map
Explore never-before-seen corners of Hanamura in the new map Hanaoka, inspired by the visual themes of the beloved Assault map. Explore the shops and restaurants around town or follow the scent of Sakura trees into the once-proud Shimada castle.
General Updates
Challenges
Developer Comments: The number of Weekly Challenges has grown over time, and we are simplifying what players can aim to accomplish, while also making earning Battle Pass XP more straightforward.
Endorsement Changes
Players who are actioned for disruptive behavior and reduced to Endorsement Level 0 cannot use text or voice chat features until they return to Endorsement Level 1.
Developer Comments: Since we added the Endorsement system to Overwatch, players who have been actioned because of social reports (Inappropriate Communication, Gameplay Sabotage, etc) have had their Endorsement Level reduced to Level 0. That part of the system isn’t changing, but going forward, Level 0 players will no longer be able to speak in voice channels or type in text chat in most modes.
Hide My Name
Developer Comments: “The “Hide My Name” setting in the Social Options now displays a random anonymized Battle Tag to all players in a match, instead of only to the player with the “Hide My Name” setting enabled. New settings have been added to “Hide My Name From Friends” and “Hide My Name From Group.” Of these two settings, “Hide My Name From Friends” takes priority when group members are also friends. A large list of hand-crafted BattleTags have been created to support this feature. Could it contain easter eggs or silly references?”
Leaver Penalties
Two new thresholds for Unranked Leave Penalties have been added:
Developer Comments: Overwatch 2 is a competitive game even for Unranked game modes, and the match experience for all remaining players is negatively affected when a player leaves before it is completed. Remember a penalty only applies when you leave games and not when you complete games.
By introducing a lighter 5-minute penalty, we aim to discourage players from deliberately leaving games they don’t want to play, while not impacting those who may have a technical issue or an urgent need to step away from the game which they can resolve by the time the queue suspension is finished. The larger 48-hour suspension aims to target a very small portion of players who are aggressively leaving games.
Leaving 10 games in Competitive Play will now result in a season ban regardless of the number of games completed.
Games completed in Competitive Play now count toward the 20-game window of the Unranked Leaver Penalty.
Developer Comments: We already suspend players who leave a Competitive and increase penalties up to a season ban for leaving games frequently, but players can work their way back into good standing if they complete several matches. However, this new rule will stop players from gaming the system over time.
Hero Updates
New Hero: Venture
Developer Comments: This is a pretty major change from past heroes, but we’ve always wanted to allow new heroes into Competitive when a new season for Overwatch 2 launches. In the past, we wanted to verify new heroes were free of any bugs or outstanding balance issues, as well as giving players enough time to unlock a hero from the Battle Pass. Because of the recent hero trial, we’re confident Venture is ready to jump into the action right away…
Doomfist
Rocket Punch
Developer Comments: This quality-of-life improvement streamlines the transition between charging up an empowered Rocket Punch and another ability by removing the requirement of pressing the cancel input first.
Sigma
Experimental Barrier
Developer Comments: This change will improve Sigma’s ability to protect allies that are further away from him.
Adaptive Shield
Minefield
Developer Comments: The general goals here are to add a direct way for Wrecking Ball to support his allies aside from purely enemy team disruption, make the hero more approachable while also adding more avenues for skill expression, and improve quality of life around the grapple.
Recall
Pulse Bomb
Developer Comments: There is now more downtime before Tracer can safely reengage after driving her away and Pulse Bomb will require more precision.
Clobber
Tectonic Shock
Developer Comments: We are redistributing the damage on some of their abilities so that positioning relative to the enemy and tracking a target are more important for dealing maximum damage.
