As the first Overwatch 2 PvP Beta come to a close, let us take a look at five things that the original Overwatch had that didn't make it to this installment.
If you missed the first Overwatch 2 PvP Beta, don't worry! This was only the first of many, and the details of the next Beta test will be announced at an event this June. If you want to find out more, check out our article about it.
6th Tank
First off, the elephant in the room: Overwatch 2 is a 5v5 game while its predecessor is 6v6. In Overwatch, this meant that there will be two of each role: Damage, Tank, and Support. In Overwatch 2 however, the Tank role took a hit. Sure, there's one less Tank in the game, but what does that really mean?
It means that your team's backline (usually the healers) are now more susceptible to flanks because they lack a dedicated tank as protection. This is true across most skill levels, being a damage dealer, you know your priority is to take down the enemy squishies as much as it is to melt their tanks.
Also, heroes like D.Va, who are not meant to be played as a lone tank, just outright suck. The amount of shields were also reduced in the game, which meant that by playing tank, you are essentially acting as a meat shield for your squad.
Orisa's Shield
Speaking of removed shields, Orisa got a complete overhaul and completely ditched her shield. No complaints about the current Orisa though, her new Javelin Throw ability is strong as all hell. It's been a journey trying to learn and play around Orisa's new kit, which overall was a nice experience. However, it's simply weird to play Orisa and not place down a wall.
Here's a summary of what she does now:
- Base armor increased from 200 to 250
- Base health increased from 200 to 250
- New Primary Fire
- Now rapidly fires 10 plasma projectiles per second
- Projectiles start out large and shrink as they travel
- Damage starts at 10.5 and scales down to 4 damage over 35 meters
- Uses a heat mechanic instead of ammo
- Firing the weapon increases heat, and it cools down while not firing
- If the weapon overheats, a forced release of heat prevents the weapon from being fired for 3 seconds
- New Secondary Fire
- Orisa throws a spear forward, impacting the first enemy in its path
- Deals 80 damage
- Stuns enemies for 0.2 seconds and knocks them back 6 meters
- If the enemy collides with a wall while being knocked back, they take 40 more damage and are stunned an additional 0.3 seconds
- Now slows Orisa’s movement speed by 20% while active
- Now provides 125 extra health while active
- Reduces heat generation from Orisa’s weapon by 50% while active
- Duration increased from 4 to 4.5 seconds
- New Ability 2
- Orisa rapidly spins a spear for 1.75 seconds, destroying incoming projectiles
- Increases forward movement speed by 60% while active and by 20% for 2 seconds after the spinning ends
- Rapidly damages enemies in her path, dealing up to 90 damage and constantly knocking them back
Ultimate – Terra Surge
- New Ultimate Ability
- Orisa pulls in nearby enemies and becomes fortified, charging up an area-of-effect attack over 4 seconds. Releasing the charge deals up to 225 damage based on how long it was channeled
- While charging, deals minor damage over time and slows nearby enemy movement speed by 30%
Protective Barrier
- Ability Removed.
Halt!
- Ability Removed.
Supercharger
- Ability Removed.
McCree
Amidst all the controversy, one of Blizzard's executive decisions was to rename Jesse McCree into Cole Cassidy late last year. This was because McCree's namesake, the ex- game designer Jesse McCree, was fired from the company after he was involved in a sexual harassment and gender discrimination lawsuit filed against Blizzard.
In the statement made by the then Overwatch team, they said that they “believe it's necessary to change the name of the hero currently known as McCree to something that better represents what Overwatch stands for.” They also said that in the future, in-game characters will no longer be named after real employees, and that they will put more thought into adding real world references in upcoming content.
What did this mean in-game? Absolutely nothing. Do I still hear my teammates call him McCree? Absolutely. Sometimes I still catch myself calling him McCree. I understand that Blizzard had to make this move, and it's probably the smart choice to not name any more heroes after your employees.
Mei Freezing Enemies
Mei was one of the heroes who received only a little tweak. One that I was not aware of until I myself played Mei and wondered “why was it taking so long to freeze them?” before looking into the patch notes and found that they have removed Mei's Freeze on her Endothermic Blaster. It's now stronger though, with the instant slow and the increased damage to the primary fire.
If you're interested, here's what they changed from Mei's kit:
Endothermic Blaster
- Freeze stun removed
- Immediately slows targets by a constant 50% instead of building up over time
- Slow duration reduced from 1.0 to 0.5 seconds
- Damage-per-second increased from 55 to 100
- Ammo increased from 120 to 150
Cryo-Freeze
- No longer removes Sigma Gravitic Flux effect
- Pillar health reduced from 400 to 250
- Range reduced from 35 to 20 meters
- Ultimate cost increased by 15%
Doomfist's Uppercut
Doomfist was one of the few heroes who received a complete rework to their kit. He was hit the most, since he had to transition from being Damage to Tank. Aside from a very long changelog (that you can read below), he also received quite the generous boost to his base health. But Blizzard has decided that as a tank, Rising Uppercut no longer has a place in his kit. It was replaced by a more tank-like ability called Power Block. Hearing Doomfist say “Rising Uppercut!” was one of the joys of playing him before, but it seems those days are no longer with us.
If you're interested in what changes he received, check them out:
- Moved from Damage to Tank role
- Base health increased from 250 to 450
Rising Uppercut
- Ability removed
- Damage reduced from 6 to 5 per pellet
- Ammo regeneration rate increased from once every 0.65 seconds to 0.4 seconds
- Impact damage range reduced from 50 – 100 to 15 – 30 damage
- Wall slam damage range reduced from 50 – 150 to 20 – 40 damage
- Maximum charge up time reduced from 1.4 to 1.0 seconds
- Impacting a target now causes a secondary larger cone area check to grab extra targets to potentially knock them back as well
- New Ability 2
- Enter a blocking stance, reducing damage taken from the front by 90%
- Blocking at least 100 damage causes Doomfist’s gauntlet to become supercharged, empowering the next Rocket Punch in the following ways:
- Increases damage by 50%
- Travels 50% faster and further
- The area-of-effect blast that knocks back additional targets is twice as large
- Targets impacting a wall will be stunned for an additional 0.5 to 1.0 seconds, depending on charge amount
- Moved from Ability 2 to Ability 1
- Now launches Doomfist into the air in the direction the player is aiming
- Creates a wide arc shockwave upon landing, dealing 50 damage and slowing enemy movement speed by 30%
- No longer has different behavior between being activated in the air or on the ground
- No longer pulls in enemies
- Can be canceled by pressing the ability key again
- Damage range reduced from 15 – 200 to 15 – 100
- Impact damage at the center 1 meter radius unchanged from 300 damage
- Knockback removed
- Now additionally slows the movement speed of all enemies hit by 50% for 2 seconds
- Cast time reduced from 1.0 to 0.5 seconds
For more Overwatch 2 news, check out our newsroom here.