Overwatch 2 is bringing back your least favorite mechanic

pcgamesn.com:

Overwatch 2 has some big plans in store, and they’re likely to split its audience right down the middle. Ahead of Overwatch 2 season 5, an update from game director Aaron Keller suggests some of the changes Blizzard is considering for its next balance patch, and they include a return of crowd control effects to the multiplayer game, as well as some potentially big nerfs to one-shot characters.

The removal of CC, or crowd control (that’s anything in the realm of stuns, slows, and boops), from almost all skills except from tanks was a big part of the changes to Overwatch 2. The goal, Blizzard says, was to put more of a focus on people creating plays rather than shutting them down, especially with the removal of the second tank player.

“Overall, we think that this was a positive change to the game,” Keller says, comparing the original game to a “pinball machine.” But, he explains, “we have a lot of high-mobility heroes on the roster, and a team can’t always rely on their tank to take care of them. So we’re softening our approach here.”

For season five, Blizzard has two characters in mind as a test bed of sorts – Mei and Cassidy. Mei’s primary, the Endothermic Blaster, will still slow as normal but “will also build up to an effect that will apply a much larger slow for 1.5 seconds” that Keller says “will feel familiar to the way her old weapon worked.” Presumably you’ll have a little more opportunity to counter it than being completely frozen solid, but that’s still rather terrifying.

Cassidy, meanwhile, is having his Magnetic Grenade reworked – it’ll do less damage than before, but will now apply an effect that slows targets and blocks them from using movement abilities. It’s unclear whether that will apply when the grenade