Overwatch 2’s Latest Balance Pass Reshapes the Tank Meta, With D.Va Buffed and Zarya Nerfed
Overwatch 2’s September patch cycle has been rolling through Season 18 in stages, a major balance update on September 8 followed by hotfixes on September 10, 17, and 22, and the cumulative effect is a meaningfully different tank meta than the one players saw at the start of the month. Junkrat’s Loot Hunt event, running through September 29, added a legendary skin variant alongside the balance work.
Tanks Take the Biggest Hit
D.Va comes out ahead, her mech’s base health rising from 175 to 200, giving her more room to anchor a fight. Everyone else in the role got trimmed back: D.Mon’s armor and Plasma Saber damage were both reduced, Mauga’s base armor was lowered, Wrecking Ball’s Adaptive Barrier duration dropped from 1.5 to 1 second, and Zarya’s Particle Barrier cooldown increased from 11 to 12 seconds. Winston caught a partial buff, his Barrier Projector cooldown cut from 12 to 10 seconds even as its duration was also trimmed, and Domina’s ultimate cost came down by 6%.
Damage and Support Adjustments
On damage heroes, Freja, Sierra, Symmetra, Torbjorn, and Vendetta all saw nerfs to damage, range, or recovery time, while Junkrat’s Concussion Mine cooldown dropped from 8 to 7 seconds and Sierra’s projectile speed was increased to offset her damage cut. Support saw the sharpest swings: Kiriko and Zenyatta both lost some of their reach and uptime, while Baptiste’s Immortality Field got tankier and came back faster, Brigitte converted a chunk of her health pool into armor for better survivability, and Wuyang’s healing-over-time rate rose to 15% per second.
Play It Now
Overwatch 2 is free to play on Steam and through Battle.net. A Steam Wallet Code (US) covers the Steam version’s shop and Battle Pass, while a Blizzard Gift Card (EU) tops up your Battle.net balance for the Battle.net client instead.
