Perks Balance Patch On the Way - Top 5 Takeaways from the Overwatch Dev AMA
Overwatch 2's latest Season 15 update has overhauled the meta with an extensive new Perks system and major Competitive changes. As fans experiment with recent adjustments, plenty of questions are arising. On February 27 2025, the Overwatch 2 team participated in an AMA with the community on the r/CompetitiveOverwatch subreddit to answer them. Let's explore key takeaways from this event including commentary on Clash, Perk balancing, what's next in Competitive and more.
1. What Perks Are Overperforming?
As is expected after any major mechanics update, some Overwatch 2 perks are performing at unbalanced levels. In the AMA, developers confirmed that certain heroes ("Ana, Bastion, Pharah, Ramattra, and Winston") were 'winners' of the update. In addition, the team namedropped several specific perks that are currently high-performing. The team did note that many perks operate differently in high elo versus low elo and that much data remained to be analyzed.
Alec "u/Blizz_Alec" Dawson, Overwatch 2's Lead Gameplay Designer, stated regarding the most powerful Perks and heroes:
"Some of the winners so far have been Ana, Bastion, Pharah, Ramattra, and Winston. When it comes to individual perks: Ramattra's Vengeful Vortex, Mauga's Firewalker, Zarya's Energy Lance, and Soldier 76's Agility training have all been quite impactful. It's important though to look at the combination of your Minor and Major perks, what rank thresholds players are using them at, and how quickly a hero is gaining their perks. There's still quite a bit for us to dig through there!"
Related Article: Overwatch 2 - Perks Explained for Every Hero in Season 15
2. How Will Overwatch 2 Devs Balance Perks?
Overwatch has over 40 heroes, so adjusting each of their Perks is no easy task. However, the dev team has confirmed they intend to balance Perks and have elaborated on how they plan to do so.
Mainly, the team wants to preserve and emphasize Perks' impacts in the game. u/Blizz_Alec states:
"In the immediate, we mostly plan on balancing perks in order to make them feel more impactful. There will still be some core kit tuning alongside that, but there's still a meaningful amount of change we want to inject into the system throughout the next few patches. Tuning to perks and actual perk swaps (hoping for some in 16.0) are included in that."
u/Blizz_Hudson also names some specific heroes whose perks will change in the near future:
"Things like: Hog Toss now increasing the damage of Pig Pen, Juno's double jump reset perk is also going to increase the duration of glide boost. On the other end of the spectrum, Bastion's self repair resource meter is coming back."
u/Blizz_skennedy adds in another comment:
"For now the primary goal is to focus on adjusting the perks that are underperforming/overperforming. We will have a balance pass coming through in the Season 15 Midseason patch, and will be swapping out some perks that haven't been performing well in Season 16. I wouldn't say there are radical changes to perks in the near future, but we will be working to ensure perks feel good to use for all heroes."
3. Will Overwatch 2 Perks Rotate?
According to multiple Overwatch developers and representatives in the AMA, Overwatch 2's Perks will rotate for each hero in upcoming Seasons. This means certain current Perks will no longer be available while the team introduces new Perk options instead, replacing them. However, the next refresh reportedly will not occur until Season 16, which is estimated to release in late April 2025.
u/Blizz_Alec commented about the decision, saying:
"The goal there would be that every hero gets at least one new perk to play with! Still scoping out what that refresh would look like for Season 18, but somewhere around 25-50% of the perks changing (some being completely new and some receiving significant tuning). If we have perks that players really love, we don't want to immediately remove those and the refresh would be looking at perks that are more middling in interest."
Kenny "u/Blizz_Hudson" Hudson, Blizzard's Senior Game Producer, also confirmed the rotation plans by stating:
"We're going to start rotating in some new perks in Season 16, but before we get there we've got a bunch of balance changes and tweaks coming in the Season 15 midcycle patch, and there are good things coming for some underperforming perks."
Related Article: The Best Overwatch 2 Perks: Full Tier List for All Heroes
4. Players Can't Swap Perks Mid-Match
In the new Perks system, players are set once they lock in to a particular Perk choice. This can cause some debacles as players experiment with the new system, since some may realize they want to use a different perk after the fact or misclick when selecting. One question at the forefront of every Overwatch player's mind in the past few weeks has been if they will ever gain the option to swap Perks mid-match in the future.
Unfortunately for these players, Hero Designer Scott "u/Blizz_skennedy" Kennedy has confirmed that "there are currently no plans to add changing perks mid game." In a comprehensive post, he addressed the issues and stated:
"We want it to feel like you're making a meaningful choice when you select your perk, and when allies/enemies select their perk you understand what to expect on that hero for the match. We understand that there is an issue with people accidentally selecting a perk and being unable to change it, this is something we're keeping an eye on to see if there's something that can be done to help this. I won't say that it will never be an option to swap your heroes perks in the future, but there are currently no plans to add changing perks mid game."
5. Will Clash Come Back to Overwatch 2 Competitive?
Overwatch introduced its new Clash game mode in Season 12. It soon hit competitive queue and became a controversial mode among the player base.
Clash was a unique, high-speed point capture format. Five objectives, labeled A through E, granted teams one point each upon capture. As teams gained territory, their next objective would move farther across the map. Once a team captured five points total, they won the Competitive game.
While some players enjoyed the refresh Clash provided, it was also met with heavy criticism. Many users expressed irritation about aspects of the mode's new maps, saying they were poorly designed. Others were upset with the mode's extremely fast objective capture times, which made it difficult to strategize beyond an initial fight.
Ultimately, Blizzard removed Clash from Overwatch 2 Competitive play in its Season 15 update. Since the decision, players have been questioning if the mode will ever return. u/Blizz_Alec confirmed in the February 27 AMA that the team is 'experimenting' with a new Clash map and elaborated on the studio's plans for the game mode, saying:
"Like you, I also believe Clash is awesome when it all comes together! We actually spent a good amount of time on Clash's scoring before we made the decision to pull it from Competitive. Even with scoring changes, we believed the mode needed some fundamental geo changes to points A+E to perform better as a Competitive mode. Currently we are experimenting with building another Clash map from the ground up with a different approach to the layout to see if that solves some of the core issues the mode has. That's all very early, but hopefully some significant geo changes along with scoring changes can get Clash into a great spot."
Bonus: Flamethrowers in Overwatch 2?!
Lastly, u/Blizz_Hudson notes that "one weapon that always comes up during the "what's next" discussion is the flame thrower." The team confirmed they'd love to add one into the game, but this may take time as u/Blizz_Hudson declared, "it's gotta be epic".
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