Overwatch 2

Overwatch 2 November 17 update patch notes delayed: Mei return, Genji, Sombra & D.va all nerfed

Nathan Warby
Sombra in Overwatch 2

The Overwatch 2 November 17 update includes nerfs to many of the game’s heroes, including Genji and Kiriko. Here are the patch notes for everything coming in the delayed Overwatch 2 November 17 update.

The next Overwatch 2update was originally set for November 15 but the devs announced that a “critical issue” caused the content drop to be delayed by several days to November 17 instead.

With Overwatch 2 Season 2 just around the corner, there’s plenty to look forward to in Blizzard’s hero shooter. The new season will bring a fresh Battle Pass to work through, as well as a brand-new Tank called Ramattra.

But before the Season 2 festivities get underway, the devs have been working tirelessly to balance the existing roster of Heroes with regular patches and more are coming nerfs to many fan-favorite characters.

Check out the early patch notes for the Overwatch 2 November 17 update below.

Overwatch 2 November 17 update: Hero nerfs

The November 17 patch will introduce nerfs to five of Overwatch 2’s Heroes that have proved to be too powerful in recent weeks; Genji, Sombra, D.va, Zarya, and Kiriko. Sombra has been hot hardest, with the effectiveness of her hack ability being significantly reduced.

Popular DPS Genji has also been heavily nerfed, as the devs decided to lower both his ammo capacity and Shuriken damage. Hopefully, these changes, along with the remaining hero nerfs, will leave matches feeling more evenly matched ready for when Ramattra joins the party in Season 2.

Overwatch 2 November 17 update: Mei return

mei frowning in overwatch 2

The Overwatch 2 November 17 update is also expected to see Mei return, a couple of weeks after she was disabled in-game. Her Ice Wall ability was allowing players to access certain spots on the map unintentionally, so the devs opted to temporarily remove her.

“We are working to address these issues as quickly as possible and aim to bring Mei back in our next upcoming patch which is set for November 15. Thank you for your understanding and patience,” they said in a blog post.

Obviously, this was the proposed date for this patch, so she will now be arriving with the complete update on November 17.

Overwatch 2 November 17 update patch notes

Blizzard are yet to reveal everything arriving in the Overwatch 2 November 17 update, but you can check out the early patch notes from the official forum below, inducing more details on the nerfed Heroes:

Sombra

  • Hack ability lockout duration reduced from 1.75 to 1.5 seconds
  • Hacked enemies are no longer valid targets for hacking for the duration of the effect
  • Hacked damage multiplier reduced from 40 to 25%

Dev Comment: With Sombra’s rework, she gained a lot more damage to help account for the reduced ability lockout duration of Hack. This has proven to be too deadly for a flanker with easy access to the enemy backlines, and we’ve similarly had to address the damage output of heroes like Tracer, Reaper, and now, Genji, in the 5v5 format.

She can also no longer channel hack on an already hacked target as feedback indicated the reduced cooldown combined with hacking from stealth proved to be too frustrating for many players. This is essentially a per-target cooldown that enables Hack to keep its current 4 second cooldown for potentially hacking multiple targets.

Genji

  • Maximum ammo reduced from 30 to 24
  • Shuriken damage reduced from 29 to 27

Dev Comment: Genji is a Hero that has greatly benefited from the move to 5v5. Changing to a single Tank and the reduction of crowd control has meant Genji has had less obstacles in his way, however he hasn’t received tuning updates since he wasn’t actively in the meta until launch (something also informed by our general preference to avoid preemptive adjustments when possible). We also saw that, in early beta tests, other flanking Heroes such as Tracer and Reaper were also significantly more effective in OW2. These changes will bring Genji more in line with the other flanking damage heroes.

Zarya

  • Barrier duration reduced from 2.5 to 2 seconds
  • Barrier cooldown increased from 10 to 11 seconds

Dev Comment: Early player sentiment predicted Zarya as one of the weakest solo tanks in 5v5 though her high damage potential and barrier uptime have proven to be extremely effective. For opponents, feedback has indicated this can feel as though Zarya has very limited windows of vulnerability, which feels difficult to deal with when combined with her ramping damage potential.

These changes will reduce the barrier uptime, making it slightly more difficult for her to gain energy and will provide enemies with more time to deal damage to her.

D.va

  • Fusion Cannon spread increased from 3.5 to 3.75
  • Boosters impact damage reduced from 25 to 15

Dev Comment: D.va ended up feeling too deadly after the last round of changes given how resilient she can be with the improved Defense Matrix. Both our stats and high-level player feedback regarded her as not effective enough before that compared with other tanks, so this is a partial revert to establish some middle ground there.

Kiriko

  • Swift Step invulnerability duration reduced from 0.4 to 0.25 seconds

Dev Comment: This invulnerability window is primarily intended to help avoid instantly dying to something unseen after teleporting through walls, but it ended up being a little too long and led to some confusion when shooting at Kiriko

We’ll be sure to update this page with the complete Overwatch 2 November 17 update patch notes as soon as they are available.

In the meantime, check out our other Overwatch 2 guides:

Are Overwatch 2 servers down? Overwatch server status | Best Overwatch 2 PC settings: How to boost FPS & optimize graphics | Does Overwatch 2 have cross-progression crossplay? Is Overwatch 2 crossplay? | How to transfer Overwatch skins to Overwatch 2: Account merging guide | How to play Overwatch 2 on Steam Deck | How to fix Overwatch 2 different version error | Best Overwatch 2 Heroes

Image credits: Blizzard Entertainment

Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on Esports, Gaming and more.