Overwatch 2 will drastically alter Blizzard’s hero shooter, decreasing the number of playable characters on any given team from six to five, resulting in two DPS, two Support, and one Tank hero in every round. As one might expect, such a significant shift will necessitate Blizzard reworking their Tank heroes to make them more viable, but other characters will also be tweaked.
An Overwatch fan recently posted on the Blizzard forums about their concerns regarding flankers and heroes with greater mobility than others, claiming that they will be more difficult to stop with only one Tank. In response to the topic, a Blizzard community manager stated that this exact problem in Overwatch 2 is one the devs have been “paying careful attention to” when testing the game.
Doomfist, Wrecking Ball, and Tracer are three characters that will need to be rebalanced or nerfed when Overwatch 2 releases, according to the Blizzard community manager. This will be required in order for them to not be overpowering in Overwatch 2’s new meta, which appears to make heroes like that particularly viable. Of course, as a Tank hero, Wrecking Ball was certain to have some tweaks. However, the prospect of a Tank being nerfed rather than boosted for Overwatch 2 hasn’t been discussed until now.
The necessity to totally recalibrate some of Overwatch’s characters can’t be easy, so it’s no surprise that the release date for Overwatch 2 has been pushed out to next year. While Blizzard hasn’t confirmed that Overwatch 2 will be released in 2022, it has been reported that the Overwatch League will be using an early build of the game next season, making it extremely probable that the long-awaited sequel will be released around the same time.
According to a new source, Overwatch 2 will be released in the second quarter of 2022, between April 1 and June 30. Because May 2022 is the 6th anniversary of the first Overwatch’s debut, it looks like a good contender for the sequel’s release month, though Blizzard hasn’t announced anything as of this writing.
It’s conceivable that Overwatch fans may finally hear some real facts regarding Overwatch 2 at BlizzCon 2022, or even sooner if they’re lucky. For the time being, fans may speculate about how much the PvP meta will alter until the new game releases next year.
