The December 18, 2025 Overwatch 2 update reduced Vendetta’s Palatine Fang horizontal swing damage, changed several Stadium items and Doomfist powers, lowered console aim-assist strength for nine heroes, and increased Winter Wonderland cookies per challenge. These are the contents of that dated patch—not a description of current live balance; Blizzard’s patch archive includes later updates.
What changed in the December 18 update?
Blizzard described the December 18, 2025 release as a gameplay and bug-fix update. Its changes span core-game hero balance, Stadium, console aim assist, competitive scoring, and the Winter Wonderland event. The figures below apply to that patch; check Blizzard’s patch notes archive for later changes.
What was the Vendetta nerf?
Palatine Fang’s horizontal swing damage was reduced from 50 to 45. Blizzard said Vendetta’s win rate had continued to rise as players became more familiar with her kit, and that the adjustment was intended to shift key damage breakpoints without disrupting the flow of her abilities. That is the developer’s stated rationale, not evidence of measured post-patch results.
What changed in Stadium?
General item
Martian Mender, an Epic Survival General Item, had its cooldown reduction cut from 10% to 5%. Blizzard said it was dialing back easily accessible cooldown reduction so that reaching high amounts would require greater sacrifice.
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Doomfist
Doomfist received a broad set of Stadium adjustments. Block Party was temporarily disabled because of an issue.
| Stadium change | December 18 adjustment |
|---|---|
| Currency from damage and healing | Increased by 25% |
| Aftershock secondary shockwave damage | Increased from 50% to 60% |
| Asteroid Smash | Now grants ultimate charge; cooldown reduced from 15 to 12 seconds |
| Block Party | Temporarily disabled due to an issue |
| Jab Cross attack speed after using an ability | Increased from 50% to 75% |
| Jetforce Jab burn damage on Rocket Punch | Increased from 15% to 20% |
| Slam Wham range per meter traveled | Increased from 4% to 6% |
Brigitte
Brigitte’s Scavenged Steel Epic Ability Hero Item now grants 2% ultimate charge on ability damage, down from 3%.
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Which heroes had console aim assist reduced?
The patch lowered the aim-assist value from 8% to 4% for these nine heroes:
- Ashe
- Bastion
- Soldier: 76
- Tracer
- D.Va
- Mauga
- Ana
- Baptiste
- Juno
This was a change for the named heroes, not a blanket reduction for every hero or every aim-assist setting. The notes do not recommend a particular gaming controller, and changing hardware would not alter the patch’s effect.
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What happened to Challenger scores and Winter Wonderland rewards?
Challenger scores
Blizzard revised Challenger score payouts from Diamond through Champion. It said the highest ranks had not felt rewarding enough while lower ranks were somewhat too rewarding, and that the new scores were tuned to scale more extremely. The notes also described separate work: Blizzard planned a change to the rule that gives winners the score reward of the highest-ranked player, and was working on a crossplay leaderboard bug. Those were plans and ongoing work, not additional completed payout changes in this update.
Winter Wonderland
Each Winter Wonderland challenge awarded three cookies instead of two. This was a per-challenge reward increase; it does not establish the event’s total available rewards.
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