A Overwatch 2 Director’s Take has revealed a number of changes we can expect going into Season 16, enough to give us a glimpse of their overall vision for the patch.
And, though there are a few perk changes and Freja buffs that have been revealed, there are also a number of more significant game-wide changes that were hinted at or outright revealed.
Here’s what we know so far about Overwatch 2 Season 16 and what you can expect from the full patch.
Overwatch 2 Season 16 early patch notes
6v6 is sticking around
One of the biggest bits of information revealed in the Director’s Take is that 6v6 will be sticking around in both Competitive and Open Queue, with around one third of players choosing 5v5 over 6v6.
It’s not quite as popular as the core mode just yet, but it’s popular enough to be sticking around for at least the duration of Season 16. It’ll keep the open queue format to make sure queue times don’t end up as long as they did in Overwatch 1.
Significant perk changes coming soon
While Aaron Keller only revealed a few of the perk changes we can expect, he did provide some insight into what sort of changes we can expect on several other heroes.
“If we feel a hero has a less impactful perk set overall, we also wanted to offer them new options. There’s also constant iteration going on behind the scenes to dream up bigger and better options for future seasons,” he explained, saying that no one perk should always be the best option.
We can expect a full list of these perk reworks when the Season 16 patch drops.
Hero Changes
Freja
Primary Weapon: Revdraw Crossbow
- Freja’s weapon now holds 12 shots instead of 8
Ultimate: Bola Shot
Juno
Perks
- New perk: Locked On
- Lowers cooldown for Pulsar Torpedoes based on number of enemies hit
- Re-Boots moving to a Minor perk, Hyper Boost removed
- Lowers cooldown for Pulsar Torpedoes based on number of enemies hit
Mercy
Perks
- New perk: Angelic Resurrection
- Grants Mercy 100 bonus overhealth while reviving a teammate
- Replaces Angelic Recovery
- Grants Mercy 100 bonus overhealth while reviving a teammate
Sombra
Perks
- New perk: Viral Replication
- Allows Sombra’s Virus to spread to nearby enemies