Overwatch 2 Jan 9 update finally nerfs Mauga & Ana, buffs Orisa & Illari, more: Patch notes

Michael Gwilliam
magma mauga overwatch 2 skin

A new Overwatch 2 patch has just gone live on PC, Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch with some much-needed nerfs to Mauga.

Mauga has been dominating OW2 since his release and players have gone from Bronze to Grandmaster by maining the latest tank hero.

On January 9, the devs finally implemented a series of nerfs to the powerful Talon tank with massive changes to his health, ultimate, weapon, his life steal and more.

Mauga wasn’t the only hero getting nerfed. As players continue to complain about anti-heal, Ana’s Biotic Grenade was hit with a small nerf where its effect duration lasts half a second less.

Overwatch-2-high-ranked-players-stuck-in-queue-for-hours
Ana has been hit with another OW2 nerf.

That’s not all, though. The devs also implemented a series of buffs to Illari by increasing her ammo and improving her charge. Orisa also received some buffs with her damage falloff being completely removed.

Only time will tell if these changes improve the game for the second half of Season 8, but for now, it seems like Mauga could see a significant drop in the meta now following these major nerfs to his kit.

Full patch notes:

Overwatch 2 Retail Patch Notes – January 9, 2024

Year of the Dragon Seasonal Event

The fireworks and festivities for the Year of the Dragon begin on January 30! Mischief and Magic prop hunt game mode returns on the Lijiang Night Market map, with all new props for Rogue Kiriko to transform into that will make you look in every direction imaginable. In addition, celebrate with your fan-favorite Lunar New Year Modes, including Capture the Flag and Bounty Hunter Blitz.

HERO UPDATES

TANK

Mauga
  • Base Health increased from 250 to 300.
  • Base Armor decreased from 250 to 200.

Incendiary and Volatile Chainguns

  • Ammo decreased from 350 to 300.

Cardiac Overdrive

  • Lifesteal decreased from 70% to 60%.
  • Cooldown increased from 10 seconds to 12 seconds.

Cage Fight

  • No longer grants infinite ammo. Still reloads Mauga’s Chainguns at the start of the ultimate.

Berserker

  • Overhealth conversion rate decreased from 60% to 50%.

Orisa

Augmented Fusion Driver

  • Removed falloff damage penalty.

Fortify

  • Now immune to taking forced critical hit damage. Fortify already prevents direct critical damage from headshots.

Roadhog

Take a Breather

  • Total amount healed reduced from 500 to 450.
  • Cooldown between usages increased from 1 to 1.5 seconds.

DAMAGE

Sojourn

Railgun

  • Gradual energy no longer decays below 25%.

Sombra

Stealth

  • Grace period where Stealth can be canceled immediately after entering it increased from 0.5 to 0.75 seconds.
  • Cooldown now pauses at 1 second while capturing or contesting objectives from 1.5 seconds.
  • Cooldown on respawning decreased from 1.5 to 1 second.

SUPPORTS

Ana

Biotic Grenade

  • Effect duration reduced from 3.5 to 3 seconds.

Illari

Solar Rifle

  • Primary fire charge gain is no longer paused by secondary fire, nor channeling Captive Sun.
  • Ammo increased from 14 to 16.

Captive Sun

  • Now fully refills secondary fire resource and resets overheated status.
  • Removed the damage falloff penalty on the Sunstruck explosion.

Lifeweaver

Thorn Volley

  • Projectile speed increased from 70 to 80 meters per second.

Petal Platform

  • No longer pierced by piercing projectiles.

BUG FIXES

General

  • Fixed a bug that caused Endorsement Level to appear incorrectly in Custom Games.
  • Increased the volume and clarity of Ultimate voice over lines.
  • Fixed missing Multikill voice-overs from activating when criteria is met.
  • Fixed the ‘Rugby Practice’ challenge not progressing.
  • Fixed a bug when spectating that caused the camera to become stuck on 2 members of the team.
  • Fixed an issue that prevented the ‘Hero Limit’ option from saving after being modified in Custom Game options.
  • Fixed an issue with Reticle options where Dot Size and Outline Thickness would change the reticle appearance even if their opacity was set to 0.
  • Fixed a crash related to viewing replays.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented you from being able to manually enter the value for Maximum Queue Delay in Streamer Protect settings (this value could always be set using the slider).

Heroes

  • Fixed a bug that allowed abilities with shockwaves to hit targets in a floor below.

Bastion

  • Fixed an issue with Bastion’s hitbox becoming desynchronized while in Assault mode.

Doomfist

  • Fixed a bug with Rocket Punch that could cause the targets of the punch to potentially lose their walking animation.

Echo

  • Fixed a bug that occurred when an Echo copied Sigma’s Kinetic Grasp would not grow when taking damage.

Illari

  • Fixed a bug where the Sunstruck effect wouldn’t detonate if the damage threshold was reached in the last 0.6 seconds of the effect.

Mercy

  • Fixed an issue that reduced Guardian Angels active duration by cancelling the ability while simultaneously pressing crouch or jump.
  • Fixed an issue that forced Mercy to reload if Valkryie was activated during the reload animation.