Are hero bans coming to Overwatch? One source says yes, and they could be as soon as next week.
Monday afternoon MetroOW posted this on twitter.
Big update for OW is rumored in a few weeks, it is very likely that hero bans will be added to the game as the dev team has been working on them for a while!
He is the same source that dropped leaks about Overwatch 2 at Blizzcon and although he says his source is different, it could at least be this if not something just as important. If you remember last week Eemongg (a popular Overwatch streamer) tweeted that a “big update†is coming soon.
Hero bans are to state it as basic as possible. You wouldn’t be able to pick X hero for one day in comp. There is a lot more to it than that but to state it simply for those that don’t know what it is. I will make a longer explanation article to explain hero bans if Overwatch changes to this method.
I am not sure if this would go directly to live servers as they would probs put it in the PTR and then drop it live after season 20 is over but that’s just my guess based on how they typically have done these kind of changes.
We shall see… What do you think about hero bans in Overwatch?
A video compilation of movies and television explaining Overwatch over the years.
https://youtu.be/UsadJ2sR5pE
https://youtu.be/QtgHL0B-LRc
Theses are just a few I had posted to youtube over the years. Do you have a favorite video where someone explained Overwatch with another video post it in the comments below.
Since release, Overwatch heroes have received 351 buffs and 199 nerfs.
Methodology
I went through every single Overwatch patch note since launch and documented every change made to a hero, categorising it as either a buff or a nerf. Each bullet point change listed was copied into a spreadsheet under a heading of Buff or Nerf.
For example, this recent change to Orisa:
Base armor increased from 200 to 250
Protective Barrier health reduced from 900 to 600
Fortify cooldown decreased from 10 seconds to 8 seconds
This would be counted as 2 buffs and 1 nerf by my metric.
I used my judgement to exclude minor visual changes and changes which did not apply to competitive Overwatch (e.g. Lucio Capture the Flag nerfs). Bug fixes were excluded, only deliberate rebalancing under the “Hero Updates” section was considered.
Using this method I found that in total there have been 351 buffs given to heroes, and 199 nerfs.
Issues and Caveats
Obviously, this is a deeply imperfect measure of considering a history of buffs/nerfs to the game. Due to both their subjective nature, and the way a single change can have a large ripple through the rest of the hero pool, it is very difficult to weight the effect of a change to more fully understand the way Blizzard changes their game. My metric fails to account, for example, 1 large nerf being applied alongside 2 or 3 small buffs to compensate which might overall leave a hero weaker.
The patch notes provided by Blizzard were also not intended to be used this way, and their formatting and specificity has varied somewhat over the years.
Personal conclusions
Despite the flaws of this data collection, I think it does add weight to the current perception of power creep. I began this project because I was not personally convinced about the extent to which heroes have been powered up, but I have changed my opinion.
When I scroll through my data I see a great deal of damage increase, healing increase, added utility and cooldown reduction which contribute to a sense of frenzy found in the game which was not present at launch. Due to this increased healing, damage and utility (power) the game has now become more about overwhelming a target as quickly as possible, leaving a player less time to make decisions or counterplay.
I am not a statistician, nor a particularly talented player and I don’t seek to position myself as an authority, merely share something i found interesting.
This was taken from https://www.reddit.com/r/Competitiveoverwatch/comments/emxmap/since_release_overwatch_heroes_have_received_351/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
XWheelchairgamer on instagram has hopped onboard the help Australia through Overwatch by creating a firefighter Junkrat skin that could be potentially sold by Blizzard with the donations going to directly support Australia as it is suffering major casualties from wild fires spreading across the country.
The movement to ask Blizzard to create a paid skin started trending on Reddit and was soon caught on by the community even many of the popular creators asking Activision / Blizzard to make this happen.
Australia is on fire and thousands of animals have died, millions of acres of land are now charred and still burning. For most of us it is winter time but for them it is summer time now and there is little rain and the temperature continues to climb.
Let’s continue to ask Blizzard to help Australia by signing a petition to sell a skin to help those Australians in need. Please click the link and sign it.
