Overwatch 2 director Aaron Keller is once again talking about balance in his address to players, as the team vs. team shooter inches ever closer to its eighth season and all of the adjustments that will come along with it.
The post first opens with word of ultimate charge tweaks, specifically a reduction in how much charge carries over when players swap heroes from 25% charge to 15%. “[T]here is a perception that it’s almost always an advantage to counter-swap upon dying, and we’re lowering this value to see if it has an effect on swap rates,” Keller reasons.
The majority of the letter talks about character balancing that’s planned across support, tank, and DPS roles. Some of the highlights for Season 8 include Winston’s electric cannon ignoring armor, an increase to the lockout length of Sombra’s EMP, a slight increase to Tracer’s weapon damage, and a couple of targeted nerfs to Brigitte and Baptiste.
Finally, the post talks about the discussion arising among players regarding leave penalties in quick play. Keller acknowledges that while many people use the mode in different ways, the current penalties have helped reduce leave rates, which he explains are damaging to players regardless of mode and motivations. Ultimately he feels that the penalty is still too lenient but promises that Blizzard will continue to look at player behavior while making sure leave penalties for quick play aren’t as harsh as those in ranked.
