Overwatch Season 5, titled A Grim Doctrine, launched on October 6 at 11 a.m. PT with a new support hero, the game's first new escort map in years and a limited-time Halloween event, according to patch notes coverage from esports.gg and MassivelyOP.
The headline addition is Doctrine, a vampiric support whose scepter heals allies and damages enemies and who deploys robotic bats to empower teammates. His ultimate grants his team overhealth while reducing the maximum health of the opposing team, MassivelyOP reported.
The new map, Watchpoint: Grímsvötn, is a high-security prison inside an Icelandic volcano, with fire, ice and stolen technology as hazards. It is the location from which Doctrine was freed, per MassivelyOP, and esports.gg described it as the first new escort map in years.
Graveyard Games and returning passes
The season's event, Mystery Madness: Graveyard Games, runs from October 6 to November 2, esports.gg reported. The mode spawns players as a random hero and grants new random powers on every death that stack over the match. A series of challenges awards offerings that unlock Ashe, Moira and Winston for the mode one per week until all three are available, MassivelyOP said. Event rewards listed by esports.gg include a free legendary Inflatable Reinhardt skin, 16 loot boxes, four player icons, four sprays, four name cards, a weapon charm, a player title and eight voice lines.
Season 5 also reintroduces battle passes from Seasons 1 through 15 as Unvaulted Passes, with progress players made on the originals retained whether the pass was free or premium, though MassivelyOP noted that prestige titles and mythic hero and weapon skins from those passes are not included.
On the hero roster, Sombra moved from the damage role to support and Roadhog received a major rework, both outlets reported. Cosmetics for the season include the Dragon Shaoxia Wuyang mythic hero skin and the Treblemaker Lucio mythic weapon skin, a Solo Leveling collaboration called Overwatch x Shadow Monarch running October 6 to 19 with Iron Reinhardt, Igris Reaper, Sung Jinwoo Genji, Cha Hae-In Anran and Choi Jong-In Lifeweaver skins, and a Tech Witches shop collection available October 9 to 26, per esports.gg. The outlet also reported that Season 5 is the final chapter of the Vendetta's Reign of Talon storyline and that Team Drives return from October 29.
