Blizzard has a few games in development right now and one of them is Overwatch 2. The remake of the hero shooter not only brings extensive PvE elements, but also reworks many existing heroes. While some characters only need a few adjustments, two warriors will be drastically reworked: Sombra and Bastion.

New abilities, new design and hopefully more fun.

What changes to Bastion?

Bastion is getting a drastic overhaul with Overwatch 2. Not only does he lose his self-heal, but he also gets a new Ultimate that can bring large-scale destruction.

The adjustments in detail are:

• Self-healing is completely removed. Bastion will no longer be able to repair itself.
• Instead, Bastion has a new secondary fire action (right click) during configuration: scout. It shoots large bullets that bounce off surfaces, stick to enemy heroes, and explode after a short delay, knocking enemies back.
• The weapon’s dispersion during Configuration: Recon has been completely removed. The rate of fire has been drastically reduced. Thus, Bastion should feel like a “pseudo-sniper” in this configuration.
• Bastion can now move at reduced speed during Configuration: Gun. However, the transformation now has a cooldown, so you can’t use that permanently – but he has infinite ammo.
• The old Ultimate is gone. Instead, Bastion changes into an “Artillery Form” and can fire 3 powerful projectiles – over the whole map. After a short time the bullets hit and cause high damage.

All of these changes should make Bastion a more versatile fighter who doesn’t just function as a “one-trick pony” and needs multiple heroes to support him.

What changes to Sombra?

The hacker Sombra is also getting an overhaul. Her hacks are the main focus of the changes, as Sombra’s crowd control (CC) abilities will be weakened – something that many heroes face in Overwatch 2.

In detail changes:

• Hacking has a drastically reduced cooldown – just under 4 seconds.
• Hacking now consists of two different components:
  • The first component works as you already know it – the opponent’s abilities are disabled, but only for one second.
  • The second component shows hacked enemies through walls for the whole team. This effect is significantly longer.
• Sombra now deals 50% more damage to targets she has hacked.
• Sombra’s Ultimate no longer removes all shields. Instead, the attack now deals 40% of their current health as damage to all targets and applies the hack effect to them.
• Sombra can now hack while invisible. During the hack, she briefly becomes visible, but then immediately disappears.

Overall, Sombra should also become more versatile this way and have more potential for damage, but without being able to cripple the entire enemy team for several seconds.

When do the changes go live?

For most players, these changes will only go live with the launch of Overwatch 2 – but there is no exact date for that yet. However, some of the changes will already be seen in the Overwatch League – such as the new format, because soon every team in Overwatch will only play with 5 players instead of 6.

Presumably, there will be quite a few more reworks in Overwatch 2, after all, the game’s balance is being heavily reworked.

What do you think of the two reworks? Are you looking forward to the new versions of Bastion and Sombra? Or do the changes not sound so exciting?