Overwatch 2 Update Massively Nerfs Moira

Blizzard is currently hosting the second Overwatch 2 beta, giving fans of the hero-shooter franchise the chance to try the new game months ahead of its early access launch date. The company is wasting no time updating Overwatch 2 based on the feedback it's receiving from the beta, with the latest patch making some rather significant changes to two of the game's most popular Support heroes: Moira and Mercy.

The latest Overwatch 2 PvP beta update massively nerfs Moira by completing changing one of her abilities. Moira now has the Enfeebling Orb that replaces the Damage Biotic Orb, which deals 40 impact damage and 10 explosion damage. This orb also weakens enemy by reducing the damage they can dish out by 75% for a period of four seconds. While this can have its uses, the Damage Biotic Orb as it previously existed was extremely powerful and resulted in many games where Moira would come out with stunningly high Damage and Healing outputs. These changes should make Moira a less overpowered character, though it remains to be seen how the community will react in the long run.

The Mercy changes, meanwhile, are not necessarily nerfs, but they may still feel like them to some Mercy players. After downloading the latest update, Overwatch 2 players will find that Mercy's Guardian Angel ability now has a charge meter, and it doesn't automatically send Mercy flying straight into the air whenever she zooms toward an ally. Players are also able to cancel the ability by using the jump button to launch Mercy in the direction that she is facing, as detailed in the patch notes. The more unpredictable movement that Guardian Angel provided arguably made Mercy more difficult to kill in Overwatch 2 matches, though Blizzard suggests in the patch notes that it was actually putting her in more danger. It will be interesting to see what Mercy mains think once they have a chance to really dive into these changes.

An Overwatch player gets a full team resurrect with Mercy's original ultimate.

The Overwatch 2 PvP beta end date is July 18, so there's less than a week to go before it wraps up. It's possible that Blizzard will issue more updates to Overwatch 2 before the beta is over, but that seems unlikely. It's more probable that fans will have to wait for the next Overwatch 2 beta to see any other major hero changes, but such beta testing plans have not been announced at the time of this writing.

Whenever the next Overwatch 2 beta takes place, one has to wonder if it will feature the new Support hero. Blizzard has confirmed that Overwatch 2 will be launching with three new heroes: Tank hero Junker Queen, Damage hero Sojourn, and a new Support hero that has yet to be announced. It's possible that Blizzard will make sure that this new Support hero is ready for the next beta so that they can be properly tested before the official launch, but that's just speculation at this time.

In the meantime, here are the full Overwatch 2 patch notes.

GENERAL

Added support for HDR displays when supported hardware is detected
Screenshot Quality now properly respects resolutions above 1x
Improved reflections on water surfaces for Xbox Series X|S and PS5 consoles
Realtime cloud rendering enabled on Xbox Series X|S and PS5 consoles

HEROES

General

The final hit that would deplete a Hero’s Armor Pool is now dynamically reduced
- For example: Previously if a hero had 1 armor remaining and took 100 incoming damage, that would instead be reduced to 70 damage due to armor. Now, in the same scenario, that hero will take 99 damage

SUPPORT

MERCY

Guardian Angel

The previous iteration of Guardian Angel led to less control for the player overall, often launching Mercy into danger or out of Resurrect range. This version keeps player intent at the forefront while still allowing for vertical mobility without sacrificing control input simplicity.

Mercy is no longer automatically launched upward when she reaches her destination
The ability now has a meter that charges up while Guardian Angel is active
Canceling the ability with Jump now launches Mercy in the direction she is facing
- The more charge she has, the more launch speed she’ll have when canceling Guardian Angel with Jump
Holding the backward directional input and canceling Guardian Angel launches Mercy in the opposite direction

MOIRA

Moira’s strengths lie in her extreme survivability, high healing throughput, and consistent damage output, but other supports have at least one utility option or play-making ability. To remedy this, Biotic Orb has been split into two abilities on separate cooldowns: Biotic Orb and Necrotic Orb. Due to Necrotic Orb’s potential to shut down many Ultimates and heavily swing duels in her favor, Moira has also received some compensation nerfs to her overall power.

Necrotic Orb

New ability, temporarily named “Enfeebling Orb” in-game
Replaces Damage Biotic Orb, with a separate cooldown of 16 seconds
Fires a straight moving projectile that explodes in a 3-meter radius on impact of an enemy or environment
Deals 40 impact damage and 10 explosion damage
Enemies affected by Necrotic Orb’s explosion receive the “Weakened” effect, reducing all damage dealt by 75% for 4 seconds

Biotic Orb

Damage Orb has been replaced by a new ability “Necrotic Orb”
- Each orb has its own separate cooldown
Healing Orb capacity decreased from 300 to 250
Cooldown increased from 8 to 10 seconds

Biotic Grasp

Self-healing decreased from 24 to 20 per second

Fade

Cooldown increased from 6 to 7 seconds

BUG FIXES

General

Fixed a bug where “Leave as Group” was not working as intended
Fixed a bug where using the “Fall back” option in the communication wheel wasn’t functional
Fixed a bug where slider values could not be adjusted quickly when holding down a direction
Fixed a bug where the “Joined Chat Channel” sound would play whenever there was a change in the chat box
Fixed TE-10413 error code at startup when the user has their PlayStation set to a language that OW2 doesn't support

Heroes

Junker Queen