Overwatch 2 gets some over the top April Fools patch notes

Olivia Richman Published 01/04/2023

Blizzard is notorious for its extravagant April Fools jokes, and this year is no different.

This year, Overwatch devs “accidentally” published some crazy patch notes that included changes to every hero. The first big change is that every hero has been given a new voice line for their ultimate. In addition, ultimate charges will also keep 50% of their charge when players switch heroes.

Each role was also given a passive, similar to Apex Legends. But these ones were a bit questionable.

Tank: Heroes that get the final blow on a tank gain a big ultimate charge since tanks are like “raid bosses”
DPS: Heal 50 health on elimination to make up for a lack of healing when damage heroes run off on their own
Support: Get 30% increase on movement speed when you’re low health

The most interesting changes, of course, were to the individual heroes. This includes Junker Queen’s Commanding Shout inflicting bleed damage on foes since she is shattering eardrums, Ramattra having his Omnic Form disabled, and Reinhardt having flight. And that’s just the tanks.

According to the totally and very real patch notes, Cassidy can’t be damaged when Combat Roll is active and Genji can heal himself when he requests healing — but only sometimes. Mei also got more walls. Some of the DPS changes seemed actually good, however, like Pharah not damaging herself with her own missiles and Tracer’s Recall pulling people into its vicinity.

When it comes to support heroes, Anna has become OP with the ability to get headshots with her Biotic Rifle. This will shake up the Overwatch League for sure. Kiriko can travel across the entire map, Lucio can deflect projectiles, and Baptiste can basically bounce around.

Every hero change also comes with a pretty funny note from developers. Here are the full patch notes.

Full Overwatch 2 April Fools patch notes

All Heroes

All heroes have new Ultimate Voice Lines
Keep 50% of Ultimate Charge when swapping heroes

Developer Comment: Veteran players have an advantage over newer ones when it comes to voice line recognition. In order to level the playing field, we’ve written and recorded new Ultimate voice lines for every hero.

To help players learn these new callouts, we’ve also increased the amount of Ultimate charge retained when swapping heroes.

Tank Role Passive

Gain Ultimate charge 10% faster
The hero that gets the final blow on a tank gains a significant amount of ultimate charge

Developer Comment: Tank heroes are the raid bosses of teams. You should be fairly rewarded for defeating them, right?

Damage Role Passive

Heal 50 health on elimination

Developer Comment: It’s frustrating when you dive the backline by yourself and get no healing, especially when your team’s support heroes are busy respawning. This change should help keep you alive, at least.

Support Role Passive

Gain 30% increased movement speed for 4 seconds when reaching low health

Dev Comment: It’s tough to stay alive when flankers are about. This change should even out the odds a bit when you get ambushed. Please don’t use this offensively.

TANK

DOOMFIST

Developer Comment: The empowered Fist can also level a skyscraper or open a glass jar in a single attempt.

Seismic Slam

Can be empowered by Power Block
Damage increased from 50 to 75 when empowered
Enemies hit by the shockwave are launched into the air

D.VA

Developer Comment: It turns out the beams used to destroy projectiles also really hurt when used on people.

Defense Matrix

After deflecting a projectile, Defense Matrix deals 30 damage to enemies within its area of effect over 1 second
Defense Matrix killing blows grant an additional 5% Ult Charge

JUNKER QUEEN

Developer Comment: Junker Queen yells so loud she damages the eardrums of her foes. Don’t worry though, it’s still a “friendly shout of encouragement” for her allies.

Commanding Shout

Applies a bleed to enemies in range when activated

ORISA

Developer Comment: It is believed that the threat of Orisa’s aerial body slam is the biggest crime deterrent in Numbani.

Javelin Spin

While in the air, Javelin Spin pulls Orisa forward in her facing direction

Fortify

Increases falling speed and deals damage in an area when Orisa lands on the ground

RAMATTRA

Developer Comment: Ramattra is a lot more effective when he’s in Nemesis Form, so he’ll stay like that until everyone has suffered as much as he has.

Omnic Form Disabled
Ramatta is now always in Nemesis Form
Bonus armor decreased from 225 to 125

Void Barrier

Moved to Ability 1

Block

Now has a 1-second cooldown when disengaged

REINHARDT

Reinhardt Comment: I COULDN’T CHARGE THE ENEMIES THAT WERE IN THE AIR SO I ASKED TORBJORN TO HELP ME OUT. NOW I AM THE ULTIMATE CRUSHING MACHINE, EVEN IN THE SKY!!!!!

Charge

Now grants flight. Hold Jump to float up and Crouch to go down
Steering increased by 33%

ROADHOG

Developer Comment: In order to further align Roadhog as a tank who punishes bad positioning, we’ve increased the range of Hook to make all positioning bad positioning.

Chain Hook

Range increased by 50%

SIGMA

Developer Comment: Gravitic energy is quite potent. If it’s strong enough to lift a giant rock, it can lift anyone.

Accretion

Enemies hit by the impact are knocked back and experience low gravity for 4 seconds
Cooldown decreased from 10 to 8 seconds

WINSTON

Dev Comment: Winston!

Winston?

Winston!

WRECKING BALL

Developer Comment: Wrecking Ball unleashes his signature moves that made him the Champion of the Scrapyard battle arena.

Grappling Claw

Maximum speed is temporarily increased when bouncing off walls

Minefield

Mines slowly move toward nearby enemies

ZARYA

Dev Comment: Gravity gravitates. That’s just science!

Graviton Surge

Moves towards Zarya after deploying.

Particle Cannon

Self-knockback on secondary fire scales with Energy level.

DAMAGE

ASHE

Dev Comment: In order to be more accurate to the fantasy, Dynamite fire now spreads between players.

Dynamite

Fire spreads to nearby enemies up to 4 times

BASTION

Developer Comment: Bastion downloaded a software update, upgrading “Configuration: Assault” and allowing it to simulate his old “Configuration: Tank”

Configuration: Assault

While active, Tactical Grenade has a 0.5-second cooldown

CASSIDY

Developer Comment: Cassidy can dodge anything using his cat-like reflexes. It’s a bit rough on his spine, though.

Combat Roll

Now costs regenerating stamina instead of having a cooldown
Dodge all damage when Combat Roll is active
Ammo reloaded decreased from 6 to 2

ECHO

Developer Comment: Echo now uses more of her fingers when shooting enemies.

Tri Shot

Now fires 2 additional projectiles
Damage per projectile decreased from 17 to 12

GENJI

Developer Comment: Spamming a voice line for healing finally does something after everyone else has tuned you out!

Sometimes Genji heals himself when requesting healing

HANZO

Developer Comment: Hanzo spent many years mastering the bow and geometry to pull off this feat. It DEFINITELY has nothing to do with magic.

Storm Arrow

Storm arrows ricochet toward the Sonic Arrow

JUNKRAT

Developer Comment: Junkrat was a bit careless when packing his grenades, so now they spill out of his pockets whenever he knocks himself back.

Total Mayhem

Drop grenades when launching yourself with Concussion Mine

MEI

Developer Comment: We noticed a decrease in Mei players helping their team “group up” in spawn with Ice Wall. This is core to Mei’s gameplay, so we added additional ice pillars to help facilitate it.

Ice Wall

Spawns more pillars and has slightly different configurations

PHARAH

Developer Comment: Rocket Jump? Sounds dangerous. But it is a viable means of travel when you can’t afford enough fuel.

Rocket Launcher

Rockets deal no self-damage and have increased knockback

Barrage

Pharah can be knocked back while Barrage is active
Barrage rockets now have self-knockback

Hover Jets

Fuel decreased by 33%

REAPER

Developer Comment: After getting shot one too many times, Reaper no longer poses in place before teleporting despite it looking very cool.

Shadow Step

Movement is no longer locked after confirming a teleport location

SOJOURN

Developer Comment: Sojourn hasn’t been performing quite up to our expectations after reducing her one-shot potential. To remedy this, we’ve added a very fair stun to her kit

Power Slide

Now impacts enemies dealing 75 damage, launching them upward, and knocking them down for 1.5 seconds

SOLDIER: 76

Developer Comment: Why leave it on the ground when you can keep it in your pocket instead?

Biotic Field

Now attached to Soldier: 76 when activated

SOMBRA

Developer Comment: As a safety measure, the Translocator will forcibly separate solid objects that have been teleported into each other. Unfortunately, this process is also quite painful.

Translocator

Now deals 120 damage in an area at the teleport destination.
Projectile speed increased from 25 to 40
Cooldown decreased from 10 seconds to 6 seconds

SYMMETRA

Developer Comment: It turns out there was a setting on Sentry Turrets that let’s them immediately target enemies when thrown! Symmetra estimates this change increases their efficiency by 32.33%…repeating, of course!

Sentry Turret

Turrets can now target enemies while in-flight
Turrets have 60% damage resistance before sticking to terrain

TORBJÖRN

Dev Comment: We noticed that Torbjorn relies a little too heavily on his turret to deal consistent damage, so you won’t believe this one simple balance change that fixes that and makes him 1000% overpowered!

Overload

Now also causes Rivet Gun and Forge Hammer to ignite enemies, dealing 30 additional damage over time

TRACER

Developer Comment: Tracer now leaves a vacuum when she Recalls into the past. We are pretty sure this is how time travel works and will be taking no questions.

Recall

Pulls in nearby enemies when activated

Pulse Bomb

Arming time increased from 1 second to 2 seconds

WIDOWMAKER

Developer Comment: Poisonous bullets don’t work as quickly as normal ones do, but at least there’s more room for counterplay.

Widow’s Kiss

Critical hits deal their damage over 3 seconds as poison
Widowmaker can see poisoned enemies through walls

SUPPORT

ANA

Developer Comment: Turns out whatever is in those syringes hurts a lot more when applied to the forehead.

Biotic Rifle

Can now headshot enemies

BAPTISTE

Developer Comment: Rumor has it that Baptiste is the record holder for both high and long jump.

Exo Boots

Jumping with Exo Boots has more horizontal distance, scaling with the charge amount
Hold Jump after using Exo Boots to keep bouncing

BRIGITTE

Developer Comment: Whip Shot now whips YOU! Works better if you say, “wheeeeee” while flailing about.

Whip Shot

Brigitte is pulled towards the flail head

KIRIKO

Dev Comment: Kanezaka is a big town and Kiriko has lots of protecting to do. This change should help her get to where she needs to go in a timely fashion, especially during rush hour.

Swift Step

Range increased from 35 to 350m
Cooldown now scales with distance traveled

LÚCIO

Developer Comment: We were alerted that Soundwave was able to knock back entire heroes but couldn’t do anything to projectiles. We’ve corrected this logical inconsistency.

Soundwave

Now deflects projectiles
Cooldown decreased from 4 to 3 seconds

MERCY

Developer Comment: Our stats show that the “Battle Mercy” playstyle isn’t as common as we hoped. Here’s a small change that should nudge her damage potential in the right direction.

Caduceus Blaster

Ammo increased from 25 to 125
Projectile speed increased from 50 to 125

MOIRA

Developer Comment: You know that random Orb that killed you from across the map? That was 100% intentional. Biotics Orbs follow Moira’s every command, though they only understand “Stop” and “Go.”

Biotic Orb

Pressing the ability input while Biotic Orbs are active causes them to stop or start moving

ZENYATTA

Developer Comment: Zenyatta calls this technique the “Flying Kick,” but since he’s always floating should it just be called “Kick”?

Snap Kick

Launches Zenyatta in his facing direction when used in the air

Overwatch 2 is close to wrapping up its third season, which means that we’re close to seeing the game’s next playable hero set to debut in season four. While Blizzard has yet to reveal this character, we do know at this point it will be a support hero.

Olivia Richman

About Olivia Richman

Olivia has worked in media ever since graduating from college, with her coverage ranging from traditional newspaper reporting to digital coverage of all things gaming, online betting, and nerd culture. She has traveled around the world pursuing that coverage, from the far coasts of the United States to the busy downtown core of Tokyo, Japan. Olivia’s favorite games include Overwatch and Super Smash Smash Bros, and she has been published at Esports Illustrated, Inven Global, EsportsInsider, Upcomer, and elsewhere.

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