Overwatch Developers Discuss Testing Heroes in New Roles, Altering Abilities

With the upcoming release of Overwatch 2, Blizzard has been looking to balance their hero roster and reworking certain characters. For example, some alterations to healer Moira's kit have been made in the Experimental mode of the game, but not released into the main game.

During one Reddit AMA "Ask Us Anything" forum, lead hero designer Geoff Goodman discussed with players some possible hero changes that had been tossed around, though no official actions have been taken as of yet. "For example, we tried Symmetra as a Support hero where her turrets healed instead of dealt damage. This was sort of fun but was kind of frustrating as a Symm player because Overwatch moves so fast. We started trying to tune the turrets to have super high range, or being able to have a ton of them out, etc. It ended up just feeling like a mismatch, but honestly i'd be up for taking another crack at it at some point. Maybe if she had some other primary way to heal and the turrets were just a way to provide auxiliary healing it might have gone better."

However, Symmetra was not the only DPS character that developers considered a possible role-change, they also suggested making Mei and Briggite tank heroes, as well as Roadhog as a DPS character. According to Geoff, a Mei tank rework would be the more plausible change, though she would have to undergo a huge rework, such as reducing the damage and distance of her secondary fire. Although none of these changes have been made to the base Overwatch game, some fans speculate that these changes could be made for the upcoming sequel.

With the story-centered Overwatch 2 on the horizon, it is possible that Blizzard are working to rework heroes for the upcoming story mode and its upgrade system. Due to Geoff's focus on character reworks in conjunction with Overwatch 2 discussions, it seems that some of these rework ideas may see the light of day as potential upgrade choices in the sequel. However, no official news has been revealed concerning Overwatch 2, so fans will have to wait and see what becomes of these ideas. 

Overwatch is a fairly well-balanced, team-based game at the moment, though it is not without its problems. As a regular Overwatch player, I am always excited to experience new ideas, especially those which introduce new healers. However, I would personally prefer a new support hero over these potential reworks. However, because nothing is entirely off the table for Overwatch 2's release, fans like myself will have to wait and see what Blizzard does with their unique hero roster.

Kieran Mouritsen
Editor, NoobFeed