Overwatch 2’s mid-season update brings back Mei and nerfs Zarya

The mid-cycle patch for hero shooter Overwatch 2 has arrived to bring balance adjustments for multiple characters, and free Mei from her downtime at last. In particular, Zarya’s particle barrier duration has been reduced, so you should have an easier team taking her on in future. Blizzard announced there’d be a delay to the balance adjustment update earlier this week, which had been scheduled for November 15th.

We’ve been expecting these hero rebalances since Blizzard had a change of heart at the end of last month, when they’d previously said there’d be no need to adjust any heroes until Season 2 arrives in December. Mei was temporarily removed from Overrwatch 2’s hero roster at the beginning of this month due to issues with her ice wall ability. At the time, Blizzard said they’d try to get her back in action by the time the mid-season update rolled around this week.

You should find taking on console players a little trickier now, too. The patch has enabled auto-aim by default in casual modes for crossplay lobbies. Blizzard say they’ve also fiddled with matchmaking for competitive play, with “numerous adjustments” to how a player’s skill tier and division are worked out. Oh, and players on pre-paid phone plans, or pay as you go as it’s known over here, will be relieved to hear that Overwatch 2’s SMS Protect access is now enabled worldwide after registration issues at the game’s launch.

Overwatch 2 is free to play from Battle.net. You can read all the various bug fixes in Blizzard’s full patch notes for the update here.

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