Day: January 13, 2026

January 13, 2026 admin 1:25 am This is a continuously updated series where I study OW2 live stats and community voices to write impactful balance changes. Vendetta Problem Compared to her (imperfect) predecessor – DPS Doomfist, Vendetta has improved her error tolerance, poking, telegraphing, and, of course, the frustration to fight against her. However, she still has the problems below: Over reliance on snowballing Pre-fight poking harms mid-fight sustain  Busy VFX and audio Changes The two changes below gives Vendetta a unique resource management system. She needs to alternate between Projectiles and Block to maintain a balance, improving her poking ability under ranged fire and penalizing perma-blocking. When flanking/spawncamping, Vendetta also needs to decide: Should I strike with a half-full meter, or should I throw a projectile to drain it first, at the cost of being heard? Warding Stance Energy meter is now divided into 5 equal sections and refills only up to to 40% Mitigating damage now fills energy meter instead Vendetta loses Warding Stance, Projected Edge, and Onslaught for 3 seconds when energy reaches 100% Projected Edge Cost reduced from 30% to 20% (1 section) Damage reduced from 70 to 60 Palatine Fang (Weapon) Each strike’s audio signaling volume doesn’t reflect their impacts accurately enough. Normal swings now makes less sound Overhead slash now makes a wind-up sound, similar to Junker Queen’s Carnage Minor Perk “Relentless” – Removed Already over-reliant on snowballed brawling, Vendetta needs an option to deal with longer maps and slower fights. Minor Perk “Bottomless Malice” – New This perk offers the option of more range and less block when a fight begins. “Energy meter automatically refills up to 80% instead of 40%.” Major Perk “Swift Vengeance” – Removed This perk is very situational, and Vendetta has little control over how it works. Minor Perk “Gut Punch” – New Vendetta’s Quick Melee attacks can be weaved into her swings smoothly, but so far there’s little reason to do so.   “Quick Melee after Palatine Fang’s side swing deals 60 damage over 5 seconds.” This perk unlocks new combos, hitting/approaching key health thresholds: swing+melee+dash (215 total) swing+swing+melee+dash (260 total) swing+swing+melee+overhead (260 upfront, 320 total) Doomfist Problem Doomfist is a unique tank hero with high skill expression, great carry potential, and a loyal core playerbase who enjoys his mobility and versatility. As of January 2026, Doomfist has the highest tank win rate in Bronze, and steadily gets less and less win rate as ranks go up; he has become a noob stomper, one reason why DPS Doomfist was so despised in Overwatch 1. This is largely due to: Slam engagement is weak post universal health buff Disrupt playstyle is unviable due to long downtime Over-reliance on empowered punch and Power Matrix Low error tolerance compared to other dive tanks Goals Lower skill floor and raise skill ceiling Reduce frustration against empowered punch Re-enable slam engage and disrupt playstyle Introduce a reliable Power Matrix alternative Improve consistency against more heroes Changes Rocket Punch Doomfist’s empowered punch is currently his main play-maker and is frustrating to play against. Informing enemies of its threat creates an alarming expectation and reduces frustration. Empowered punch now makes distinct sounds on acquiring, casting, and hitting Empowered punch now displays a decay countdown timer Meteor Strike Doomfist’s ultimate removes himself from the battle, which works against a tank’s purpose. This QoL change gives Doomfist’s team indirect shotcalling value during ult. Inner circle indicator is now visible to allies. Movement speed boost increased from 400% to 600% under alternate camera angle (RMB). Minor perk “Survival of the fittest” – Removed The perk rewards a winning fight more than a losing one. Already a momentum-demanding tank, Doomfist needs a minor perk that offers subtle but real value in various situations, including the unfavorable ones. Major perk “Aftershock” – Moved to minor Aftershock as a major perk was hard to balance between “unfun to use” and “unfun to play against”, and performs unnecessarily well against a few heroes. On the other hand, Slam hasn’t been a good hard-engage ability since the universal health increase, for its damage is still 50.This change increases Doom’s perfect combo damage from 235 to 247.5, encouraging players to Slam precisely and consciously. Seismic Slam crits on targets within 5 meters, dealing 25% more damage and applying 25% slow for 2 seconds. Major perk Idea 1: “Successor’s Momentum” Instead of buffing his default strategy, this new perk revitalizes his alternative disruptor playstyle, encouraging players to chain abilities not for damage dump, but for better angles, advanced punches, and hybrid movements. Cancelling an ability with another one reduces both cooldowns by 20%. Idea 2: “Freeform Uppercut” Yes, I know, but hear me out.It’s very hard for a perk to compete with Power Matrix. It’s not just a CC protection, but also responsive toy to play with.Uppercut is reworked to a dodge ability instead of a killing move. It feels different and enables more movement varieties. “Press reload to punch enemies upwards, dealing 40 damage.” Cooldown: 10 seconds Damage reduced from 50 to 40 AOE range reduced from 5 to 4 meters Travel distance reduced from 10 to 8 meters Knockback distance reduced from 10 to 8 meters No longer freezes horizontal movement Now interits a part of Doomfist’s current horizontal momentum January 13, 2026 admin 1:25 am Recent Posts Lastest Overwatch 2 Fan Patch 1 – Doomfist/Vendetta Rework Tale of Time is at GDC Playbooth! Tale of Time – V0.0.4