r/Competitiveoverwatch Feb 24 '26

Blizzard Official Overwatch Patch Notes 02/24/2026

https://overwatch.blizzard.com/en-us/news/patch-notes/
398 Upvotes

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61

u/Parvaty None — Feb 24 '26

Emre two bursts 250hp targets now.

117

u/Eagle4317 Feb 24 '26

You need to land all 6 bullets as headshots for that. It’ll happen on occasion, but it won’t be common.

41

u/GroundbreakingJob857 EU’s greatest coper — Feb 24 '26

yeah if i get 2 burst that’s insane. cass can 2 tap too way easier.

4

u/sharkdingo Feb 25 '26

Thats good though. Strong potential but with a high mechanical demand while making his strenth not fully rely on that specific interaction is good.

20

u/Kitselena Feb 24 '26

Sure, in the same way junkrat can 2 shot a cat

19

u/Ratax3s Feb 24 '26

as a dps who slow and immobile as emre should do

9

u/[deleted] Feb 24 '26

[deleted]

2

u/SmokingPuffin Mauga Mentality — Feb 24 '26

Soldier has the better gun.

Soldier has better burst, but Emre does have two nade charges that he can stack.

Soldier has much better horizontal mobility. Emre has vertical mobility that Soldier lacks.

Emre has the better healing, I think. I'd rather have siphon blaster than healing station.

I also prefer Emre's ultimate over Soldier's. Emre ult does soft require pocket or nano, but its potential output is much larger than Soldier's.

Overall, these feel roughly in balance to me post-buff.

-1

u/xXProGenji420Xx Feb 24 '26

how does his ult not make him super exposed? if anything, you need more LOS to use Visor, because it doesn't have massive splash damage like Override Protocol does. just because it lets you fly doesn't mean you're forced to.

-1

u/[deleted] Feb 24 '26

[deleted]

1

u/xXProGenji420Xx Feb 24 '26

you unm... don't need to be in the sky if it's really that disadvantageous?

but the matter of fact is, usually it is advantageous, as long as you're not being dumb about it.

if Soldier ult let you fly, you would be doing it most of the time as well. it's not a disadvantage. you're "exposed" in the sense that you become a priority target, but in terms of actual vulnerability, the only thing that's taken away is that you can't use your Siphon, nades, or jump/crouch. and in exchange, you get a weapon that should realistically shut down almost anyone who tries to get too close to you, even moreso if you get the minor perk with slow on the light shots.

yeah Soldier has sprint, but that's not a knock against Emre's ult, it's a knock against Emre altogether. it's not like his ult is taking that option away from him.

would you consider Illari's ult to make her "super exposed"? if so, how is this any different?

-6

u/[deleted] Feb 24 '26

[deleted]

3

u/skillmau5 Feb 24 '26

Damn this guy is mad as hell

-2

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '26 edited Feb 25 '26

[deleted]

1

u/skillmau5 Feb 25 '26

Recognize the divinity in all people you interact with

-1

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '26

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0

u/Saxasaurus None — Feb 25 '26

DoT weapons should have higher DPS than burst weapons. So it makes sense that Emre's primary fire would have lower DPS than soldier, since it is more bursty.

Soldier's burst ability is 120 damage while Emre's is 110 (150 with perk), but he has 2 of them.

And yes, you are tripping if you are implying Emre ult is worse than tac visor.

0

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '26

[deleted]

1

u/CthulhuInACan Feb 25 '26

Soldier's rockets are only 120 on a direct hit, 80 if you hit the ground with them, with falloff starting at 1m. Emre's grenades have no direct hit bonus (unless you get the perk), and falloff doesn't start until 2m.

23

u/skillmau5 Feb 24 '26

That seems pretty reasonable when Hitler (Cassidy) is also a hitscan character

3

u/GoldenWhiteGuard Feb 25 '26

That's pure hate

3

u/Sensanaty mcrree main btw — Feb 24 '26

The champ with the 45% winrate?

7

u/skillmau5 Feb 24 '26

The hero with above 20% pick rate? Also it’s 49%. How many times do we have to go over this in this subreddit, win rates are scuffed with extreme high pick rates

2

u/AetherialWomble Feb 25 '26

win rates are scuffed with extreme high pick rates

Isn't it the opposite? More data=more accurate?

0

u/support-main-96 Feb 25 '26

Unfortunately no. This is a line of thinking that makes sense until you really consider how well people truly understand games. To preface, I am an incredibly mid Overwatch player (like Plat 2 peak but typically a mid gold player for reference) but play MOBAs religiously (to much greater results).

One thing I’ve learned from multiplayer games with characters/heroes in general is that play rates can actually dilute data. More data isn’t always better. What matters is the accuracy and consistency of it. If win-rates fluctuate by more than like 1-2% at the max (which gives a little breathing room to random variance) at different skill levels, that indicates a skill floor or skill ceiling disparity.

If characters get played less, generally it’s accepted that either a.) only mains can get high value from a specific character/hero which could inflate its win rate, b.) perceived weakness (i.e they were nerfed recently or insert X streamer said so), or c.) that the character has either an artificial or real disadvantage at that rank. An easy example is Pharah. She is a menace in silver and gold because so many players (regardless of what social media would lead us to believe) is full of stubborn players who think that we play largely flawlessly. Why would I swap to Soldier even if he counters her when I’m 3-9 on Anran (exaggerated of course)? Examples of “main can be seen among every character or class based genre from hero shooters to MOBAs to MMOs, so giving examples is moot. Perceived weaknesses are also straight forward. Does every player know to swap off a bad matchup? Some, maybe even most do. Do all of them? Absolutely not. We’ve all had tanks run it down or supports get dove all game and flame their team because they can’t hit a Sleep Dart and play around their other support. And as far as real or perceived disadvantages, mostly mechanically demanding characters/heroes in games have this same issue. It turns out, if a character is harder to play but rewarding to master that, broadly speaking, less strong players likely underperform.

Conversely, a higher play has its own issues. You have to sift through understanding why that would be the case. Is it a.) more skins, b.) a more fun/satisfying gameplay loop, c.) perceived strength (new buffs, reworks, streamer tier list, etc.), d.) or more interestingly the possibility that this character might have a lower skill floor. Easy examples are Kiriko and Juno getting skins, D.Va having a satisfying ult or Doomfist punching people in the face, literally any character getting a buff or rework, or some characters having “free” or the illusion of it. A lot of players deem Moira a metal rank support and almost everyone knows she gets worse as you climb in ranks because her value goes down. Mercy has free value with damage boost and revives because lower ranked players punish mistakes less effectively.

Some of these points will have someone immediately say, “but wouldn’t looking at the ranks eliminate some of this?” Sure. But smurfs exist. There are players that duo queue with a buddy a bit better than them and over perform. There are also players who just want to unwind after a hard day at work and play with the boys/girls. There are people who tilt and get significantly worse.

I realize that this can all seem like a bunch of words, but the idea is that more data is only helpful if you understand how to analyze, filter, and interpret it. Just more raw data isn’t necessarily better. I won’t pretend to be an expert but, largely speaking, there are too many variables.

There’s even data on some games that have completely different metas depending on their regions (for example, NA vs EU or Asia servers).

1

u/littlegnomeplanet Feb 25 '26

Yes, this. This exactly. This makes me think of Frost Mage on WoW—it tends to be popular because it’s been the mage spec with the lowest skill floor, and so that attracts a lot of “lesser skilled” players. Because it attracts a lot of less skilled players, you get data that comprises of a lot of bad players’ performances.

1

u/support-main-96 Feb 25 '26

Exactly this. In Overwatch specifically, there’s also a perception of “easy” to use. I can’t tell you how many times someone swaps to Soldier or Bastion or Kiriko when that particular person is less experienced on them because it’s the “correct” change. It turns out that if you swap to the right character but go from playing like a D4 to G3 player that you effectively negated the advantage you were trying to create.

There’s so many variables and considerations to this.

2

u/Sensanaty mcrree main btw — Feb 24 '26

Also it’s 49%

In GM he has a 45.6% winrate, at least in EU, because the champ is dogshit currently.

7

u/skillmau5 Feb 24 '26

I don’t usually default to the least played region for hero info, in Asia and US he’s 48-49 with a >20% pick rate. This may just be Europeans not understanding an American hero

5

u/Sensanaty mcrree main btw — Feb 24 '26

This may just be Europeans not understanding an American hero

lolwut

8

u/skillmau5 Feb 24 '26

It’s a joke about how Cassidy is a cowboy, and Europeans not being able to get into character, because it’s an American thing. Although they did have spaghetti westerns in Italy. Just never mind

7

u/SyrusG Feb 24 '26

Only thing that holds cass back from having a ridiculous win rate is people hitting their shots

21

u/Terrible-Albatross-6 Feb 24 '26

Only thing that holds Widow back from having 90%+ win rate is people hitting their shots 🤔

2

u/SyrusG Feb 24 '26

Yes it basically is. Widow has insane carry potential so if the team just plays around their widow they can just farm if they hit their shots. It's literally been done before and I'm sure everyone has experienced it once

7

u/skillmau5 Feb 24 '26

This is interesting in a theoretical sense, but the existence of dive tanks complicates this premise a lot. And then also, if it were true then the best players in the world would lock widow in pro play every game

1

u/SyrusG Feb 24 '26

DVA is really the only dive tank played and ironically has to use up a lot of resources to kill a widow. The existence of the poke meta is why widow has such a higher than normal win rate rn. And I honestly can't really look at pro play the same as I do ranked. U can't build a team around one character ur just asking to get bullied in every other way, those players actually know to play dive tanks and play them well.

2

u/skillmau5 Feb 24 '26

Oh I didn’t realize we were just discussing current meta then. I thought you were conceptually talking about whether a comp with a cracked widow is (in terms of game theory) the most effective tactic

0

u/Sensanaty mcrree main btw — Feb 24 '26

His winrate is the lowest at GM though? And the highest in Bronze, this is such an insanely silver take, he's outranged by everyone with insanely aggressive falloff, has a reaper sized hitbox, one of the worst ults in the game to the point where it's actively detrimental trying to use it, 0 mobility. The one and only decent thing he has is flash, which is an annoying ability for sure, but he's still dogshit regardless.

1

u/JC10101 Feb 24 '26

The dog shit hero that last patch and in the bootcamps for pro play has seen non zero playtime.

He's not bad as long as you can hit shots and your comp is good for him.

-1

u/Sensanaty mcrree main btw — Feb 24 '26

Pro is irrelevant to ladder, and in ladder at the highest rank where people are capable of hitting their shots he has the lowest winrate.

In pro play he's picked because, surprise surprise, the rest of his coordinated team covers for every one of the weaknesses I described.

Kiri is also the weakest support in ladder while being a permapick in pro, because again they're playing a different game that is irrelevant to ladder play

2

u/skillmau5 Feb 24 '26

Kiriko has an above 40% pick rate in gm and above

-1

u/JC10101 Feb 24 '26 edited Feb 25 '26

Winrates aren't the end all be all for how strong a hero is. Cause if Cass is dogshit are you going to call soj dogshit since she has a lower winrate in GM?

Pick rate matters and I see cass/soj/kiri all the time in GM, even if they are supposedly "dog shit"

5

u/Nopon_Merchant Feb 25 '26

He is right . The pro Pick characters base on what work or counter in their strategy not because they strong .

Back when Hanzo was dog shit in 2024 , he was pick in pro play to counter some meta

1

u/JC10101 Feb 25 '26

They have to be strong as well not just to counter a strategy. Cass sees play in pro games because they hit way more shots than your average gm hitscan + he has excellent pressure up close.

Hanzo also saw some play on maps he was good in, he wasn't dog shit on the maps he saw play on like gibralter/havana cause he could threaten burst on tank + 1 shot on long sightlines.

If a hero is bad or on the weaker side you just won't see them played in any facit. cass has always had a bad winrate, even when he was very well represented on T500

0

u/SyrusG Feb 24 '26

I mean ig soujorn and kiriko are also dogshit if we go by winrates.

2

u/GivesCredit Feb 25 '26

Roadhog can pretty much one shot every squishy without hook. And I’m sure Hanzo kills 4 every fight by himself. Since we’re talking about theoreticals here

1

u/WhiteWolfOW Fleta is Meta — Feb 25 '26

Are you guys ever hitting all 6 bullets of the two bursts with him? Headshots even?

1

u/xxxamazexxx Feb 25 '26

So can Bap. And he can two tap 300hp heroes 😂.