Overwatch 2 Season 3 Patch Notes

The Overwatch 2 Season 3 patch notes are finally here, and there is a plethora of changes that might just shake up the entire meta. Overwatch 2 is a tricky game to balance, with so many heroes and interactions to manage, so it is good that Blizzard is now willing to play around a bit to avoid things getting stale. If you're wanting to see the full Overwatch 2 Season 3 patch notes though, make sure to carry on reading below.

• Find out how many competitive points per win in Overwatch 2 here.

Overwatch 2 Season 3 New Map

The newest map making its way to Overwatch 2 is Antarctic Peninsula - a return to Mei's rather chilly past. It is a Control map that is not too dissimilar visually from the long-running Elimination map Ecopoint: Antarctica, so if you're a fan of the frosty look then you've got something to look forward to.

It centres specifically around the crashed icebreaker ship that failed to rescue Mei and her friends, so we will be able to get a good idea of a key part of the game's lore. Of course, with it being a Control map we will get three 'versions', meaning that there is plenty of room for the team to flex their creative muscles.

You can read about it more in the official Overwatch 2 Season 3 forum post here.

Streamer Protect

Another new change that will be very much welcomed by content creators is 'Streamer Protect'. This gives you the option to hide your in-game information when playing, which should hopefully alleviate any potential stream sniping scenarios, in addition to reducing targeted toxicity and harrassment.

While the vast majority of the player base won't even look at this feature, it is great to have it there for the few that it is vital to.

• Can you play Overwatch 2 on Steam? Find out more in this guide.

Overwatch 2 Season 3 Patch Notes

Here's a full list of all of the changes brought forward with the Overwatch 2 Season 3 patch notes. Brace yourself, because its a long one:

Accessibility Improvements

• Improved Subtitles Options: text scalability, character portrait icons, speaker name, text colour, background colour, and subtitle preview in the options menu
• Added mouse cursor size setting for PC
• Added setting to select custom colours for Group and Alert colours in the UI. Preview feature added to preview custom colours in the accessibility options

Challenges

• Added challenges to unlock “Silhouette” player icons for all heroes
• Added tracking for each of the roles for the Weekly “Role Mastery” challenge
• Added Ramattra unlock challenges
• Partial progress through the season three Battle Pass is now carried over to the “Wins for Ramattra” challenge

Endorsements

• Players can now endorse the opposing team
• All players can now be endorsed in Free-For-All game modes

Game Report

• Players can view scoreboards from previous matches within the View Game Reports menu found in the History tab of the Career Profile

Mystery Heroes Changes

• Mystery heroes now limits each team to a maximum of three of each role.
• This new maximum role limit can be changed in Custom Games under Settings > Modes > All > Random Hero Role Limit Per Team. This setting only functions when the Respawn as Random Hero setting is enabled

Overwatch Credits

• Overwatch Credits, which were previously labeled “Legacy Credits” and were not earnable in Overwatch 2, can now once again be earned through progressing in the Season 3 Battle Pass
• All players can earn up to 1500 credits as free rewards, and another 500 credits are available as premium rewards in the Season 3 Battle Pass
• Credits can be spent in the Hero Gallery, which now contains nearly all seasonal Epic and Legendary-tier skins released prior to the launch of Overwatch 2. This includes many skins that were previously only available for purchase with Coins in the “Just for You” section of our Shop

Ping System Update

• Pressing Ability 1 or Ability 2 when the ping wheel is open and when these abilities are on cooldown now prints these cooldowns in chat
  Example: If Baptiste’s Immortality Field is on cooldown and you press the key/button to activate the ability while the Ping Wheel is open, the cooldown for the ability will be printed in chat

Competitive Changes

• Skill tiers and divisions will adjust after every 5 wins or 15 losses and ties (formally 7 wins or 20 losses and ties)
• Players can select the “View Competitive Progress” button from the Competitive menu to view their progress toward receiving a rank update

Workshop Changes

• Workshop Editor is back
• New Workshop moderation tools, tackling instances with:
  • Inappropriate Communication
  • Inappropriate Name
  • Cheating
  • Gameplay Sabotage
  • Inappropriate Custom Content

Hero Balance Changes

All Heroes

• Maximum ultimate charge retained when swapping heroes reduced from 30 to 25%

Tank Passive

• The health totals for all tank heroes will be lower when playing any game mode that does not have a role queue. Health totals will remain the same for tanks when playing any Role Queue enabled game.

Tanks

D.Va

• Mech base health in Role Queue modes remains the same at 350
• Mech base health in non-Role Queue modes reduced from 350 to 200

Doomfist

• Base health in Role Queue modes remains the same at 450
• Base health in non-Role Queue modes reduced from 450 to 300

Junkerqueen

• Base health in Role Queue modes increased to 450
• Base health in non-Role Queue modes reduced from 425 to 300

Orisa

• Base health in Role Queue modes remains the same at 275
• Base health in non-Role Queue modes reduced from 275 to 125

Augmented Fusion Driver

• Damage falloff range reduced from 25 to 15 meters

Ramattra

• Base health in Role Queue modes remains the same at 450
• Base health in non-Role Queue modes reduced from 450 to 300

Annihilation

• Damaging enemies with the ultimate now slows the duration timer down instead of pausing it entirely. Lasts up to 20 seconds
• Ultimate cost increased 12%

Reinhardt

• Base health in Role Queue modes remains the same at 325
• Base health in non-Role Queue modes reduced from 325 to 175

Charge

• Cooldown reduced from 8 to 7 seconds

Fire Strike

• Damage increased from 90 to 100

Earthshatter

• Direct hit damage reduced from 250 to 170
• Knockdown duration increased from 2.5 to 2.75 seconds
• Ultimate cost increased 7%

Rocket Hammer

• Knockback impulse reduced from 10 to 6

Roadhog

• Base health in Role Queue modes remains the same at 700
• Base health in non-Role Queue modes reduced from 700 to 550

Whole Hog

• Maximum duration increased from 6 to 8 seconds
• Ultimate cost increased 8%

Sigma

• Base health in Role Queue modes remains the same at 350
• Base health in non-Role Queue modes reduced from 350 to 200

Gravitic Flux

• Ultimate cost increased 7%

Winston

• Base health in Role Queue modes remains the same at 350
• Base health in none non-Role Queue modes reduced from 350 to 200

Barrier Projector

• Health reduced from 700 to 650

Wrecking Ball

• Base health in Role Queue modes reduced from 600 to 450
• Base health in non-Role Queue modes reduced from 600 to 300
• Shield health increased from 0 to 150

Pile Driver

• Cooldown reduced from 10 to 8 seconds

Minefield

• Ultimate cost increased 9%
• Arming time reduced from 1.5 to 1 second

Zarya

• Base health in Role Queue modes remains the same at 250
• Base health in non-Role Queue modes reduced from 250 to 100

Graviton Surge

• Ultimate cost increased 8%

Damage

Cassidy

Combat Roll

• Movement is no longer blocked by enemy player collision

Peacekeeper

• Primary fire falloff range increased from 20 to 25 meters

Junkrat

Concussion Mine

• Maximum damage reduced from 120 to 100

Mei

Blizzard

• Ultimate cost reduced 5%

Pharah

Barrage

• Ultimate cost reduced 5%

Reaper

Death Blossom

• Ultimate cost reduced 8%

Soldier:76

Heavy Pulse Rifle

• Number of shots to reach maximum recoil increased from 4 to 6
• Recoil reduced 12%

Sombra

Machine Pistol

• Damage per projectile increased from 7 to 7.5

Hack

• Health pack hacked duration increased from 30 to 45 seconds

Symmetra

Photon Barrier

• Ultimate cost increased 10%

Torbjorn

Deploy Turret

• Turret base health reduced from 250 to 225

Widowmaker

• Base health reduced from 200 to 175

Support

Ana

Biotic Grenade

• Effect duration reduced from 4 to 3.5 seconds

Brigitte

Repair Pack

• Healing over time reduced from 55 to 50 per second
• Applying a Repair Pack now instantly heals for 25 health on impact

Rally

• Ultimate cost reduced 10%

Lucio

Sound Barrier

• Ultimate cost reduced 7%

Mercy

Guardian Angel

• Cooldown increased from 1.5 to 2.5 seconds
• Holding the backwards directional input and canceling the ability with Jump now moves 20% slower

Caduceus Staff

• Healing-per-second reduced from 55 to 45
• Healing is increased by 50% for allies under half health

Regeneration Passive

• Regeneration Passive removed

New Passive: “Sympathetic Recovery”

• Mercy heals herself for 25% of healing done with the Caduceus Staff

Moira

Coalescence

• Ultimate cost reduced 5%

Zenyatta

Orb of Destruction

• Ammo increased from 20 to 25

Season 3 Map Pools

Push

• New Queen Street - Morning
• Colosseo - Morning (NEW)
• Esperança – Morning

Hybrid

• Blizzard World - Morning
• King’s Row - Evening
• Midtown - Morning
• Numbani - Morning
• Paraíso - Morning

Escort

• Dorado - Night
• Havana - Night (NEW)
• Junkertown - Morning
• Circuit royal – Morning (NEW)
• Rialto - Morning
• Shambali Monastery - Night

Control

• Antarctic Peninsula - Night (NEW MAP)
• Ilios - Morning
• Lijiang Tower - Night
• Nepal - Evening
• Oasis - Evening

Season 3 Bug Fixes

• Unified the range for most targeted ally pings to 35 meters
• Fixed D.Va hearing the “Behind You” VO in unintended circumstances when enemies are pinged
• Fixed a bug where pings could be fired by the Communication Wheel if the Ping Wheel had been canceled (by not moving the mouse or with a manual cancel)
• Fixed free camera spectators hearing “Need Healing/Need Help” sound effects (not voice-over) if the hero requesting healing was injured and within 30 meters of the spectator’s free cam
• Fixed Mercy’s Soul Pings not displaying her Resurrect cooldown time remaining in some circumstances
• Made all pings available to be placed in the Communication Wheel
• Fixed the issue where OW1 players with pings in the Communication Wheel couldn’t change their options in the Communications menu
• Fixed self-pings being able to fire Hero-specific pings (Example: Group Up could cause Mercy to say she’d like to Resurrect a teammate)
• Fixed an issue where some players were unable to receive or send invite
• Fixed an issue with Junkerqueen’s Mythic skin ‘Zeus’ not having glowing hair on console
• Resolved a bug where all maps were toggled off by default when starting a new Custom Game
• Fixed a bug where sometimes Health Packs were displaying the cooldown circle while the health pack was available
• Fixed a bug where the Social Screen would not display friends correctly on some consoles
• Improved the performance when viewing the friend’s section of the Competitive leaderboard
• Fixed an issue with Cyber Genji displaying broken animations when using emotes or souvenirs
• Healing VFX on players being healed should no longer clip through the environment
• Resolved an issue with the level of bloom on several maps

Blizzard World

• Fixed lighting in several areas around the map

Busan

• Meka Base: Fixed areas near forklifts that players could become stuck on

Dorado

• Fixed lighting in some areas of the map

Esperança

• Fixed some areas that should have been slippery for players but were not
• Fixed some areas where players could become stuck
• Added a missing flag to the loading screen of Esperança

Oasis

• City Center: Fixed several reflection issues
• Gardens: Fixed multiple lighting issues

Colosseo

• Fixed ambient lighting across the map

Shambali Monastery

• Fixed areas of the map that should have been slippery but were not
• Fixed areas of the map that allowed players to leave the playable space
• Fixed areas players could become stuck
• General bug fixes across the map

Ana

• Fixed a bug with Ana’s OWL skins missing their eyepatch

Doomfist

• Fixed an issue where Doomfist would spawn with an empowered punch if killed by the environment while blocking
• Fixed a bug where Environmental eliminations from Rocket Punch were not credited if the target slammed into a wall before dying
• Fixed a bug where Seismic Slam would sometimes fail to break breakables
• Resolved an issue with Seismic Slam not animating correctly when used to cancel Rocket Punch
• Fixed an instance where Doomfist could use Primary Fire during the Meteor Strike outro animation

Genji

• Fixed a bug to make Genji’s attack animations smoother

Junkerqueen

• (Fixed in a previous update) Fixed an issue where Carnage could activate the cooldown reduction on non-player objects

Junkrat

• Fixed an issue with Steel Trap sometimes failing to place

Kiriko

• Fixed an issue where using Swift Step would sometimes cause Kiriko to fall through the map
• Fixed an issue where Swift Step was missing effects when arriving at the target
• Hero Melee animations should animate more consistently when under the effect of Kitsune Rush

Mercy

• Fixed a bug where Mercy’s heal target would heal to full if the Mercy player disconnects from the game if they were actively healing

Moira

• Fixed an issue where Coalescence was not benefiting from Kitsune Rush

Ramattra

• Fixed a bug with Ravenous Vortex not spawning if it gets stuck between the Push bot and the barrier it pushes
• Fixed a bug where damage from some abilities was not counting toward the ‘Incomparable Pain’ achievement
• Fixed an issue with the Heroic Highlight Intro being blurry in the Hero Gallery

Sigma

• Fixed an issue where Sigma’s Hyperspheres were sometimes missing

Sombra

• Fixed a bug with Sombra’s Passive tooltip displaying the incorrect value

Symmetra

• Symmetra can no longer fire her Photon Projector while casting Photon Barrier

So, that completes this list of the Overwatch 2 Season 3 patch notes, giving you all of the changes that have arrived with the new update. Make sure to check out this guide on how to get credits in Overwatch 2 if you fancy some new skins.