overwatch

Passive abilities are abilities that either activate without the player's interaction; or do not directly affect the game world, but only the movement or state of the hero or their abilities. When passive abilities are controlled, they are usually activated using the Space bar. All hero-specific movement passive abilities are disabled by Sombra's Ability Sombra Hack Hack and the Hindered status effect.

In Overwatch 2, every hero receives a role passive, unique to each role. Some of them get unique passive abilities on top of that, which are often core to the play style or capabilities of the hero.


Global passives

Main article: Global Passive Abilities

Global passive abilities are passive abilities that apply to all heroes.

Role and Sub-Role passives

Role Ability Description Healing Dmg. modification Ability Sombra Hack Hackable Details
Role Tank Circle Role: Tank
Role: TankRole Tank Circle Role: Tank Less ultimate given by healing and damage received. Increases base health in Role Queue game modes. No
  • Ultimate charge and perk progress generation from damage and healing dealt to heroes with the Role: Tank passive is reduced by 40%.
  • All tanks have 150 more health in Role Queue. The amount of armor and/or shields remains the same.
Sub-Role: BruiserSub-Role Tank Bruiser Circle Sub-Role: Bruiser Reduces critical damage received. While at critical health, gain movement speed -25% taken No
  • Critical Health is considered 50% or below.
  • Weapons with a lower 1.5x headshot modifier ignore this damage reduction completely.
  • The effectiveness on abilities that deal critical damage through other means than headshots is ambiguous: Ability-reinhardt5 Earthshatter and Overrun icon Overrun are affected by the damage reduction, but Ability Sombra Virus Virus and Volatile Chaingun icon Volatile Chaingun's forced critical hits against burning targets are not.
  • The reduction stacks additively with other modifiers affecting damage taken.
Sub-Role: InitiatorSub-Role Tank Initiator Circle Sub-Role: Initiator Gain a heal over time after using a specified movement ability. 50 No
  • Triggers when using certain movement abilities:
  • Lasts for 1 second with a 5 second cooldown. This is seperate from the cooldown of the ability.
  • Once triggered, all 50 healing will be granted, even if the hero takes damage mid-heal.
  • The passive doesn't activate if the hero is full health.
Sub-Role: StalwartSub-Role Tank Stalwart Circle Sub-Role: Stalwart Reduces knockbacks and slows received. No
  • Reduces the speed of knockback and the effectiveness of slowdown effects received by 40%.
Role Damage Circle Role: Damage
Sub-Role: FlankerSub-Role Damage Flanker Circle Sub-Role: Flanker Health packs restore more health +75 from health packs No
Sub-Role: ReconSub-Role Damage Recon Circle Sub-Role: Recon You detect enemies below half health through walls after damaging them. No
  • The duration starts from the last instance of damage you dealt to them, so long as they are below half health.
Sub-Role: SharpshooterSub-Role Damage Sharpshooter Circle Sub-Role: Sharpshooter Critical hits reduce your movement ability cooldowns. No
Sub-Role: SpecialistSub-Role Damage Specialist Circle Sub-Role: Specialist Eliminating an enemy briefly increases your reload speed. No
  • Reload speed is 1.5x faster after an elimination. This only lasts for 3 seconds, but is refreshed if another elimination is earned.
  • An indicator is shown to the right of the crosshair to show when the reload increase is active.
Role Support Circle Role: Support Sub-Role: MedicSub-Role Support Medic Circle Sub-Role: Medic Healing allies with your weapon also heals you. 40% of healing dealt No
  • Does not generate ultimate charge.
  • Effect stacks when healing multiple allies.
  • Affected by healing modifiers both on the target and the Medic.
Sub-Role: SurvivorSub-Role Support Survivor Circle Sub-Role: Survivor Using a movement ability activates passive health regeneration. No
  • After using a movement ability, the global passive regeneration immediately triggers
  • The global passive will last for a minimum of 0.25 seconds (assuming you're damaged after using the ability).
Sub-Role: TacticianSub-Role Support Tactician Circle Sub-Role: Tactician You can gain excess ultimate charge, which carries over after using your ultimate ability. No
  • Tacticians can charge up to 25% of their next ultimate after reaching 100%.
  • This is visible from an orange bar above the ultimate icon in the bottom-middle of the screen.
  • Past 100%:
    • The additional 25% has a 25% reduced gain rate.
    • You will not passively gain ultimate charge towards the extra 25%.

Hero passives

Hero Ability Description Healing Move speed M. speed buff Ability Sombra Hack Hackable Details
Icon-Anran
Anran
IgnitionPassive Ignition Ignition Hit enemies with fire attacks to burn them. No
Icon-Baptiste
Baptiste
Exo BootsBaptiste-ability5 Exo Boots Hold crouch to jump higher. 17.44 m/s (full charge) Yes
Icon-Bastion
Bastion
IroncladIronclad Ironclad Reduces damage taken while transformed. No
Icon-Brigitte
Brigitte
InspireAbility Inspire Inspire Dealing damage to enemies heals nearby allies. 15 per second No
Icon-D.Va
D.Va
Eject!Passive-D.Va Eject! Eject out of your mech when it's destroyed. No
Icon-Domina
Domina
ReconstructionPassive Reconstruction Reconstruction Dealing damage from abilities restores shields. 75% of ability damage dealt No
Icon-Doomfist
Doomfist
The Best Defense...The best defense The Best Defense... Dealing damage with abilities creates temporary overhealth. No
  • Not disabled by hack, however, new overhealth cannot be created due to not being able to use abilities.
Icon-Echo
Echo
GlideGLIDE Glide Hold jump to glide while falling. 4 m/s (down) +50% (horizontal) Yes
Icon-Emre
Emre
Altered VitalsPassive Altered Vitals Altered Vitals Passive health regeneration activates sooner and instantly restores 30 health when activated. 30 No
Icon-Freja
Freja
Bounty HuntingBounty Hunting Bounty Hunting Every 3 Final Blows, gain bonus ultimate charge. No
Icon-Genji
Genji
Cyber-AgilityAbility-genji5 Cyber-Agility Climb on walls and double jump. 7.8 m/s (wall climb)
+1.3 m/s (double jump)
Yes
Icon-Hanzo
Hanzo
Wall ClimbAbility-hanzo5 Wall Climb Jump at walls to climb up them. 7.15 m/s (vertical) Yes
Icon-Hazard
Hazard
VaultVault Vault Scale short walls and grab ledges. 6.33 m/s (vertical) Yes
Icon-Jetpack Cat
Jetpack Cat
JetpackPassive Jetpack Jetpack Permanent flight. No
Icon-Junker Queen
Junker Queen
Adrenaline RushAdrenaline Rush Icon Adrenaline Rush Heal from all damage over time dealt by wounds. 250% of wound damage dealt No
Icon-Junkrat
Junkrat
Total MayhemAbility-Junkrat4 Total Mayhem Deals no damage to self with explosives. Drop bombs on death. No
Icon-Juno
Juno
Martian OverbootsAbility-Juno1 Martian Overboots While airborne, press Jump to double jump and hold Jump to hover. 3 m/s (falling)
10.8 m/s (double jump)
Yes
Icon-kiriko
Kiriko
Wall Climb (Kiriko)Ability-hanzo5 Wall Climb (Kiriko) Jump at walls to climb up them. 8.25 m/s Yes
Icon-Lúcio
Lúcio
Wall RideWall Ride Wall Ride Jump onto a wall to ride along it. 2.5 m/s (wall leap) +30% Yes
Icon-Mauga
Mauga
BerserkerBerserker icon Berserker Gain temporary health when dealing critical damage. No
Icon-Mercy
Mercy
Swift RecoveryRole Support Circle Swift Recovery Begin regenerating health more quickly. No
Angelic DescentAbility-mercy4 Angelic Descent Fall very slowly. 2 m/s (down) Yes
Icon-Mizuki
Mizuki
Remedy AuraPassive Remedy Aura Remedy Aura Heal nearby allies. Healing scales with resource generated by dealing damage and healing. 14 - 3.5 per second (self)
20 - 5 per second (allies)
No
Icon-Pharah
Pharah
Hover JetsHover Jets Hover Jets Hold to hover. 4.66 m/s (vertical)
8 m/s (slow fall speed)
+30% (horizontal) Yes
Icon-Reaper
Reaper
The ReapingAbility-reaper5 The Reaping Dealing damage heals you. 25% of damage dealt No
Icon-Sombra
Sombra
OpportunistAbility Sombra Opportunist Opportunist You detect enemy ultimate abilities on nameplates, and deal more damage to hacked enemies. No
  • Was removed in Season 7, re-added in Season 13.
Icon-Vendetta
Vendetta
OnslaughtVendetta onslaught 1 Onslaught Strike enemies to increase movement and attack speed. +2% (per stack) No
Icon-Venture
Venture
Explorer's ResolveExplorer's Resolve Explorer's Resolve Using abilities grants temporary shields. No
  • Not disabled by hack, however, new shields cannot be created due to not being able to use abilities.
ClobberClobber Clobber Quick melee deals more damage. No
Icon-Zarya
Zarya
EnergyPassive-Zarya Energy Damage blocked by barriers increases Particle Cannon damage. No
Icon-Zenyatta
Zenyatta
Snap KickSnap-kick-passive Snap Kick Quick melee damage increased by 50%, and its knockback is significantly increased. No

Removed passive abilities

Hero

Ability

Description Healing Move speed M. speed buff Ability Sombra Hack Hackable Details
Icon-Lifeweaver
Lifeweaver
Parting GiftParting Gift Icon Parting Gift On death, drop a gift that heals the first enemy, or ally, to pick it up. Ally: 250
Enemy: 75
No
  • Removed 2 weeks after release.
Icon-Mei
Mei
Deep ChillAbility-passive Deep Chill Deal continuous damage with primary fire to significantly slow an enemy. Secondary fire deals additional damage to affected enemies. -75% slow No
  • Removed in season 7 of Overwatch 2.
Icon-Mercy
Mercy
RegenerationAbility-passive Regeneration Mercy automatically heals over time. 22.5 health per second after not taking damage for 1.5 second No
Sympathetic RecoverySympathetic Recovery Sympathetic Recovery Healing allies with Caduceus Staff heals you. 40% of healing dealt No
Icon-Reinhardt
Reinhardt
SteadfastPassive-Reinhardt Steadfast Resistant to knock back effects. No
  • Removed in the April 29, 2022 Overwatch 2 Beta, and replaced by the Tank role passive unless in 6v6 mode.
Icon-Sombra
Sombra
StealthAbility Sombra Thermoptic Camo Stealth When out of combat, become invisible and move faster. +60% Yes
Icon-Torbjörn
Torbjörn
Scrap CollectorAbility-torbjorn6 Scrap Collector Collect scrap to gain resources. No
  • Removed with Torbjörn's rework in the October 9, 2018 patch in Overwatch.
Role Ability Healing Dmg. modification Ability Sombra Hack Hackable Details
Role: DamageRole Damage Circle Role: Damage Damaging an enemy temporarily reduces their healing received. -30% received (non-tanks)
-15% received (tanks)
No
  • Removed in Reign of Talon Season 1
  • This is now a global passive for all heroes.
  • Does not stack with itself or the passive from another damage role hero.
  • Stacks multiplicatively with other modifiers that affect healing received.
  • Objects that deal damage, such as turrets, may also apply the effect.
  • Self-damage does not apply the effect.
Role: SupportRole Support Circle Role: Support Begin regenerating health more quickly. No
  • Removed in Reign of Talon Season 1
  • Reduces the time before passive health regeneration starts from 6 to 3 seconds after taking damage.

Trivia