Upcoming Overwatch 2 Live Updates on September 25, Tank and Support Hero Changes

[Lumy]

Upcoming Overwatch 2 Live Updates on September 25
The Overwatch Team plans to reveal a few Overwatch 2 updates during the Overwatch League Grand Finals on September 25. This includes:

• Sombra and Bastion's reworks
• Bastion's New look
• OW2 Exhibition Match

They have also shared a preview of Bastion's model update in Overwatch 2.

Overwatch 2 - Tank and Support Hero Changes
Following up on the game changes mentioned in the PvP Livestream, the Overteam Team has shared more details on upcoming tank and support hero changes.

Tank Hero Changes

Reinhardt, as we saw in the 5v5 blizzard showcase, will have a 1200hp barrier, the same hp, all for two less damaging firestrikes, and some turning on shift.

In what was does any of that sound like a mega buff, especially now that he must put up twice the defensive performance to conpensate for one less tank.

Heck Winston is a carbon copy with a new firing ability (which he needed non this game honestly.
Is that what you call a mega buff?

This has been a recurring theme in conversation since the PvP Livestream; Tank players want to understand their role in a new 5v5 world. I talked to the Hero Design and Balance team about this thread, and have summed up some thoughts below:

Tanks in Overwatch 2 remain both disruptive line breakers and push-leading protectors. Changing from two Tanks to one creates a new dynamic, where each player (including Damage and Supports) needs to be more careful about the way they position themselves. Flanking potentially becomes more potent as a strategy, and because teams aren’t relying on holding “the high ground” due to the defensive capabilities of multiple Tanks, maps are being used to their fullest (which has resulted in some fun playtests).

Tanks will still be the unquestioned authority on blocking damage; however, they won’t be simultaneously contending with the opposing Tank blocking nearly all incoming damage for their team. Changing to a single Tank means that they will be tuned to be slightly tougher on the individual level. Tanks with overwhelming team defensive capabilities (like Reinhardt) will have their group protections reduced, while their damage and utility will be improved.

To address the pressure that a single Tank position can put on an individual player: there is an assumption that if the Tank dies, the fight is over. Realistically speaking, any player dying in a 5v5 scenario can mean a team-fight loss for their team, so everyone is going to have a bit more pressure put on their individual performance. That said, Tanks not being responsible for mitigating overwhelming damage for the entire team removes some pressure for the role. This also opens an avenue for them to focus more on getting in the opposing team’s face and pressuring with damage and disrupting enemy lines. In our own playtests, we have observed an interesting dynamic where Tanks are not usually the first to die. Support is better able to maintain their front line, creating a scenario where healing is more focused since it’s not split trying to keep multiple tanks alive.

Double Barrier team comps is another area directly impacted by this change. In Overwatch 2, there is a maximum of one shield Tank per team, which leads to changes in how we tune and adjust the total “uptime” for these barriers. This comes in the form of lowering their health, increasing their cooldowns, or lowering their durations. We want barriers to feel impactful, albeit less oppressive, across the game.

Tanks rooted in mobility, such as D.Va, Wrecking Ball, and Winston will see their utility improved, gaining additional defensive stopping power, and in some cases more freedom to flex between having an offensive impact and being a defensive bulwark for their team.

I do understand that some of us have very strong feelings about changing to a single tank, and it’s going to take more than a response like this to fully convince you that this is a net positive change.

To be completely candid: I understand that you need to get your hands on the game and experience it for yourself to fully form an opinion. As someone who was an OW fan and player before I ever joined the team, I have a huge amount of empathy for folks who are frustrated waiting for OW2.

Speaking as someone who plays retail comp nightly, and playtests 2 almost daily, it’s difficult to envision what the experience is actually like until you’ve been in the environment and played several matches. I sincerely do not mean this in a gatekeep-y or “we know better than you” tone, but more to create an understanding that we get your sentiment and understand where your feedback is coming from.

with reduction of cc all round and evidently a mobility creep with tanks to make them more aggro + the announced mobility creep with dps, there seems to be less and less capability to deal with flankers and hypermobility.

This concern is something we’re paying close attention to in our playtests.

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.

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. Your question correctly assumes that they can never be evaluated in a vacuum.

Support Hero Changes

I’ve been seeing this question pop up quite a bit since our post last week, so I grabbed some time with Geoff and Josh from the Hero design and balance team this afternoon. Here’s what they had to say;

Are there any significant changes to how supports are expected to function/feel to play in Overwatch 2?

So far, we’ve not made a ton of changes to how the Support role works in OW2. There are some meaningful changes, such as removing the stun from Brigitte (more on her specific rebalancing efforts in the future), however for the most part the playstyle of your favorite support heroes should feel familiar and similar to retail.
Silawatsi:

I’m wondering if that will affect the support’s old methods of self-healing: will abilities like Biotic Orb/Grenade and Regenerative burst stay the same in Overwatch 2, or are they being altered with the new support passive in mind?

As of now, we have no plans to remove self-healing from these heroes. Abilities like Regenerative Burst and Biotic Grenade remain a powerful part of their respective hero’s identities, and will be tuned to account for the passive self-healing abilities also available.
Silawatsi:

With less health bars to juggle, how does that affect single-target healers in playtesting?

In our playtests, having one less tank made it clear to us that tanks generally contribute much more damage than they mitigate, even on retail. Because of the drop in overall damage being dealt out, Supports were actually too effective at keeping the entire team alive, so we’re testing a tuned down healing output across the board to ensure that teamfights still resolve in a way that doesn’t feel drawn out or frustrating to play against.

During the PvP stream back in May I had the feeling that Zen and Mercy were played very often, due to damage boost and discord orb. Is there a chance that these abilities are getting slightly nerfed? It was crazy to see how a Winston or Reinhardt got melted from a Reaper + discord orb on him.

On paper, Discord is theoretically weaker with 1 fewer person per team benefiting from the debuff. Thus far in our playtests, Mercy’s Damage Boost hasn’t shown any major issues. That said, there’s still a chance we end up tuning both Discord and Damage Boost down, if we see they’re causing issues in further testing.