Overwatch 2 Season 4 Changes - What's New?

The fourth season of Overwatch 2 began on Tuesday, 11 April, as Blizzard developers have kept in line with their promises to deliver a new hero every other season by adding Lifeweaver to the growing roster.

Season 4 brings tons of fresh content for its loyal player base to dive into, including slight tweaks to a few of the Support characters and the complete removal of seasonal rank decay and map pools! Let's dive into some of the most significant changes Season 4 of Overwatch 2 will bring.

New Support Hero Lifeweaver

Of course, the star of Season 4 is the brand-new Support hero, Lifeweaver. This Thai character utilizes bio-light plant-based technology to heal his allies. Lifeweaver promises to shake up the meta with plenty of mobility skills to help his allies escape sticky situations, but also has plenty of trolling potential so we will see how he fares!

Here's a brief rundown of Lifeweaver's abilities - if you want a more in-depth overview, check out our Lifeweaver guide here.

• Thorn Volley and Healing Blossom (Primary and alt-fire)
• Petal Platform
• Life Grip
• Rejuvenating Dash
• Parting Guide (Passive)
• Tree of Life (Ultimate)

Lifeweaver will be locked unless you work towards level 40 on the free Battle Pass or unlock him immediately through buying the Premium Battle Pass. Once the game progresses into Season 5, Lifeweaver will be available to unlock through Practice Range gameplay challenges or Overwatch Coins. Check out our guide on how to unlock all Overwatch 2 heroes!

Overwatch 2 Season 4 Patch Notes

With the release of Season 4, Blizzard developers have released some slight tweaks, nerfs, and buffs to their hero roster.

Notably, the Support role has gotten much attention with this new season. Mercy has had some of her Guardian Angel changes in Season 3 reverted back. Brigitte has also had her Ultimate Rally reworked, giving her more potential to be picked in ranked games as she has long been considered the lowest tier Support hero.

Overwatch 2 Season 4: Hero Changes

Damage

Cassidy

• Base health reduced to 200 from 225.
• Magnetic Grenade damage reduced to 120, down from 130.

Sombra

• EMP can now disable Mei's Ultimate, Blizzard.

Tank

Reinhardt

• Armor health reduced to 250 from 300.
• Base health increased to 200 from 175.

Sigma

• Accretion impact reduced to 40 from 60. The total damage is now 80.
• Accretion knockdown duration increased to 1.1 from 0.8.

Support

Ana

• Sleep Dart's maximum duration on Tanks reduced to 3.5 from 5 seconds.

Brigitte

• Brigitte's Ultimate now gives her an increased armor health pool during its duration.
• Brigitte no longer builds temporary health like her nearby allies during Rally.
• Rally gives Brigitte a bigger Barrier Shield, increasing both its size and health, to 750 from 300.
• Shield Bash during Rally briefly stuns and impacts multiple enemies.
• Bonus movement speed reduced to 15% down from 30% during Rally.
• Repair Pack range reduced to 25 meters down from 3o.

Mercy

• Caduceus Staff healing-per-second increased to 55 from 45.
• Caduceus Staff healing no longer increased for allies under half-health.
• Guardian Angel cooldown reduced to 1.5 seconds from 2.5.
• Guardian Angel Jump and Crouch cancel active ability state duration can no longer be manually interrupted to begin the cooldown early.
• Support role passive now active for Mercy during Valkyrie.

Moira

• Fade can now be used during her Ultimate, Coalescence.
• Coalescence bonus movement speed reduced to 40% from 50%.
• Biotic Grasp lingering heal duration increased to 3 seconds from 2.

Overwatch 2 Season 4: Updates and Bug Fixes

General

• Fixed a bug in Competitive Modes that resulted in a rank-up animation playing when a player ranked down.
• Fixed a bug where some map previews were missing from Game Reports and Replays.
• Fixed lighting issues in the following maps: Circuit Royale, Hanamura, Ilios, New Queen Street, Oasis, and Shambali Monastery.

Hero Fixes

• Ashe: Fixed a bug that allowed Ashe to gain Ultimate charge while B.O.B was still active.
• Cassidy: Fixed a bug that caused Cassidy's Deadeye to miss its targets.
• Doomfist: Fixed an issue with Seismic Slam not always registering when used on uneven terrain/
• Echo: Fixed an issue with Echo's Duplicate failing if she duplicated a D.Va using Self Destruct.
• Kiriko: Fixed an issue when Swift Step sometimes failed to teleport the player.
• Mercy: Fixed an issue with Mercy's footsteps being extra quiet while she crouched. Fixed another bug that allowed Mercy to clip into the environment when using Valkyrie.
• Roadhog: Fixed an interaction with Whole Hog and Hoomwhere the hook would clip into the camera of the hook's target.
• Sigma: Fixed a bug with Gravitic Flux picking up reviving heroes before the Revive completes.
• Sombra: Fixed a bug with Sombra's footsteps remaining silent to anyone that had detected her.
• Torbjorn: Fixed a bug where Molten Core projectiles became stuck in the air when deflected by Orisa.
• Tracer: A bug where Tracer would sometimes not get all her Blink charges upon respawn period fixed.
• Zarya: Fixed an issue where Zarya would not get weapon charge from Brigitte's Shield Bash.
• Zenyatta: Fixed an issue where Orb of Discord could appear team-colored when applied to an enemy player

Ranked Changes: Rank Decay and Competitive Points

The original Overwatch and the first three seasons of Overwatch 2 featured the famously controversial decaying rank system. This downgraded every player's rank at the start of every competitive season or if they had a period of absence from the game.

Players became frustrated at having to graft through the competitive ranks to reach their hard-earned spot every season, so Blizzard developers have completely removed rank decay starting from Season 4. Players should now be able to log onto Overwatch 2 and be greeted with a more accurate depiction of their skill level for each role and competitive game mode.

There have also been some changes to the Competitive Points system, as seen below. If you want a more detailed explanation of the OW2 ranked system, Rivalry has got you covered!

• Finishing the season in Bronze grants 300 Competitive Points (previously 65)
• Finishing the season in Silver grants 450 Competitive Points (previously 125)
• Finishing the season in Gold grants 600 Competitive Points (previously 250)
• Finishing the season in Platinum grants 800 Competitive Points (previously 500)
• Finishing the season in Diamond grants 1,000 Competitive Points (previously 750)
• Finishing the season in Masters grants 1,200 Competitive Points (previously 1,250)
• Finishing the season in Grand Masters grants 1,500 Competitive Points (previously 1,750)

Seasonal competitive play challenge titles have also been tweaked to reflect whether they are earned in Open or Role Queue. For example: ending in Platinum in Open Queue gives the player "Platinum Open Challenger" while ending in Platinum in Role Queue rewards players with "Platinum Role Challenger."

Players will also be thrilled to see that their updated match progression screen also displays their losses and ties, as well as their wins!

Map Pools Removed

Overwatch 2 features three unique game modes and twenty-three maps in its repertoire. The latest addition is the Antarctic Peninsula. These maps have day/night configurations, too, making the environments seem visually completely different. Blizzard initially introduced the map pool with so many maps, with a select few maps on a set rotation for each season.

However, many Overwatch fans complained that map pools made the game "stale," after playing through three "push" games in a row. Blizzard has now abandoned map pools entirely, so players can expect to see the return of beloved maps like Hollywood and Eichenwalde in their games soon!

Below is a complete list of all the maps in Overwatch 2 currently and their current lighting settings.

Escort

• Circuit Royal - Morning
• Dorado - Night
• Havana - Night
• Junkertown - Morning
• Rialto - Morning
• Route 66 - Morning
• Watchpoint Gibraltar - Evening
• Shambali Monastery - Night

Control

• Antarctic Peninsula - Night
• Busan - Morning
• Ilios - Morning
• Lijang Tower - Night
• Nepal - Morning
• Oasis - Evening

Push

• New Queen Street - Dawn
• Colosseo - Morning
• Esperanca - Morning

Hybrid

• Blizzard World - Morning
• Eichenwalde - Morning
• Hollywood - Night
• King's Row - Evening
• Midtown - Morning
• Numbani - Morning
• Paraiso - Morning

Some players are still missing the controversial Assault/2CP maps like Temple of Anubis, Volskaya, Hanamura, Horizon Lunar Colony, and Paris, but who knows if they'll be added to the game in future seasons.

Stranded Spawn System Update

New with Season 4 is also the ability to swap spawn rooms if your character spawn changes due to the enemy capturing an objective or payload progression. This is great for maps like Watchpoint Gibraltar or Eichenwalde, where late spawners often become an Ultimate battery charge for the enemy team. This handy new feature will allow players to teleport to their new spawn room.

New Limited Time Events and Modes

Blizzard has announced a series of limited-time game modes and events to keep players entertained throughout Season 4. These events will feature three free epic skins to unlock, as well as a host of other comsetic rewards like player titles and weapon charms! There have previously been the unique Loverwatch and PachiMarchi events, so what do Overwatch 2 fans have to look forward to in Season 4?

• Thai New Year - April 11 - 25
• Twitch Makes Overwatch - Talantis - 25 April - 1 May
• Starwatch Galactic Rescue - May 9 - 22
• Battle for Olympus - May 23 - 29
• Symmetra Challenge - 30 May - 6 June

Rest assured that we will post guides on these limited game modes when we have more details, so keep an eye out!

Final Thoughts

Season 4 of Overwatch 2 looks jam-packed full of fresh content as Blizzard continues to keep to their promise of delivering a new hero each season. The limited-time modes add some extra spice to ensure players always have free rewards to work towards, as well as the new Galactic-themed Battle Pass with tons of fun cosmetics to unlock, like the Mythic Galactic Emperor Sigma skin and Bonebreaker Doomfist skin.

Bookmark Rivalry as your #1 trusted site for all esports news. If you're still craving some Overwatch 2 info, we've got a guide on the best OW2 crosshairs, an OW2 systems requirements guide, a guide on how to play Support and tons more!