Players of Blizzard’s Overwatch 2 who have been waiting for information about potential balance changes coming to the popular hero shooter now have some answers about when to expect such changes, though they may not be the ones they were hoping for. Blizzard has been making some high-profile changes to its free-to-play shooter recently, with recent news hinting that changes to Overwatch 2’s competitive play mode are currently in the works.
Following up on the overwhelming success of its 2016 predecessor, Blizzard released Overwatch 2 for PC and consoles in late 2022. Although many fans had initially been excited about the prospect of a sequel to the popular hero shooter, the news that the game would move to a free-to-play model immediately made some long-time players hesitant, with the announcement that Overwatch 2 would switch to a 5v5 mode further souring some gamers’ opinions. While bringing back the entire original roster from the first game in addition to adding new heroes was praised by many series fans, ongoing complaints about issues ranging from serious balance issues to problems with Overwatch 2’s Play of the Game feature have plagued the game since release.
In a new post on the official Overwatch 2 blog, game director Aaron Keller gives gamers insight into the development team’s thoughts about the current state of balance in the game. In what is sure to be surprising news for players who’ve expressed frustration over the extremely high damage dealt by heroes like Sojourn and Roadhog, the latter of whom can eliminate most characters with a single shot, Keller states that Overwatch 2’s balance is “the best it's been since the launch of OW2” according to player feedback. Keller goes on to cite matchmaking information showing that the heroes who are played the most aren’t necessarily the ones with the highest win rates to support his claim.
For gamers who’d been hoping for a new Overwatch 2 balance patch to be released soon, this news may be disappointing. Citing further matchmaking information showing that, even though some heroes get more use than others, nearly every hero is getting a good amount of playtime at the moment, Keller states that the developers are “not looking at doing balance changes until our midseason patch.” While Blizzard’s feedback seems to indicate that players are fine with the current hero balance, those who’ve been one-shotted by Roadhog recently may beg to differ.
While a new Overwatch 2 balance patch may not arrive any time soon, players can take some solace in the fact that Blizzard’s data seems to show the game is more balanced than in Season 2. And at least they won’t have to worry about a new version of Cassidy’s overpowered sticky grenade from a recent clip showing up in the game any time soon.
Overwatch 2 is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: Blizzard