This massive change will see Damage and Tank heroes get a passive heal next season, drastically changing how Overwatch 2 is played.
Damage and Tank heroes will be getting a self-heal passive ability in Season 9 of Overwatch 2. This major change will see non-support heroes get an automatic heal passive, which kicks in after not taking damage for a short period of time.
Announced by Overwatch 2 game director Aaron Keller in a blog post, the new passive ability will be added as part of Season 9, which kicks off in early February. Support heroes already have this passive ability, though it’s much stronger. The version being given to the damage and tank roles will be toned down. The blog doesn’t list how this version will be toned down.
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“This should give non-Support players more options in terms of sustaining themselves. It should also take some of the pressure off Support players to keep everyone alive since individual players now have more control of their own health pool,” Keller wrote. “In Overwatch, there is a constant tug of war between the power of a team and the power of an individual hero or player. A change like this shifts that balance a bit.”
The main reason for the change is that Overwatch 2 currently has a bit of a problem when it comes to teamwork. When teams stick together, there is a ton of synergy. However, when teams don’t stick together, Overwatch 2 becomes a more challenging and frustrating experience. Giving every hero a passive heal allows for splitting off to be more rewarding. It should also reduce frustrations for support players, who typically get blamed when damage or tank heroes run off alone and don’t get healing.
Keller also teased more changes coming in the future, including a change that should reduce damage spikes in combat. While Keller didn’t elaborate further, the damage spikes in question could be ultimate abilities, many of which deal a massive amount of damage in a short period of time.
Blizzard is also testing ways to quicken the Overwatch 2 experience and provide more options for players. The Quicker Play mode available this weekend, which is a faster paced version of regular quick play, is part of that testing.