Overwatch 2’s Second Beta Is Live, Here’s What’s New

Games Overwatch 2’s Second Beta Is Live, Here’s What’s New Kris Holt Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. I cover all things games, especially Overwatch. New! Follow this author to improve your content experience.

Got it! Jun 28, 2022, 06:33pm EDT | Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Junker Queen will not tolerate Overwatch 2 smurfs. Blizzard Entertainment The time has come, Overwatch fans. The second Overwatch 2 PVP beta is now live, and Xbox and PlayStation players are getting to join the party this time around.

While beta signups are closed, you can still get in by buying the Overwatch 2 Watchpoint Pack. MORE FROM FORBES The $40 Overwatch 2: Watchpoint Pack Includes Guaranteed Beta Access, Skins And Other Perks By Kris Holt There are a lot of changes from the first beta, so much so that I can’t include the full 2,000+ words of the patch notes here, since I wouldn’t be able to include any commentary. It’s worth reading the whole thing to get a sense of all the changes.

That said, let’s dive into what’s new. Both Role Queue and Open Queue are available for Quick Play (y’all ready for 5v5 tank battles?). There’s still no Competitive mode , but Blizzard promised a “partial competitive ruleset” for this beta.

On a temporary basis, Hybrid and Escort maps will have a version of competitive rules — you’ll play both offense and defense. However, other players will be able to backfill should anyone leave and there’s no punishment for ducking out early. Meanwhile, Push maps will last for 10 minutes instead of eight.

There’s a new Hybrid map called Paraíso, which is set in Rio de Janeiro. Busan and Watchpoint: Gibraltar are back in the mix with new time-of-day lighting. MORE FOR YOU ‘Demon Slayer’ Season 2 Finally Has An Actual 2021 Release Date Netflix’s ‘Squid Game’ Season 2 Not A Sure Thing, Says Director ‘Genshin Impact’ Still Refuses To Increase Anniversary Rewards, Despite Fan Outcry The second Overwatch 2 beta has a new Hybrid map called Paraíso, which is set in Rio de Janeiro.

Blizzard Entertainment One of the big changes everyone’s looking forward to checking out is the introduction of a new tank, Junker Queen. I played around with the hero in the training mode before writing this post and she already seems like a blast. I’ll have more to say about her later.

Here’s a breakdown of her abilities: Junker Queen Abilities Scatter Gun (Primary Fire) Pump Action Shotgun with six shots Jagged Blade (Secondary Fire) Active: Throw the blade and re-activate to pull it back, along with any impaled enemy Passive: Wound enemies with Quick Melee or Throw, dealing damage over time If the blade passes through the enemy when you recall it, the wound effect will apply to them too. Wound deals damage to enemies over time. If you Quick Melee an enemy when the knife isn’t in your hand, you’ll deal regular melee damage.

Commanding Shout Temporarily increase health and movement speed for yourself and nearby allies Carnage Wound all enemies in front of you, dealing damage over time This is a blow with the ax that’s part of her kit. Adrenaline Rush (Passive) Heal from all damage over time dealt by wounds Rampage (Ultimate) Charge forward and wound enemies; dealing damage over time and preventing them from being healed You can’t control the charge after it starts, so be careful about falling off the map. I discussed Junker Queen with some Overwatch 2 devs recently.

You can read what they had to say here: MORE FROM FORBES Overwatch 2 Hero Junker Queen’s Abilities Revealed And Explained By Devs By Kris Holt All of the original Overwatch heroes have a new look in Overwatch 2, including Hanzo. Blizzard Entertainment New Looks This beta includes new looks for every Overwatch hero. You can check them out by accessing Classic II from the skin options in the Hero Gallery.

Blizzard has also upgraded the ping system , which should make it even more useful. For instance, after you’re killed, you’ll have three seconds to ping the enemy that took you out. Team 4 says this should minimize ping spamming.

Ana will have a unique ping for sleeping enemies. Junkrat will be able to ping the location of trapped enemies through walls and Symmetra can pin her teleporter locations. MORE FROM FORBES Overwatch 2’s Ping System Is An Excellent Quality Of Life Upgrade By Kris Holt Now when you open the ping wheel, a contextual ping will also be triggered (just in case you open the wheel accidentally).

There’s now a back button for the ping wheel too. Scoreboard Updates I’m still not a big fan of the new scoreboard , but Blizzard has made it better with some changes. It’s good to have numeric values for teammates’ Ultimate charge back, for one thing.

The layout has been updated to focus on what’s seemingly the most important information, even though objective time apparently doesn’t matter for all heroes anymore. The main scoreboard includes stats for eliminations, assists, deaths, damage, healing and damage mitigated. MORE FROM FORBES Overwatch 2’s New Scoreboard Feels Philosophically Wrong By Kris Holt Assists brings together defensive assists and offensive assists stats from Overwatch .

That’s good, since it wasn’t always super clear to me how those stats were tabulated. Damage mitigated accounts for not only damage absorbed by barriers, but mitigations from abilities like Ana’s Nano Boost or Orisa’s Fortify. The stat’s a work in progress and will eventually account for damage mitigated by more abilities, such as Lucio’s Sound Barrier.

There are also stats that are private to each player during a game, namely those for specific heroes — essentially the ones that appear in the bottom right of the Overwatch 1 scoreboard. Some stats haven’t been implemented yet, though. It looks like there are role-based ones: objective contest times for tanks, final blows for DPS and “heroes saved” for supports.

I think all heroes should have these three stats, though. Technical Changes On the technical side, ambience soundscapes have been mixed for surround sound. Xbox players have access to Dolby Atmos for home theater and 3D audio over headphones, while PS5 supports Sony’s 3D audio via headphones and TV.

PS5 players can now choose between three display modes, one favoring resolution, another focused on framerate and one that’s in between. However, there’s no adaptive trigger support or haptic feedback yet. Boo.

PC players, meanwhile, can use a dynamic render scale feature to boost performance when the GPU is limited. Hero Changes Supports will now start passive self-healing after 1. 5 seconds instead of 1 second.

There’s a bigger change for damage heroes, however. Instead of making them faster across the board, Blizzard will allow DPS players to retain up to 30% of their Ultimate charge when they swap heroes. Damage heroes have been reverted to their previous, pre-role passive speeds.

And now for the balance changes. . .

Reinhardt’s in line for some big changes when ‘Overwatch’ moves to 5v5. Blizzard Entertainment Reinhardt Armor reduced from 350 to 300 Health increased from 300 to 325 Winston Barrier Projector Projector health reduced from 800 to 700 Primal Rage (Ultimate) Ultimate cost increased 10% D. Va Mech Armor increased from 200 to 300 Mech Health decreased from 450 to 350 Doomfist Seismic Slam No longer slows enemies Power Block Damage reduction reduced from 90% to 80% Orisa Augmented Fusion Driver Damage increased from 10 to 12 Projectile size no longer scales with distance Projectile initial size reduced from 0.

3 to 0. 1 Critical damage bonus increased from 50% to 100% Damage falloff at maximum range reduced from 70% to 50% Maximum falloff range reduced from 15-35 meters to 15-25 meters Fortify 20% movement speed penalty removed Headshot immunity removed Javelin Spin Cooldown decreased from 10 to 7 seconds Speed boost reduced from 65% to 40% Knockback increased Energy Javelin Impact damage reduced from 80 to 60 Cooldown increased from 6. 5 to 8 seconds Terra Surge Max damage increased from 275 to 500 Damage begins to ramp after the old 200 damage timing Orisa’s rework is one of the biggest and best changes in Overwatch 2.

Blizzard Entertainment Bastion A-36 Tactical Grenade Cooldown reduced from 10 to 8 seconds Cassidy Combat Roll Now grants 50% damage reduction for its 0. 4 second duration Junkrat Steel Trap Fully locks movement again Projectile speed increased from 10 to 15 Frag Launcher Projectile size increased from 0. 2 to 0.

25 Pharah Rocket Launcher Reload starts 0. 25 seconds sooner when out of ammo Concussive Blast Now deals 30 damage and deals additional knockback on direct hits Symmetra Photon Projector (Primary Fire) Maximum ammo increased from 70 to 100 No longer generates ammo when damaging barriers Photon Projector (Secondary Fire) Projectile speed increased from 25 to 50 Max damage reduced from 120 to 90 (45 impact, 45 explosion) Max charge projectile size reduced from 0. 5 to 0.

4 Ammo cost increased from 7 to 10 Charge time increased from 1 to 1. 2 seconds Teleporter Build time reduced from 2 to 1 second Now has a maximum lifetime of 10 seconds Cooldown increased from 10 to 16 seconds Cooldown starts when Teleporter is placed Health reduced from 300 to 200 (50 health, 150 shields) Range reduced from 30 to 22 Sentry Turrets Travel speed increased from 15 to 20 Movement speed reduction on targets reduced from 20% per turret to 15% per turret Bastion, Winston and Torjorn are all getting balance changes in the second Overwatch 2 PVP beta. Blizzard Entertainment Torbjörn Rivet Gun (Primary Fire) Fire recovery reduced from 0.

6 to 0. 55 seconds Rivet Gun (Secondary Fire) Fire recovery reduced from 0. 8 to 0.

7 seconds Zenyatta Orb of Discord Time to fall off target when not in line of sight reduced from 3 to 2 seconds Mercy Guardian Angel No longer can be canceled using crouch for a big vertical boost Now automatically launches you upwards if you reach the end of Guardian Angel Angelic Descent Angelic Descent will now additionally slow ascent speed if held, not just descent speed – This means you can dampen vertical knockbacks (such as Junkrat’s Concussive Mine) but also reduce the amount of height that the GA vert boost gives you Phew. I’m digging the changes for Orisa, who was already incredible in the first beta , as well as Doomfist, Pharah and Junkrat. The Symmetra teleporter changes are interesting, since the cooldown will effectively be as low as six seconds.

The Mercy super jump change will take a bit of getting used to, though, and there’s no world in which Bastion needed a buff. There are a host of bug fixes and a few known issues that Blizzard has flagged as well, but you can check out the full patch notes for those. If you have any other questions about the beta, I’m happy to help as best I can.

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