It’s that time again for another new season of Overwatch 2. But this one feels bigger than your ordinary, run-of-the-mill entry in the franchise.
Season 16: Stadium features a new hero, which is always awesome, but the biggest addition may be an all-new mode that combines features from other games like MOBAs and competitive FPSs to create something truly exciting and new.
Read on below to learn all about what’s new and changing in Overwatch 2 season 16.
Table of contents
OW2 season 16 patch notes
Season 16 is full of new content in OW2, including an awesome new mode, a new hero, a new limited-time collaboration, and special skins and updates galore.
New mode: Stadium
Stadium is a truly refreshing new mode in OW2, bringing new maps and a new third-person perspective to the tried and true formula of the game, along with mid-game items and power-ups, a best-of-seven format, and more.
The new mode is purely for ranked enthusiasts, offering exclusive rewards for those who dive in.
New hero: Freja
The newest Damage hero in OW2 joins the roster to kick off the season. Freja is a bounty hunter who wields a crossbow and has gotten some changes from feedback already given from her playtest last month.
Below, you can learn more about Freja’s abilities:
| Ability | Description |
|---|---|
| Revdraw Crossbow (Primary Fire) | Unload a flurry of rapid-fire bolts. |
| Take Aim (Secondary Fire) | Aim down sights to line up the perfect shot and fire a high-speed explosive bolt. |
| Quick Dash | Dash in any direction and reload your explosive bolt. |
| Updraft | Launch upwards sky-high to survey the battlefield below. |
| Bola Shot (Ultimate) | Fires an explosive bola that snags enemies and pulls in their unlucky teammates. |
Hero nerfs and buffs
Any new season in OW2 comes with its fair share of buffs and nerfs to existing heroes, and season 16 brings the heat, too, including a lot of changes to Perks introduced last season, along with the removal of underperforming ones and all-new ones entirely.
Tank heroes
D.Va
- Bunny Stomp is now combined with Ejection Suit.
- New Minor Perk “Bunny Power”
- Eject grants 75 temporary overhealth, and Call Mech’s damage radius is increased by 50%.
- New Minor Perk “Extended Boosters”
- Hitting an enemy with Boosters increases the duration by 0.5 seconds.
Hazard
- Off the Top
- Increase Leap Slash’s damage from 30 percent to 50 percent.
Orisa
- Augmented Fusion Driver
- Damage increased from 13 to 14
- Fortify
- Now prevents Hack’s ability lockout from interrupting abilities
- Heat Dissipater
- Increase amount of heat reduced per headshot by 33 percent.
Reinhardt
- Fiery Uptake
- Removed.
- New Minor Perk “Crusader’s Fire”
- Refund a charge of Fire Strike when you stun an enemy, overfilling up to 3.
- Shield Slam
- Distance increased by 50 percent.
Roadhog
- Hog Toss
- Removed.
- New Minor Perk “Pent Up”
- When Pig Pen is triggered, refill 50 percent Take a Breather resource, which can overfill.
- Hogdrogen Exposure
- Increased radius from 8 to 10 meters.
Sigma
- Levitation
- Jump can now be held down to hover.
Winston
- Base health increased from 225 to 275.
- Base armor reduced from 250 to 200.
Wrecking Ball
- In 6v6 game modes, Armor health is reduced from 150 to 100.
Damage heroes
Cassidy
- Past Noon
- Removed.
- New Minor Perk “Even the Odds”
- Regenerate 20 health per second for each enemy targeted by Deadeye.
Freja
Time to earn Minor Perk reduced by 18 percent.
- Revdraw Crossbow
- Number of shots before max spread increased from 8 to 12.
- Bola Shot
- Damage and Explosion radius increased from 5 to 5.5 meters.
- Damage over time increased from 75 to 90.
Hanzo
- Storm Bow
- Arrow draw progress is preserved while wall climbing.
- Storm Arrows
- Projectile speed increased from 110 to 140 meters per second.
Junkrat
- Aluminum Frame
- Now also reveals trapped enemies to allies.
- Tick Tock (description changed)
- Concussive Mine strengthens .5 seconds after landing, increasing damage by 50 percent, explosion radius by 50 percent, and health by 200 percent.
Mei
- Chilling Reach
- Removed.
- Biting Cold
- Moved to Minor perk.
- Secondary fire hits slow enemies by 20 percent for 1.5 seconds.
- New Major Perk “Deep Freeze”
- Continuously hitting enemies with primary fire freezes them for a short time.
Sombra
- Viral Efficacy
- Removed.
- New Minor Perk “Encrypted Upload”
- Hack can be used while invisible, successful hacks increase the duration of stealth by 2 seconds.
- Stack Overflow
- Removed.
- New Major Perk “Viral Replication”
- Hitting a hacked enemy with Virus spreads Virus to enemies within 8 meters.
Soldier: 76
- Field Emergency (description changed)
- Biotic Field’s healing is increased by 100 percent on Low health targets.
Torbjorn
- Overloaded Turret
- Now transforms into Level 3 Sentry Turret if Overload was activated before fully constructed.
Tracer
- Flashback
- Blinks restored reduced from 3 to 2.
- Quantum Entanglement
- Now additionally grants 20 over ammo.
Support heroes
Ana
- Groggy
- Reduced initial slow from 75 percent to 50 percent.
- Now also deals 50 damage over the duration.
- Biotic Bounce
- Second bounce damage and healing reduced from 50 to 25.
Baptiste
- Assault Burst
- Will now do instant healing, but cannot critically heal low targets.
- Biotic Launcher Secondary fire
- Healing explosion increased from 50 to 60.
- Direct impact healing increased from 20 to 30.
- Maximum ammo reduced from 13 to 10.
Juno
- Hyper Boost
- Removed
- Re-Boots moved to Minor Perk.
- Duration increase removed.
- New Major Perk “Locked On”
- Reduce the cooldown of Pulsar Torpedoes by 1.5 seconds for every enemy hit.
Lifeweaver
- Thorn Volley
- Projectile speed increased from 80 to 100 meters per second.
- Lifeweaving Perk
- Bonus healing increased from 30 to 40.
Lucio
- Groovin
- Removed.
- New Minor Perk “Beat Drop”
- Amp it Up is active during Sound Barrier.
Mercy
- Angelic Recovery
- Removed.
- New Minor Perk “Angelic Resurrection”
- Mercy gains 100 overhealth after casting Resurrect.
Zenyatta
- Orb of Discord
- In 6v6 game modes, the duration before expiring when the target is out of sight reduced from 3 to 1.5
seconds.
- In 6v6 game modes, the duration before expiring when the target is out of sight reduced from 3 to 1.5
- Ascendance
- Jump can now be held down to hover.
- Duality
- Increased converted damage from 20 percent to 30 percent.
Hero Bans in Competitive Play
Finally, the long-awaited ability to ban heroes from Competitive Play ranked matches is here, allowing for a new wrinkle to the strategy that goes into each match.
“The battlefield just got more dynamic,” Blizzard said. “With Hero Bans, you can influence matchups in Competitive Play through team-based voting to remove key counters from the game, leading to fresh strategies. You can remove up to two heroes per match per team, so coordinate with your team, adapt your plans, and shape the meta your way.”
New battle pass
New season means new battle pass means new skins. There are eight new skins to earn in the pass, along with others coming in the store throughout season 16, for Genji, Venture, Ashe, Mauga, Lifeweaver, Brigitte, Tracer, and Moira to begin with.
Gundam Wing collab
Mobile Suit Gundam-themed skins are coming for the 30th anniversary of the classic manga and anime series, with Mercy being the first teased to get a new costume as part of the collaboration. Which other heroes will be getting new skins? Stay tuned to learn more before the collab goes live on April 29.
Dokiwatch skins
D.Va, Brigitte, Freja, Kiriko, Widowmaker, and Juno are all getting adorable Dokiwatch-themed skins in season 16. These have been anticipated for some time, so their debut is sure to be a hit in the store.
Mythic Juno skin
Speaking of a hit, this season’s Mythic skin is for Juno, everyone’s newest favorite support hero in OW2. Heart of Hope is as adorable as it gets. But there’s also Mercy’s Mythic weapon, Merciful Magitech, and new Iridescent Aspects in the Mythic Shop as well.
This article will be updated with more information when it becomes available.
Published: Apr 22, 2025 01:00 pm