“Roughly half” of the Overwatch 2 roster is getting changes as director admits anti-healing Damage passive “may be pushed a bit too far”

Blizzard’s attempt to keep all heroes “viable”

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TheOverwatch 2team is tweaking “roughly half” of the playable heroes in the upcoming midseason patch.

Blizzard recently gave every Damage hero a new passive that allows them to reduce foes' healing by 20% for two seconds—when you consider that they also got aself-healing passive lately alongside tanks, they aren’t doing bad. For a competitive shooter all about team synergy and party composition, that’s a pretty seismic shift, so the team is now making roster adjustments in an attempt to reach that unattainable ‘balance.’

In a recentblog post, director Aaron Keller said the new passive aimed to push “heroes to the forefront of a fight” and net Damage heroes more eliminations. Both goals have been a success, but Keller admits that it might have been “pushed a bit too far.”

To accommodate such a drastic change, the team is “touching roughly half the heroes in the roster” to “make sure that all heroes feel viable.” For example, medic sniper Ana will have her grenade’s damage and healing buffed from 60 to 90 to “give her more self-survivability.” Lifeweaver is also getting a healing boost, with his maximum heal increasing from 70 to 90. Tanks Doomfist and Mauga will also enjoy damage buffs, meanwhile, Wrecking Ball needs to wait until Season 10 before he sees a small rework.

Overwatch 2 Season 9’s midseason update is due on March 12 with changes big and small hitting the shooter.

Elsewhere in the world of chirpy heroes and thumb-twirling villains,Overwatch 2’s esports scene is returningin a much different manner than we’re used to.Microsoft’s gaming division also laid off almost 2,000 employees, which sadly affected the Overwatch 2 team.

One former Overwatch 2 developer explained the shooter’s jankiness: “The script looks like every subway map in the world layered over each other.”

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Kaan freelances for various websites including Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, and this one, Gamesradar. He particularly enjoys writing about spooky indies, throwback RPGs, and anything that’s vaguely silly. Also has an English Literature and Film Studies degree that he’ll soon forget.

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