Overwatch is now almost 9 years old and has gone through numerous developments. The latest idea turns everything upside down: You will learn new skills during a match. The change is coming next week.
This is the state of Overwatch:
- There is currently strong competition for Blizzard’s hero shooter: The new Marvel Rivals dominates Steam with hundreds of thousands of players and constantly new content.
- At the same time, another rival is completely at the end, Paladins is being discontinued.
- Although Overwatch is still running, it has clearly learned its lessons and is now working on completely new content that will be released soon.
This is new now: Blizzard is introducing a perk system in the upcoming Season 15. The system allows you to level up twice per match and choose one of two perks that can fundamentally change your playstyle.
The first perk is always a “small” one, and the second is a “large” perk. The small perks are just passive effects like reduced cooldowns and serve to enable more offensive or defensive play. The large ones can completely change a hero’s playstyle. Blizzard has provided some examples:
- Orisa can choose whether her spear can be charged to pierce through targets or whether her spear spin becomes a barrier.
- Ana can either hit critically with her rifle, or grant herself a nanoboost as an additional target when using the ultimate.
- Torbjörn can choose whether to upgrade his turret to level 3 or to attach it to walls and ceilings.
How exactly the levels work has not been explained by Blizzard yet. But you can check out the system for yourself soon, as Season 15 starts on February 18 on the live servers.
In the showcase, Blizzard also presents some new skins in the Chinese style and cosmetics that you will receive for ranked games:
The most controversial meta in Overwatch history returns
Blizzard has also introduced two more major changes: the return of loot boxes and the GOATS meta. Loot boxes disappeared with the release of Overwatch 2 and there has often been a call in the community to bring them back.
With Season 15, you can earn regular loot boxes through weekly challenges and legendary loot boxes in the game pass – one in the free path and two more in the paid one. On the official website, you can view the drop rates of the loot boxes.
For some time now, Blizzard has been experimenting with a classic mode. The first iteration showed players: Overwatch was actually not that great back then and many changes today are really good.
The second, current version has brought the “moth meta” with Ana, Doomfist, and Sombra. Now Blizzard is planning to bring back the feared and hated GOATS meta revolving around Brigitte. This meta split the community back then, as it is based on three healers and three tanks, as well as many ultimates and “wombo combos”.
Also coming in Season 15 and beyond are changes to the competitive mode, such as map votes, hero bans, and a competitive 6v6 mode. The new hero, Freja, will appear with Season 16 along with a new game mode. More information on upcoming content will follow in the coming weeks. With Season 15, it is definitely worth taking another or a first look at the game, as Overwatch is still one of the best shooters for newcomers and veterans.
