Ever since Overwatch released in 2016, it has served as a model for live service games that provide a consistent stream of content over multiple years. The one aspect of Overwatch that is most frequently updated is the game’s roster of playable heroes. These characters are split up into three classes, damage, tank, and support, each of them providing unique gameplay experiences. Now that the game is coming up on its fifth anniversary, the roster of heroes has expanded significantly since launch, currently sitting at 32 in total.
With so many heroes to choose from, the assumption would be that there’s a pretty even split of damage, tank, and support heroes. The reality, however, is that there has been a much greater focus placed on damage heroes, as there are more of them available to play than there are tanks and supports combined. A lot of fans have become aware of Blizzard’s penchant for prioritizing damage heroes over the other two available classes, and with no release window in sight for Overwatch 2, the game would benefit from showing tanks and supports some more love for a couple of reasons.
The large amount of damage heroes in Overwatch can make it really tempting to go with that particular class because of how many options there are, as opposed to the other classes. Now that role queue can be opted out of, this can make some matches unbalanced, especially if a team decides to go with so many damage heroes that it overwhelms a team composition that has the recommended amount of tanks or healers. A lot of damage heroes in the game are also clear counters to multiple tank and support heroes. If there was a more proportionate amount of tanks and healers that countered damage classes in the game, it could end up encouraging players to build more balanced teams.
The focus that’s placed on damage heroes in Overwatch could be having the unintended effect of making the other heroes seem pretty stale for longtime players. The last support character that was added to the game was Baptiste in the early part of 2019, and the last tank character was Sigma in the later part of 2019. This means that players have gone almost 2 years without any kind of change in the tank or support lineup, so some players are probably getting tired of the current selection. Some new tanks or healers would bring some added depth to the roles, and give players a reason to revisit them if they think they’ve gotten boring.
Considering Overwatch 2 has no official release window, there’s still time for the game’s developer to expand the current roster, though it said it wouldn’t before. The last hero that was added to the game was the damage-centered Echo, so hopefully Blizzard will reserve a tank or support spot for any future additions. Even through the series of trials that was 2020, the game’s developer was able to provide a consistent stream of updates, and a new hero of either would be a great way to cap off the game before the sequel arrives.
Overwatch is available now on PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
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