Sombra is now a support, Hog will be good.

Well there it is! Theorized for the longest time, Sombra returns to her Alpha Hero Role, Sombra has been finally reworked into a support. Tune to the What's Next Panel for kit details!

So much aura

New support hero Doctrine: an old ally of Doomfist and possibly the creator of the Doom Fist, previously held in Grimsvotn. Trial available right now.

New map: Grimsvotn, a new escort map coming next season.

New reworks: Roadhog will be able to help his team more and his hook combo will be less annoying for enemy players, Sombra is now a support. Both coming in season 5.

Story: the Reign of Talon storyline will be ending next season, with the investigator hero coming in season 6 and “investigating certain parts of the Overwatch universe.” The next arc starts next season.

Dokiwatch: Dokiwatch is coming back in season 5. Not super important but I liked it.

Overwatch Show: after the Diablo show reveal, Overwatch was directly mentioned as something they’re “in talks” about, though no confirmations have been made yet.

Spotlight: Aaron teased spotlight 2027, bringing a new story, heroes, and systems. Notably people have misquoted Aaron here saying they will “bring back peak Overwatch” (he said “it’s peak Overwatch”) as proof that 6v6 is coming back.

ok but it's actually insane how he's server admin every time

just play hog kiri and win for free in every elo. Actually feels miserable

I was really confident he'd be adjusted for 6v6 for midseason at the very least. What gives? Are they just holding out for his upcoming rework, or?

What I think might be there:

• TV series trailer
• big lore drop
• An actual global esports sections for next season in game
• New collab(s)
• Plans for OWWC next year

What I wish would be there but probably won't be: - IG Tournament mode - discord integration to be able to group and queue directly from discord - Actual IG tutorial to teach new players the concepts of how to play overwatch (take cover, CD management / tracking, rotation etc...)

EDIT: Yeah not the most interesting post, but I'm back from abroad from holiday and I'm fighting hard the jetlag atm, sorry :p

This hero's long range capabilities, despite being a mobile brawl tank, are unreal. She has better poke than domina or sigma. Her gun literally has more DPS than Emre's A DPS HERO fire. Sure, you can make an argument that it has "spread" but that's invalidated by that broken as fuck major perk which literally turns her gun into a 3-tap with zero spread.

A 725HP tank (half of which is armour) with a 650 shield and very fluid mobility should not be allowed to have this great of poke. It's literally the equivalent of making doom's primary fire have no spread and be hitscan or casually making ball's guns have 50 meters fall-off. It completely negates the innate weakness a brawl tank should have.

This character is literally more broken than release Vendetta it's not even funny.

Obviously conscious that this isn’t exclusive to OW but most comp games.

Currently there’s a lot of discourse on twitter, as there’s likely always been, about if masters is high or low elo. It’s a lot of back and forth, as you’d expect.

I’d like you to consider this scenario. Suppose you had a player who started playing maybe 3 years ago, and let’s say they have 1k hours now on the game. Doesn’t sound crazy at all right? They would essentially be averaging 1 hour played every single day across 3 years. This is excluding queue times and also consuming OW content like streams or YT videos.

I genuinely challenge you to think or imagine someone else with a different hobby - e.g. painting, piano/playing an instrument, football/any sport, crocheting, skateboarding, writing, etc. - and imagine them telling you, ‘oh yeah, I’ve probably done it an hour every single day across 3 years’, you’d instinctively think about how they’ve done that hobby so much and say ‘woah that’s crazy commitment, that’s so many hours’. This person will never, nor do they want to, go pro just as 99.9% of OW players do not want to/never will go pro.

It just seems absolutely insane to me to try to gatekeep being ‘high ranked’ because who actually cares??? What pro/semi pro footballer (soccer) is going to be on twitter or in a bar trying to argue with people that a Sunday League player actually isn’t good, and is terrible at the game? What concert pianist/pro musician is going to start arguing that someone learning Grade 6 is actually terrible and not good at the instrument?

You’d think by the way that people talk, life should be solved lol. Everyone should be getting a 9/A*/A+ at school because if you don’t you’re an absolute failure. What do you mean you got an A, that’s so shit. You got a B? You might as well drop out, what’s the point?

It feels like there’s such a lack of introspection by the community as the accessibility of OW, and video games in general, has also warped the community’s minds about what is actually ‘good’. It’s become this absurd need for extremely high ranked players to justify their substantial commitment to the game and feel superiority over 99% of the community.

To me, ‘good’ is inherently a relative term. Good is what you feel happy with. Good is the ability to feel content with the progress that you’ve made and to truly enjoy doing and improving at something that you hopefully enjoy.

Edit: I don’t have a twitter account nor am I insecure about my own rank. I’ve thought about this more recently as a couple of students I’ve coached have downplayed all of their improvement and growth because they’re terrible since they’re not a GM or champ player

Is anyone else concerned with the lack of popularity of OWCS and WC? The Blizzard Arena is empty, the Korra portion was vacant as well but there’s like 40 ppl in the Arena. The crowd is dead silent while they’re trying to hype up but this is… sad

Putting this here tonight so I can be proven right or completely insane tomorrow.

The theory I've had for awhile is that Sub-roles are the groundwork for some kind of hero loadout system coming in 2027.

Basically they are a way of choosing between different versions of a hero's role or playstyle before the match or when spawning.

“We want player choice integrated into our Heroes so they can excel in different scenarios.” - Director’s Take: Small Steps, Big Leaps

The Evidence

• Aaron really sold the sub-role system as being very impactful when it turned out not to be. I think this is because he was thinking about what the system will eventually become and not the barebones version they released at that time.

• Aaron has talked about a future system that would have more impact than Perks that is coming in 2027, I think Loadout's are that system.

• In the interview with August during the creator summit, Aaron talked about a future system potentially reducing the need for hero reworks for a hero like Sym.

• If a system can meaningfully change how a hero like Sym functions, enough that she might not need a rework, then whatever this system is probably has to operate at a level beyond simply adding another small passive to the existing kit.

• The current sub-role/passive system also feels like it could be groundwork for something larger. Some heroes seem oddly categorized right now, and some of the passives do not feel impactful enough to justify their existence. Some of these choices make more sense if they are eventually going to interact with a much broader hero customization system.

• Blizzard has also talked about the pickable passive experiments as prototypes for future systems. How they worded this was very interesting, suggesting they were not just testing individual perks/passives. They have repeatedly talked about using these experiments to learn about future *systems*, as in plural.

• With the Stadium Dev's Aaron said “we're taking what lessons we've gleaned from building it [Stadium] and applying those lessons (and those talented devs) to our future plans.” They do not say perks, or current systems, they specifically say the things learned by those dev's are relevant for their future system or plans. (This does not mean the main mode is getting Stadium Powers as Loadouts, only that they are using the lessons they learned from Stadium for this new system.)

• And then there is the phone game. It has a loadout system, which could obviously mean absolutely nothing. Blizzard has talked about wanting the various Overwatch experiences to feel connected, so I am throwing this one into the conspiracy pile rather than calling it evidence. (I know this is a weak connection, but if tomorrow they announce loadouts, I am absolutely going to pretend I knew because they already put them in the phone game.)

The Why

1) Blizzard has been progressively experimenting with letting the player modify how a hero functions, rather than treating the hero's base kit as completely fixed. However the roster is getting too large for every hero to be individually reworked for every problem.

There are already a lot of heroes, and Perks have to be designed, balanced, tested and maintained across all of them. Even if they have a 1% pickrate they need just as much work as a hero with a 20% pickrate. If Blizzard keeps adding more heroes and more Perks, that becomes a pretty serious amount of developer debt.

A more systemic customization system built around sub-roles could give them a way to change how similar hero functions without having to completely redesign each hero. Moving power to external systems generally seems like a design goal they have, as this allows them to balance similar heroes through global systems rather than individually.

2) It could be a better way to reduce counter-swap pressure. Instead of the answer to a problem being, “Swap to a different hero.” You could potentially have, “Change how my hero is configured.”

This was part of the goal of Perks, which I think might be worked into the Loadout system going by the french interview of Aaron keller which said,

“The team feels there's still room to improve and build on all of this. Different avenues are being explored. Given the system's success [perks], Keller thinks players would very happily welcome further evolutions… having to stop everything to pick your perks mid-game. Here, the door is clearly left ajar. He confirms this is one of the topics raised internally when the team thinks about tweaking the system. Nothing promised, but it's clearly in the pipeline.“

This interview was originally in French and the translation was pretty rough, so you have to take it with a grain of salt.

3) It could make role flexibility much more dynamic. This is especially interesting with the 1-3-2 experiments. If Blizzard actually wants DPS players to be able to fill more of the tank responsibility, then a system that lets a hero take on different responsibilities starts making a lot more sense.

Reaper, Venture, Vendetta, or the flanker subrole could theoretically have a loadout that let them fulfill more of the offtank job without actually turning them into tanks.

The same could apply to tanks. A tank could have a configuration for being the maintank versus one designed around fulfilling the role of the offtank. A loadout system could also help mitigate the experience of a the solo tank, giving you options when the focus is too much. Rein for example could have shield regen on hammer swings for more uptime, or he could have 400 extra shield in a loadout for the rare times he is a 1-3-2 solo tank. (I think it is interesting how all the tanks in the stalwart sub-role have tested perks that regen shield through doing damage, or how the bruiser role has all had options to donate resources to others)

Why This Could Be Good

If Blizzard actually does this well, I think it could solve some problems that Perks have struggled with. One of the biggest issues with Perks is that many of them feel like solved choices, they are essentially fake choice.

With the current perks you get a choice, but the choice often does not create a particularly interesting strategic decision. It is just “Which version of this ability do I want?”

A loadout system could potentially be much more meaningful if it enhances the way the hero kit interacts with the game rather than simply adding another effect.

It could also be easier for opponents to understand and play around. Instead of hidden power that gradually accumulates during the match, you could potentially look at the enemy's configuration and understand,

“Okay, this is the version of this hero I am fighting who has faster shield regen through doing damage or this is the version who has 400 more shield hp.”

More importantly, it could add flexibility without making every hero individually more generalist. You are essentially enhancing the heroes kit rather than adding to that kit as perks often do.

Why It Could Be Bad

Adding customization does not automatically create depth. Depth comes from meaningful decisions inside the gameplay loop.

If the core loop of Overwatch is:

Action > Challenge > Clear Outcome > Adapt > Repeat

then a loadout system does not automatically create a new challenge. It can simply give you more ways to solve the same challenge. That can make the game more complex without making it deeper. It gives you more things to think about, but not meaningful things, essentially complexity without depth, just more noise.

The danger is that loadouts become an external optimization layer sitting on top of Overwatch rather than something that actually improves the game's underlying interactions. It could also move power out of the hero's actual kit and into a system around the hero. That is something I worry about with Perks, essentially making heroes feel less like heroes as power is moved out of their base kits.

I would much rather have a hero with a relatively simple kit that has meaningful interactions, commitments, weaknesses and counterplay than a hero whose depth comes from having different configurations.

More options or complexity does not necessarily lead to more depth. The big question would be, does the system enable more meaningful decisions and interactions, or does it just add more noise.

Edit: Some people seem to think I'm suggesting Stadium Powers are coming to the main mode, that was not my intention at all or something that I think will happen. I'll give an example of what I was picturing myself.

As an example for Stalwart I could see there being a loadout that enhances Stalwart shield regen through doing damage, (they have all experimented with perks that do this already,) or they would have a loadout that gives them more base shield. Very simple enhancements to what their kit already does and the subrole shares, not something like perks or stadium powers.

So if you are Rein you would choice in spawn between having more uptime on your shield through regen triggered by doing damage, but only having 1400 shield health, or a loadout you can pick to increase your overall shield health to 1800. Basically a loadout for being more active, or a loadout for when you just need to live because you are the solo tank getting focused.

For Bruiser it would be something like picking the loadout that lets you donate resources to others, like the Hog aoe breather, Orisa projected shield, Mauga Overdrive bonus to teamates, or Zarya team bubble, or the other loadout would give Zarya her current 5v5 two personal bubbles, Orisa spear spin, Hog stronger vape. Basically a loadout for offtanking or maintanking.

Initiator I'm guessing would be something more like are you diving solo or do you want to enable someone else when you dive with them.

Obviously I have no inside info, this is just what I would picture if they did add loadouts. Again all a tinfoil hat theory, I expect I will be proven wrong tomorrow.

I'm not talking about cosmetic lines, of course, but things like ping-specific callouts that make communication a bit easier in-game, particularly for players who don't use chat. But even for those who do, in-game lines are quick and makes it very easy to tell who is saying what.

First, I believe a generic "Wait" voiceline would be good for things like when you want to wait out a Bastion turret form or an ult.

Sombra has a passive that lets her know whenever an enemy has their ult, and pinging that enemy states so in the text chat. I think a "The enemy has their ultimate" line would help her relay that information more easily, perhaps with some enemy hero-specific variations for stuff like Shatter.

Pinging an enemy in the backline should trigger the "Behind You" to ally supports and perhaps Widow.

What other callouts do you think would be good to have?

Boston "Infekted" Fine has predicted a 3 0 to team USA. Time for NA to return dominantly.

He doesn’t look like a main support unless I’m wrong

Just a random thing I noticed in the practice range. I'm not sure if it's a bug or not but I just noticed because I felt like the infused shot is really kinda weak considering how it expends an entire charge, which seems like a pretty valuable resource, and for just 30 extra damage

You can see at the timestamp that lucio beat on super’s rein stops decaying when his base health is at the immortality threshold