The Overwatch 2 development team released a long blog post about their results from week one of the beta on Tuesday. In the blog, they addressed the lack of a competitive mode, the queue time for supports and more issues brought up by fans.
Our team has worked to explain our thinking and plans on several of the topics we've heard you asking about during our first #Overwatch2 Beta test. Give it a read!https://t.co/jY1HnEOVlf
— Jon Spector (@Spex_J) May 3, 2022
Dev team discusses main goals of beta
To start, the team mentioned that “the main goals for our first beta were to test our shift to 5v5, the new maps and Push game mode, overall balance and build and server stability.” Then, the blog shared the positive reception for 5v5 at this point in the beta, highlighting how players claimed they could do more in game.
Push also saw positive feedback, however the development team said they will continue adjusting the mode’s rules as time goes on. Next, despite only touching on balance, the team assured Overwatch 2 players that their approach will involve rapid adjustments to hero power levels as necessary. Along with that news, the post also stated a new balance patch will hit the beta in the near future.
Otherwise, the post talked about specific aspects of the game that are still in development — things like “menu screens, player profiles, multiple time of day conditions for classic maps and the full set of hero 2.0 looks.” As a result, the current beta is not representative of what the official PvP will look like.
Queue times, ranked mode and the scoreboard
Yet, beyond those topics, the post acknowledged player pain points regarding long queue times for tank and DPS, no ranked mode and an obtrusive scoreboard.
The development team pointed out that since the support role can feel difficult and unrewarding to play, players are opting to queue for tanks and DPS roles instead. As a result, they must wait longer to find matches. The solution, according to the dev team, is to make support roles more fun to play.
Part of that will involve changes for the support role, starting with a buff to the role’s passive healing. This will gives support players more time to react to enemy attacks and help them survive when they might have previously died. Additionally, the post said that long-term, the development team is aiming to add new supports to the game. In the short-term, the team will adjust some support abilities to help make the game feel new and fun. These changes could arrive by the end of this first beta test but will most likely show up in future betas.
As for the lack of ranked, the developers pointed to two reasons. First, the team wanted to limit the number of queues within the beta for ease of access and quicker matches. Second, the team is making “significant” changes to the competitive modes, which need more time. The team didn’t mention when a ranked mode will be available.
Finally, while the new scoreboard replaced the medal system from the original Overwatch, not all players feel it fully captures players’ contributions to a match. After feedback from the fans, the team is adding damage mitigated as a statistic alongside current stats like damage or healing done. Along with that, the blog confirmed the team is working on the visual aspect of the beta scoreboard, and this is not the final version for Overwatch 2.
