Blizzard's updating old Overwatch heroes starting in season 2

Pharah flies freely at last

Mercy, Reaper, and some of Overwatch's older heroes have had it tough in the game's newer meta, but Blizzard is looking to change that by giving them new abilities that used to be tied to perks. Alec Dawson, Overwatch associate game director, posted a blog previewing some of those changes on Friday, and the first round of changes will show up when season 2 goes live on April 14.

Mercy's flash-heal perk, which lets her add a burst of instant healing, will be part of her permanent kit once the season starts. Reaper gets the benefit of his long-distance volley all the time, and Pharah's drift boosters perk will always be active, so she can move around while casting her ult. Roadhog, Lifeweaver, and Sombra are up for reworks later, though Dawson didn't have any details to share about how their kits might change.

"Some of the parts on our ever-moving machine are sparkling and new, specially crafted to fit well into modern Overwatch," Dawson said in the post. "Other parts need some tuning to stay competitive and compelling. It was important to us that this initial pass of perk integration didn’t go too wide; we wanted to take what we felt were the best options for Heroes who needed a tune-up."

Dawson said the goal was to add utility and make heroes feel functional without overcomplicating their kits with "bloat." And it's certainly a welcome set of changes.

In Overwatch season 1, Blizzard changed how healing works, so a character taking damage receives less healing than they used to. Theoretically, it encourages people not to stay in the line of fire, but in practice, it just makes things harder for healers with fewer tools at their disposal, like Mercy. All her time is spent with her healing stream connected, with fewer opportunities to use her damage boost and no quick-save features like almost every other healer has.

Poor Reaper. Reliant as he is on close-range combat, he can barely land a shot anymore before he's stunned, burned, chained, hindered, and put to sleep, and Pharah's immobile ult is such a long-running joke that Blizzard referenced it in one of her April Fools' voice lines this year. ("Just try and shoot me. You won't!" Naturally, everyone does.)

These three heroes will have new perks to replace the ones Blizzard is integrating into their kits, but Dawson didn't say what those perks will be.

Also coming in season 2 of Overwatch is new Damage hero Sierra and native support for the Nintendo Switch 2.