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Everything you need to know about the Overwatch 2 PvP beta
With the Overwatch 2 beta in the hands of the player’s, let’s see what changes and shake ups it brings to the table for the future of Overwatch PvP.
The OW2 beta breathes new life into the formula with new heroes, maps and gameplay features while innovating and redefining changes to Overwatch as we currently know it. As a beta, there will be constant changes and fixes being implemented throughout its phases, so we’ll be keeping an eye on the game as it evolves.
The Overwatch 2 PvP beta released with a brand new DPS hero named Sojourn, a change from 6v6 to 5v5 multiplayer, and gameplay features like the ping system. Alongside these additions, the beta also has a new game mode called Push as well as new maps for the modes we already play. With that said, let’s dive into the additions the OW2 beta has brought!
Sojourn, Overwatch 2’s new Canadian hero
Former Overwatch Captain, Sojourn joins the hero roster in the DPS slot. Comprising her kit, she has a Railgun which primary fires projectiles that store energy on enemy hits and the secondary fire shoots a high impact shot that consumes the stored energy. Her new ability, Power Slide, allows her to slide across the ground quickly and can be canceled into a high powered jump as well. Disruptor Shot shoots a ball of energy that slows and damages enemies over time in a small area. Finally, her ultimate ability Overclock, supercharges her Railgun making it generate energy during the ability’s uptime while upgrading the secondary fire to to pierce through multiple enemies.
Sojourn excels as a mobile, mid-range hero that can keep pressure on the enemy team as well as quickly get in and out of fights.With her Railgun capable of different firing modes and her Power Slide ability, it’s possible for her to quickly switch from poking in and out to committing to a full on battle.
New hero reworks
Sojourn isn’t the only “brand new” hero added to the Overwatch 2 beta. Many heroes in the roster have received sweeping changes to their kit and identity completely transforming from their previous iterations to new playstyles. Some of the most notable changes include Doomfist, Orisa, Bastion, Sombra, Cassidy and many more. Despite some receiving more changes than others, there is a veritable breadth of changes across the heroes to spice up the beta’s new meta.
Starting with passives, each hero role gains a new addition to their playstyle. Tanks receive more knockback resistance and lower Ultimate generation from damage and healing taken. Damage heroes will have a faster base movement speed, and Support heroes regenerate some health-per-second after 1 second without being damaged.
Tank
Now that Overwatch 2 will be moving away from 6v6 and into 5v5 by removing the 2nd tank slot, it’s very clear that tanks will need to become more independent and resourceful. Thus making this role receive the most impactful changes in the overall hero aspect of the game. As an example, the former damage hero Doomfist is now a tank hero.
Overwatch 2 Doomfist
© Blizzard Entertainment
While his lethality as a damage hero has been reduced, by having his Rising Uppercut ability removed, his new ability Power Block allows him to enter a blocking stance which reduces incoming damage taken by 90%. After a certain damage threshold is blocked while in Power Stance, Doomfist’s next Rocket Punch becomes supercharged, dealing more damage and traveling further. The rest of his kit remains the same, but with some fine-tuning to be less overwhelming than his damage hero days. As a compromise for the switch, he’s been granted some more health points to work with.
The tank rework in Overwatch 2 is seen all over how Orisa works as well. Quite frankly, she’s been completely renewed from top to bottom, all the way from her primary fire to her ultimate. The only ability that survived is her Fortify ability, which still received a few tweaks nonetheless. Her new primary fire no longer has damage falloff and has an overheat mechanic, while her secondary fire throws a spear out stunning enemies and dealing some damage. It functions similar to Doomfist’s Rocket Punch, but is more diminutive in comparison. Her second ability is called Javelin Spin and sees Orisa spinning her spear in front of herself, increasing her forward movement speed and knocking away enemies while destroying incoming projectiles. Finally, her new Ultimate “Terra Surge” pulls enemies towards her while she becomes fortified. The longer she charges the ability the more damage she deals in her area of effect.
Beyond these 2 major reworks in the Tank category, heroes like Winston, Reinhardt, and Zarya all receive some changes as well to make them more self-sufficient and stronger in the new 5v5 multiplayer environment. With Winston, he now has a new secondary fire that shoots out his electricity jolts to a range. Reinhardt has 2 charges for Firestrike and can manually cancel his Charge ability (so you don’t go flying off the map). Last but not least, Zarya’s bubble is now on a 2 charge system where she can decide to bubble either herself or her teammates twice at a time.
DPS
Overwatch 2 Bastion
© Blizzard Entertainment
The most notable, and most divisive, damage hero to be changed in Overwatch 2 is Bastion. With his Self-Repair ability, Ironclad passive, and Tank Ultimate removed, his playstyle has shifted into a new direction. New abilities are set to take over instead, including Configuration: Assault which is reminiscent of his Tank ultimate but, instead of blasting shells, he is shooting as if he was in his usual turret position. Bastion has a new grenade ability as a secondary fire, sending out an explosive that sticks to players and replaces his self-repair ability. Bastion’s new Ultimate is called ‘Configuration: Artillery’ and is a AOE mortar strike type of ability that functions similar to Doomfist’s ultimate but instead of one mortar shot, Bastion has 3.
It seems like the current trend of CC (crowd control) abilities that completely stop players is being slowly left behind.Cassidy’s flashbang stun has been changed to a sticky grenade. Mei’s primary fire and Junkrat’s trap ability no longer completely stun or incapacitate another player. Even Brigitte is no longer controlling mobs the way she once did.Sombra’s changes were mostly to her hacking capabilities, to keep the fluidity between hacking and staying invisible smoother, and now her EMP actually deals damage on top of disabling enemy abilities and passives. However, she no longer deals extra damage to characters that have a base shield health pool included.
Support
Most support heroes remained as they were with minor tweaks to their current abilities. Most notably, both Zenyatta and Mercy were given new passive abilities while Baptiste received a small buff to one of his. Zenyatta’s new passive changes the way his melee strike works, applying some serious knockback to enemies that try to flank or get the jump on them. Mercy’s guardian angel ability can now be canceled to launch her high into the air, away from any danger.
The changes add a new layer of mobility to support heroes now that the game is structured around 5v5 without a second tank, helping with overall support and defensive efforts in PvP.
New maps and map changes
Overwatch 2 New Queen Street
© Blizzard Entertainment
Push, Overwatch 2’s latest game mode
With new maps coming to Overwatch 2’s beta, there’s also an entirely new game mode called Push. In Push, both teams fight to control a single map objective: A large robot that starts off in the center of the map. Both teams vy for control over the robot similarly to how they would a payload, but both teams can push the objective forward in their respective direction, instead of one team playing offense and another team playing defense.
The team that pushes the robot all the way to their opponent’s spawn location wins. There are checkpoints dotting the path towards each team’s starting spawn and pushing the robot to one of these gets your team a new spawn point, closer to the objective. However, should a team lose progress and the objective moves away from the checkpoint, they would also lose access to the new spawn area. In the case neither team reaches an end location, victory is awarded to whoever pushed the objective further.
New maps and lighting
The new maps that come with Push (in the beta) are Colosseo, the streets of Rome and New Queen Street, a futuristic cultural hub in Toronto. Along with Push releasing new maps, some of the legacy game modes also received new maps with the OW2 beta. Circuit Royal is a new Escort map which features a beautiful setting in Monte Carlo. Midtown, depicting Overwatch’s own New York City has players pushing the payload across Manhattan in the Hybrid game mode. Last, but not least, of the refreshes is the new lighting features introduced to many legacy maps. The upgrade showcases locations at different times of day, spicing up old maps like Eichenwalde, King’s Row, Ilios, Oasis, and many more.
Overwatch 2 Colosseo
© Blizzard Entertainment
Goodbye Assault
To make room for Push and the new maps for current modes, Overwatch’s legacy Assault maps will be removed from the Quick and Competitive playlist. While these maps will still be available in custom games and the workshop, the developers have noted that they’ve shifted their focus into creating newer maps as well as improving and upgrading current ones in the Quick Play and Competitive playlist. Therefore, maps like Hanamura, Volskaya, Temple of Anubis, and more like these will be going away for the foreseeable future.
Gameplay improvements and changes
Overwatch 2 Circuit Royal
© Blizzard Entertainment
Ping system
Overwatch 2’s addition of a ping system improves players’ experiences and communication. More than just simple voice lines, the ping system now highlights various parts of Overwatch’s gameplay adding more depth, visual indications, and clearer comms for every callout. These callouts can range from hero locations and abilities to map objectives. It also strives to add context to player intentions with callouts. The ping system is still a work in progress and will continue to receive changes and improvements throughout OW2’s beta phases.
Tab board
The Overwatch tab board is also being changed to provide more real time information on your team as well as the enemy team’s statistics. The new layout gives extra information not seen in Overwatch’s original scoreboard, meaning that the fire and medal system has been removed (for now). The new information the scoreboard will provide includes elminations and deaths.
Overwatch 2’s PvP beta is bringing in lots of fresh changes to reinvigorate and excite the playerbase to compete in an improved environment, but that can only be done with the help and support of players as well. With player and community feedback, Overwatch 2 can transform into an incredible game that will last for many more years. The world could always use more heroes!
