Overwatch Season 4 patch notes: Emerald rank, Team Drives, and balance changes

Overwatch takes us back to Busan with Season 4, and there are plenty of balancing changes across the core game and Stadium. Competitive players can also expect to conquer a new rank, Emerald.

Here are all the balancing changes coming to Overwatch alongside the new hero, D.Mon, battle pass overhaul, map reworks (Eichenwalde, Busan, and Paraíso), and more in Season 4: Heroes of Busan.

Overwatch Season 4: Heroes of Busan patch notes

Emerald rank

A new rank to climb. Image via Blizzard

The new Emerald rank sits between Platinum and Diamond. With that, this season’s rank redistribution primarily focuses on moving players from those ranks into Emerald, also making the highest Champion divisions more exclusive.

Team Drives

Another addition to Competitive is Team Drives – limited-time events similar to Drives. Whenever you win a match in a Team Drive, you’re grouped with the winning players, and each consecutive win in a team grants an increasing bonus to the event’s score, eventually unlocking player card frames.

If you don’t want to engage with this event, you can create your own full stacks with friends or disable the feature altogether in social settings. The first Team Drive takes place from Sept. 4, 1pm CT to Sept. 7, 1pm CT.

General updates

Season 4 features multiple UI changes, including a new counter showing how many players on each team are alive, improved healing VFX, and an indicator displaying the percentage of damage you contributed to an elimination.

To better display your contributions, there’s now a Protect stat. It works similarly to Saves, tracking when you mitigate significant damage near allies. You can also expect to see the new stat in daily challenges.

Hero changes

Multiple heroes had their Ultimate cost reduced. Image via Blizzard

Flanker sub-role

• Additional healing from health packs reduced from 75 to 50.

Domina

• Panopticon: Barrier health increased from 450 to 500.

Doomfist

• Seismic Slam: Damage increased from 50 to 60.

Hazard

• Ultimate cost increased by seven percent.
• Explosive Impalements Major Perk: Reduced the number of Bonespur hits required from 14 to 12.

Mauga

• Combat Fuel Major Perk: Overhealth gained per shot increased from three to four.
• Overrun: Cooldown increased from five to six seconds in 5v5.

Orisa

• Charged Javelin Major Perk removed.
• Heavy Javelin Major Perk added: Energy Javelin’s knockback is increased by 25 percent, and its wall impact damage is increased by 15.

Winston

• Ultimate cost reduced by six percent.
• Healing increased from 30 to 35.

Cassidy

• Even the Odds Minor Perk removed.
• Giddy Up Minor Perk added: After using Combat Roll, Cassidy gains a 60 percent movement speed boost that decays over 1.5 seconds.

Echo

• Aerial Munitions Minor Perk added: Echo has infinite ammo during Flight.
• High Beams Major Perk removed.
• Focused Rush Minor Perk moved to Major Perk: Focusing Beam’s range is increased by 8 meters and movement speed is increased by 25 percent when active. Range increased from six to eight meters. Movement speed increased from 15 percent to 25 percent.

Emre

• Ultimate cost reduced by six percent.
• Suppressive Security Minor Perk: Slow duration increased from one to 1.5 seconds.

Genji

• Ultimate cost reduced by six percent.

Pharah

• Concussive Blast: Cooldown increased from seven to eight seconds.

Shion:

• Joyride: Ground launch detection radius reduced from 1.5 to one meter.

Tracer

• Chronal Dash Minor Perk removed
• Temporal Regen Minor Perk added: Passive health regeneration triggers 50 percent faster.
• Recall: Cooldown reduced from 13 to 12 seconds.

Vendetta

• Soaring Slice: Cooldown on spawn reduced from seven to three seconds.

Venture

• Ultimate cost reduced by eight percent.
• Deep Burrow Minor Perk: Drill Dash distance is increased from 50 percent to 75 percent.
• Covered in Dirt Major Perk: Total amount of shields gained increased from 30 to 40.

Jetpack Cat

• Ultimate cost increased by seven percent.
• Base movement speed increased from 5.5 to six meters per second.
• Air acceleration increased from 7.7 to 9.5.
• Headbutt Major Perk removed.
• Purrfect Form Major Perk added: Each pulse of Purr contains three waves.
• Lifeline: Movement speed bonus reduced from 40 percent to 30 percent.

Juno

• Target lock on minimum time reduced from 0.5 to 0.35 seconds.

Lifeweaver

• Life Grip: Can now be manually cancelled with the Jump input after 0.6 seconds. Base pull speed reduced from 30 to 25 meters per second. Targets pulled from further than 15 meters move slower and accelerate over time. New general hero setting added for disabling Life Grip cancel controls.

Mizuki

• Quickstep Major Perk: Movement speed gained reduced from 25 percent to 20 percent.
• Binding Chain: Projectile size reduced from 0.35 to 0.3.
• Katashiro Return: Cooldown increased from 11 to 12 seconds.

Wuyang

• Guardian Wave: Maximum degrees increased from 10 to 15 degrees.

Zenyatta

• Discordant Repair Minor Perk: Lifesteal increased from 10 percent to 15 percent.

Stadium updates

D.Va

• Facetanking Power
  • Reworked from “[Defense Matrix] heals you for 30% of the damage it blocks” to “When you mitigate 150 damage with [Defense Matrix], heal yourself for 15% of that damage and all other allies within 6m for 25% of that damage.”
• Focused Fusion Power
  • Added “when dealing Weapon damage to enemies beyond 8m, [Defense Matrix] recovers 33% faster.”
• Ignition Burst Power
  • Damage reduced to 40 from 60.
  • Duration reduced to 2s from 3s.
• MEKA Evac Shield Power added
  • “+50% [Call Mech] Radius. When ejecting or re-entering your [Mech], grant Overhealth equal to 20% of Max Life for 5s.”
• MEKA Ejector Power
  • Reworked from Express Detonation.
  • Changed from “+50% [Call Mech] Radius. [Self-Destruct] explodes 15% faster” to “[Self-Destruct] explodes 25% faster and costs 50% less Ultimate Charge but deals 75% reduced damage and only grants 75% Ultimate Charge after detonation.”
• Stat Boost Power
  • Changed from “During the first 2s of [Boosters], [Defense Matrix] recovers 125% faster” to “[Boosters] damage grants 0.5s [Booster] Duration and restores 5% [Defense Matrix] Resource and heals 5% Max Life”.
• Tokki Slam Power
  • Now scales from Max Life instead of Max Shields and Armor.
  • Scaling reduced to 15 percent, down from 25 percent.
  • Now counts as [Boosters] damage.
• Nano Cola Nitrous Rare Weapon Hero Item
  • 25 Health.
  • 5 percent Weapon Power.
  • “While ejected from your [Mech], gain 20% Move Speed, 10% Attack Speed, and 50% Max Ammo”.
  • 5000 Cost.
• Matrix Empowerment Epic Weapon Hero Item added
  • 10 percent Attack Speed.
  • “When you mitigate 150 damage with [Defense Matrix], deal 20% increased Weapon Damage for 3s.”
• Vesuvius Protocol Rare Ability Hero Item removed
• D.Mon’s Detonator Power
  • Reworked from Dae-Hyun’s Detonator.
  • Changed from “If your [Mech] detonates while mid-air, increase [Self-Destruct] explosion damage and range by 100%” to “During [Self-Destruct], if your [Mech] detonates while mid-air or deals [Boosters] damage, [Self-Destruct] explodes 100% larger and causes enemies to take 50% more damage for 5s”.
• Robo-Bowling Epic Ability Hero Item added
  • 25 Armor.
  • 15 percent Ability Power.
  • During [Self-Destruct], [Boosters] move 50% faster, deal 300% bonus damage, and knock up enemies.
• Solo Spec Rare Survival Hero Item removed
• MEKA Exo Suit Epic Survival Hero Item
  • Reworked from Busan Blaster.
  • Changed from “Ability: Use [Secondary Fire] while de-meched to fire an explosive piercing shot that deals 80 damage” to “While ejected from your [Mech], hold [Jump] to fly and hold [Secondary Fire] to fire an explosive shot that deals up to 80 damage and slows enemies by 30% for 3s”.

Orisa

• Critical Charger Power
  • Critical damage increased to 100 percent, up from 75 percent.
• OR-15 Escalator Power
  • Reworked to Power.
  • Now increases Weapon Damage instead of granting Weapon Power.
  • Max Damage reduced to 30 percent, down from 40 percent.
• Core Cooling Epic Weapon Hero Item
  • Reworked to Item.
  • Added 15 percent Weapon Lifesteal.
  • Attack Speed during Fortify increased to 15 percent up from 10 percent.
  • Added 10000 Cost.
• 3D-Printed Lance Epic Ability Hero Item
  • Added “[Energy Javelin] critical hits reduce an additional 1.5s”.

Rammatra

• Vengeful Vortex
  • Detonation bonus damage reduced to 25, down from 50.
• Insatiable Spiral
  • Ravenous Vortex bonus damage reduced to 15 percent, down from 30 percent.

Zarya

• Blastproof Boots Epic Survival Hero Item
  • Cost increased to 9000 (Up from 3750).

Ashe

• Ultimate Cost reduction increased to 60 percent, up from 50 percent.

Junkrat

• Bingo Epic Weapon Hero Item added
  • 10 percent Weapon Power
  • “[Frag Launcher] Direct Hits without bouncing reduce cooldown of all abilities by 20%”.
  • 11000 Cost.

Tracer

• Pulse Bomb Damage decreased to 70 percent reduced, down from 60 percent reduced.

Ana

• Artsy Dartsy Power
  • Added “Landing a scoped [Sleep Dart] reduces its cooldown by 5s”.
  • 75 base damage now only applies to scoped [Sleep Dart].
  • Increased base damage now works with Comfy Cloud.
• Dream Field Power
  • Max Life heal increased to 20 percent, up from 15 percent.

Jetpack Cat

• Purr-sistence Power
  • Increased duration for each Purr target reduced to 10 percent, down from 15 percent.
  • Max increased duration reduced to 50 percent, down from 75 percent.
• Tow-Beans Power
• Recycling Rounds Epic Weapon Hero Item
  • Added 20 percent [Purr] Cooldown Reduction.
• Purr-imeter Expander Epic Ability Hero Item
  • Cost increased to 11000, up from 10000.
• Fuel Pod Rare Survival Hero Item

Kiriko

• Fleet Foot Power
  • Added “cooldown is reduced by 20% when used without a target”.
• Foxy Fireworks Power
  • Empowered shots increased to five, up from three.
• Keen Kunai Power
  • Cooldown refund increased to 25 percent, up from 20 percent.

Wuyang

• Bifurcation Power
• Paindrops Power
  • Empowered shots increased to three, up from two.
  • Damage per extra Orb increased to 30 percent, up from 20 percent.
• Aquajet Amplifier Epic Weapon Hero Item
  • Cost reduced to 10000, down from 12000.
• Tidekeeper’s Connector Epic Weapon Hero Item
  • Cost increased to 11000, up from 10000.
  • Added 10 percent Ability Power.
  • Cooldown reduction every 1s increased to 0.5s, up from 0.3s.
• Wave Lance Epic Weapon Hero Item
  • Cost increased to 12000, up from 10000.
  • Weapon Power increased to 20 percent, up from 10 percent.
• Hydro Mender Rare Survival Hero Item removed
• Oceanic Ointment Rare Survival Hero Item
  • Cost reduced to 3750, down from 4000.
• Hydration Break Epic Survival Hero Item added

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