Overwatch

Overwatch Dev Tracker




08 Sep

Hello, everyone! We've seen a lot of conversations around Competitive in Overwatch lately, and I'd like to take most of this week's Director's Take to address it. But first, let’s have a quick hero update.

We made several changes to Illari when she was enabled for Ranked. Most notably, the healing for her pylon was reduced, and her Ultimate projectile size was decreased while it no longer pierces barriers. The Pylon nerfs effectively equalized the healing between her pylon and Solar Rifle. Pre-nerf, the Healing Pylon accounted for about 62% of her healing; now that number is 55%. This change also brings her more in line with other damage-forward supports, whereas before, she was outputting healing numbers close to Lifeweaver and Mercy. We're happy with those latest changes and the additional changes made to Captive Sun. We’ll continue to monitor her damage output and see if anything needs addressing next season. Additionally, we're looking at Roadhog's underperfor...

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07 Sep

Do you have the fastest kill rate as you zip past the front lines? Are you an expert at charging your enemies? Do you master the skies with your Guardian Angel skills? Prove and enhance your skills as you take on the new Hero Mastery mode in Overwatch 2!

Hero Mastery is an all-new single-player mode, permanently available for everyone. The objective for Hero Mastery is to race through an action-packed course filled with training bots, obstacles, and jump pads as you race for the finish line. It’ll test your skills and limitations across training courses for Mercy, Reinhardt, and Tracer, with Sojourn and Winston coming later this Season.  Your score is based on how fast you reach the finish line, how many enemy bots you defeat, and how many Emblems you collect throughout the course.

Watch Out for New Training Bots

With new courses come new Training bots! While most of the enemy training bots will look familiar, there will also be new challenging o...

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22 Aug

Is boosting damage your biggest goal when playing Mercy? Do you make sure you block all damage with Reinhardt’s barrier? Is getting quintuple kills using D.Va’s Self Destruct ultimate ability the one trait your opponents fear? If you are proud of your playstyle with your favorite heroes, now you can celebrate it with Overwatch 2’s new Player Progression feature.

Originally, we used experience levels to celebrate how much players advanced in Overwatch. In Overwatch 2, we want to bring different ways for players to earn rewards and show off their playstyles to their peers. Starting in Overwatch 2: Invasion, we introduced an entirely new Player Progression system to track and celebrate your playstyle with your favorite heroes, roles, and game modes.

Celebrate your Playstyle and Favorite Heroes

Your progress in Overwatch 2 is now looked at in three progression layers. First, sub-badges are displayed for specific statistics based on the hero, role, an...

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18 Aug

Overwatch 2: Invasion launched last week, and it was our biggest season launch ever! The release included work from every section of the Overwatch team, and we’ve been looking forward to sharing what we built with all of you for a long time. We made big additions to the Core PvP game and other features, a new Battle Pass, and a Null Sector theme that we received great feedback early on. We also launched the first chapter of our Story Missions and ran a Co-op event alongside their release. We've heard from many of our core players that the game is in the best state it's ever been, and many have told us that it feels like we're really listening to their feedback and that this season is a culmination of that. It’s so awesome to hear.

Illari, our newest support hero, was introduced this season. Players have given us a lot of positive feedback about her. Our balance goal for the release of Illari was to make sure that she felt strong (but not overpowered!) at launch.  ...

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10 Aug

Overwatch 2: Invasion is here, and packed with a new hero, a new seasonal Battle Pass, and a new core PvP game mode. We’re also bringing new Invasion Story Missions, a limited-time Co-op Event, and new ways to practice and celebrate your achievements with your favorite heroes. Let’s check out everything that you can expect in the new update!

Introducing new Support hero Illari

OVR_Press_H39Illari_016.png

Illari is the newest Support Hero to join the ranks in Overwatch 2. What sets Illari apart from other Support heroes is that she has a very damage-focused kit, so that you can heal your team while dominating the opposition. 

Her Solar Rifle fires a beam of sunlight that can do powerful burst damage at long-range, or use it to heal allies around you. She also can support her team with a deployable Healing Pylon granting bursts of health to a...

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04 Aug

Heroes, the world is under attack, and it’s up to you to stop the invading forces of Null Sector. The enigma, John Cena has broken into community livestreams, asking all of us to answer the call and prepare to fight the invasion in Overwatch 2.

With the cities of Rio de Janeiro, Toronto, and Gothenburg under siege, it will be up to you to save the world. Dive into Invasion Story Missions featuring many of your favorite Overwatch 2 heroes and all-new challenging enemies. Will you be able to stop the forces of the Null Sector?

On August 10, answer our enigma, John Cena's call with the Overwatch 2 Ultimate Invasion Bundle featuring permanent access to the Invasion Story Missions, the Invasion Premium Battle Pass featuring over 80 tiers of cosmetics, including an all-new Mythic skin for Ana, 20 Battle Pass Tier Skips, 2,000 Overwatch Coins, and two exclusive Legendary Null Sector themed skins for Cassidy and Kiriko.

The worl...

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There is a lot coming to the game in Overwatch 2: Invasion. We've talked about the new Story Missions, the Event Mission, our new game mode Flashpoint, the new Hero Progression System, as well as Hero Mastery Missions… and we'll be talking about our newest Support Hero soon. On top of these new additions, there are also a lot of changes coming to our current heroes next season. Nearly half of our heroes are getting balance changes. I won't go over every change in the season here—they'll all be in the patch notes—but I'll go over some of the larger ones.

But two quick bits first.

There was a lesson in the Lifeweaver release where our newest hero was interesting, but just wasn’t strong enough on release, and we don’t want to repeat that.  For Overwatch 2: Invasion, our aim is to have our newest hero be exciting and impactful on day 1. It’s not our intent to release a hero that’s way overpowered, but we’d prefer that people play her because she brings value, ...

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25 Jul

Alchemist Mei needs your help! The mischievous Rogue Kiriko is causing trouble throughout Overland. She’s taken one of her valuable artifacts allowing her to transform into more than a dozen objects. It’s up to Royal Guard Genji to stop her before she can get away, but it will take sharp wits and a keen eye to find her in our newest event, Mischief & Magic!

Mischief & Magic is a "prop-hunt" style game mode consisting of two teams of five taking turns hiding from the knights or seeking out the rogues. In order to win the round, the rogues must avoid being caught and tagged by the knights before time runs out. On the other side, the knights must find all five rogues before time expires to score. Teams swap sides every round, and the first team to three wins is the victor.

Keep Calm, Stay Sly

As rogues, you and your teammates won’t be able to attack, but you can jump, double-jump, and wall-climb around the map as you sneak to find the perfect hiding...

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19 Jul

As Blizzard evolves as a studio, inside and out, one of the ideas pushing us forward is meeting players around the world where they are and making our games as easy as possible to access and play. We want to give everyone a chance to experience our universes with old friends while making new ones, no matter how they choose to play. 

Battle.net is the home of all our PC players, and over the years, we’ve evolved our platform to support updated technologies, capabilities, and our communities’ expectations. But as we’ve evolved, the industry has evolved too–gaming is no longer just for specific communities as it was when Battle.net launched over two decades ago, gaming is for everyone–and though we remain committed to continually investing in and supporting Battle.net, we want to break down the barriers to make it easier for players everywhere to find and enjoy our games.

Which is why we’re trying something new. 

We’re excited to announce that we are bringing ...

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14 Jul

“What if the cinematic is about a group of kids on a field trip in an Overwatch Museum?”

I remember this pitch from our first story discussions for the initial Overwatch announcement cinematic. This single idea shaped how we develop stories for Overwatch to this day. Until then, we had been talking about more dire and serious settings to help shepherd in this new universe, but ultimately, we realized this story—with its wholesome, brighter tones—was the way to go. In that discussion, we referenced films from our childhoods with similar vibes that focused on character, hope, and, most importantly, heart. This is what we wanted Overwatch to be. Pillars such as “a future worth fighting for” and “heroes inspire heroism” were born out of those discussions, guiding us to form the story and overall feeling of Overwatch into what it is today.

Speaking of “today” and “story,” we are on the brink of releasing our first set of Story Missions for Overwatch. For those ...

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11 Jul

Put on your sunscreen, fire up the barbecue, and break out the volleyball, because the Summer Games seasonal event is finally back! We’re bringing back fan-favorite Lúcioball, and introducing a brand-new game mode, Winston’s Beach Volleyball. Plus, check out fresh challenges and rewards when you play and the all-new skins in the in-game shop. Here’s what we have lined up for this year’s beach party.

Introducing Winston’s Beach Volleyball

The Summer Games of Overwatch saw the debut of Lúcioball, and for the first Summer Games in Overwatch 2, we’re doing it again with the introduction of Winston’s Beach Volleyball. You’ll be scrambling across the sand in an exciting 3v3 brawl where your Summer-themed hero will bounce a giant volleyball to the opponent’s side of the field. The first to score ten points wins. Take your shot and spike the ball to victory!

SummerGamesWinstonVolleyball.png...

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30 Jun

Grab Bag week!

There’s a lot the community is talking about—and we're excited for. This week, I'd love to briefly touch on a bunch of those topics. 

Flashpoint! 

We talked about Flashpoint during the livestream, and then some of the points around its design over Twitter, but nothing compares to a picture. It's good practice to draw paper maps before building a new level, especially when it's part of the process for designing a new game mode.

HQ.jpgThis image was one of the first ones drawn for Flashpoint. The final layout of Suravasa won't be exactly like this—for instance there won't be a river dividing the map in two—but it does a good job of showing how a Flashpoint map is designed. There are two spawn points for each team and five points arranged in an x pattern. We talked about the quasi-symmetrical nature of the map on the O...

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29 Jun

Building an Epic Boss Fight in Defeat the Demon Lord!

Nothing tops a great adventure like an epic boss fight, and you’ll find just that in the new Defeat the Demon Lord game mode built by Workshop creator CactusPuppy. This new mode features a 1v4 asymmetrical fight, where four brave adventurers stand up to the Demon Lord Reinhardt as they work to stop his monstrous rampage throughout Overland.

We spent a little time with CactusPuppy to find out more about his approach to creating the game mode and what it took to bring it to life.


What were your first thoughts when the Overwatch team approached you about building the mode?

CA: It was a sense of shock at first, but I was happy for the opportunity because it was a wonderful chance to show everyone what cool things you can do with the Workshop.

Who came up with the mode, and how did you and the Overwatch team build on the concept?

CA: I ca...

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After four years away, BlizzCon® is returning to Anaheim, California on November 3-4! We’re so excited to get everyone together again, celebrate our communities, and share what we’ve been working on.

This year, the goal is to make BlizzCon® feel more experiential than ever before. It will be a one-of-a-kind immersive experience, bringing attendees into the universes of Warcraft®, Diablo®, and Overwatch® with massive installations, art, and thematic spaces where friends can connect. Whether you’re kicking back in Azeroth, exploring the mysteries of a dark cathedral of Sanctuary, playing alongside the heroes of Overwatch®, or tuning in from home, we want you to feel you are entering universes alongside your friends as you celebrate and experience what we’re building next, and hear from developers all across Blizzard about their vision for our games, their craft, and more.

This is the first time we are building BlizzCon this way, an...

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22 Jun

With Season 5 now underway, we’ll be bringing new improvements to Competitive Play, including matchmaking updates, bringing back a popular ranked game mode, as well as testing new ways for friends to play together regardless of their individual skill levels. Let’s look at where Competitive Play stands today and where we are looking to take it in the months to come.

Competitive Play Currently

For the last few seasons, we’ve been working to make improvements to matchmaking—with a focus on Competitive Play—in an effort to bring players of equal skill levels together. Notably, this season, we’ve started to prioritize placing similar groups with wide skill ranges into the same match: while this makes queue times a little longer for large groups, it helps to ensure a fair match.

In the previous season, we started to provide a matching rank (to show how close each player is to the overall average skill rating of the lobby), along with showing you where ...

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16 Jun

There is a lot going on in the world of Overwatch right now. Season 5 launched this week, and we’ve started releasing information about Season 6—also known as Overwatch 2: Invasion—with its Story Missions, new hero, game mode, and much more.  This week, we’ll go over a few topics: Season 5 and the changes to the Battle Pass that we've made, the game modes that we'll be releasing this season—with a focus on the 5-stack mini-season—as well as some thoughts on stomps in Overwatch and how they relate (or don't) to matchmaking.

Let's jump into the Battle Pass. We've heard feedback that you would l...

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Last week, we announced Overwatch 2: Invasion, including Invasion Story Missions coming August 10.  We want to show you more of what's in store for our all-new adventure and biggest season yet; this Wednesday, Matt "Mr. X" Morello will be joined by Overwatch 2 developers Kim Horn, Dion Rogers, Daniel McGowan, and Aaron Keller as they showcase gameplay from some of these missions for the very first time. Watch it live on June 21 on ...

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15 Jun

Welcome to the Overwatch World Cup 2023 Online Qualifiers! Now that Denmark, Portugal, Iceland, and Finland qualified through the Wild Card Challenge, the stage is set for teams to earn their spot in the first Overwatch World Cup LAN tournament in 4 years.

Schedule Overview

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You can find the full match schedule here.

Where to Watch

Watch live and earn Overwatch World Cup drops for Overwatch 2 on the following platforms:

PlayOverwatch (...

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12 Jun

There’s a new threat to the world as the invasion of Null Sector begins. The world is thrust into chaos, and it’s up to a new generation of heroes to save the day. Overwatch 2: Invasion brings new Story Missions, an all-new PVP core game mode, new ways to build on your skills with your favorite heroes - and, yes, a new Support hero!

Find out how you can jump into the action with the Overwatch 2: Invasion Ultimate Bundle, earn and collect new Legendary skins, and get a head-start in the upcoming Null Sector-themed Premium Battle Pass.

The rise of Null Sector begins with new Story Missions

In Zero Hour, we saw the ro...

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Welcome brave heroes! The kingdom of Overland is in danger, and it will be up to you to save it from the terror of the Demon Lord! New adventures, magical skins, ways to play, and updates are coming in Overwatch 2’s latest season!

For Season 5, players will progress through the season Battle Pass to the theme of an epic role-playing adventure, including new challenges and game modes as part of a high-fantasy theme and unlock an all-new Mythic Adventurer skin for Tracer.

Join Tracer and her friends in Questwatch

We’re updating Battle Pass progression to unlock new rewards, plus we’re also introducing a fun new story with progression to some of your favorite heroes. Tracer, Emily, Orisa, and many of their friends have gathered together for a night of fun and games, enjoying a new role-playing campaign, Questwatch.

Tracer, alongside her trusted companion GR-iffon Orisa, has set out to explore the magical kingdom of Overland to become a knigh...

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