New heroes and a rework of Symmetra are coming soon to Overwatch .
Jeff Kaplan, the Game Director of Overwatch, addressed the player community in a new “Developer Update” video and discussed some “hot topics” that are currently on the minds of the community. This included new heroes, new game modes, a rework of Symmetra, and plenty of quality of life improvements.
Next Overwatch hero “coming soon”
If you’re waiting for new heroes in Overwatch, you should be satisfied soon. Because according to Kaplan, the next hero of Overwatch will be implemented into the game “soon,” as the developers are very pleased with the abilities and design. Another hero is currently in the conceptual phase, but the whole team is so excited about it that they are confident it will be realized. This second hero is likely to appear in 2017, as he does not yet have any custom animations or effects – those are currently just placeholders.
Symmetra is set to become more versatile
As previously mentioned several times, the developers are considering a fundamental change to Symmetra. Many fans from the community are demanding that she should receive healing abilities – but the developers are not pursuing that path. It has never been the design of Symmetra to be able to heal actively.
Nevertheless, they want to pay her a lot of attention so that she is useful in more situations and not just in the defense of the first control point. Jeff Kaplan does not specify a concrete date for these changes to Symmetra. Players should expect it “no earlier than mid-November”, but it could also be considerably later (possibly even 2017). Comprehensive changes undergo long internal testing first.
Apart from that, the developers are working on several new maps and game modes, although Kaplan emphasizes that some will likely never get past internal testing because not all good ideas create a good game mode.
If you have about fifteen minutes, you can watch all of Kaplan’s statements in the video yourself:
Cortyn comments: If you’re planning significant changes to Symmetra for “no earlier than mid-November”, it gives the impression that a major patch is on the way – perhaps one so large that it might even include a new hero? However, who this might be is a different question. It’s slowly time to release more information about Sombra, as the lady is already failing to meet expectations.
