Blizzard has finally released the much-awaited Developer Update for Overwatch. In the update, Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan discusses a few major changes that will be coming to the game in the future.
Overwatch introduces Hero Pools
Easily the most notable change for competitive players will be the Hero Pools. Starting in season 21, Overwatch will rotate heroes each week. This means that certain heroes will not be available to play each week. Kaplan states that this change will come to the Overwatch League as well.
This is a big change for Overwatch players, who, up until now, could pick whatever hero they wanted at any time. Players will now have to adapt to the hero pool each time they choose to play. This should favor versatile players but could be detrimental for one trick gamers when their hero isn’t in the pool.
This will also be a huge change to the Overwatch League, where professionals will have to be aware of which heroes they can play each match. It could lead to more teams using more players who specialize in the heroes that are in each pool.
Balancing plans for the future
Additionally, Kaplan announced that a new feature called the Experimental Card will be coming to Overwatch. This game mode will show up every now and then and will allow players to test changes without downloading or playing on the Public Test Region. Playing this mode will grant experience and in-game rewards just like playing any other eligible game mode.
Jeff also discusses the Overwatch balance team’s plan for balance updates. He acknowledges that the public believes the game is unbalanced and that balance changes occur too slow. To fix these issues, the team plans to release more frequent and aggressive changes. They will also be more open to the idea of reverting unsuccessful changes.
It looks like there we will see some radical changes coming to Overwatch over the next few months. It will be interesting to see how the community reacts to these changes, and how they impact the game.
Published: Jan 31, 2020 03:02 am