Overwatch 2 patch notes: new Scoreboard is a game changer

The PvP beta for Overwatch 2 is in full swing, and there are some pretty big changes afoot.

The Overwatch 2 beta is live, and fans of the game who were lucky enough to get in are flocking to log in. Even as players report that Battle.net and the game's official site are down, its popularity is surging on Twitch. So much so that it's topped Valorant's viewercount for the first time ever. 

We're keeping track of all of the Overwatch 2 PvP beta live updates as they happen – and that includes the devs dropping the patch notes that reveal a new Scoreboard feature that's live right now. We've included the patch notes in full below as well, so you use the sidebar to navigate to the different sections.  

Overwatch 2 patch notes: Scoreboard

You can scroll down for the full Overwatch 2 patch notes, but the biggest surprise is the addition of the Scoreboard. The game has ditched the Fire and Medal systems, which have been redundant thanks to new feature. 

Scoreboard now displays key stats in real time for all players, including eliminations and deaths. It's a huge deal, especially considering the dialogue that's been built up around the absence of a traditional scoreboard. 

The layout will be familiar to those of you who play other competitive games (and sports), which is a deliberate design choice. The patch notes say that the new Scoreboard provides "a more accurate and easier to read view of each player’s performance-related data."

The Fire system hasn't been forsaken completely though. The devs say they'll revisit it at some point "in the future" as it offers a source of "excitement and positive feedback around awesome plays made by you or your teammates."

Why wasn't Scoreboard an Overwatch feature before?

Way back when, in a 2016 GameSpot interview, former Overwatch design director, Jeff Kaplan, explained the real reason a scoreboard was missing. 

"There's been a misconception in our community that Blizzard doesn't have a traditional scoreboard because they're, 'catering to the casuals,' and, 'they're a bunch of care bears,' and, 'It's all about toxicity,'. and, "They're a bunch of care bears," and, "It's all about toxicity.' 

"I find those conversations really interesting, and I think that there are some valid arguments people have made in terms of toxicity, but that hasn't been the reason at all," says Kaplan.

He goes on to explain that despite 'iterating endlessly' on the old scoreboard and scoring system, it just wasn't doing the job properly.  

"We want players to be able to look at the scoreboard and go, 'I know who's performing really well, and I know who's not.' If we just make it about kills and deaths, it doesn't tell the complete story of who's doing well and who's doing not."

Overwatch's character roster allows for numerous play styles and roles that expand beyond simple kill counts, or the objective. 

"So we we basically stopped displaying any form of scores, kills, deaths because it really wasn't telling the story of who was doing their job properly to win or lose as a team. And really, what it's all about is, 'did you win or lose as a team?' None of that other stuff really matters at the end of the day."

So to see the new Scoreboard implemented – which was absent from the Overwatch alpha – is a surprise to everyone. 

Read on for all of the changes present in the Overwatch 2 PvP beta. Note that the game is still a work in progress, so things may be tweaked and changed yet. 

(Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment)

Overwatch 2 patch notes: general

New Game Mode - Push

Push is a new game mode available on two brand-new maps: Toronto and Rome. Gameplay unfolds with two opposing teams fighting over control of a single shared objective, the Treadweather TS-1 Large Utility Robot, that starts in the middle of the map. 

Each team fights to take control of TS-1 as they would a payload: by having teammates located next to TS-1 with no enemies nearby. When a team takes control of TS-1, it slowly pushes their team’s barricade towards the opposing team’s start location along the predetermined path. If TS-1 and the barricade reach the goal at the end of the path, then the team controlling TS-1 wins the game. 

When the opposing team takes control of TS-1, it leaves the first team’s barricade in place and reverses its direction. TS-1 then quickly moves back along the path until it reaches the opposing team’s barricade, which then pushes towards the first team’s spawn. 

Midway between TS-1’s starting location and each team’s end goal, there is a forward checkpoint objective along the path. When TS-1 pushes a team’s barricade to their forward checkpoint, that team activates a closer respawn location. This respawn location deactivates if the other team retakes control of TS-1, then moves TS-1 to a point on the path before the forward checkpoint. 

Players have 8 minutes to push their team’s barricade to the end goal and win. If neither team’s barricade reaches its end goal after 8 minutes, then the team who pushed their barricade the farthest distance AND has control of TS-1 wins. The game enters overtime if control of TS-1 is contested, or the team who currently has control of TS-1 does not have the farthest distance pushed. Overtime ends when the team with TS-1 loses control of it, or when the team with control of TS-1 pushes their barricade to a distance exceeding the opposition’s

Assault Maps Being Removed

With the addition of the Push game mode and its new maps to Overwatch, we’ve decided to remove all the maps using the Assault game mode from both the Quick Play and Competitive map rotations

After examining all our maps and game modes, we noted that the Assault game mode has always been a source of discontent for many members of our community. We believe many of the issues for the Assault maps could only be solved by making major changes to the game mode and major reworks to the maps, resulting in complete level rebuilds. We’ve shifted our focus to create maps in exciting new locations across the world such as Toronto and Rome.

Although Assault maps will no longer be in standard rotations, all Assault maps (Hanamura, Temple of Anubis, Volskaya, Paris, and Horizon Lunar Colony) will still be available for use in custom games and the workshop. We’ll also look for future opportunities to bring them back into Quick and Competitive map rotations, as well as special events and arcade game modes.

5v5

For the Quick Play and Competitive Role Queue modes, the team composition now consists of 1 Tank, 2 Support, and 2 Damage heroes. For Quick Play Classic, Open Role Queue, and arcade modes such as CTF or Mystery Heroes, the number of players on a team is now 5 instead of 6.

With one fewer player on each side, individual contribution means more to the overall success of the team. Fewer players on the map also changes gameplay in a host of positive and sometimes subtle ways. Players have more space to spread out, and the battlefield is easier to understand with fewer visual effects and sounds happening around you.

The removal of one Tank hero in restricted role queues has allowed us to rework all our Tank heroes to be even more impactful and fun to play. This change increases gameplay clarity for all hero roles, and makes matches play more fluidly.

Tab Score Board

We’re making a large change to the Scoreboard screen by displaying key statistics in real time for all the players in the game, including eliminations and deaths. They’ll be presented in a new layout that mirrors other competitive games and sports. This new layout should provide players with an overall more accurate view of the game.

As a result of this change, we are retiring the Fire and Medal systems. Both systems are no longer as necessary with the new Scoreboard providing a more accurate and easier to read view of each player’s performance-related data. We do plan on revisiting the Fire system in the future, as it can provide excitement and positive feedback around awesome plays made by you or your teammates. These changes are a work in progress, and we are looking forward to hearing what the community thinks about these updates!

Overwatch 2 patch notes: sound

Sound

• Weapon Sound Updates
  • New weapon fire audio for all heroes
• Environmental Audio Updates
  • New “Convolution Reverb” System – more realistic environments  
  • 3D Reverb – can hear the environment your enemies are shooting in, giving more gameplay information  
  • Weapon and Explosion Tails –decaying of weapons and explosions now reflect the environment in which they occur  
  • Debris Updates – a more complete pass to have weapon impacts and explosions react to the surface that they impact  
  • Whiz-by Updates - new bullet pass by audio for ballistic weapons  
  • Speed of sound adjustments for very long-range impacts and explosions
• UI Sound Updates
  • Added a "Kill Stinger” sound for final blows  
  • Added a “Teammate Down” sound to help you know when you lose a teammate in battle
• Get Hits
  • Performed a consistency pass across all damage sounds  
  • Added different impact sound for different types of health (regular, armor, shields, overhealth)
• Home Theater Mix
  • Enhanced use of the subwoofer/LFE channel 
  • Enhanced multi-channel panning
• Sound Options
  • Teammate and Enemy Eliminated optional sounds 
  • There are two new settings in the sound options to turn on sound when a teammate or an enemy are eliminated
• Audio Mix Options
  • We have added audio mix options for various common settings (home theater, TV, headphones, etc.). They are still in the early stages of tuning and will likely change as we develop them through the betas
• Unit Impacts
  • We have added unit impact sounds that now corelate with the type of health pool you are impacting – for example you will get armor impact sounds on Reinhardt until his armor is depleted, and flesh impact sounds when in his default health pool. This is true of all heroes regardless of what material type they are made of.

Overwatch 2 patch notes: features

• Ping System
  • Enemy hero ping icons are using temporary art. 
  • Improved controller support is in progress.  
  • There are text-to-speech placeholders for some pings while we finish the recording process.  
  • Localization is only partially complete for a few languages.
• Heads-up Display (HUD)
  • Visual updates to some Hero HUD items and in-game HUD elements 
  • Some elements of the HUD have not been addressed yet

Overwatch 2 patch notes: maps

• Control Maps
  • Ilios 
    •  (NEW) Evening Lighting  
  • Lijiang Tower 
    • (NEW) Dawn Lighting  
  • Oasis 
    • (NEW) Night Lighting
• 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
    • (NEW) Evening Lighting
  • Route 66
    • (NEW) Night Lighting
  • 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
    • (NEW) Evening Lighting
  • Eichenwalde
    • (NEW) Evening Lighting
• 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

Overwatch 2 patch notes: Heroes (general)

General

• Role Passives
  • Tank 
    • 30% knockback resistance 
    • 30% lower Ultimate generation from damage taken and healing taken  
  • Damage 
    • 10% faster movement speed 
  • Support 
    • Regenerate 15 health-per-second after 1 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% 
    • 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

Overwatch 2 patch notes: Heroes (tanks)

Tanks

• Doomfist
  • Moved from Damage to Tank role  
  • Base health increased from 250 to 450
  • Uppercut
    • Ability removed 
  • Hand Cannon
    • Damage reduced from 6 to 5 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%
    • 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% 
    • Travels 50% 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%  
    • 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 1 meter radius unchanged from 300 damage  
    • Knockback removed  
    • Now additionally slows the movement speed of all enemies hit by 50% for 2 seconds  
    • Cast time reduced from 1.0 to 0.5 second
• 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% to 40%  
    • Weapon spread reduced from 4 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 4 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 3 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 6 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% while active  
    • Now provides 125 extra health while active  
    • Reduces heat generation from Orisa’s weapon by 50% while active 
    • Duration increased from 4 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% while active and by 20% for 2 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 4 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%
• 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% 
    • Can now be manually cancelled  
    • Charge Pin wall impact damage reduced from 300 to 225  
    • Cooldown from 10 to 8 seconds 
  • Fire Strike:
    • Now has 2 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 9 to 8 seconds 
    • Cooldown reduced from 13 to 12 seconds 
  • Primal Rage (Ultimate):
    • Ultimate cost increased by 10%
• Wrecking Ball
  • Base armor increased from 100 to 150  
  • Base health increased from 500 to 550
  • Adaptive Shield:
    • Radius increased from 8 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 2 charge system with Projected Barrier  
    • Cooldown now begins immediately on ability use instead of when the barrier has expired  
    • Barrier's duration increased from 2 to 2.5 seconds 
  • Projected Barrier:
    • Projected Barrier now has a 10 second cooldown on a shared 2 charge system with Particle Barrier  
    • Cooldown now begins immediately on ability use instead of when the barrier has expired  
    • Barrier's duration increased from 2 to 2.5 seconds 
    • Barrier targets cannot be targeted again by the ability for 2 seconds 
  • Energy (Passive):
    • Energy degeneration increased from 1.8 to 2.2 per second

Overwatch 2 patch notes: Heroes (damage)

• 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 8 to 5 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% reduced movement speed
    • Now has a 6-second duration and 12-second cooldown
    • Now has infinite ammo for its duration
    • Weapon spread is now a constant 2 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 3 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 3 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%
  • 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: 1 impact damage, 65 explosion damage, and an additional 65 damage to the stuck target at the time of detonation
  • Deadeye (Ultimate):
    • Now grants 40% damage reduction while channeling the Ultimate
    • Damage now builds at 130 damage-per-second for the first 2 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 6 to 7 seconds
    • Ultimate cost increased by 10%
• 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% 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% 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%
• Reaper
  • Hellfire Shotguns:
    • Damage per pellet reduced from 6 to 5.4  
    • Spread increased from 6 to 8
• 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 8 to 7  
    • Spread reduced by 10%
  • Hack:
    • Cooldown reduced from 8 to 4 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 5 to 1 second
    • Now reveals hacked enemies through walls to Sombra's team for 8 seconds
    • Interrupting Hack during the channel time now incurs the full cooldown
    • Stun duration on Bob reduced from 5 to 2 seconds 
    • Now destroys Baptiste’s Immortality Field when it is hacked
  • Stealth:
    • Fade-in time reduced by 50%
    • Enemy detection radius increased from 2 to 4 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%
  • EMP (Ultimate):
    • In addition to hacking them, now also deals 40% 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 6 to 5
• Widowmaker
  • Base health increased from 175 to 200

Overwatch 2 patch notes: Heroes (support)

• 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 7 to 5 seconds  
    • Distance travelled increased from 7 to 12 meters  
    • Movement is no longer stopped when impacting barriers  
    • Damage increased from 1 to 50
  • Inspire:  
  • Now also triggers from Shield Bash damage
• Lucio 
  • Sound Barrier (Ultimate):  
  • Ultimate cost reduced 12% 
• Mercy 
  • Regeneration:  
    • Now increased the Support passive healing by 50

from TechRadar - All the latest technology news https://ift.tt/B0tEcC7