Overwatch 2’s lead hero designer Alec Dawson stepped in for Game Director Aaron Keller in today’s developer blog post for the game, and as one might except, hero balance was the main topic of the day.
Diving into exactly how the team approached the release of the game’s newest support hero, Illari, Dawson noted that the team’s slogan for new heroes is to release heroes on the “safe side of strong.” Especially following the less-than-stellar reception of Lifeweaver in season four, Dawson once again reiterated that Illari’s power level being so high was intentional.
“We want hero releases to be impactful. It’s best for the game for a number of reasons, but most importantly, it creates change throughout the meta,” he said. “An impactful hero launch can shift other heroes’ viability and create new and unique team compositions—an unimpactful hero launch can feel as if the game didn’t enter a new season.”
Dawson said that the team was “happy” with the reception of Illari when she launched. Being an impactful and game-changing hero is what they strived for, but changes to Illari’s kit before she was released into competitive play were just the first step in helping to make her fit into the game’s overall meta moving forward.
“A lot of her initial power budget was wrapped up in her Healing Pylon and her lethality,” he said. “Despite its potency, the Healing Pylon itself can feel invisible throughout a match due to its fire-and-forget automated healing. It was one of the first things we tuned for a few reasons.”
Dawson noted that the ability created stalemates, made it difficult for teams to break through a defense, and at the same time, its passive nature wasn’t as satisfying for players to use.
Moving into season seven, Dawson added that the team is looking to make adjustments to Illari’s secondary fire, which is a healing beam ability. While Illari isn’t the most played support hero in competitive, she is one of the top four and has the highest win rate among support heroes this month, according to Overbuff.com. Season seven will begin on Oct. 10, and players can expect changes to Illari and numerous other heroes then.
