Overwatch 2’s beta is officially live, allowing some players to go hands-on with the next installment in this hero shooter. Despite looking (and playing) extremely similar to the original game, many of the heroes got either complete ability reworks or some minor tweaks. While the tanks got the biggest alternations, there were some small changes made to several support heroes like Ana.
These range from quality of life changes to the UI to alterations in how much damage they deal. Keep in mind that Overwatch 2 is still in beta. This means any of these changes could be altered for subsequent tests or when the game is officially released. It’s completely possible that Blizzard ends up adjusting one of these characters — especially for popular choices like Brigitte.
Here’s everything you need to know about the hero changes in the first Overwatch 2 beta:
(Updated 6/28/2022)
Overwatch 2 Support Hero Changes
Ana
- Sleep Dart cooldown increased from 12 seconds to 15 seconds.
- Biotic Rifle ammo increased from 12 to 15.
- Biotic Grenade duration reduced from 4 to 3 seconds
Baptiste
- Primary fire minimum falloff range reduced from 25 meters to 20 meters.
- Regenerative Burst healing increased from 75 to 100.
- Healing ammo increased from 10 to 13
Brigitte
- Shield Bash
- No longer stuns. Does 50 damage instead of 1 damage.
- Range increased from 6.85 meters to a little over 10 meters.
- Cooldown reduced from 7 seconds to 5 seconds.
- Shield Bash triggers her Inspire ability.
- Knockback doubled
Lucio
- Sound Barrier Ultimate cost reduced by 12%
- Self-healing penalty increased from 30 to 60%
Mercy
- UI now displays an image of what hero you are healing/damage buffing.
- Increased the Support passive healing by 50%.
- Guardian Angel
- No longer can be canceled using crouch for a big vertical boost
- Now automatically launches you upwards if you reach the end of Guardian Angel
- Angelic Descent
- Angelic Descent will now additionally slow ascent speed if held, not just descent speed
Moira
- No changes made.
Zenyatta
- Orb of Discord
- Time to fall off target when not in line of sight reduced from 3 to 2 seconds
- New Passive – Snap Kick
- Increases quick melee damage by 50% and significantly knocksback hit targets.
- Base shields increased from 150 to 175.
- UI now displays what hero is being healed/debuffed next to the Ultimate charge circle instead of in the bottom right corner of the screen.
Of all the Support class changes, the biggest is obviously Brigitte’s. A character that infamous brought on the hated “Goats” meta, this hero utterly warped the meta around her when she was released. Since then, she has received numerous nerfs and adjustments to her kit.
In the Overwatch 2 Beta, Brigitte’s Shield Bash no longer stuns. This means players won’t be able to just bully enemies or outright stop those in their Ultimate. To compensate for this change, the ability now deals 50 damage, travels a few meters farther, and has a reduced cooldown. Hopefully, all of this makes Brigitte less oppressive while still being a dangerous character to get close to.
The rest of the Support changes were pretty small, such as Ana’s Sleep Dart cooldown getting a three-second increase to the cast time and Baptiste’s Immortality Field being slightly slower. One change I am excited about as a Zenyatta main his UI update that makes it much easier to identify who you have the Healing/Discord Orbs on. This should make it much easier to not only track who you are healing, but make proper callouts for your team whenever you throw the Discord Orb on someone. Lucio also got a small buff to his ultimate charge, which should make getting Sound Barrier a bit more consistent for fights. It will also, hopefully, make Lucio a solid solo healer since his Ultimate can absolutely swing entire fights.
Even though there were no substantial reworks, these adjustments will hopefully make every support more viable in Overwatch 2‘s new 5v5 format.
While you’ll be seeing guides around Overwatch 2 from us, we’re reporting on the Activision-Blizzard allegations as they happen. In case you aren’t up to date, we highly encourage you to read more about recent events, including the story on the alleged interference from a California governor, the attempts to lift the mandatory vaccination mandate while the COVID-19 pandemic continues rampant, the announcement of US-based QA workers being promoted to full-time staff following a strike, which excluded Raven employees who have been working on unionizing since the beginning of the year, as well as the lawsuits regarding sexism and discrimination and wrongful death in an employee’s death by suicide.
