Blizzard Is Making A Major Change to Overwatch 2: Everyone Can Heal

Blizzard is about to completely change the way Overwatch 2 is played. Starting in Season 9, every single hero will have the ability to heal themselves, essentially gutting the Class system of Tank, DPS, and Support. For the first time in the game's history, players will have total self-sufficiency. Using a new passive ability, tanks, and DPS will start to gradually regain health outside of active combat. According to game director Aaron Keller in a blog post, this will be a "tuned-down version of the support self-healing passive." In addition, more changes reducing "damage spikes in combat" will be outlined in a post closer to the launch of the update. The current state of balance in Overwatch 2's meta is already quite turbulent. Mauga is a new tank hero introduced in the most recent season. This character has the killing power of Bastion with the ability to oscillate between fragile and lethal tank, single-handedly ruining matches across all skill levels. Players had no choice but to buy him and shoot back until someone one. Such changes made Season 8 a complete nightmare until Blizzard nerfed the character so hard recently that Alec Dawson, lead hero designer, said the change "may be harsher than what's necessary." In addition to extreme damage, Mauga can heal himself while doing so. It's necessary for when teams don't run with a second tank. But using a self-healing passive for all three roles is going to radically shift team dynamics in a way the game simply wasn't designed for. Overwatch was created with teamwork in mind. Sadly, it has degenerated into a burden that new hero releases and balance changes are created to alleviate. Through minimizing support opportunities, the importance of the different Class roles blurs as does the dynamic behind allies. Regardless of how strong the new tank and DPS passives become, the change will untether support players from having to focus on their team, which completely shatters the reason for playing the role to begin with. Keller has said that the passive is meant to "take some of the pressure off support players to keep everyone alive since individual players now have more control of their health pool." The goal is to make the game "less frustrating" when the team is not working together. Blizzard has feverishly worked to find a balance between the foundational teamwork of the original game and the lone-wolf playstyle attracting solo players. Using reworks to heroes and maps, the sequel has become a more fast-paced and lethal experience. Encounters that used to take minutes now take seconds with the speed at which just one or two players can take out an entire team. Giving all players the ability to heal regardless of hero also eliminates the need for health packs spread across the map, which served as tactical waypoints for those dealing with multiple threats at once. In addition to self-healing, Blizzard will be introducing a dynamic spawn system that forces you to reappear alongside teammates. This feature will become even more prominent during Season 9. The team has also been experimenting with other features like the ability to see ally health bars on-screen like in the game's PvE modes. Party frames as seen across MMOs and MOBAs are also likely. Blizzard's also adding a limited-time version of Quick Play, called "Quicker Play", this weekend. It makes it seem like the company is unsure of the direction to take the experience and is allowing players to test their ideas over the course of the year. Keller wrote, "When I look at the future of Overwatch, a year or two out, I don't see the exact same game that we're playing now, but with a few more heroes and maps added to it...the game should always evolve with new systems and features that serve our players." Of course, changes in the meta are inevitable for live service games, but making such fundamental changes to the experience will forever change what it means to play Overwatch, which still has systems that adhere to its ruleset.

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