Mei, Overwatch 2’s Mr. Freeze-esque killer with a friendly and bumbling personality, is once again playable (opens in new tab) after 17 days’ unpaid leave. She’s the second legacy hero to be temporarily removed (opens in new tab) from the game since its launch October 4, with fellow day-one hero Bastion (opens in new tab) having been relegated to the sidelines last month due to exploits with his abilities.
Blizzard put Mei in the penalty box on October 31 after players discovered an exploit with her Ice Wall ability. With a Mei and a Kiriko working in tandem, you could glitch yourself outside the map (opens in new tab) while still in the safety of your team’s base. From the Shadow Realm, you’d still have access to hero swap, letting you switch to a character like Symmetra and wreak havoc on the enemy team from underneath the map.
With the exploit patched, Mei is now free to unleash frosty Mei-hem in Overwatch 2 once more. The patch notes (opens in new tab) also outline a host of other balance changes, bug fixes, and adjustments, notably including the rollout of audio transcription-based moderation (opens in new tab). I’m not exactly thrilled at the prospect of Activision-Blizzard recording my voice, but also about half of the worst things I’ve ever heard came from Overwatch 1 voice chat, so this is a perfect net neutral for me.
The patch also implemented the big hero nerfs (opens in new tab) we reported on last month. Genji, Sombra, D.Va, and Kiriko have all been taken down a peg, and you can say goodbye to infinite bubble raid boss Zarya. New to the list is Junkrat, who now takes longer to arm his traps, and heroes are stuck in them a half second less now.
