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Overwatch wants to break the meta with Hero Pools and aggressive balancingJumping into the deep end
Jumping into the deep end
There are changes afoot inOverwatch. Blizzard, well aware of long-standing grievances against the state of high-level competitive play, and have come up with two bangers to help breathe some life into their multi-million-dollar team shooter.Overwatchwill soon host a new Experimental Card, letting the devs get wet n' wild with whatever balances changes they fancy. Meanwhile, March will arrive with a new Hero Pool for Competitive Play, booting a different handful of the game’s colourful characters from the roster each and every week.
Jeff “from the Overwatch team” Kaplan’s latest developer update dives into Blizzard’s latest attempts to fix their competitive woes.
Watch on YouTube
Watch on YouTube
Let’s start with Kaplan’s first point: Overwatch will soon feature an “Experimental Card” to the game’s play menu. Sitting alongside Casual, Competitive and Arcade, Experimental will sit as a sort of middle ground between Overwatch and its Public Test Realm. Kaplan hopes that putting Experimental balances changes in the main client “should drive a lot more players towards helping [Blizzard] test out changes,” stressing that the PTR will still be a place for stability and bug-testing.
Kaplan also notes that the team will be balancing “more frequently, and more aggressively,” with the help of the Experimental Card. Blizzard want to slam the meta off the board with massive changes to heroes and game-modes, stability be damned.
And if proposed changes don’t work out? Hey - it’s only Experimental.
Blizzard’s second proposed change to Overwatch is far more sure to provoke. WhileKaplan wrote offthe idea of giving Overwatch a Dota-style pick and ban system a few weeks back, the team hasn’t entirely dismissed giving the hero roster a trim. Starting with Season 21’s debut on March 7th, Competitive Play will feature a weekly Hero Pool.
But I’m the wrong person to ask. I fell off competitive Overwatch years back, left behind as Blizzard abandoned more accessible mechanics in the pursuit of the perfect esport. Ah, well. Back toTeam Fortress 2I go.
