Blizzard Entertainment’s Overwatch 2, the follow-up to — and the replacement for — the first Overwatch title, welcomed its ninth season on February 13. Coming off the heels of its successful musical and in-game collaboration with K-pop girl group LE SSERAFIM, Overwatch 2 has returned with a series of innovative system changes. EnVi rounded up all the details to enhance your playing experience. 

New and Improved Competitive Features

Overwatch 2 – Season 9: Champions brings with it major changes to Competitive and general game modes as well as core gameplay updates. During Blizzcon’s Overwatch 2: What’s Next Panel, Blizzard discussed some of the new major systemic changes aimed at providing greater transparency and making the PvP experience more accessible, rewarding, and fun for all players.

Now offering a brand new rank progression system and skill tier above Grandmaster, the Competitive experience has developed into a more in-depth reflection of each player’s growth. In response to player feedback, Blizzard captures the evolution of player gameplay with a rank update after every match, while simultaneously showing progression gained or lost between each Skill Division. Champion, now the highest rank, is limited to a small percentage of highly-skilled players in Competitive Play. 

Blizzard has taken the opportunity to reset all players’ competitive Skill Rank and reintroduce Placement Matches. Players are now given insight into a predicted starting rank as they complete each match. Once players have obtained their placed kill Rank, instead of requiring five wins or 15 losses to get a Competitive Update, updates are now provided after every match.

Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment.

New Jade Weapon Variants are also available for players to unlock through Competitive gameplay and with new Competitive Points (not based on the rank achieved by the player). All existing Competitive Points have been converted into a new currency, Legacy Competitive Points.

General Gameplay Developments

In addition to reworking Competitive Play, Blizzard has showcased leading developments affecting combat, hero survivability, and role passives with the purpose of designing a balanced in-game experience. First, adjustments in burst damage impact and in-game healing were implemented, improving hit consistency. Next, Blizzard increased max health and introduced passive health regeneration (20 healing per second) after five seconds of not taking damage. Finally, a new Damage passive empowers players to secure eliminations and reduces in-combat healing.

For more information and statistics on gameplay expansion and champion updates check out Blizzard’s official announcements on Overwatch 2’s retail patch notes here.

Want more gaming content? Check out Brian Pang’s thoughts on gaming as a gateway to cultural exploration here!

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