Blizzard Leisure rolled out its hero ban function for Overwatch 2 in April, and in the event you’ve been taking part in any aggressive video games throughout season 16, you’ve most likely observed that sure heroes (e.g., Sombra, Zarya, Symmetra, Ana, Mercy) are among the many most persistently banned characters. Newly printed knowledge from Blizzard exhibits that to be the case, with some {qualifications}, and it appears the frequency of banning these heroes will in the end have some penalties. Some heroes might get rebalanced or extra considerably modified, the developer says, partly because of their constant bans.
“Sombra leads the PC pack with a powerful 85% ban price, adopted by Zarya at 59% and Doomfist at 43%,” Blizzard mentioned in a weblog publish. “On consoles, Sombra is banned much more, with a 93% price. She’s adopted by Zarya at 57% and Symmetra at 23%.”
Gavin Winter, a senior methods designer at Blizzard, says that the previous month’s price of hero ban knowledge shall be used “to assist inform steadiness adjustments” in Overwatch 2. “Heroes which can be extra area of interest or map particular might must turn into extra generalized in the event that they’re all the time banned the place they carry out nicely,” Winter mentioned. “Heroes which can be very unpopular would possibly see extra changes no matter efficiency. In the end although, there aren’t any particular adjustments within the works based mostly on this knowledge but, and Hero Ban knowledge alone would by no means dictate how Heroes are balanced.”
Precisely what which means for characters like Zarya and Symmetra is clearly unclear, but when a personality like Sombra is unavailable to play in 85% of aggressive video games of Overwatch 2 as a result of gamers hate going through her, that’s a giant drawback. What’s the purpose of investing in a personality in the event you can solely play them competitively so not often?
That mentioned, minus some tie-breaking decision-making quirks within the hero ban system, Blizzard is “proud of the way it works total.” Winter mentioned, “We consider the system is assembly most of its targets, and we’re excited to see how Hero Bans evolve over time, particularly as soon as we begin releasing extra knowledge about our Hero win charges and choose charges sooner or later!”
Blizzard will give gamers extra management over how matches play in season 17, due in late June, when it rolls out a brand new map-voting function.
