'We should be a little scared of what we're putting out there': Overwatch 2 lead designer says hero perks are about 'letting go' of perfect balance
This week, Blizzard threw a curveball at Overwatch 2 fans just a few months shy of its ninth anniversary. As of next week, Overwatch 2's static heroes will level up throughout a match with mini-skill trees. Blizzard calls them perks, and based on my playtime with them, they're the single largest shakeup of Overwatch's format since 5v5—one perk lets Mercy's blue beam change to two allies at all times, another gives Reaper an entirely secondary fire, and my favorite trades Orisa's javelin spin for a barrier, letting her pivot to a defensive tank role.
While it's natural to question if Overwatch's pivot to mid-game power ups is a direct response to Marvel Rivals' team-up abilities that can similarly elevate heroes, Overwatch 2 lead gameplay designer Alec Dawson told a roundtable of press at Blizzard's Irvine campus this week that perks were in the works long before Rivals was the new hero shooter hotness. That said, the motivation ultimately came from a growing feeling that Overwatch was at risk of stagnating.
«One of the things we all agreed on was that Overwatch needed to evolve and needed to have more choice,» Dawson said.
When Season 15 introduces hero perks on February 18, heroes will earn XP throughout the match and level up twice, picking between two perks at levels 2 and 3. The goal, as Dawson tells it, is to identify the creative ways players are already using heroes and designing perks that serve that fantasy.
«People have always asked for Lifeweaver to be more of a damage dealer. How do we look at that and then give that to you in a way that makes sense for Lifeweaver?» he said. «Another [hero] that's representative of that is Sombra. One of her major perks lets her heal allies with her hack. People have talked about 'support Sombra' for a long time. How can we give a little taste of that?»
Perks didn't start out so adventurous. Dawson talked about early versions of perks that were more conservative than their current iteration and said it took a lot of time
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