Overwatch 2 Reveals Patch Notes for August 24 Update

Highlights Illari, a popular support hero in Overwatch 2, has received balance tweaks in the latest update, including nerfs to her healing pylon and Ultimate abilities. The changes aim to create a better balance between healing and damage, while also providing more opportunities for opposing players to counter Illari’s abilities. The update also includes bug fixes and minor adjustments to other heroes, indicating that Blizzard may be approaching a more stable state of character performance.

Illari has been a particularly popular hero since she was introduced to Overwatch 2 earlier this month, but Blizzard brings a few nerfs and ability adjustments to the support hero in the game’s latest update. Hero balance seems to be an ever-changing thing in Overwatch 2, though the game’s new update makes no sandbox changes aside from those affecting Illari.

Added to the game near the beginning of the month alongside Season 6 and Overwatch 2’s massive Invasion update, Illari is a capable support hero who can dish out some serious damage along with her healing. Her primary weapon, the solar rifle, can interchangeably deal damage to enemies and heal allies not unlike many other support weapons in the game, but her ability kit allows her to effectively exploit advantageous positions and dig into her unusually damage-heavy playstyle. Her healing pylon ability acts as a sort of healing turret that can autonomously heal teammates from a protected location, and she also makes good use of her outburst ability which affords her added mobility. Her Ultimate, Captive Sun, lets loose an explosive projectile that can spread damage to enemies and punish them for grouping up.

Blizzard initially discussed the prospect of Illari balance tweaks just a week after her arrival in Overwatch 2, confirming in advance that she’d see nerfs to her healing pylon and Ultimate abilities as she becomes available in competitive play. The August 24 patch for Overwatch 2 sees those changes made, bringing her healing pylon’s healing down from 40 to 30 and reducing its shields from 75 to 50. The development team also made some bold changes to her Ultimate ability, with Captive Sun’s initial impact and explosion damage now being blocked by barriers. The duration of the Sunstruck effect has also been reduced from 7 seconds to 6, though Captive Sun’s projectile size has also been decreased by 50% to make the projectile more difficult to intercept.

According to developer comments, these balance changes have been made to encourage a more comfortable balance between healing and damage from Illari, while also improving opposing players’ opportunities to counter her abilities. The latest patch also fixes a number of bugs that have been disrupting players’ experiences in both the PvP and PvE activities, with the new update returning a popular Overwatch 2 voice line that had gone missing.

While Overwatch 2’s state of hero balance is usually quite turbulent, the latest update makes noticeably few changes to the game’s sandbox, possibly suggesting that Blizzard is reaching a point where the state of character performance is more in line with expectations. The constantly shifting nature of live-service games such as Overwatch 2 makes it nearly impossible to perfect balancing, but with hero overhauls coming in the future, fans can only wait and see how Overwatch 2’s sandbox will continue to evolve.

OVERWATCH 2 RETAIL PATCH NOTES – AUGUST 24, 2023

GENERAL UPDATES

Player Progression

Updated the Wins sub-badge level-up requirement from 2 to 1 across all heroes, game modes, and roles, and re-tuned XP granted to balance.

HERO UPDATES

SUPPORT

ILLARI

Developer Comments: Illari has had a strong showing since her launch. The following changes are meant to promote a better balance between healing and damage while adding more counterplay against her abilities. We are making the Healing Pylon weaker, as it’s often placed out of line-of-sight or at odd angles and isn’t being destroyed as often as we expect. Captive Sun ignoring barriers is not immediately intuitive, but we are also reducing the projectile size, so blocking or destroying will require more precision. Finally, the Sunstruck effect lasts too long to reasonably avoid the detonation damage threshold.

Healing Pylon

Heal decreased from 40 to 30. Shields decreased from 75 to 50.

Captive Sun

Projectile Impact and explosion are now blocked by barriers. Projectile size decreased from 1.5 to 0.75 meters. Sunstruck duration decreased from 7 to 6 seconds.

BUG FIXES

GENERAL

Fixed bug where some event challenges weren’t counting towards “Savior of the Underworld” for the Brigitte Sparkplug skin. Fixed an issue that made the Ashe Snakewrangler Skin in the Battle Pass a premium reward instead of a free one. Any player on the free Battle Pass track who already unlocked this tier will receive this skin automatically. Fixed an issue that resulted in players backfilling into the Underworld Event Mission and Invasion Story Missions. Fixed an issue that allowed Spectating of players in the Underworld Event Mission and Invasion Story Missions.

HEROES

Echo

Fixed an issue with cloned Illari’s Captive Sun explosion, damaging herself and her allies.

Orisa

Fixed an issue where the “Who Said Chivalry Is Dead?” voice line is missing from Hero Gallery. Fixed an issue where World Cup Skin for Orisa was inaccessible.

MISSIONS

Toronto

Fixed in a previous update – Fixed an issue with Slicers clipping into the Ferry, making them difficult to target.

Gothenburg

Fixed in a previous update – Fixed an issue where “The Babies Are Safe” challenge was unable to be completed. Fixed an issue with the Titan being invisible for the first few seconds of its intro. Fixed an issue with an invisible collision around the Mega-Cannon that blocks Brigitte’s Shield Bash and Whip Shot.

Underworld

Fixed in a previous update – Fixed an issue where the “Stop, Thief!” challenge was unable to be completed.

Overwatch 2 is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

Source: Blizzard