As fans anxiously await news of an Overwatch 2 beta announcement, the game’s developers have revealed some big news about changes coming to existing heroes.
Overwatch 2’s switch to five vs five as opposed to the current model of six players per team was met with backlash, but the devs defended the decision to have teams only consist of one tank.
The major gameplay change means that tanks will be getting some serious buffs, as showcased during the PvP livestream. However, it’s not just the tanks that will be on the receiving end of some huge overhauls.
In a series of posts on the official Blizzard forums, Community Manager AndyB delved into some of the changes being made in Overwatch 2, internal playtests and reworks for existing heroes.
Big hero reworks planned for Overwatch 2
In a reply to a concerned fan over nerfs to crowd-control abilities and increased mobility power creep, Andy explained this was something the devs were paying close attention to.
“So far, we’ve seen that heroes like Doomfist, Wrecking Ball (and to some degree Tracer), will need to be rebalanced, and maybe even nerfed, to make sure they’re not super overpowered in the new meta,” he revealed.
This isn’t exactly surprising, as all three of those heroes have some of the best mobility in the entire game and with crowd control being nerfed (such as Mei’s primary fire only slowing, not freezing) it would be best to tone them down.
How the devs go about reworking heroes such as Tracer is another story, considering mobility is such a key part of her kit. Her three Blinks have become engrained into skilled players’ muscle memory and limiting her to two or raising their cooldown could easily have a very negative impact.
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on Esports, Gaming and more.
“Changes like the ones we’ve discussed in the PVP Livestream and here in this thread are incredibly complicated. They have far-reaching ramifications throughout the game,” he added, acknowledging the significance of such a rework.
Reworks factor in new Overwatch 2 heroes
He also addressed how removing some crowd-control abilities could impact the game’s enjoyment for certain players.
“It remains to be seen how removing cc and utility from certain Damage heroes will impact the perceived “fun-ness” of those abilities being used by Tanks and Supports in the future. That’s a fair concern and one that we’ll be paying close attention to as we develop OW2.”
Finally, he noted how the team is factoring in new heroes for internal playtests. Responding to a fan asking just that, Andy replied: “Without going into detail… yes.”
This is actually quite interesting, because the next season of Overwatch League is set to begin on an early build of Overwatch 2 in April. As such, it seems like some new heroes could be available by then.
Blizzard have yet to announce when an Overwatch 2 beta will begin, but as Dexerto reported, internal sources from within the company have said that the goal is to have the sequel out before the Summer of 2022.
Hopefully, all these recent comments by devs will result in more news in the coming weeks and we can finally mark our calendars for a beta release sometime soon.
