OW2 players furious over “pointless” Zarya buff while fan-favorite Tank ignored

Nathan Warby
Reinhardt charging in Overwatch 2

Blizzard released an Overwatch 2 update to address some of the Hero concerns since Season 9 went live, but players were stunned to see that Reinhardt was left alone while another Tank was given a “pointless” buff.

Overwatch 2 Season 9 was a huge update for the game, but it was also fairly divisive among the community. While the Competitive overhaul was well-received, the introduction of a healing passive and the changes to projective sizes have proved controversial.

In response to this, Blizzard dropped another patch on February 21 to address some of the issues fans were having with specific Heroes. Tracer was nerfed following a number of complaints, while the likes of Lucio, Hanzo, and more had their projectile sizes reduced.

The patch also looked to improve characters that were struggling to adapt, but Overwatch 2 players have slammed the devs for buffing one Tank in particular, while others were left untouched.

Reddit user ‘ghostyyyboy’ shared a post detailing all of the changes, and plenty of replies called out the “pointless” decision to buff Zarya. The Tank was handed a minimum and maximum damage buff to her primary fire, but many felt she was already too strong.

“Zarya boutta be a menace in low ranks,” said one player, with another agreeing: “I’m a mid to high gold player and I can say that it’s absolutely atrocious lol.” These fears were seemingly confirmed by a different fan, who responded: “Just had like 8 games in a row, about 6 were dominated by Zarya or Zarya v Zarya action.”

Meanwhile, others struggled to understand why the OW2 devs decided to focus on Zarya over another Tank they felt was struggling in Season 9 – Reinhardt.

“I was holding out hope for a Rein buff but no instead we get a random Zarya buff can’t say I’m surprised more disappointed,” argued one reply, with others claiming the devs have “given up” on the popular Tank.

These likely won’t be the only Hero changes we see during Season 9, as the community adapts to the major gameplay changes. We’ll have to wait and see if Reinhardt is given more attention in a future update, with OW2 Season 10 being the next major patch.

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About The Author

Nathan is a Senior Writer at CharlieIntel. He’s an expert in EA Sports FC, Call of Duty, and Overwatch, as well as superhero games, including Marvel’s Spider-Man. With a master's degree in Magazine Journalism from Nottingham Trent University, he worked as a Trainee Reporter for Derbyshire Live before moving into games media, with bylines at Dexerto, Cultured Vultures, and more. You can contact Nathan by email at [email protected].