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Season 20 began on December 9, 2025, with Vendetta introduced as Overwatch’s first melee Damage hero. But the available dated official sources do not confirm the exact Reinhardt nerf or Vendetta buff implied by the headline. What they do establish is a sequence of later Vendetta adjustments on December 11 and December 18—changes that should not be mistaken for her launch balance.
What changed for Reinhardt in Season 20?
The exact Season 20 Reinhardt change is not established by the available official excerpts. Blizzard’s December 2 season announcement confirms the season’s arrival date, but the captured December archive does not show the full Season 20 hero-balance table or Reinhardt’s entry. That means an exact ability, before-and-after value, or gameplay effect cannot be reliably attributed to the launch patch here.
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Blizzard’s current live patch index is not a substitute for the dated launch notes: an undated current entry cannot prove that a listed change happened in Season 20. See Blizzard’s live patch notes for current changes, but do not read them as a historical record of the December 9 balance update.
What was the Vendetta buff?
Blizzard introduced Vendetta with Season 20, describing her as the first melee DPS hero in Overwatch history. The season announcement was published December 2, 2025, and said the season would arrive December 9. It does not establish the exact initial balance adjustment implied by the headline. Blizzard’s Season 20 announcement provides the launch context.
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The dated evidence that is available concerns follow-up tuning, not necessarily a launch buff:
| Date | Confirmed information | How to interpret it |
|---|---|---|
| December 9, 2025 | The archive records the launch-day notes and Winter Wonderland timing, but the captured excerpt does not show the full hero-balance table. | The exact Reinhardt entry and initial Vendetta adjustment are not confirmed by the excerpt. |
| December 11, 2025 | The archive excerpt lists Vendetta changes including making an overhead-swing recovery interruptible, changing recovery values for related actions, reducing the Raging Storm perk recovery from 0.4 to 0.25 seconds, and increasing weapon-throw range from 14 to 15 meters. | These are follow-up adjustments after launch, not established launch-patch values. |
| December 18, 2025 | Blizzard said Vendetta’s win rate had continued to rise as players learned her kit and described a small adjustment ahead of midseason. The captured excerpt does not provide the exact changed value. | This is later tuning context, not a numeric launch-balance claim. |
The December 11 changes concern timing, recovery, and range. Those mechanics can affect combo windows or how far a thrown weapon reaches, but the available notes do not support a quantified prediction of match outcomes. Blizzard’s December 18 explanation is qualitative and does not give a win-rate figure.
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Did Vendetta get nerfed after launch?
The December 18 notes indicate that Blizzard made a small adjustment after Vendetta’s win rate continued to rise as players became more familiar with her kit. The captured text does not identify the exact value or enough detail to characterize that change precisely as a particular ability nerf. It is safest to describe it as subsequent tuning rather than assign an unverified number or effect.
For the exact ability values, consult the dated entries in Blizzard’s Overwatch Retail Patch Notes — December 2025. Blizzard’s general live-note convention says live balance changes apply to Quick Play, Competitive Play, Arcade, and Custom Games, subject to any exception stated in the relevant dated patch entry.
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Are these changes live in Competitive?
Blizzard’s general live balance notes cover Competitive Play as well as Quick Play, Arcade, and Custom Games. That is the general rule, not proof that every particular Season 20 change had no mode-specific exception; the dated entry is the place to check for one. Separately, Blizzard’s Season 20 announcement described Competitive progression updates, including Challenger Score, win-streak benefits, queue bonuses, progress restoration after cheater bans, and possible routes involving FACEIT tournaments and OWCS scouting. Those competitive-system updates are season context, not effects of the hero balance changes.
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