Overwatch 2 Season 13: Thoughts on Rework, Patch Notes, Battle Pass and Other News

On the 15th we had the launch of Overwatch 2’s 13th Season: Spellbinder, bringing a new Season Pass, more cosmetics and changes to the game's quality of life. With a Halloween theme, and the huge collaboration with the anime My Hero Academia, the update promises to be attractive to fans.

We, at UmGamer, are playing the season and will keep you informed on all the news, including the patch notes. Check it out!

The big star, when it comes to cosmetics, of the new update is the Mythic Skin Widowmaker Spellbinder. Which portrays the character as a sorcery student, evolving until she masters her magic! The cosmetic is unlocked for 50 Mythic Prisms.

This is the level 1 version, note that the look can be improved up to level 4, each evolution costing 10 Mythic Prisms. Therefore, to truly obtain all the skin's resources, we will have to spend, in total, 80 Prisms.

The positive side of this mechanic is being able to customize the look. For example, I can use the outfit unlocked at level four, with the hat unlocked at level two along with the color granted at the skin's third level.

Although the customization is still not as open as we’d like, it’s a great skin. I still see it as a worthwhile cosmetic, especially if you have the Premium Battle Pass to receive the Prisms.

Junkenstein's Lab is the new limited game mode for fans. It’s a 5v5 where the objective is to dominate a certain point on the map, the team which dominates three points first wins.

What makes this different from a casual or competitive match is that here, in each round, we will have some “mutations” to improve our character. They are extremely diverse, granting speed, defense or damage.

During the match, it’s also possible to observe and analyze the mutations of allies and enemies.

Another distinction of Junkenstein's Lab is that we cannot change heroes, when selecting a character at the beginning of the game we will continue with them until the end. This is due to mutations, these upgrades are specific to each hero, so there really is no point in changing characters during the game.

Speaking of heroes, we don't have them all available here, just 12, see which in the image below:

A positive point is that each of them has a Halloween themed look, bringing a new experience to the player.

Challenges

Events in Overwatch 2 usually bring small lists of challenges to reward players, and it couldn't be any different on Halloween, but it didn't meet my expectations.

These are simple and generic tasks, just play, and you will receive your rewards, and, in addition to experience for the battle pass, the only benefit is the Player Title - Mutated Monster.

It's much more interesting to offer specific missions, which really make you play with a goal in mind to complete the objective, and offer good rewards for that, instead of just starting games without any greater ambitions and in the end just winning a player title.

On other occasions, Overwatch 2 has previously given us exclusive skins, icons and emotes when completing challenges, and this wasn’t done here.

Some PvE modes appeared again in Overwatch 2, they are Junkenstein's Revenge and Junkenstein's Revenge: Wrath of the Bride.

Most players see this as something negative, since it’s not an innovation, but it seems like a way to make new players experience old game modes, or even for veterans to satisfy their nostalgia.

Between October 17th and 30th, we will see the start of the collaboration between Overwatch 2 and My Hero Academia, with exclusive visuals for fans and collectors, including:

Reaper as Tomura Shigaraki

Season 13 Battle Pass

The Battle Pass is a way to acquire exclusive cosmetics, the Premium version costs 1000 Overwatch Coins. But don't worry, the trail also offers good free rewards, like the Roadhog Haunted Doll skin.

Other options for Free-toPlay players are Mei and Junker Queen emotes.

To reach your own verdict and see if the Battle Pass is worth purchasing, check out all the possible rewards:

Patch Notes

Here, we highlight the most important points from the patch notes!

Scoreboard Interaction

Now, when accessing the player scoreboard, it’s possible to interact with the mouse, making it easier to report and mute other users.

Matchmaking

We have received good improvements to the Delta and Matchmaking system for competitive matches, one of the biggest priorities is to reduce queue times.

Balancing

I'm going to be very direct here, as the highlight of the hero updates was a rework.

Three tanks have undergone changes, Mauga has received a buff to his fire, while Ramattra is weakened, his punches are now blocked by barriers. Speaking of barriers, Reinhardt had a decrease in his, which went from 1600 to 1500.

Damage Heroes have undergone the following changes: Hanzo has had a maximum health increase of 25. Sojourn had a damage increase on Disruptor Shot and, in addition, this ability will begin generating energy for her Railgun based on the damage dealt to players.

About the supports, Baptiste had his weapon recoil reduced, helping us land more shots with him. Brigitte's Repair Pack had a slight increase in recharge, just 0.5 seconds, and finally, Juno received a nerf in her main shot, which lost healing potential, in addition to causing less damage to enemies further away.

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Sombra Rework

Once again, Blizzard drastically changes Sombra's abilities.

Starting with Hack, previously this ability removed the heroine from her stealth state, now she will be revealed for a few seconds, but will not lose the characteristic.

Your stealth is no longer passive, being activated only when using the translocator, with a duration of 5 seconds. However, upon receiving any damage, you will not leave this state, only being revealed for a second.

Translocator's cooldown increased from 5 to 7 seconds, and its Ultimate (EMP) cost increased by 12%.

So far, there are more disadvantages than benefits for the character, but a big addition could be the return of the Opportunist passive. Basically, this feature allows you to deal 20% more damage to hacked enemies, and will also make it possible to see seriously injured opponents behind walls.

All of these changes have completely changed Sombra's playing style, I see her now as a more active hero in the match, but her limited stealth will make her have moments of fragility, needing to play with more caution.

This update will mainly harm the player who “abused” the character's unlimited stealth to wait, very patiently, for an easy kill window.

Wrapping Up

I hope you enjoyed this article! I'm open in the comments for questions and suggestions!