OW2 art work
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Here are the Overwatch 2 2.0.8 Tech Beta 1 patch notes

Lots of changes to unpack here.

The Overwatch 2 PvP beta is now live, giving invited players and people who earn access a chance to try out the new heroes, maps, and game modes. The beta is missing a few features like competitive mode and endorsements, but there are plenty of new things for players to try.

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Here are the patch notes for the first version of the Overwatch 2 PvP beta.

New game mode – Push

Players fight over control of a central objective. When a team has control over the objective, it moves along a path toward the opposing team’s goal like in Payload, passing barricades. The objective is the Treadweather TS-1 Large Utility Robot.

Players have eight minutes to push their team’s barricade to the end goal and win. If neither team’s barricade reaches its end goal after eight minutes, then the team who pushed their barricade the farthest distance and has control of TS-1 wins. If TS-1 is controlled by the team with less distance, it goes to overtime.

Maps

Control

  • Ilios
  • Lijiang Tower
  • Oasis

Escort

  • New: Circuit royal
    • “Circuit royal, the stunning future playground of the mega-rich, is Overwatch’s brand-new Escort map. Protect the payload as you battle up the gilded promenade through the marble archways of luxurious Monte Carlo towards the majestic Hotel Arche.”
  • Dorado
  • Route 66
  • Gibraltar

Hybrid

  • New: Midtown
    • “Midtown, New York City, the site of some of the fiercest fighting in the Omnic Crisis, and our newest Hybrid map! Drive your enemies back through the shadows of skyscrapers. Then, lay claim to the payload and escort it through the thriving heart of Manhattan to its destination in historic Grand Central.”
  • King’s Row
  • Eichenwalde

Push 

  • New: New Queen Street
    • “New Queen Street, in post-reconstruction Toronto, is one of our new Push maps! Fight for control of your robotic ally as the snowflakes and maple leaves fall and explore this picturesque cultural hub where omnics and humans live together in harmony.”
  • New: Colosseo
    • “Colosseo, the pride of Rome, is our second new Push map! Face your foes in the streets and piazzas outside the legendary arena, battling for command over your robotic ally. Rise to glory in the Eternal City… or fall, forgotten, into history.”

Deathmatch

  • Kanezaka
  • Malevento

General hero changes

Role Passives 

  • Tank
    • 30 percent knockback resistance
    • 30 percent lower Ultimate generation from damage taken and healing taken
  • Damage
    • 10 percent faster movement speed
  • Support
    • Regenerate 15 health-per-second after one second without being damaged

Health Changes

  • Temporary Shield and Armor health pools have been combined into Overhealth, with no special attributes
    • Overhealth no longer provides Ultimate charge when damaged
  • Base Armor health pools reduce incoming damage by 30 percent
    • It no longer mitigates damage by the previous flat amount of -5 damage per hit
  • Armor damage reduction now applies equally to all sources including damage over time effects and beams

“Phase” Effect Changes

  • Phase effects no longer clear the Zarya Graviton Surge or Sigma Gravitic Flux movement restriction effects
    • E.g., Reaper can still use Wraith Form while in Graviton Surge to prevent damage but can’t walk out of it.
  • Mei Cryo-Freeze no longer removes Sigma’s Gravitic Flux effect
  • Sombra Hack effect is now removed by phase effects

Tank hero changes

Doomfist

  • Moved from Damage to Tank role
  • Base health increased from 250 to 450

Uppercut

  • Ability removed

Hand Cannon

  • Damage reduced from six to five per pellet
  • Ammo regeneration rate increased from once every 0.65 seconds to 0.4 seconds

Rocket Punch

  • Impact damage range reduced from 50 – 100 to 15 – 30 damage
  • Wall slam damage range reduced from 50 – 150 to 20 – 40 damage
  • Maximum charge up time reduced from 1.4 to 1.0 seconds
  • Impacting a target now causes a secondary larger cone area check to grab extra targets
    to potentially knock them back as well

Power Block

  • New Ability 2
  • Enter a blocking stance, reducing damage taken from the front by 90 percent
  • Blocking at least 100 damage causes Doomfist’s gauntlet to become supercharged,
    empowering the next Rocket Punch in the following ways:
    • Increases damage by 50 percent
    • Travels 50 percent faster and further
    • The area-of-effect blast that knocks back additional targets is twice as large
    • Targets impacting a wall will be stunned for an additional 0.5 to 1.0 seconds,
      depending on charge amount

Seismic Slam

  • Moved from Ability 2 to Ability 1 (Shift Key by default)
  • Now launches Doomfist into the air in the direction the player is aiming
  • Creates a wide arc shockwave upon landing, dealing 50 damage and slowing enemy movement speed by 30 percent
  • No longer has different behavior between being activated in the air or on the ground
  • No longer pulls in enemies
  • Can be canceled by pressing the ability key again

Meteor Strike (Ultimate)

  • Damage range reduced from 15 – 200 to 15 – 100
  • Impact damage at the center one meter radius unchanged from 300 damage
  • Knockback removed
  • Now additionally slows the movement speed of all enemies hit by 50 percent for two seconds
  • Cast time reduced from 1.0 to 0.5 seconds

D.Va

  • Base Health increased from 300 to 450
  • Base Armor reduced from 300 to 200

Fusion Cannons

  • Primary Fire movement penalty reduced from 50 percent to 40 percent
  • Weapon spread reduced from four to 3.5 

Orisa

  • Base armor increased from 200 to 250
  • Base health increased from 200 to 250

Augmented Fusion Driver

  • New Primary Fire
  • Now rapidly fires 10 plasma projectiles per second
  • Projectiles start out large and shrink as they travel
  • Damage starts at 10.5 and scales down to four damage over 35 meters
  • Uses a heat mechanic instead of ammo. Firing the weapon increases heat. Cools down
    while not firing
  • If the weapon overheats, a forced release of heat prevents the weapon from being fired for three seconds

Energy Javelin

  • New Secondary Fire
  • Orisa throws a spear forward, impacting the first enemy in its path
  • Deals 80 damage
  • Stuns enemies for 0.2 seconds and knocks them back six meters
  • If the enemy collides with a wall while being knocked back, they take 40 more damage and are stunned an additional 0.3 seconds

Fortify

  • Now slows Orisa’s movement speed by 20 percent while active
  • Now provides 125 extra health while active
  • Reduces heat generation from Orisa’s weapon by 50 percent while active
  • Duration increased from four to 4.5 seconds

Javelin Spin

  • New Ability 2
  • Orisa rapidly spins a spear for 1.75 seconds, destroying incoming projectiles
  • Increases forward movement speed by 60 percent while active and by 20 percent for two seconds after the spinning ends
  • Rapidly damages enemies in her path, dealing up to 90 damage and constantly knocking them back

Terra Surge (Ultimate)

  • New Ultimate Ability
  • Orisa pulls in nearby enemies and becomes fortified, charging up an area-of-effect attack over four seconds. Releasing the charge deals up to 225 damage based on how long it was channeled
  • While charging, it deals minor damage over time and slows nearby enemy movement
    speed by 30 percent

Reinhardt

  • Base armor increased from 200 to 300
  • Base health increased from 300 to 350

Steadfast (Passive)

  • Replaced by Tank role passive

Barrier Field

  • Health reduced from 1600 to 1200
  • Regeneration rate reduced from 200 to 144 health per second

Charge

  • Steering turn rate increased by 50 percent
  • Can now be manually canceled
  • Charge Pin wall impact damage reduced from 300 to 225
  • Cooldown from 10 to eight seconds

Fire Strike

  • Now has two ability charges
  • Damage reduced from 100 to 90

Roadhog

  • Base health increased from 600 to 700

Take a Breather

  • Total healing increased from 300 to 350 health

Sigma

  • Base shields increased from 100 to 200

Accretion

  • Damage increased from 70 to 100

Experimental Barrier

  • Barrier regeneration rate reduced from 120 to 100

Winston

  • Base armor increased from 150 to 200

Tesla Cannon Secondary Fire 

  • New Secondary Fire
  • Hold Secondary Fire to charge, release to fire a 30-meter range jolt of electricity
  • Deals up to 50 damage
  • Costs up to 20 ammo

Barrier Projector

  • Barrier Projector health increased from 650 to 800
  • Barrier Projector duration reduced from nine to eight seconds
  • Cooldown reduced from 13 to 12 seconds

Primal Rage (Ultimate)

  • Ultimate cost increased by 10 percent

Wrecking Ball

  • Base armor increased from 100 to 150
  • Base health increased from 500 to 550

Adaptive Shield 

  • Radius increased from eight to 10 meters 
  • Health gained per target increased from 75 to 100 health

Zarya

  • Base health increased from 200 to 250
  • Base shields increased from 200 to 225

Particle Barrier 

  • Particle Barrier now has a 10-second cooldown on a shared two-charge system with Projected Barrier
  • Cooldown now begins immediately on ability use instead of when the barrier has expired
  • Barrier’s duration increased from two to 2.5 seconds

Projected Barrier

  • Projected Barrier now has a 10-second cooldown on a shared two-charge system with Particle Barrier
  • Cooldown now begins immediately on ability use instead of when the barrier has expired
  • Barrier’s duration increased from two to 2.5 seconds
  • Barrier targets cannot be targeted again by the ability for two seconds

Energy (Passive) 

  • Energy degeneration increased from 1.8 to 2.2 per second

Damage hero changes

Ashe

B.O.B. (Ultimate)

•   Bob base health reduced from 1200 to 1000

Bastion

Configuration: Tank (Ultimate)

  • Ability replaced with Configuration: Artillery

Self-Repair

  • Ability removed and replaced by A-36 Tactical Grenade

Ironclad (Passive)

  • Ability removed

Configuration: Recon

  • Weapon damage increased from 20 to 25
  • Fire rate reduced from eight to five shots per second
  • Weapon spread removed
  • Ammo reduced from 35 to 25

Configuration: Assault

  • Renamed from Configuration: Sentry
  • Bastion is now able to move in this form at 35 percent reduced movement speed
  • Now has a six-second duration and 12-second cooldown
  • Now has infinite ammo for its duration
  • Weapon spread is now a constant two degrees and no longer becomes more accurate as
    you fire
  • Damage reduced from 15 to 12

A-36 Tactical Grenade

  • New Secondary Fire
  • This ability replaces self-repair, but it is bound to Alternate Fire instead of E by default
  • Launches a grenade that can bounce off walls but sticks to players or the ground. It explodes after a short delay, dealing up to 130 damage

Configuration: Artillery (Ultimate) 

  • New Ultimate Ability
  • Locks Bastion into place to fire up to three long-range artillery shells
  • These shells deal high damage in a large area, but the damage falloff is significant
  • The targeting works similarly to Doomfist’s Meteor Strike ultimate, but you can click three
    times to launch projectiles
  • The projectiles come straight down from the air at the targeted locations, but they are projectiles in every other sense and can be blocked or destroyed by abilities

Cassidy

Peacekeeper

  • Secondary fire “Fan the Hammer” fire rate increased by around 7.5 percent

Flashbang

  • Ability removed and replaced by Magnetic Grenade

Magnetic Grenade

  • New Secondary Fire
  • Throws a grenade that can stick to enemies
  • Automatically homes in on an enemy close to the reticle when thrown within 10 meters of the target and can chase up to 13 meters
  • Deals 131 damage split between: one impact damage, 65 explosion damage, and an additional 65 damage to the stuck target at the time of detonation

Deadeye (Ultimate)

  • Now grants 40 percent damage reduction while channeling the ultimate
  • Damage now builds at 130 damage-per-second for the first two seconds and then at 260 damage-per-second for the remaining duration. (This was originally 100 DPS for 0.8 seconds, then 275 DPS for 0.7 seconds, and finally 550 DPS for the remaining duration)
  • Maximum duration increased from six to seven seconds
  • Ultimate cost increased by 10 percent

Echo

Focusing Beam

  • Maximum damage-per-second reduced from 200 to 175

Duplicate (Ultimate)

  • Echo copies the target’s combined health value including health, armor, and shields up
    to total of 300 health
    • e.g., A duplicated Tracer will have 150 health and a Reinhardt will have 300
      health

Hanzo

Storm Arrows

  • Damage reduced from 70 to 65

Junkrat

Steel Trap

  • No longer prevents all movement for its target
  • Now slows its target by 65 percent until they reach its max chain length, then it breaks
  • Still prevents movement abilities from being activated
  • Damage increased from 80 to 100
  • Projectile speed increased from 10 to 17

Mei

Endothermic Blaster

  • Freeze stun removed
  • Now immediately slows targets by a constant 50 percent instead of building up over time
  • Slow duration reduced from 1.0 to 0.5 seconds
  • Damage-per-second increased from 55 to 100
  • Ammo increased from 120 to 150

Cryo-Freeze

  • No longer removes Sigma Gravitic Flux effect

Ice Wall

  • Pillar health reduced from 400 to 250 
  • Range reduced from 35 to 20 meters

Blizzard (Ultimate)

  • Ultimate cost increased by 15 percent

Reaper

Hellfire Shotguns

  • Damage per pellet reduced from six to 5.4
  • Spread increased from six to eight

Sojourn (NEW)

Railgun

  • Rapid firing projectiles that generate energy on hit

Railgun Alt Fire

  • High impact shot that consumes stored energy

Disruptor Shot 

  • Launch an energy burst that snares and deals damage to enemies within it

Power Slide

  • Ground slide that can cancel into a high jump

Overclock (Ultimate)

  • Railgun energy auto-charges for a short duration and shots pierce enemies

Sombra

Machine Pistol

  • Damage reduced from eight to seven
  • Spread reduced by 10 percent

Hack

  • Cooldown reduced from eight to four seconds
  • Cooldown is no longer reduced when hacking health packs
  • Cast time increased from 0.65 to 0.85 seconds
  • Health pack hack duration reduced from 60 to 30 seconds
  • Ability lock duration reduced from five to one second
  • Now reveals hacked enemies through walls to Sombra’s team for eight seconds
  • Interrupting Hack during the channel time now incurs the full cooldown
  • Stun duration on Bob reduced from five to two seconds 
  • Now destroys Baptiste’s Immortality Field when it is hacked

Stealth

  • Fade-in time reduced by 50 percent
  • Enemy detection radius increased from two to four meters
  • Can now use Hack during Stealth without ending the Stealth ability, but is revealed to enemies while hacking and for 0.75 seconds after hacking

Passive: Opportunist

  • Damage dealt to hacked targets is now increased by 40 percent

EMP (Ultimate)

  • In addition to hacking them, now also deals 40 percent of current health as damage to enemies
  • No longer deals additional damage to base shield health pools but still deals massive damage to barriers

Tracer

Pulse Pistols

  • Damage reduced from six to five

Widowmaker

  • Base health increased from 175 to 200

Support hero changes

Ana

Sleep Dart

  • Cooldown increased from 12 to 15 seconds

Baptiste

Biotic Launcher

  • Primary fire minimum falloff range reduced from 25 to 20 meters

Regenerative Burst

  • Total healing increased from 75 to 100 health

Brigitte

Shield Bash

  • No longer stuns enemies
  • Cooldown reduced from seven to five seconds
  • Distance traveled increased from seven to 12 meters
  • Movement is no longer stopped when impacting barriers
  • Damage increased from one to 50

Inspire

  • Now also triggers from Shield Bash damage

Lucio

Sound Barrier (Ultimate) 

  • Ultimate cost reduced 12 percent

Mercy

Regeneration

  • Now increased the Support passive healing by 50 percent

Removed features

The following features have been removed:

  • Assault maps
  • The “on fire” and Medal systems.

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Author
Scott Robertson
VALORANT lead staff writer, also covering CS:GO, FPS games, other titles, and the wider esports industry. Watching and writing esports since 2014. Previously wrote for Dexerto, Upcomer, Splyce, and somehow MySpace. Jack of all games, master of none.