With Overwatch 2, players will have to adapt. Bastion and Sombra are being completely changed and significantly overhauled.
At Blizzard, several games are currently in development, and one of them is Overwatch 2. The reboot of the hero shooter not only brings comprehensive PvE elements but also the overhaul of many existing heroes. While some characters need only a few adjustments, two heroes are being drastically revamped: Sombra and Bastion.
New abilities, new design, and hopefully more fun.
What is changing about Bastion? With Overwatch 2, Bastion is undergoing a significant overhaul. He will not only lose his self-healing but will also receive a new ultimate that can bring widespread destruction.
The details of the adjustments are:
- The self-healing is completely removed. Bastion can no longer repair himself.
- Instead, Bastion has a new secondary firing action (right-click) during Configuration: Recon. He fires large bullets that bounce off surfaces, stick to enemy heroes, and explode after a short delay, pushing enemies back.
- The spread of the weapon during Configuration: Recon has been completely removed. The rate of fire has been drastically reduced. This is intended to make Bastion feel like a “pseudo-sniper” in this form.
- Bastion can now move at reduced speed during Configuration: Sentry. However, the transformation now has a cooldown, so it cannot be used permanently – but he has infinite ammunition.
- The old ultimate is gone. Instead, Bastion transforms into an “Artillery Form” and can fire 3 powerful projectiles across the entire map. After a short time, the shells will hit and deal high damage.
All these changes should make Bastion a more versatile fighter, who does not just function as a “one-trick pony” and needs multiple heroes to support him.
What is changing about Sombra? The hacker Sombra is also being revamped. Her hacks are especially in focus here, as Sombra’s crowd control (CC) abilities are being weakened – something many heroes face in Overwatch 2.
In detail, this changes:
- Hacking now has a drastically reduced cooldown – only about 4 seconds.
- Hacking now consists of two different components:
- The first component works as you already know – the opponent’s abilities are disabled, but only for one second.
- The second component displays hacked enemies through walls for the entire team. This effect lasts significantly longer.
- Sombra now deals 50% more damage to targets she has hacked.
- Sombra’s ultimate no longer removes all shields. Instead, the attack now inflicts 40% of the targets’ current health points as damage and applies the hacking effect.
- Sombra can now hack while she is invisible. During the hack, she briefly becomes visible, but then disappears again immediately.
Overall, Sombra is also meant to become more versatile and have more damage potential, without being able to disable the entire enemy team for several seconds.
When do the changes go live? For most players, these changes will only go live with the launch of Overwatch 2 – however, there is still no exact date for that. Some changes will already be visible in the Overwatch League – such as the new format, as soon all teams in Overwatch will play with only 5 players instead of 6.
It is likely that there will be a whole series of further reworks in Overwatch 2, as the game’s balance is heavily being revised.
What do you think of the two reworks? Are you excited about the new versions of Bastion and Sombra? Or do the changes not sound that exciting?
