"Havana", the newest Escort map is live in Overwatch for both PS4 and PC, with Xbox One facing a short delay before receiving its update. The theme of the map was developed during the Storm Rising event with a PvE, story-driven narrative similar to both the Retribution and Uprising campaigns released previously.
The visuals are striking throughout the map, similarly as polished as the release of the map "Blizzard World" but far less childish in terms of theme. Below we will review the fundamental points of the map and offer some Tips and tricks, best practices for various team compositions, and a few map quirks for winning on Overwatch's newest map.
We begin with a brief summary of attacking and defending on each point, since the entire purpose of escort maps is to either deliver the payload or stop it in its tracks. Point A offers the attacking side various points to exit, all leading roughly to the open road where the payload is first activated. Depending on how you feel about Widowmaker and snipers in general, and if a competent player is on board, players may come to fear the wide open space of the first point. Snipers and dive are likely the strongest tools for this point, with caution needed if dealing with a competent defensive hard bunker comp. The defense meanwhile has a few options. If coordination towards a bunker comp is not possible, and a player is simply looking to make the most impact on their own, either Junkrat or Orisa can make good use of the tight spaces with positions to flank throughout.
Point B will most certainly require some switching up of heroes, and may actually be the most difficult part of the map to get through. A comparable situation here in moving the payload from the first to the second point would be attempting to take the second, final control point of "Temple of Anubis", or moving from the second to the third in "Echinwalde". This means tight spaces and choke where attackers will be funneled through, with plenty of spots that can leave them susceptible to being flanked. As a result, snipers likely have no place in attacking here, while brawlers would excel. Defense again sees a nice spot for Junkrat with many angles to bounce grenades. There is a difference in levels as well, with defenders having the height advantage over attackers. If defense focuses on hammering the attack from above while guarding their own flanks, the payload will struggle to move at all.
Point C, the final destination, should come with a large caveat right from the beginning. As of the time of this writing, the point is observable from the spawn, and a decently-skilled Widow player will frustrate the opposing team to no end. It is reasonable to expect this to be patched in the near future, since no other maps allow for such sightlines in this way.
Otherwise, attacking point C is much like all other escort maps. The defenders are favored in terms of positioning and proximity to spawn, meaning that the attack will likely need to wipe the defense to advance the payload its final distance to the end. In many ways, this feels similar to "Gibraltar" in its last stretch of distance. Comps will vary, with a strong tank or two necessary to deal with what is sure to be an ongoing barrage of damage coming towards the team.
To summarize, Point A is not likely to give the attacking team any trouble, with multiple options at effective comps, whereas Point B may be so reliant upon effectively navigating tighter and confined areas that it would come as no surprise to see attackers become stonewalled there, never reaching the next area. Point C is typical for the type of map, with care given once again to the possibility of Widowmaker cheese. It will be important to consider Widowmaker in the first weeks of the release of the map, not only because of the aforementioned sightline to the spawn, but also because players will simply not be aware of her most dangerous sightlines throughout the rest of the map.
It will be interesting to see if future escort maps follow this same sort of planning. While most other escort maps have Point C as the primary choke for defenders, this map places that in Point B, allowing for Point C to again be more open in space. Perhaps the decision was made with esports in mind, where it is more interesting for viewers to see a conclusion with various possible points of attack, as opposed to always seeing maps end in a similar way.