Overwatch 2 is about to unveil its 18th season and boy, do they have some stuff. New, shiny stuff: Activision Blizzard’s FPS team shooter might’ve been stable enough ever since its launch, but as seasons come around with new content, we’re expecting to see a peak in player activity—at least for a little while.
As is the case with every new, major update, Blizzard’s let us in on next season’s most prominent changes, and some of those suggest even the most avid players will have new things to learn. So read on to find out what you’re getting and tell us what you’re most excited to try out first!
Overwatch 2, Season 18: The Main changes
When does the new season start
According to Activision Blizzard, Overwatch 2’s new season—the 18th, if you’re keeping track— starts on Tuesday, August 26. It will be a coordinated launch time, being available at 11AM Pacific / 2PM EDT / 7PM BST / 3PM BRT times.
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Typically, Blizzard does a pre-load a few days before the official dates. However, the company has not, at the memento, confirmed this will be the case with Overwatch 2’s Season 18. Therefore, it would pay to keep an eye out on your Battle.net account and client just in case it suddenly pops up.
Oh, and there’s a new hero coming next season, too. As usual, there’s a trial period for new characters, but given the fact that this season’s trial ends today (August 18th), there’s no point dwelling much on that. Read on and we’ll do a breakdown for when the new character comes around.
Who’s Wuyang: Overwatch 2’s new hero is described as a “pressure healer”
So, about the new hero: Wuyang is a new character to add to the already dense roster of Support names in Overwatch 2. Making his entrance in the games’ 18th Season, he is described as a water-themed, fast-paced, mobility-heavy healer who also disrupts the enemy by creating windows of opportunity through distraction and guerrilla-warfare tactics of causing enough damage to be annoying, but not too much to the point of becoming a DPS powerhouse.
In other words: he’ll poke enemies with moderate damage, ensuring a weakened aspect for when the opposing team faces the real, damage-dealers like Tracer, Widowmaker or Sojourn (more on him below, by the way).
Like we said, Wuyang is available on a trial period, but since that period ends this Monday, there’s little point in branching our guide towards that direction, so it’s better to focus on his full release alongside Season 18.
Wuyang’s backstory
Blizzard frames Wuyang as a prodigy from a water-focused academy (Wuxing University’s Water College), inspired by wuxia aesthetics and elemental themes. The character leans into “flow” metaphors: rhythm, movement and channeling water as both care and force.
As for his abilities, this is kit that Blizzard has revealed so far:
- Xuanwu Staff (Primary): Fires controllable water orbs that damage enemies. You can hold fire to influence the orb’s trajectory and empower its impact. Useful for initial damaging, finishing off previously weakened targets and putting pressure in tight spaces and/or combined strategies with high-damaging targets who are not that mobile. We think it’ll make a good duo if paired to single-target attackers or snipers.
- Restorative Stream (Secondary): Place a passive healing stream on an ally (like a deployable healing tether). Holding the secondary button channels a stronger, manual heal that consumes a resource — so you can either let it sit or actively top someone up when needed.
- Rushing Torrent (Mobility / L-Shift): Wuyang rides a stream of water to move faster and jump higher for a short duration. This gives unusual repositioning options for a support and helps him reach vertical or risky angles.
- Guardian Wave (E): Sends a forward water wave that amplifies healing for allies it passes through and knocks back enemies. It’s a mix of utility and peel — use it to create space or to boost a follow-up heal.
- Tidal Blast (Ultimate): Wraps a target (or himself) in a protective water sphere that later detonates — massively healing the host and knocking down nearby enemies when it bursts. Bear in mind: although an AoE type of attack, it’s mainly used as a single-target healing capacity (which does not stop some more…creative…applications).
As for his perks, Blizzard also revealed the following examples:
- Improve his healing when using Rushing Torrent
- Change how his water orbs behave (i.e. several weaker, smaller orbs for multi targeting versus a single, stronger orb for one enemy)
- Give short-term healing amplification effects after certain actions
All in all, Wuyang is designed to be a more active support unit than some of the other healing types. The fact that you can pair him up with major DPS dealers might make his usefulness a very obvious one, but that would be limiting to your creativity: Overwatch 2 does bring some new fighting concepts to the table (which are part of the reason why the game is still so popular), so there’s no reason to believe this would not be the case here.
I’m not that big into Overwatch 2, personally, but I do like the idea of an offensive healer limiting the enemy’s mobility in tight spaces through environment-filling attacks, allowing teammates a quick finish-off. We’re looking forward to see how this translates in-game.
Perks overhaul
Blizzard’s Weekly Recall has shed some light into the reworking of Overwatch 2’s Perk system: for the 18th season, these changes will not be just a set of number tweaks, but a complete structural change to how heroes are customized in-match.
According to the publisher, by moving, merging and reclassifying Perks (Major vs. Minor) and giving every hero at least one Perk update, the team aims to make loadout choices meaningfully affect playstyle instead of offering only small passive bonuses.
For players that means more pick/ban-style decision-making at a micro level—which suggests the need of good experimentation, as some of the things you might be familiar with from previous updates (i.e. combos and counters, to name a few) might behave differently once these changes are set in.
Stadium expansion & mode updates
Overwatch 2’s Season 18 continues its investment in Stadium as a separate play pillar: new hero rotations for Stadium sets, a Payload Race mode and fresh map rotations widen the mode’s variety, while Draft and improved Unranked Stadium aim to make competitive-style play more accessible.
As far as we’ve managed to research, these changes are targeted at both casual and competitive audiences — expect more persistent meta divergence between Stadium and core playlists as feature parity increases. For content creators and event organizers, Stadium’s evolution creates fresh opportunities for mode-specific guides, map breakdowns and tournament formats.
Sojourn mythic & Battle Pass
Currently one of the most desired DPS heroes within the game, Sojourn is also heavily contemplated in Overwatch 2, Season 18. Her Ultraviolet Sentinel mythic will be the cosmetic headliner for this update, to be distributed via Mythic Shop.
Besides that, the season follows Blizzard’s usual monetization cadence — a timed Battle Pass, themed bundles and limited offers — so players who want the mythic look should plan their progression or purchases accordingly.
As for gameplay, Sojourn isn’t being “nerfed” outright—more like she’s being “retooled” in order to make her fighting mechanics more contextually-fitting. Blizzard is removing a couple of her previous Perks and replacing them with Friction Generators (a Major Perk that generates up to 50 energy while sliding) and Deceleration Field (a Minor Perk that slows enemies hit by her Disruptor by 25%).
Those moves push Sojourn toward slide-into-rail combos and give her more utility for space control, although losing older Perks may change some favored builds. Final balance impact will depend on exact numbers and how these Perks interact with any base-kit tweaks.
Or, to summarize: what she had as a stronger move in previous updates might feel weaker now, and previously weaker skills might get a little power bump to balance things out.
Finally, Sojourn is not the only one whose perks are getting a rework. You can find all the news on that part in the table below:
| Hero | Perk slot change | New perk name (confirmed) | Short description / effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Juno | Major changed / Minor moved | Faster Blaster (Major); Locked On → Minor | Faster Blaster makes Juno’s Mediblaster automatic while Glide Boost is active, encouraging high-mobility play. Locked On moves to a Minor slot, creating a tradeoff between cooldown reduction and aim assist for Pulsar Torpedoes. |
| Hanzo | Minor → Major | Scatter Arrow (moved to Major) | Scatter now splits into five arrows on the first ricochet, each doing roughly 33 percent of normal damage, turning it into a higher-impact Major-style option when geometry allows. |
| Ana | Major removed / other moves | Shrike removed (Major); Biotic Bounce → Major; Speed Serum (New Minor) | Shrike is removed. Biotic Bounce moves into a Major slot with added buffs. Speed Serum is a new Minor perk that grants 40 percent movement speed to Ana and the Nano Boost target when Nano is cast. |
| Venture | New Major added | SMART Extender (Major) | SMART Extender increases Venture’s maximum projectile range by 100 percent, enabling finishes at farther distances while keeping Explorer’s Resolve shields intact. |
| All other heroes | At least one Perk update | TBD | Blizzard confirmed every hero will receive at least one new or updated Perk for Season 18. Consult the official Season 18 patch notes for full hero-level specifics on launch day. |
