Season 5 has just launched in Overwatch 2 and with it the patch notes. Here's everything in it, from balance changes to bug fixes and more.

Overwatch 2 Season 5 has been live for a while, bringing the changes listed in the patch notes. This includes Hero balance changes, some bugfixes, and more. Let's dive into the Overwatch 2 Season 5 patch notes without further ado.

Overwatch 2 Season 5 Patch Notes

Hero Updates

Tanks

  • Junker Queen
    • Commanding Shout
      • Temporary health reduced to 150 from 200
    • Rampage
      • Ultimate cost increased by 15%
  • Roadhog
    • Take a Breather
      • Now amplifies healing received by 50% for 2.5 seconds after finishing Take a Breather

Damage

  • Cassidy
    • Magnetic Grenade
      • No longer has a maximum projectile travel range of 10 meters.
      • The projectile now magnetizes toward an enemy target from 1.5 meters away and chases them for up to 1 second.
      • Impact damage increased to 10 from 0
      • Explosion damage reduced to 70 from 120
      • Stuck targets now have their movement slowed by 30%.
      • Stuck targets are now affected by a “Hindered” status effect, interrupting and preventing movement abilities from being activated.
  • Genji
    • Shuriken
      • Maximum Ammo increased to 30 from 24
  • Hanzo
    • Storm Bow
      • Maximum damage reduced to 120 from 125
    • Sonic Arrow
      • Impact sound effect now plays for enemies
      • Visual effect now briefly visible to enemies when first used
  • Mei
    • Endothermic Blaster
      • Damage per second reduced to 55 from 100
      • Primary fire slow scales from 30% to 50%
      • Primary fire impact now builds up a slow effect that sticks to target for 1.5 seconds and slows them for 75%
      • Secondary fire impact detonates the slow effect, dealing an additional 40 damage
  • Reaper
    • Wraith Form
      • Can no longer be activated while affected by mobility-locking effects
  • Tracer
    • Pulse Pistols
      • Spread increased by 15%
  • Widowmaker
    • Widow's Kiss
      • Scoped Shot damage falloff min-max range reduced to 40-60 meters from 70-100 meters
      • Scoped shot maximum damage falloff scalar increased to 50% from 30%

Support

  • Lifeweaver
    • Petal ornaments on his back had a 10% size and hit volume reduction
    • Healing Blossom
      • Maximum healing increased to 74 from 65
    • Thorn Volley
      • Damage per projectile increased to 6 from 5
      • Projectile radius increased to 0.125 from 0.1
      • Ammo increased to 70 from 60
    • Petal Platform
      • Walkable area increased by 15%
      • Area to trigger lift now shrinks from a radius of 2 to 0.75 meters after initial placement
    • Life Grip
      • Cooldown reduced to 16 seconds from 20
      • Now heals target ally for 50 health
    • Tree of Life
      • Ultimate cost increased by 8%
  • Moira
    • Fade
      • Can no longer be activated while affected by mobility-locking effects

Map Updates

  • Busan
    • New lighting scheme – Overcast
  • Rialto
    • New lighting scheme – Evening
  • Watchpoint: Gibraltar
    • Completely redesigned the final defender spawn area
    • Added an exit route from the forward defender spawn
    • Route adjustments and changes made around first capture point outside of the hangar
    • Covers and route adjustments made inside the hangar

General Updates

Challenge Updates

  • Lifeweaver unlock challenges added.
  • Lifeweaver can now be unlocked by completing all his challenges!
  • Incomplete weekly challenges will no longer reset to zero. 100% of the progress made in weekly challenges in the previous week will be kept and carried over.
  • All weekly challenges requiring wins have been converted to “Complete games. Wins grant double progress.”
  • This change results in the required amounts becoming higher, but the average total number of games needed to complete the challenges has not.

On Fire Returns

  • New State: Blazing
    • The team's most exceptional player will now begin Blazing
  • Fire returns to the hero portrait and the scoreboard with new animations. Fire makes its debut in the kill feed as well.
  • Killing enemies that are On Fire grants Fire.
  • Players get fire from the following:
    • Eliminations
    • Damage
    • Mitigated Damage
    • Saves
    • Healing
    • Assists
    • Capturing/Contesting Objectives
    • Boosted Damage
    • Crowd Control

Matchmaking Updates

  • Matchmaking Improvements
    • Added new matchmaker functionality that should create matches with a narrower range of player skills. Continual tuning changes will be made throughout the season
    • The matchmaker now prioritizes placing similar groups with wide skill ranges into the same match, which means solo players will see a lower chance of being placed in those matches
  • Matchmaking Bug Fixes
    • Addressed some issues with backfills in Quick Play that could cause the backfill to take a long time or never occur.
    • Fixed an issue where the matchmaker sometimes initialized new players’ competitive MMRs to a value that did not reflect their skill.
  • FFA Player Skill Ratings Big Fixes
    • Fixed an issue with players getting incorrect skill ratings, which leads to longer queue times and worse match quality

Competitive Updates

Ranked Inactivity

  • Players who did not play competitive matches during the previous season will be Inactive
  • Inactive players do not have a visible Skill Tier and Division
  • Inactivity is different for each role in Role Queue
  • Open Queue players will be inactive no matter the role
  • Players who finish five games and achieve a Competitive Update will have a visible Skill Tier and Division again

Competitive Mystery Heroes

  • Competitive Mystery Heroes returns
  • Competitive Challenges are also back

Competitive Bug Fixes

  • Improved initial skill estimation

Bug Fixes

General
  • Fixed Lifeweaver platform ping VO not playing.
  • Fixed ping stems not appearing for Last Seen pings with no line of sight.
  • Fixed Lifeweaver Tree and Platform from appearing as enemies when directly pinged by allies. Disabled ping wheel movement shortcut for controller
  • Disabled locking the crosshair in place for controller when the Ping Wheel Press Delay is active. Fixed performance issues some consoles were experiencing.
  • Healing projectiles now make contact with targets who are phased out (i.e., Moira's Fade). Fixed an issue with on Ultrawide monitors that resulted in black bars appearing on the edges of the screen.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented the end-of-match flow not playing for Top 500 players.
  • Fixed the issue that caused Antarctic Peninsula's image to be missing from its entries in the History menu.
Audio
  • Due to a bug, we temporarily need to change the audio reverb settings used throughout the game to an alternate method. We hope to have this fixed in an upcoming patch.
Maps
  • Colosseo
    • Fixed an area of the map that allowed players to leave the playable space.
  • Hollywood
    • Fixed some haybales that did not correctly block D.Va Self-Destruct damage.
  • King's Row
    • Fixed a bug that allowed some gameplay elements to be placed inside the bus and taxi.
  • Lijiang Tower
    • Fixed an area in Night Market that allowed players to stand outside of intended map boundaries.
    • Fixed a location that allowed Torbjorn to almost completely hide his turret.
  • Nepal
    • Fixed some drums on the map that players could become stuck on.
  • Numbani
    • Fixed the vines hanging above the tunnel (the one just before the final point) having collision and blocking projectiles and explosives.
  • Oasis
    • Fixed several areas Kiriko could become stuck when using Swift Step.
Heroes
  • Ana
    • Fixed a bug with Sleep Dart not counting toward the Accuracy stat when performed as the final blow.
  • Baptiste
    • Fixed a bug with Immortality Field not correctly displaying its active cooldown through Hero swaps.
  • Doomfist
    • Fixed an issue that allowed stunned targets of Rocket Punch to escape the stun early by jumping after being hit.
    • Fixed an interaction between Tree of Life and Meteor Strike that allowed Doomfist to be healed while not in the field of play.
    • Fixed an interaction that resulted in Doomfist's Rocket Punch doing no damage to Lifeweaver's Petal Platform.
    • Fixed an issue with Powerblock not reducing the area of effect damage correctly.
    • Fixed an issue with Powerblock was being incorrectly applied to Junkerqueen's Bleed.
  • D.Va
    • Fixed a bug with D.Va's primary fire increasing its rate of fire when it was set to the mouse wheel.
  • Echo
    • Fixed an interaction with Duplicate destroying the duplicated ultimates when Duplicate ends (Symmetra and Wrecking Ball).
    • Healing effects that were started during Echo's ultimate will now continue to heal Echo after the ultimate has ended.
    • Fixed a bug where a duplicated Lifeweaver's Tree of Life would not heal anyone after Echo's ultimate had ended.
    • Fixed a bug with Sticky Bombs not detonating if used right after Duplicate ends.
  • Lifeweaver
    • Life Grip will now correctly nudge targets around payload obstacles.
    • Healing Blossom and Life Grip targeting now consider both the head and chest of the target as a valid line of sight, allowing targeting around vertical obstructions, such as payloads, to be more consistent.
    • Fixed a bug that prevented Petal Platform from being used if Secondary Fire was set as the confirmation input.
    • Fixed a bug with Life Grip not consistently pulling allies onto ledges if Lifeweaver was airborne.
    • Fixed an issue where Life Gripped allies falling off the map would still die to the death plane.
    • Fixed the issue that resulted in a friend Lifeweaver's Petal Platform highlighting red when pinged.
    • Fixed an issue that prevented Lifeweaver's footsteps from playing sound when crouched.
    • Resolved a bug that prevented the Tree of Life from being placed on an enemy Torbjorn turret (it now destroys the turret).
    • Fixed a bug that allowed Tree of Life to be attached to the Pushbot and pulled along.
  • Mercy
    • Resolved an issue with Resurrect not retaining cooldown through Hero swaps.
    • Fixed a bug where Mercy wasn't properly resetting her Guardian Angel cooldown when entering Valkyrie.
  • Orisa
    • Fixed a bug where Orisa would use the animation for receiving critical shots for all damage received.
  • Ramattra
    • Resolved an interaction with Nemesis Form and Annihilation that sometimes resulted in the ultimate not performing damage and lifesteal.
    • Fixed an issue where Block was being incorrectly applied to Junkerqueen's Bleed. Fixed a bug with Block that prevented it from correctly stacking with Ana's Nanoboost.
  • Sojourn
    • Modified the screen effect applied by an enemy Sojourn's Disruptor Shot to apply more accurately, making it easier to tell when you're taking damage.
  • Sombra
    • The translocator can no longer stick to loose objects on the map (i.e., Basketball).
    • Fixed a bug that prevented Sombra from Hacking Petal Platforms in FFA Deathmath.
  • Torbjorn
    • Fixed an interaction between Lifeweaver and Torbjorn's turrets that allowed them to be placed on walls.
Workshop
  • Fixed a bug with the ‘Set Ability Cooldown/Charge/Resource' not working for all abilities.
  • Fixed a bug where the ‘Communicate' Action did not work.
  • Fixed a bug where ‘Set Ability 1 Enabled' Action did not work for Orisa.
  • Fixed issue with ‘Set Ammo' and ‘Set Max Ammo' not working for all heroes
  • The ‘Is Communicating' Condition is now functional.

That's all for the Overwatch 2 Season 5 patch notes. Should more patch notes come out during the duration of Overwatch 2 Season 5, we'll be sure to let you know. Check out our gaming news articles for the latest in gaming news.