Overwatch 2’s DPS hero passive nerfed, tanks buffed in season 9 midseason patch

Buffs are everywhere in Overwatch 2’s midseason balance patch for season nine, with many of them going to tanks.

While all classes have had heroes changed, the tanks affected should feel the benefits the most. Tank has been more frustrating to play amid the changes to hero health and projectile sizes, so this new patch may mitigate that feeling.

Here are all of the new changes in Overwatch 2’s March 12 midseason patch.

Overwatch 2: March 12 patch notes

Projectiles are changing again in a reduction from 0.1 to 0.075 meters for “projectiles with a speed greater than 50 meters per second.”

“We are decreasing the size of the fastest travel time projectiles because it reduces the frequency of these projectiles failing to headshot due to hitting the enemy’s chest hit volume first,” Blizzard said.

Rejoice, tank mains. Several tanks have seen some nice buffs in the new patch, so it appears that Blizzard has heard all of the complaints about the role being “miserable” to play in season nine.

Buffs for tanks include an increase in Reinhardt’s armor and to the damage of his Fire Strike (from 100 to 120), an increase on Ramattra’s Ravenous Vortex damage and a decrease in its cooldown, buffs for Mauga’s Overrun stomp damage and changes to his Cardiac Overdrive, and an increase in Doomfist’s minimum damage for his Meteor Strike ultimate.

Tanks weren’t the only heroes buffed, though. DPS heroes with slight buffs include Hanzo (increase in projectile size to make up for the global decrease), Mei (increase in ammo count and heal per second on her Cryofreeze), Reaper (decrease in ultimate cost and increase in its damage per second), and more.

Overall, though, damage heroes are getting a very slight nerf to their damage passive. It will now reduce healing by 15 percent as opposed to 20 percent, as it was at the start of season nine.

“The Damage role passive reduces the potency of in-combat healing and helps equalize the effectiveness between burst and damage over time,” Blizzard said. “Nevertheless, we are going to experiment with a lower value to relieve some of the pressure on tank and support roles. We’ll be keeping a close eye on this change as we want the healing reduction to still be noticeable.”

Support heroes, you were not left out. Brigitte (Repair Pack cooldown reduction and Rally cost reduction), Illari (reduction in primary fire recovery time), and Lifeweaver (maximum heal amount increased by 10) all also received some nice minor buffs.

For the full list of patch notes for today’s update, check out the official Overwatch website.