The Overwatch 2 Season 9 is here and even though there is no new map or hero for us to get excited and play with, it comes with new and fresh balance changes. The planned updates to change how heroes are being healed divided the internet in two before Season 9 kicks in. Do we need healers anymore since everyone can now heal themselves? Is everyone a DPS now?
And there are many other updates and changes in Season 9 that sound controversial to the loyal players of Overwatch 2 including myself. However, after playing Season 9 with all its updates and changes, the game does feel nicer and consistent to play. It also eliminates the frustrations (or pain points, they call it) you get while playing Overwatch 2.
So, let’s take a look on what’s new in Overwatch 2 Season 9 and my impressions of the changes.
Damage-dealing projectiles are now bigger
Many projectiles in the game (including hitscan projectiles) are getting an increase in size, depending on the types of projectiles, their speed, and base size. For example, very large projectiles like Orisa’s Energy Javelin or Reinhardt’s Fire Strike don’t get the upgrade at all.
This change makes dealing damage even more rewarding as it offers more consistent hits and feels as if you are hitting your shots, even if you miss it by a small notch. I love playing as Zenyatta when I’m on the Support role and this boosts him up even further for hitting those headshots.
Does this make the game easier? Yeah, sure – if you compare it to other competitive FPS like CS:GO and Valorant. However, heroes do get more health (and armour) so this is a good balance and compensation.
Hero combined HP increased by 15-25% + Self-regen Health
This change makes playing “squishy” heroes like Zenyatta or Cassidy (since he’s heavy and walks slow) better as they have a bit more survivability. Also, all heroes now regenerate 20 health per second after 5 seconds of not taking damage. While it does feel odd that you no longer need a Support to completely heal your heroes (or scour around for health packs), it is a fresh change especially for those who are playing casually.
Frustrations often come when members of the team play the Support heroes but they just want to do damage and kill people instead of healing your team. In Season 9, you can hide and regenerate your health on your own.
Plus, five seconds in Overwatch is a long time. It only happens (normally) when a full fight has finished and you are waiting for the enemies to respawn. Plus, if you are a flanker like Genji or Tracer and has to wait for 5 seconds to heal yourself, you are not contributing anything to the team. So I think this is a positive change.
If you are playing support, your health regeneration starts within 2.5 seconds of not receiving any damage instead of 5 seconds.
Dealing damage now reduces healing received by 20% for 2 seconds
This is actually a huge change because you can no longer get too aggressive without paying the price. Tanks have to play even more carefully now. I was playing as Mauga last night and I could no longer go crazy even when I have two main healers pocketing. On the other hand, I can also single-handedly kill Mauga in full health even while he’s being healed.
While tanks are receiving more health as well, players do need to adjust their playstyle and tanking is now more difficult than before as you can get eliminated quickly if you are not careful.
Other worthy changes
It’s been a while since I’ve played Competitive (mostly due to having a little one in the family) but it has received massive changes to pretty much everything. Apart from the Skill Reset, there is a now a higher tier (which most players probably don’t care about), grouping requirement changes, placements, how ranks get updated, and more.
Pharah also gets a slight rework as she is no longer able to be in the air permanently as she needs to be on the ground to “refuel”. While she gets a funky horizontal movement now, this means she can no longer be pocketed by Mercy – which has been a pain point in Overwatch as long as I can remember. It usually requires two DPS hitscan (with relatively good skills) to take care of the “Pharmercy” problem which can be un-fun to many. It’s definitely harder to deal with in lower-rank games as well.
Some maps get slight updates to provide more cover on large, open areas that can cause frustrations – which jiggle my memories on trying to pass into choke points like Hanamura in the good, old days. Again, a good change.
Skins and Cosmetics
And of course, we’ll all get new skins and cosmetics in game to our beloved heroes. For the Mythic Skin, Season 9 is Moira’s turn and it looks really good. There is also a new event, hero mastery, and more.
Check out all the details on all balance/update changes in Overwatch 2 Season 9, and the summary of new events + cosmetics.
If you haven’t been playing for a while, it’s definitely a great time to come back and try the game out once more. You might be enjoying yourself again with all these fresh changes. The game is still free and you can collect free skins/cosmetics. However, you can also purchase the Ultimate Battle Pass Bundle to receive Season 9 Premium Battle Pass with 20 Tier Skips, 2000 Overwatch Coins, Beholder Sigma Legendary Skin, and Harbinger Lifeweaver Legendary Skin.
