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First Look at the PvP Changes Coming to Overwatch 2

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BONT6LWE8D121621468188373.jpg
 

The Overwatch team held a PvP-focused stream for the sequel, talking about changes to the game with the release/upgrade of the second edition, including a swap to a 5v5, 1 tank, 2 damage and 2 support format, new maps, new game modes and more.

Blizzard LogoOW2 PvP (Source)

The Overwatch team put together a live broadcast to showcase changes coming to PvP in Overwatch 2. Missed the stream? Get all of the updates and see how the team is rethinking Overwatch’s PvP experience.

 

TEAMS OF FIVE

The core Overwatch PvP experience will shift from six players per team to five players per team. In the standard PvP game modes of Overwatch 2, each team will contain one Tank, two Damage, and two Support heroes. This evolution introduces a major shift in the way that the team approaches all aspects of the game, from map design to the dynamics between roles and how they interact as a team.

At the heart of this change lies the change in mentality surrounding the role of Tank, previously discussed during BlizzConline, towards one more focused on brawler-style gameplay. This shift from focusing on the protection of your team to in-your-face battling is anticipated to have impacts to the flow and pacing of the PvP experience. During the livestream, we got a firsthand look a new secondary fire mode for Winston and changes to Reinhardt’s abilities.

That said, Tanks aren’t the only role undergoing adjustments to account for this shift to five-versus-five. The livestream gave us a live look at the new Role Passives, introduced during BlizzConline. In its current iteration, these new passive abilities will have Damage heroes moving slightly faster than other roles, Support heroes regenerating health automatically after staying out of combat for a short period, and Tanks taking reduced knockback and providing less ultimate charge to opponents who damage them (compared to other roles).

On the level of hero-specific changes, we showed off updates to Mei’s Endothermic Blaster, which will slow and deal damage, but not freeze enemies in Overwatch 2. Other heroes like Bastion are being reviewed and reworked from the ground up, which will result in major changes to how the hero plays. This shift will result in rebalancing and adjustments across the board – We’ll aim to give you a sneak peak on how things are coming for some heroes later this year.

 

OVR_Presskit_DevPVPShowcase_Reinhardt_001_Resize.jpg

WAYS TO PLAY

Overwatch 2 introduces new ways to play the player-versus-player experience you’re familiar with today. During the livestream, we got a fresh look at Push, an Overwatch 2 game mode where players will clash to take control of a robot that starts in a central location and “push” it toward the enemy team’s base. First introduced during BlizzCon 2019, it’s undergone a number of updates now that team structures have changed!

In addition to Push, the team is currently working through introducing an additional new game mode to Overwatch 2. We don’t have any details we’re ready to share just yet, but we can’t wait to share more ahead of the Overwatch 2 launch. During the livestream, we also confirmed that the Assault (known colloquially as “2CP”) will be leaving the Competitive playlist in Overwatch 2, to be replaced with a new game mode. We intend to still have the existing Assault maps available for play in some capacity (Custom Games, etc) with the release of Overwatch 2.

EXPLORING NEW MAPS

We visited five maps and saw live gameplay footage from the Overwatch developers! After seeing Rio de Janeiro’s story mission during BlizzCon 2019, we got our first look at Rio’s Escort PvP map. As introduced during BlizzConline, we also got to explore New York City (Hybrid) and Rome (Push)! Finally, we revealed the never-before-seen illustrious Monte Carlo (Escort)!

Overwatch 2 Monte Carlo Map

NEW LOOKS

Building upon the ever-growing roster of new looks coming with Overwatch 2, we revealed Torbjörn’s new look! Plus, we got to see other new hero looks in action during the livestream, including McCree and Widowmaker.

Overwatch 2: Torbjörn’s new look
 

These new looks also bear important changes to the UI and HUD for some heroes, including Mercy and Zenyatta. Check out the livestream to see how we’re improving these displays to better communicate important gameplay details.


The livestream is available in VOD format right now! We’re excited to share more about the development of Overwatch 2 later this year.

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my first thought as a bronze / silver casual
guess i'm switching to support

i mean if they rework the tanks the right way that we dont need a barrier tank it might work
as it is right now if u dont pick a barrier hero als tank you gonna be flamed into oblivion

 

but all based on a low ranking casual point of view

Edited by Nayrusa

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2 hours ago, Nayrusa said:

i mean if they rework the tanks the right way that we dont need a barrier tank it might work
as it is right now if u dont pick a barrier hero als tank you gonna be flamed into oblivion

I'm not sure myself about that change from 6vs6 to 5vs5. They want to turn tanks into "brawlers", depends how they are going to rework them. Understandable if they want to nerf shield meta, but when teams are going to have only one tank/brawler, then people would still prioritize a tank with shield. Better to pick Rein, Orisa or Sigma than Roadhog or Dva, because then team won't have any protection, even if it's going to be weaker than currently.

Another thing, somehow I don't like some of those changed sounds. Soldier's rifle sounds a bit worse and more like normal one than a pulse rifle.

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6 hours ago, Arcling said:

I'm not sure myself about that change from 6vs6 to 5vs5. They want to turn tanks into "brawlers", depends how they are going to rework them. Understandable if they want to nerf shield meta, but when teams are going to have only one tank/brawler, then people would still prioritize a tank with shield. Better to pick Rein, Orisa or Sigma than Roadhog or Dva, because then team won't have any protection, even if it's going to be weaker than currently.

Another thing, somehow I don't like some of those changed sounds. Soldier's rifle sounds a bit worse and more like normal one than a pulse rifle.

That seems to be the general concern about this change. But its said that the maps are gonna be differend in terms of more cover maybe they nerf the shields or buff the other tanks so that it's not nessesary for a tank to have shield.

But i share the fears that shield tanks are gonna stay in the prio and that you gonna be flamed till you either quit or switch to a shield hero.

Well i guess we have to wait for the beta in order to see how its gonna work out. But if they screw the tanks than the tank situation and with that the queue times will not improve it will get worse because ppl will quit playing tank.

The irony that blizzard cant seem to balance tanks or make them enjoyable same problem with wow tbh. Tanking is more and more about kiting i miss those wod days where tank dps started to matter and then it was dropped for tank kiting matters.

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45 minutes ago, Nayrusa said:

But i share the fears that shield tanks are gonna stay in the prio and that you gonna be flamed till you either quit or switch to a shield hero.

The irony that blizzard cant seem to balance tanks or make them enjoyable same problem with wow tbh. Tanking is more and more about kiting i miss those wod days where tank dps started to matter and then it was dropped for tank kiting matters.

Precisely, they are making those changes because most people don't want to play tanks. Compare almost instant tank queues to other roles. Even if they nerf shields, I'm afraid people might still want a shield tank on their team. Let's say a shield is nerfed so much that it can only prevent one or two full shots from Widowmaker, this is still important and can deny enemy team a head shot. And yeah, the concern about flaming is a valid one, perhaps even more so with this change, because now people may concentrate on blaming their only tank ("because he didn't pick shield hero"), which in turn may discourage even more people from queuing as tank. But as you said, we will have to wait and see, if other reworks will make non-shield tanks bring something valuable for their team. 

Edited by Arcling

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      Tanks fighting on the front lines
      Since shifting to a 5v5 format, we see many players focusing more on the tank role given the heightened importance of a single tank in role queue modes. One of the most talked about heroes on the roster right now is D.Va. With buffs after the last Beta to her Defense Matrix and Micro Missiles, she can put up a fight longer than she could before the launch of Overwatch 2. Despite many players saying she’s one of the best tanks in the game, Reinhardt, Sigma, and Zarya actually currently lead up the competition with an average 53% unmirrored win rate. Zarya’s new ability to choose where to place each of her two Particle Barriers often allows her to build up to high energy quickly, which is something we’re currently keeping a close eye on for potential changes next season.
      Junker Queen was a dominant force during the last beta playtest. Because of that, we applied changes to her Commanding Shout to reduced how dominant the brawly, “death ball” team compositions were at the highest skill levels, including the Overwatch League Summer Showdown. We’ll keep an eye on her performance in the upcoming weeks to ensure she’s an effective tank and fun to play. 
      The team is also monitoring Doomfist’s performance and play rate compared to other tanks. As we look to Season Two, we think it makes sense to evaluate his overall tanking ability and potentially make improvements to Power Block and Meteor Strike.
      Slicing through the competition
      The damage role has seen many hero combinations across all ranks, but we’ve noticed some popular picks among our players. Genji and Sojourn started as the most popular heroes when Overwatch 2 launched, but they’ve since leveled out to the rest of the damage roster. Genji started off with a dominating win-rate, and although it’s lowered slightly since launch (currently at 52%), we want to make sure he’s not dominating the playing field. We’ll watch Genji carefully throughout the season to ensure he doesn’t slice up the competition too much and may make adjustments in Season Two. One way we are considering doing this is through an adjustment to the damage role passive, which has particularly benefited heroes like Genji.
      Sombra is also hacking her way through the back lines in many games. We adjusted her damage potential to be optimal on targets that she hacks. However, we want to ensure her targets have a reasonable time to fight back, so we’ll continue to look to balance her hack ability-lockout duration when we approach Season Two. We’ve also heard feedback that tanks feel oppressed when a Sombra is focusing them with hacks, which will also be something we will look to control next season.
      Symmetra and Torbjorn are two other damage heroes that we are keeping a close eye on now. Over the course of the first week, their win rates have been gradually increasing, and they are showing the highest win rates now at some ranks. Both heroes can be effective counters to Genji and may be enjoying their success due to his popularity. When we look at potentially making changes to them we need to keep in mind the landscape of the rest of the hero roster. For example if Genji is tweaked and possibly played less these heroes might see less success and not need adjustments themselves.
      Sly as a fox
      Kiriko has been well-received by the community, with an initial play rate of over 75% in most matches when we first launched, making her an instant favorite among many players. This play rate has since balanced out compared to other support heroes, however, her win rate increased from 48% to 52% as players learned her kit and playstyle over this past week. Her healing averages in the middle when you compare it to the rest of the support roster, and her damage output right now is about even with Ana which is relatively low compared to heroes like Lucio, Moira, and Brigitte. Kiriko gets a lot of value in her evasiveness with Wall Climb and Swift Step to get out of harm’s way, allowing her to stay alive longer in team fights and making her the most survivable support hero on the roster currently. We’re keeping an eye on how she performs in the weeks ahead of the Overwatch League Playoffs next month.
      Missions around the world
      With new and returning maps based on locations worldwide, we want each season in Overwatch 2 to feel refreshing and exciting for new and returning players. To support that goal and also to allow our team, when we think it’s appropriate, to make adjustments to our maps, we have begun to run a map pool featuring all-new locations and many original maps. For season 1, we’re playing on the following maps for both Quick and Competitive Play:
      Control Ilios - Evening Lighting Lijiang Tower - Dawn Lighting Oasis - Night Lighting Nepal - Morning Lighting Busan - Night Lighting Escort Circuit royal – Night Lighting Dorado - Evening Lighting Route 66 - Night Lighting Gibraltar - Morning Lighting Junkertown - Morning Lighting Hybrid Midtown - Morning Lighting King’s Row - Evening Lighting Eichenwalde - Evening Lighting Hollywood - Morning Lighting Paraíso - Morning Lighting Push New Queen Street - Morning Lighting Colosseo - Evening Lighting Esperança - Morning Lighting Each subsequent season, we will rotate some maps out of the map pool and bring back others that had been previously out of rotation. As we continue to rotate maps in and out, we’ll be looking at improving and tweaking them, so for example, when Rialto returns in Season Two, players will notice a few spots where we have added additional cover which should help the map play better in the 5v5 environment with reduced shields. For players who want to play maps not currently in the map rotation, hop into a custom game or the occasional arcade mode.
      Climbing the ranks
      Our team would like to apologize for ranking many players too low during the first week of Overwatch 2. We discovered a bug that was impacting player skill ratings, which is what contributed to many players being placed in Bronze 5 when they should have been placed higher. Our most recent patch included a fix that will help you get back to your true rank quickly, and that will be reflected the next time you receive a competitive ranking update. You will receive a boost as you continue playing to help you get up to the correct ranks. Players who haven’t yet placed in competitive won’t experience this issue after the fix goes live.
      We’re also watching your feedback about how we present your skill tier and division and how you celebrate that in-game. While we don’t have any details we can share yet, expect us to make more improvements to Competitive, and we will continue to watch for your feedback.
      Thank you for week one, and here’s to many more
      Finally, we want to ensure games play out fairly for all players in all matches. In a future patch, we’ll fix an issue that could cause some rubber banding in-game. We also want to be certain that hit registration for shots fired is working pixel-perfectly. We have investigated reports from players about hit registration, and many reports are actually related to how our replay tool works, which does not perfectly capture the alignment of each player’s aim. 
      There are also misconceptions about how our controller settings on PC work, which does not affect mouse input. As an example, aim smoothing under gamepad does not impact mouse input latency or precision. However, in one report, we discovered a bug that affected the hitbox alignment of our rendered objects for Junker Queen in some specific situations, and we’re working diligently to fix this issue. 
      We also understand that some PC players have concerns with input responsiveness and recommend trying out these changes to improve how quickly the game responds to player input:
      Make sure the in-game resolution setting matches your actual monitor’s set resolution. Set the capped frame rate to a value that matches your monitor’s maximum frame rate. If you have an NVidia graphics card, turn on NVidia Reflex + Boost. Otherwise, turn on Reduced Buffering for other GPUs. Finally, in your gameplay options, turn on Enable High Precision Mouse Input to speed up how frequently your mouse captures position in the game. Thank you to all the players who were a part of the first week of Overwatch 2. While this time has been incredibly exciting for the community and our team, it’s also come with many challenges that we're looking to address quickly. We will continue to listen to player feedback as we strive to make Overwatch 2 the best game it can be, and we are looking forward to sharing more in the coming weeks leading up to Season Two. In the meantime, we hope everyone is having a blast in the game, and we will talk again soon! 
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