Blizzard has doubled down on its commitment to improving role queue times in Overwatch and developers are hoping major Support hero reworks will be the key.
From the first implementation of the role queue system in Overwatch, certain roles have been more popular than others. In the original game, queueing into a game as a Damage hero took longer than the rest. Now in the sequel, playing as either a Tank or Damage hero comes with longer queue times than the Support role.
Due to the shrink down to 5v5, with only one Tank per team, the issue has only been exacerbated since Overwatch 2 went live in early access. However, we know for certain the dev team is already looking ahead at improvements to help balance things out.
Just two weeks ago in conversation with Dexerto, Lead Hero Designer Alec Dawson explained how “adding more Support in the game” could accomplish just that. Now, it appears their plans are more ambitious, as a new blog post has teased everything from hero reworks to role-wide changes, all in hopes of evening out queue times.
“With the move to 5v5, we’re seeing longer queue times than we’d like for both Tank and Damage players,” Executive Producer Jared Neuss said on November 17. “While there’s no silver bullet for this issue, the team has a lot of ideas.”
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Much of Blizzard’s current focus in alleviating the issue centers around the Support role. In tweaking this category of heroes, devs believe they can drive more players towards Supports, easing the burden on Tank and Damage queues.
It all has to do with making Supports “more fun and more rewarding to play.” For starters, they’re considering specific Support hero reworks, potentially overhauling a number of fan-favorite characters to entice players across. Moreover, possible “role-wide changes” could also be implemented to “improve Support quality of life.”
For the time being, there’s no clear timeline on when fans can expect to see these Support changes in Overwatch 2. So we’ll have to wait and see exactly what Blizzard has in mind over the coming seasons.
