It’s going to take awhile before we really understand what all of the changes in Overwatch 2 add up to. Even as someone with more than 600 hours played, I’m still trying to figure out what the transition to 5v5 actually means. Right away it was clear that Overwatch 2 is a much faster game. Fewer shields and abilities that CC means more movement, more big plays, and more snowballs. Skilled players have a much better chance of carrying games now, which means heroes with low TTK are even more valuable than ever before. This is the sense I got right away, but what solidified this belief was the design of the three new characters. Sojourn, Junker Queen, and especially Kiriko represent a commitment Overwatch 2 has to independence and personal performance. I’m still undecided on whether that will be better or worse for the game in the long run, but it’s clear Blizzard has rebuilt the game with a focus on the individual over the team.
Kiriko is the newest Support character, which probably conjures in your mind the image of a squishy healer who hides in the backline and keeps the team healthy. But Kiriko is not a passive Support by any stretch, and healing is only one small part of her role. She has incredible mobility thanks to her passive walk climbing ability and teleport, which allows her to pass through solid objects to instantly appear next to her team. Her weapon, a set of 12 kunai knives, deal bonus damage to crit spots, giving her the damage output potential of a sniper. She can also heal using her Ofuda and cleanse allies with her Protection Suzu. She is a healer, but she’s also a lethal assassin who can backline almost as well as Genji, Tracer, or Sombra. There is a breaking down of rigid roles happening in Overwatch 2 that completely reshapes how we are supposed to approach team play.
Junker Queen also has some ‘all-rounder’ qualities. Though she’s classified as a Tank, she doesn’t have the bulk of heroes like Reinhardt and Orisa, and her shotgun deals damage like a DPS. Her commanding shout is an AoE that heals allies around her - something no other tank can do - and her Carnage and Rampage abilities that apply debuffs on enemies just like Ana, who is a support.
Roles still exist and good team compositions will still give you an advantage, but we’re seeing a big shift towards individuality. With Kiriko and Junker Queen, as well as the big viability changes that lots of Tanks and Supports received, it is possible for good players to carry in any role now, not just DPS. I have had more than one game where I out-damaged my DPS players as Kiriko or Baptiste, and I almost always outperform my DPS teammates as Junker Queen. In the original Overwatch this almost always meant your DPS players weren’t pulling their weight, but now there are characters in every role who can dish out just as much damage.
The question is whether or not this is better. Losing double shields and excessive CC has definitely curbed some of the most oppressive comps and helped increase the pace, but there are times when Overwatch 2 feels like playing deathmatch instead of a tactical team game. I have seen, and have been, the one player that utterly dominates the entire enemy team, eliminating targets on site in a way that just wasn’t possible when there were two tanks on the field. It will be interesting to see how the next few new heroes fit into the meta, but I suspect they’ll be multi-function killing machines just like Kiriko.