Overwatch 2 Devs Revert and Adjust Hero Changes After Beta Feedback

The Overwatch 2 team released an update when the game's beta was live that targeted Moira and Mercy among other aspects of the game with some detailed changes for their abilities. Moira's Necrotic Orb ability received much of the focus of her changes in that update while Mercy's Guardian Angel ability was look at to a similar degree. Since those changes were implemented, the Overwatch 2 devs have returned to announce some of those adjustments would be reverted while others will be iterated on further until a better result is found.

If Moira's Necrotic Orb ability sounded familiar, that's because it was a brand-new ability for the support character meant to replace the Damage Biotic Orb move. It would shoot forth a projectile that damage upon exploding and would reduce the damage for a few seconds of those affected.

This move, however, didn't hit the mark, the devs said. It created a gameplay loop considered "too passive for many players," so it's being reverted entirely.

"The power that Necrotic Orb brought to the table necessitated a long cooldown to make the effect impactful but not overly frustrating to play against," the devs said. "However, this meant many players would just hold the ability for the perfect moment, which had the side effect of decreasing the amount of 'cool stuff happening' in moment-to-moment gameplay and shifting too much of it into healing."

For Mercy, the Overwatch 2 team acknowledged the changes made to Mercy's Guardian Angel move that allowed her to leap to the aid of teammates similarly felt off. The goal was to better integrate Mercy's somewhat hidden "super jump" effect of the ability into the move so that newer players could utilize it easier, but after the first iteration didn't work as well as intended, the devs are working on it once more.

"We're currently testing another iteration of Guardian Angel that includes the directional control we added in the beta, but it also allows Mercy to super jump in a similar way as before," the update said. "This means canceling the ability with crouch will launch her straight upwards, without having to look in that direction."

Overwatch 2 is scheduled to release on October 4th, so expect to see plenty of changes for Mercy, Moira, and others present in the game at that point.