Overwatch 2’s latest patch notes are out, and I’m completely unconvinced that I’m playing the same game thatBlizzardthinks it’s making.
As poor matchmakingchips away at the competitive scene, character balancing is far from my mind when I’m trying to climb the ranks. Frankly, it doesn’t matter ifMercy has five extra bulletsin her blaster - there’s nothing you can do if you’re in Silver and up against someone in Top 500. But rather than fix that, the next update will fill the store with more tatt, and buff characters that don’t need it.
Related:Overwatch Has An “Openly” Queer Character Now
All of this I could take, if only it wasn’t for the next season also prioritising the one skill none of us has: positioning.
Lifeweaver, a new support who looks utterly gorgeous, is going to hit Overwatch like a ton of bricks. His whole thing is positioning - and not just for himself. His signature move lets him yank teammates back towards him, with the intention being that this will be used to pull them away from danger, or back to their team if they overextend.
The problem is, Overwatch 2’s changes have done nothing to really tell us what good positioning actually is. Sombra, for example, has a get-out-of-jail-free card with her teleporter. My own main, Moira, was given the ability to recharge her healing with her damage orb, removing the requirement to put yourself in harm’s way to keep your team topped up. Both of these heroes just got buffs, by the way. No, they absolutely did not need them.
The new heroes haven’t helped either. Sojourn and Kiriko both have moves that let them flee from danger with very little risk. That’s to say that there’s been no guidance on what good positioning is for new players. With most of the roster, you’re able to pretty much go wherever you want.
Now, these same players are expected to not only know what’s best for them, but what’s best for their entire team. I don’t doubt that there are many support players out there that think they know this already and can’t wait to pull their flanking Reaper towards them under the guise of keeping them safe. I do, however, doubt that they will actually know when to use this move. Because I’m not even sure I do, and I’ve been here since day one.
Of course, this is all only aggravated by the sorry state of Overwatch 2’s competitive play. When I was a Gold support, I was paired up with Grandmaster Tanks. Do you think I know what’s best for them? Of course I don’t. Let me wrangle my own kind back to their team, I can handle that at least.
I’ve managed to crawl my way up to Diamond since then, but my team compositions haven’t changed at all. In fact, as the playerbase shrinks from its launch day boom, it’s only getting worse. In turn, this makes the community far more toxic than it’s ever been before. The perfect time to get a new Hero where communication is everything, right?
Even assuming we’re all Lifeweaver pros as soon as he drops (or as soon as we’ve unlocked him halfway through the battle pass), the headaches don’t end there. Like I said before, Sombra - a character that is designed to frustrate you - is getting buffed. She can shutdown another ultimate, for some reason. Ana’s sleep dart is getting a pretty big nerf, though. Yay?
Sure, some questionable character balances are to be expected in a live service game. Nothing will please everyone, and it’s easy to get carried away with the doom and gloom. But as I scan the patch notes and see all of the work that’s gone into Brigitte out of nowhere (oh right, her shield bash is back now), I can’t help but worry that Blizzard is assuming the playerbase has more patience than it does. We can handle a few weeks of every single team having a Moira, we’ve survived worse. What we can’t do is log into a game that’s full of adverts for $20 skins, only to lose ten matches against a GM five-stack while getting called slurs in chat.
We’re seeing the same mistakes that brought down the first Overwatch happen all over again. We’re likely months away from any news about the long-promised story mode, and this update might just put more players off waiting for that to amount to anything.
The first game ended in a whimper, as bad decision upon bad decision piled up until the foundations couldn’t take it anymore. Overwatch 2 started on great footing with 5v5, but the changes so far have only alienated the players. Casuals don’t want to be reminded of all the loot they don’t have, and pros don’t want to be teamed up with lower ranks.
The basic pillars of the game are crumbling, and it’s going to take updates that are less flashy and monetisable to repair what we’ve been complaining about for months. Please, I don’t care that Moira loses mobility in her ult, I just want to play the game.
Next:Ark: Survival Ascended Is Abhorrent, Heinous, And Sadly Not Surprising
