WhenOverwatch 2launched, few players were queuing up for the Support role (despite the fact that the game launched withKiriko, an all-new Supportwith some very original capabilities and an excellent style). Queue times for the other roles, meanwhile, were very long by comparison, and you could be sure that if you queued up for all roles, you’d wind up playing Support for lack of players specifically looking to play that role.
The biggest and most obvious reason for this is that there are quite simply fewer Support options compared to the other roles. The Damage role, for example, has 17 Heroes, and I’ve already made the case thatsome of those Heroes should be reworked into Support roles. The Tank role, meanwhile, was extremely powerful and oppressive at launch. Since Overwatch 2 decided there should only be one Tank per team, they made Tanks very tough to kill, and able to dish out a lot of damage in turn.
With the two other roles being so incredibly effective, and healing being such an essential part of keeping your team in the fight, it was only natural that teams would heavily target the opposing Support players. At launch, diving on a backline Zenyatta or Brigette with Genji was easy pickings. There was no off-tank to peal for them anymore, and they had a hard time defending themselves or escaping from such an onslaught all on their own.
But a lot has changed with Overwatch 2 since then.Blizzardhas made the Support problem a major focus, and has seemingly realized that Supports needed to be more empowered, impactful, and diverse.
Some of the changes along the way have been subtle. Baptiste’s Immortality Field now has its minimum health threshold increased from 10% to 25%, giving him more potential to keep his allies — and himself — alive in those clutch moments. Brigitte’s health was increased by 50 points, while Moira was given the ability to recover energy through dishing out damage with her orb. These little tweaks weren’t flashy, but they gradually made the role stronger, and more able to withstand other, much more aggressive, roles in the game.
Other changes have been more pronounced. Zenyatta was given a super kick as his melee ability, which sends attackers flying backward when hit. At long last, Zenyatta isn’t completely vulnerable to diving heroes like Tracer and Sombra. Meanwhile, Brigitte was just given a major buff to her ultimate which gives her a Reinhart-sized shield capable of briefly stunning entire groups of enemies. After several back-and-forth changes, Mercy has seemingly settled in a spot where she can do a whole lot of healing — including to herself — while retaining a high level of mobility.
After all these changes, it’s not too surprising that queue times in Overwatch 2 are finally starting to even out. Regardless of what role you want to play, in seems you won’t have to wait too long to find a match. Players finallywantto play as Support, because it’s starting to become possible for them to take over a game on that role.
Sure, you could just play Moira and pump out a bunch of healing and damage numbers. It looks pretty on the stat screen, and she’s very easy to use. But the best moments in the role comes from those big-impact cooldown abilities: Throwing out an Immortality Field at just the right moment to save your team from a Gravitic Flux; cleansing the whole party with Kiriko’s Protection Suzu when they’ve just been hit by a Junker Queen Rampage; or using Resurrect on that Ramattra who got a little too ambitious in the frontline.
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Lifeweaver will no doubt be a challenging hero for players new to the game, but for those of us who have been playing Overwatch for years, he’s a bit of a dream come true. Sure, he doesn’t have the raw healing or damage stats of Moira — but when you understand all the interactions that can take place between heroes in this crazy game, you’re able to do some insane stuff.
Life Grip, for example, briefly makes a teammate invulnerable while yanking them over to your position. I’ve pulled teammates back onto the map who were just knocked over an edge by Lucio. I’ve ripped a teammate right out of an opposing Reinhart’s charge just before they got smashed up against a wall. I’ve rescued teammates from Mei’s Blizzard, Sigma’s Gravitic Flux, and Hanzo’s Dragonstrike. And that’s just one ability.
Lifeweaver’s Petal Platform will raise a player high into the air, and let them stay there for a good 10 seconds. I’ve used it to give Widowmaker brand-newpositions to snipe from. I’ve done the same at high noon to get my ally Cassidy into the perfect position to Deadeye the opposing squad. All the while, Lifeweaver is able to dash away from divers and use the platform to reposition himself when needed.
I hope Blizzard continues down this path of making Supports some of the most interesting and impactful heroes in the game. The balance changes have been good, and the new hero has been even better. We’ve finally started scratching away at the surface of what the Support role is capable of.
