[Update #2]: Overwatch 2's Season 3 update won't add a new hero, but rather a new Control map - Antarctic Peninsula.

[Update]: Overwatch 2 will be fixing many of the frustrating aspects of Competitive Play in Seasons 3 and 4.

In order to help Season 2 end on a bit of a high note, Blizzard has now unleashed a small yet highly important balance update. This one doesn't feature any buffs whatsoever, but rather an assortment of nerfs to four of the most powerful heroes in the game: Roadhog, Orisa, Sojourn and Kiriko.

Rather than babble on, allow me to share with you the brief patch notes, along with Blizzard's reasoning for some of the major changes. Have a gander:

Orisa

• Fortify

- Health bonus reduced from 125 to 75

Roadhog

• Chain Hook

- Impact damage reduced from 30 to 5
- The enemy final position distance from Roadhog after being pulled increased from 3 to 4 meters

• Scrap Gun

- Damage per pellet reduced from 6.6 to 6
- Recovery time reduced from 0.85 to 0.8 seconds
- Reload time reduced from 2 to 1.75 seconds
- Maximum ammo increased from 5 to 6

Developer comments: These changes aim to reduce the frustration of dying in one shot immediately after being hooked and pulled by Roadhog. Chain Hook is still a powerful utility to forcibly reposition enemy players, so it will still often lead to eliminations. Its effectiveness will now be more dependent on specific hero matchups and how the hooked target is able to respond.

Sojourn

• Railgun

- Energy gain is no longer based on damage done by primary fire. Each primary fire hit against an enemy player now grants 5 energy
Primary fire damage per projectile reduced from 10 to 9

Developer comments: The energy gain adjustment will help smooth out Sojourn’s average Railgun charge time because it won’t benefit as much from critical damage or damage boost abilities. Hitting armored targets or other sources of damage reduction will result in quicker energy gains than before.

Previously, damage boosts and critical damage had an amplified effect for Sojourn since it reduced the time to build energy and lowered the threshold at which her Railgun secondary fire became lethal. The reduction to primary fire damage will further slow that down as well.

Kiriko

• Healing Ofuda

- Recovery time increased from 0.85 to 1 second

Developer comments: Despite Kiriko’s healing projectiles being slow-moving and single target, her average healing output per match is higher than we’d like. We’ve seen players tend to get overly focused on maximizing her healing potential and only use primary fire for extended periods of time. Rather than reduce the amount of healing per projectile, which may lead to feeling locked into focusing on primary fire even more, we’re increasing the recovery time before she can start firing the Healing Ofuda. Increasing recovery times opens the opportunity to weave in secondary fire Kunai more freely.

While these nerfs to Roadhog are likely going to heavily impact his viability in Competitive Play, the good news is that this is only a stopgap solution until Blizzard can do a proper rework of his abilities. No exact details have been shared just yet, but given some of the ideas they tested back in Overwatch 1, chances are they're going to try to make Roadhog more of a support and team orientated tank rather than a purely selfish one.

It's also worth mentioning that Blizzard will be doing some sizable changes to the competitive system in Season 3. What exactly this means, they once again haven't specified, but I can only hope it involves them removing the annoying deranking that happens at the start of every season. After all, ranking up in Overwatch 2 should be a test of skill and not a test of how much time you're willing to waste each season.

Whatever the case may be, I'll make sure to let you know once Blizzard announces the next big update. Until then, have fun exploring the new meta!