Roles still exist and good team compositions will still give you an advantage, but we’re seeing a big shift towards individuality. With Kiriko and Junker Queen, as well as the big viability changes that lots of Tanks and Supports received, it is possible for good players to carry in any role now, not just DPS. I have had more than one game where I out-damaged my DPS players as Kiriko or Baptiste, and I almost always outperform my DPS teammates as Junker Queen. In the original Overwatch this almost always meant your DPS players weren’t pulling their weight, but now there are characters in every role who can dish out just as much dam

Challenges do not make games better, and the designers know that just as well as we do. When a game asks you to get three kills with a sniper rifle or win matches with a specific character, it isn’t trying to increase your enjoyment or help you improve. Challenges are nothing by hollow engagement boosters designed to increase player retention. Someone at the top of the ladder needs to see an increase in hours played month-over-month, and the fastest and dirtiest way to do that is to coerce players to complete daily challen

Mei has recently been pulled from Overwatch 2 for two weeks because players were using her wall to reach places they weren’t meant to. Maybe this is too much to tolerate at the highest competitive levels, but mostly I just think ‘who cares?’. Didn’t they just nerf Mei out of existence anyway? Is it really that big a deal that you can mess around on some m

Kiriko is the newest Support character, which probably conjures in your mind the image of a squishy healer who hides in the backline and keeps the team healthy. But Kiriko is not a passive Support by any stretch, and healing is only one small part of her role. She has incredible mobility thanks to her passive walk climbing ability and teleport, which allows her to pass through solid objects to instantly appear next to her team. Her weapon, a set of 12 kunai knives, deal bonus damage to crit spots, giving her the damage output potential of a sniper. She can also heal using her Ofuda and cleanse allies with her Protection Suzu. She is a healer, but she’s also a lethal assassin who can backline almost as well as Genji, Tracer, or Sombra. There is a breaking down of rigid roles happening in overwatch 2 maps|https://overwatch2tactics.com/ 2 that completely reshapes how we are supposed to approach team p

Of course, the problem is ours as much as theirs. When I was a kid I tried to move the truck to get Mew. I can’t remember where I heard it. These days though, our access to the internet and sprawling growth of online communities means myths are never formed and secrets are always shared. The Mei bug is not just a gimmick a few kids found that slowly makes its way through groups of friends, but is instantly broadcast by the biggest Overwatch accounts, leading to everyone knowing it, everyone spamming Mei, and Blizzard feeling it has to step

Patches are here to stay in gaming, and they are important for fixing huge errors, balancing live-service games, and removing online exploits being constantly abused. They also help games ship on time then get a little polish here, a little spit shine there later on. But it’s increasingly obvious that games are afraid to be imperfect, and that risks making them bor

Think about how you engage with daily challenges. If they can be accomplished without any additional effort, then there’s no point in having them. But, if they make you do something you don’t want to do, then they’re having a negative impact on your experience. So either they’re nothing or they’re bad, but they’re never g

His bear trap is wonderful too, though I’ve not quite figured out how best to incorporate it yet. For now, I like using it to cover my flank, as it alerts me when destroyed or activated, letting me know if someone’s trying to sneak up on me and my team. Both these abilities teach the importance of positioning with engaging mechanics. I’ve been learning where the key battlegrounds are because I’m experimenting and having fun, not just because people are shouting at me for being an idiot who’s going the wrong

It’s going to take awhile before we really understand what all of the changes in Overwatch 2 add up to. Even as someone with more than 600 hours played, I’m still trying to figure out what the transition to 5v5 actually means. Right away it was clear that Overwatch 2 is a much faster game. Fewer shields and abilities that CC means more movement, more big plays, and more snowballs. Skilled players have a much better chance of carrying games now, which means heroes with low TTK are even more valuable than ever before. This is the sense I got right away, but what solidified this belief was the design of the three new characters. Sojourn, Junker Queen, and especially Kiriko represent a commitment Overwatch 2 has to independence and personal performance. I’m still undecided on whether that will be better or worse for the game in the long run, but it’s clear Blizzard has rebuilt the game with a focus on the individual over the t