Overwatch 2 has seen a fair share of criticism over its release for its hero balance and matchmaking systems. In response to these criticisms, the Overwatch 2 team has been hard at work alleviating many of the player bases concerns, by buffing, nerfing, and reworking problematic heroes and making dramatic changes to the matchmaking system. After some major changes during the most recent patch, Game Director Aaron Keller wrote up a developer post to reflect on many of the changes.
Matchmaking has been a huge issue for players in Overwatch 2 and continues to be a controversial subject amongst those in the community. In Season 3 of Overwatch 2, changes to the matchmaker were introduced which aimed to pit players of the same role against other players of a similar rank.
For example, if you are Diamond in a Damage game, the matchmaker will aim to pair you against another Diamond damage player. According to Keller, positive changes include lower queue times and average match quality. However, downsides include an increase in Unranked queue times and games where players are encountering vastly different skill levels.
Overwatch 2 balances new heroes with matchmaking in the spotlight
In regards to hero balance, Keller stated that the new balance patch at the start of Season 3 has had many positive changes to hero balance overall. For support players, most support heroes are considered viable, with top supports including Ana, Kiriko, and Mercy, with Brigitte having some of the highest winrates. Tanks are in a balanced spot as well, with Roadhog being the only tank strictly struggling. Damage characters are a little more diverse with Sojourn falling out of favor, as well.
You can read up on the full developer post here, which includes some more interesting stats about win rates. Blizzard plans on continuing to retool balance and matchmaking systems, continuously improving the state of the game.
Screenshot by PC Invasion
Published: Feb 24, 2023 06:11 pm