The Failed Hero Design of Overwatch 2

[williamp]

The whole Mauga thing is funny to me. Since he was first teased everyone knew he was based on the Talon heavy assault unit. All that thing did was charge around the map, shoot people and tank a lot of damage. Mauga comes out and it’s surprise pikachu face. What else do you expect him to do?

My theory is this, people don’t like having to play smart against a character that can just play dumb. It’s why Moira gets hate, Kiriko gets hate, junkrat gets hate so on and so forth.

[danboygamer]

“If this character was meta, would you enjoy overwatch?” I dont enjoy overwatch. Period. Yet I still play it.

[SBEngine]

Bro really forgot to mention Rammattra on the well designed OW2 heroes.

I think his sort of hybrid between Sigma and Junker Queen kit is really fun and allows you to fill those situations where you can't run poke but can't go full rush either.

Edit: I kind of see him as a Sigma that trades some of his utility in poke for the ability to survive getting rushed, or a Junker Queen that can also work in poke comps.
I love the flexibility and the options that kit gives you, how while he's not the best at rush or poke, he's still very good at both.

[JWashington]

LW is the anti playmaker character. He's designed is to stop enemy plays, he sacrifices playmaking ability for better more frequent play denial.
Platform & pull counter majority of the ults in the game on fairly low CDs. He breaks shields & turrets fairly well cause of his 80 clip size. He's a hard dive target as well & tree builds fast.

Tldr His kit seems like they wanted one character who's main focus is play denial.

[memphisacosta]

Honestly i think illari is perfectly fine design wise. She just needs a buff to secondary fire and maybe heal tics per second on pylon. Mostly the secondary fire. She is just in a numbers issue right now. As shown by her primary fire buffs, she is offensively consistent now. Just doesnt heal enough

[ExMachina]

Thematically I think Lifeweaver could add a small thorns buff to allies he heals where they will deal retaliatory damage and that wouldn't be too out there or unbalanced. It would also be unique.

[alessandrocatallo]

the primery problem with weaver is the fact that he have to charge his blossoms to heal and soyou are actively discouraged to damage, because on paper weaver dps is really good even better than bap, but in practice you almost never want to choose damage over healing, my suggestion is to reduce the charge time and max healing per blossom, or implementing a passive charge while dameging, alternatively if they want to keep the charge time, they could make that when weaver damage an enemy he apply a debuff of somesort

[whrench]

Kiri teleport could be kinda like doom punch, the longer u charge it the further the teammate u can teleport to

[Puptoon]

Imo this is so annoying. The developers have to think about every tier of play, not just the meta top 500s. Saying that “if this character being meta is unfun then they shouldn’t exist” is a terrible mindset to have. In lower tiers of play, it can be really satisfying to save your team from big mistakes with Lifeweaver. For players who don’t do comp and just like to mess around in qp, Mauga is really fun just to dash in a team fight and go ham. Not to mention every hero nails the lore and personality really well. Just remember high level comp isn’t everything when making these decisions, please!

[NoahCaringella]

I don’t see the problem with Lifeweaver. I find I’m really fun to play, though I am relatively new to the game (less than 200 hours), and in low elo. Just today, I got a bunch of saves with pull, and his positioning feels very intuitive to me with petal.

[BriskAxe]

In a similar way to Hog, Wrecking Ball is not a main tank - same with Doomfist and every other tank that cannot frontline or help their team survive with an aptly-dedicated part of their kit.

[ViewtifulJae]

I have a friend who refuses to play because sombra can’t be invisible on objectives…. So don’t get me wrong it’s not just the dev changes that are weird . It’s the players expectations in some cases too lol

[oathItoIorder]

I don’t think this is a problem specific to OW2. Roadhog got reworked, Symmetra got reworked, the role queue got implemented because of Goats. There were a lot of flaws in OW1 as well but they did seem to get more communication and solved more often. Until post-Echo…

[cowboysintotalatramranch]

your description of illari sounds like zen? a character who pokes, trading damage, low mobility, doesn't dive?

[NoahCaringella]

I think Mauga just isn’t very fun to play against, and I wouldn’t miss him if he was gone entirely

[MrProdigy]

So, Illari and lifeweaver have specific identities that I think fit them, but they’ve been somewhat repurposed over time to a point where they no longer fit their own niche.
Lifeweaver’s main functionality is in his ability to reposition himself and his team. I think they should have leaned into that more, sacrificing his dash for more team maneuverability. Maybe give team members a construct that propels himself and teammates forward quickly?

Illari: she’s a damaging poke support but both her damage and heals are lacking. I’d put more of her healing potency into her beam instead of her turret, as balancing between poking and healing generally works well, as opposed to her doing both at the same time. I’d also make the turret a consistent heal like Lucio in a small radius circle and increase the turret hp instead of constant short bursts. And decrease the initial damage on her ult but increase the uptime on the sunspot

[danielh]

If rein was meta OW2 toxicity would 📉📉📉

[AlexFrank]

Mauga take is valid, Illari just needs some buffs, and LW is still one the best supports you just need to learn his abilities well. He is near invincible with how hard he is to hit when using petal and dash correctly, lifegrip is objectively one the best abilities in the entire game, and his ult is incredibly useful.

[cameronbadley]

I always talk about and vs or character design. When you're describing a character like genji he can dash or reflect or wall climb. When you look at mauga he can charge and stun and knock back and he's unstoppable (and that's just one ability) the point is ands are trying to pack too much in l, but and or makes you have to choose and that creates more thoughtful games and a more fun experience. I didn't win because I had the better matchup, my choices matter more with an or.

[ViewtifulJae]

I wish we could do away with “builds “ and “metas” it makes gaming too predictable and too “samey” ppl figure out metas in a matter of days then for 2 months or until another big patch that becomes the only thing we see or expect ppl to do and ppl believe these things so strongly that when you don’t participate in the mundane routine of repeating the meta that YOU are the problem lol for not wanting to contribute to practicing the meta