Overwatch 2 Season 7 Overview – Rise of Darkness

This Overwatch 2 Season 7 overview will show you everything about the new update. Click to learn more info about everything new and what to expect.

After waiting for some time for the new update, it is time for our Overwatch 2 Season 7 review. The so-called Rise of Darkness update contains a lot of things that we have to talk about. Fortunately, some of the things we have access to now were mentioned in our Overwatch 2 Season 7 expectations article, so at least you have an idea of what to expect.

Halloween Terror 2023 in Overwatch 2 Season 7

Considering Halloween is around the corner, it’s no surprise Overwatch 2 Season 7 offers us a new event called Halloween Terror. Similar to before, the event will have several game modes, such as:

• Junkstein’s Revenge
• Wrath of the Bride
• Trial of Sanctuary

There will also be a Blizzard crossover game mode. Regardless of what you get, your goal will be to defeat bosses like Azmodan Wrecking Ball, Lilith Moira, and Butcher Roadhog.

Samoa – The New Map

In addition to the event, Overwatch 2 Season 7 will also grant us access to a new map called Samoa. The latter is a Control map that will take you to a tropical beach, a volcano, and a cool-looking city.

According to the information, you will be able to play the new map in the Quick Play mode, as well as other unranked modes. With that said Blizzard will release it to Competitive Play later in the season.

Sombra’s Reworks

Another thing that a lot of people were waiting for was to see Sombra’s reworks in action. The hero hasn’t been that good lately, and she desperately needed some changes. It seems like the people behind Overwatch have realized that she is just not that good, which is why Overwatch 2 Season 7 brings tons of new things.

Staring with her Machine Pistol, the minimum spread is now 0, and it deals 8 damage instead of 7.5. Interestingly, the reload time is down to 1.2s, and Sombra can now fire 6 shots instead of 3 before reaching the maximum spread. 

Hack also got a lot of changes in Season 7 of Overwatch 2. The cast time is lower, but it has 6s cooldown and cancels Stealth when using it. However, if Hack gets interrupted or Sombra uses it on a non-hero unit, it has a 3s CD. Moreover, the text Hacked will now appear only while you are silenced.

Blizzard also decided to remove Opportunist from the game. Aside from that, Stealth received significant buffs because it is now a passive ability. She will automatically become invisible after 3.5 while not shooting, receiving damage, or using a damage ability. Her MS while in Stealth is down from 60% to 45%, and the fade out and fade in duration are lower than before.

Of course, Season 7 of OW2 also changed Translocator. The ability can’t be manually activated anymore. Instead, the Translocator will teleport Sombra after 0.25s from being thrown or when impacting the environment. After she teleports, the ability will reduce the Stealth passive CD.

Sombra will TP on the location of the Transponder, which now has 6s CD instead of 6s.

EMP now costs 15% more, and HP percent damage is no down to 30% instead of 40%.

One of the most interesting Overwatch 2 Season 7 changes to Somgbra is the new ability called Virus. It will fire a projectile that damages a given target over time (it deals faster damage on hacked units). The impact damage is 10 (or 20 if hacked), and then it deals 100 damage over 4s or 100 over 2, if hacked.

General Updates

Aside from the interesting changes about Sombra , Overwatch 2 Season 7 also has some general updates. For example, those who die within 5s of each other will now respawn together, which means some heroes will be dead for shorter, whereas others – for longer. Keep in mind this change will not affect Competitive Play.

There are interesting changes to unraked leavers. It seems like this was a big issue so far because Blizzard addressed it in Season 7:

• Leavers no longer have a 75% HP penalty in Overwatch 2 Season 7.
• People who leave 4 games in their last 20 matches will activate the first penalty threshold, whereas leaving 6 matches activates the second one. The first threshold results in a 10 min suspension, whereas the second one is 30 minutes. Interestingly, the penalty will be reapplied every time a player leaves once he reaches the first threshold. 
• There is a new stat called Endurance Bonus, which you will get once you finish the match without leaving it.

Other General Updates

Aside from what we’ve mentioned so far, Overwatch 2 Season 7 has a few other general updates:

• You can now spectate your friends’ Story Mission if you own the campaign pack for the mission.
• There are changes to the hero mastery scoring and replays.
• Season 7 changes the number of wins you need to make to unlock Junker Queen, Kiriko and Sojourn. Furthermore, you can now unlock Illari through the hero challenges.

The new update also brings a lot of hero changes, but they deserve a separate article, so stay tuned.