Overwatch Season 1 Is Here: Five New Heroes, Sub-Passives, and Everything That Changes Today

Overwatch Season 1 goes live today, February 10, 2026. The "2" is officially gone from the title, five new heroes hit the roster at once, and every competitive rank resets to zero. This isn’t a content patch — it’s the most significant overhaul since the original launch.

Blizzard is calling this the start of the “Reign of Talon” narrative arc, which runs all of 2026. But the immediate question for most players isn’t about lore — it’s which of these five heroes to learn first, how the new sub-passive system affects your mains, and whether the competitive reset is a fresh start or a grind. If you’re looking to get a head start on climbing, Eloking’s Overwatch boosting can help you lock in your placement while the ladder is still volatile.

Below: every confirmed change, all five hero kits with perks, and how sub-passives reshape the meta from day one.

Every Confirmed Change in Overwatch Season 1

Here’s what’s locked in as of today’s patch.^[1]

Five new heroes added simultaneously: Domina (Tank), Anran (Damage), Emre (Damage), Mizuki (Support), and Jetpack Cat (Support). That’s two heroes per damage role and one each for tank and support — a deliberate spread that gives every role something new to experiment with.

Hero sub-passives categorize every hero into a sub-role (Stalwart, Flanker, Specialist, Survivor, Tactician) with a unique passive bonus. This isn’t cosmetic — a Flanker like Anran gets bonus health from health packs, while a Tactician like Jetpack Cat banks excess ultimate charge. Your hero selection now carries a layer of strategic weight beyond just the kit.

Full competitive reset — every player places fresh. New placement matches, new sub-role system for matchmaking, and updated season rewards.

Conquest meta event — a five-week event where players pick Overwatch or Talon faction, complete missions, and earn loot boxes, cosmetics, and faction-specific skins.

Major UI overhaul including a new 3D lobby. Stadium mode gets Vendetta as a playable hero plus a Hero Builder feature.

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The Five New Heroes: Kits, Perks, and Sub-Passives

Domina (Tank) — Stalwart Sub-Passive

Domina is a Vishkar Corporation poke tank built around zone control. Her Stalwart sub-passive reduces knockbacks and slows — meaning displacement-heavy comps are less effective against her.

Her core loop: deploy Barrier Array (segmented hard-light walls that absorb damage individually), use Sonic Repulsors to push enemies into walls for a stun, and Crystal Charge to detonate an area-of-effect that refills her shields. Her ultimate, Panopticon, traps enemies in a hard-light cage that blocks their damage AND healing, then detonates.

The tradeoff: Domina excels at holding space, but she’s a poke tank that struggles against coordinated dives. Her Barrier Array segments can be destroyed individually, so a team that focuses fire can strip her defenses faster than she can redeploy. If your playstyle leans aggressive, she’ll feel slow — but if you like playing Sigma’s patient style, Domina rewards that same discipline.

Anran (Damage) — Flanker Sub-Passive

Anran is a fire-based flanker whose Zhuque Fans apply Ignition stacks that burn enemies over time. Fan the Flames amplifies the burn, and Inferno Rush propels her forward while instantly igniting targets. Her ultimate, Vermillion Ascent, has a built-in revival — if Anran dies before the detonation completes, it triggers anyway and revives her.

Her Flanker sub-passive means health packs restore more HP, which synergizes with her dive-and-escape pattern. The tradeoff: Anran is fragile when Inferno Rush is on cooldown, and her burn damage is sustained rather than burst. Against heavy healing, her Ignition stacks can feel like chip damage unless you commit to extended engagements. She punishes distracted backlines but struggles in straight 1v1s against hitscan players who can track her at range.

Emre (Damage) — Specialist Sub-Passive

Emre is an ex-Overwatch Strike Team member running a three-round burst rifle with a scope mode. His Specialist sub-passive gives faster reloads after eliminations — snowball-friendly, but useless if you’re not finishing kills.

What makes Emre unique: Siphon Blaster switches to a lifesteal pistol with bonus movement speed and jump height. It’s a temporary form swap that turns him from a mid-range burst character into a close-quarters fighter who can hold his own on point. His ultimate, Override Protocol, launches him airborne with an explosive cannon — think a shorter, more aggressive version of Pharah’s Barrage with repositioning.

The tradeoff: Emre’s burst rifle is precise but unforgiving. Miss your bursts and your damage output drops dramatically compared to automatic-fire DPS. The Siphon Blaster is powerful but temporary — get caught without it in close range and you’re at a disadvantage. Emre rewards players who can toggle between engagement ranges, but he punishes one-dimensional aim.

Mizuki (Support) — Survivor Sub-Passive

Mizuki is a utility-focused support whose Healing Kasa bounces to allies and returns to her for self-healing. Her Binding Chain hinders the first enemy hit, and Katashiro Return lets her teleport back to a paper doll she left behind — essentially a Tracer recall for supports.

Her Survivor sub-passive triggers passive HP regen when she uses a movement ability, giving her self-sustain that most supports lack. Her ultimate, Kekkai Sanctuary, creates a protective zone that heals allies and absorbs enemy projectiles from outside.

The tradeoff: Mizuki’s healing output depends on Remedy Aura, a passive that scales with damage and healing resources generated. If Mizuki isn’t actively fighting and healing, her aura weakens. She’s not a set-it-and-forget-it healer like Mercy — she needs engagement. That scaling mechanic rewards aggressive support play, but it means her worst-case healing is below average.

Jetpack Cat / Fika (Support) — Tactician Sub-Passive

The community meme is now real. Jetpack Cat has permanent flight via her jetpack passive, disabled only by crowd control. Biotic Pawjectiles heal allies and damage enemies, Lifeline lets her tow an ally through the air, and Purr emits a pulsing AoE heal that also knocks back nearby enemies.

Her Tactician sub-passive is quietly the strongest in theory: excess ultimate charge carries over after using your ult. For a support who can farm ult charge from permanent aerial positions, this means more frequent Catnapper ultimates — the ability that dives toward a ground location, knocks down enemies, and tethers the closest one for repositioning.

The tradeoff: permanent flight sounds broken, but Jetpack Cat is extremely vulnerable to hitscan. A Soldier: 76, Widowmaker, or even Emre with good burst tracking can delete her from the sky. She’s also fully reliant on Frenetic Flight for repositioning — if that’s on cooldown when she takes fire, she’s a slow-moving aerial target. The Reddit community is already predicting a redesign within months, and there’s a valid argument that perma-fly invalidates too many ground-based strategies.

Quick note: Mercy paired with a Jetpack Cat tow means Mercy also has perma-fly via Guardian Angel. That combo may not survive long before a patch addresses it.

Sub-Passives: What They Mean for Your Mains

The sub-passive system isn’t just for new heroes — every existing hero gets one. Here’s the breakdown by sub-role:^[2]

The Sub-Role Categories

Stalwart (reduced knockbacks/slows) — Tanks who hold ground: Domina, Reinhardt, Sigma. If you play anchor tanks, this makes you even harder to displace.

Flanker (health packs restore more HP) — Mobile DPS: Anran, Tracer, Genji, Sombra. This rewards flankers who know health pack locations and plan escape routes around them.

Specialist (faster reloads after eliminations) — Snowball-oriented: Emre, Hanzo, Widowmaker. Good for clutch teamfights where you’re chaining kills, but it does nothing if you’re trading 1-for-1.

Survivor (movement abilities trigger passive regen) — Self-sustaining supports: Mizuki, Lucio, Moira. This layers survivability onto heroes who are already hard to kill, which may make Lucio-Moira comps even more durable.

Tactician (excess ult charge carries over) — Ult-dependent heroes: Jetpack Cat, Zenyatta. For heroes whose ultimates win fights, banking charge between ults changes the math on when to use them.

What to Do on Day One

With five new heroes and a competitive reset, the first week is chaos by design. Here’s the practical order of operations:

1. Play the Conquest event first. It runs five weeks and awards cosmetics, loot boxes, and faction-specific skins. The earlier you start, the more you unlock — and it lets you trial new heroes in a lower-stakes environment.

2. Learn one new hero per role, not all five. Domina is the most straightforward for tanks. Mizuki plays like a utility Lucio if you want a familiar feel in support. For DPS, Emre has the tightest loop; Anran is flashier but riskier.

3. Don’t rush placements. The first 48 hours of a rank reset are volatile — you’re equally likely to face former GMs and returning casuals. Wait a day or two for the ladder to stabilize, or pair with a professional booster from Eloking to ensure your placements reflect your actual skill, not early-season randomness.

4. Check your sub-passive. If you main a hero who got a sub-passive that changes their playstyle (e.g., Zenyatta with Tactician), spend some time in quick play adjusting your ult timing. Excess charge banking can change when to hold vs. when to commit.

Here’s what’s confirmed: five heroes launching simultaneously, a full rank reset, sub-passives for every hero, a five-week Conquest event, and a year-long Talon narrative. What’s still unknown: balance adjustments after the first week (Blizzard has confirmed a hotfix patch is pre-loaded if needed), and whether Jetpack Cat’s perma-fly survives the first competitive cycle. If you want more Overwatch meta analysis, check out our Overwatch hero tier list for how the old roster was shaping up before this shake-up.

Day One Reception: 136K Twitch Viewers and Community Reaction

The Overwatch Season 1 launch has been nothing short of massive. Within hours of servers going live on February 10, 2026, Overwatch hit 136,000 concurrent viewers on Twitch — a number the game hasn’t seen since the original Overwatch 2 launch hype cycle. That’s not artificial inflation from drops campaigns either; players and streamers are genuinely excited about the five new heroes and the Reign of Talon storyline.

The community response has been overwhelmingly positive, though not without some playful chaos. Reddit threads within the first 8 hours focused heavily on Mizuki’s weapon skins applying to his hat (a detail players found delightful), Domina’s highlight intro generating praise for its visual design, and the Talon recruitment trailer earning thousands of upvotes. Multiple posts with 1,000+ upvotes show players celebrating the return to the original “Overwatch” branding, with titles like “Yes this brings me back.”

The 136K Twitch peak is significant context for anyone considering jumping back in. That kind of viewer count signals both streamer investment and audience interest — which typically translates to a healthy matchmaking population for the first few weeks. A large player pool means shorter queue times and more balanced matches, especially in ranked. If you want to capitalize on the fresh meta while the player base is at peak engagement, now is the time. Meanwhile, streamers like TimTheTatman have already been pulling off highlight-reel plays, including a notable stall on King’s Row that went viral within hours of the launch.

References

1. [1] "Overwatch Patch Notes - Season 1". blizzard.com. Retrieved February 10, 2026
2. [2] "Every Sub-Passive in Overwatch Season 1". esports.gg. Retrieved February 10, 2026