Overwatch 2 devs admit Zenyatta nerf was a sacrifice for their new tanks

Overwatch 2’s lead hero designer Alec Dawson answered fan questions on Nov. 13 about the new Roadhog rework, and during the hour long discussion, he admitted that this rework included changes to other heroes as well.

Zenyatta has been the bane of tanks for some time now. Despite not having the highest pick rate or strongest win percentage, the omnic monk’s Orb of Discord ability is extremely frustrating to play against as a tank hero, and given the abilities limitations, it often gets used almost exclusively on tanks.

Blizzard hit Zenyatta’s Orb of Discord with a big nerf before BlizzCon at the beginning of the month, and while the nerf seemed somewhat perplexing to players because of Zenyatta’s position in the meta, Dawson yesterday explained that today’s Roadhog rework and the upcoming release of Mauga played a role in the decision.

“The Zen changes in particular, we made those because we knew we were having back-to-back a Roadhog rework and a Mauga launch,” he said. “With these big body tanks, it was like, ‘can we at least give them some way to protect themselves.’ A lot of tanks have a difficult time dealing with Zen, but at least they have a barrier or something that can get in the way there.”

However, Roadhog and Mauga are two of the very few tanks in Overwatch 2 that don’t have any shielding, making it that much more difficult to dodge Zenyatta’s Orb of Discord. Dawson added that the recent Zenyatta changes were meant to be coupled with these releases. In a sense, the nerfing of Zenyatta is more to help these two tanks see play than it is a strike against Zenyatta for being too powerful.

Moving forward, Dawson said that the team is keeping a close eye on how these two tanks play against Ana especially. Ana’s Biotic Grenade is another ability that can be especially vexing for tanks to play against, and if it hinders Roadhog and Mauga too much, there could be more nerfs coming to that ability as well.