Blizzard Talks About Overwatch 2’s 5v5 Shift And Support Hero Improvements

Blizzard Entertainment offers an update on the state of the ongoing Overwatch 2 PvP beta test one week into testing. The latest dev update touches on several topics, including player feedback and response to the shift from 6v6 to 5v5, a format typically used by most competitive shooters, and the new Push game mode.

“We believe 5v5 is a significant adjustment for players, and we have been happy to hear consistent and positive feedback about players having more fun, feeling a greater sense of impact in their matches, and enjoying a faster pace of combat and engagements,” reported Blizzard. “While we will continue to adjust the rules of Push, players seem to be really enjoying this new game mode and our other new maps.”

The team also talked about the changes made to support heroes to make them more appealing to players. The team acknowledged the fact that support heroes became more vulnerable to diving and flank attacks due to the lack of a second tank to protect them and have adjusted their power and durability accordingly. There are also plans to revamp existing abilities and add more support heroes in the future to make up for the apparent lack of content for the said role.

As for the lack of a ranked queue in the beta test, Blizzard said they made the decision to only include quick play to keep the limited number of players concentrated into one queue and because they plan to make significant changes to the ranked and competitive modes which aren’t ready for public testing just yet.

The original scoreboard has also been redesigned and the Fire and Medal system retired in favor of displaying more useful information such as team composition and the status of teammate’s Ultimate abilities.

“Players can expect the new Scoreboard screen to display key statistics in real time for all players in the game. These statistics include eliminations, assists, deaths, damage, damage mitigated, and healing,” explained the team. “The information will be presented in a new layout that mirrors other competitive games and sports. We want to provide players with an overall more accurate view of the game.”

Those interested in joining the ongoing PvP beta can opt-in on the Overwatch 2 official site.