Overwatch 2 Hero Designer Provides Insight On The Balancing Process

In the latest Weekly Recall, Overwatch 2 hero designer Scott Kennedy provides insight into the balancing process of the first-person hero shooter.

The team tracks hero pick rates, win rates, and especially Hero Ban data to determine which characters may be over-performing or under-performing. These statistics are supposed to ensure no hero is an objectively bad pick. Freja is highlighted as an example, with tweaks to her mobility and reload times after a spike in bans showed she was becoming too dominant at high skill tiers.

That being said, Widowmaker might be frequently banned on certain maps, not because she’s necessarily unbalanced but because players dislike being picked off quickly. On the other hand, Sombra’s consistently high ban rates suggest deeper issues the developers are still evaluating. 

As for actual changes, passive healing reduction is being changed for the Damage role from 25% to 30%, and the global health regen timer is being increased to make damage feel more impactful in Season 17. These broader gameplay adjustments aim to rebalance the dynamic between roles in a more systemic way, according to the team.

Kennedy also talked about shrinking Bastion. Although initially dismissed due to implementation challenges, the idea gained traction and underwent internal testing. So, Bastion’s model will be reduced by 10% in Season 17 to help with his survivability. 

There’s smaller but impactful updates to heroes like Junker Queen, Pharah, and Lifeweaver too.