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Overwatch 2 Shambali Monastery rooftop spot leaves players baffled

An Overwatch 2 Shambali Monastery roof is baffling players of the Blizzard FPS game as it lets you gain a high ground advantage despite looking inaccessible.

Overwatch 2 Shambali Monastery rooftop - Pharap perches atop a snowy rooftop in the new OW2 map

An Overwatch 2 Shambali Monastery spot is leaving players baffled thanks to a confusing design inconsistency. High ground can offer a huge advantage to players in competitive multiplayer games, so it’s always worth looking out for ways to perch above your opponents to get that literal upper hand. However, one very strong spot on the newest of the Overwatch 2 maps wasn’t widely spotted at first – because it doesn’t look viable.

To set this up, it’s important to note that most slanted rooftops in Overwatch 2 are unable to be stood on. If you try to land on them, you’ll always slide down them and drop off the side, though they can still offer a little opportunity for characters with strong aerial potential such as Pharah and Echo to help maintain their altitude advantage.

Not so with certain spots on Shambali Monastery. While many of the shingle rooftops operate in the same way, there are rooftops that can just be stood on as though they were normal ground. This means that not only can flying heroes perch there, but so can anyone else with the ability to jump high or climb, such as Baptiste and new support Kiriko, or even the rest of the roster if paired with the likes of Symmetra’s teleporter.

Overwatch 2 Twitch streamers ‘Emongg,’ ‘Flats,’ and ‘Seagull’ took a look at the glitch in action, and were absolutely baffled to realise that the roof was able to be used as standard high ground. “I never knew you could go on this roof like this,” Emongg says in disbelief, “Why does it work like this?”

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While this is notable by itself as a potential vantage spot that may have gone somewhat unnoticed previously, it actually highlights a fairly important design issue. The reason many players didn’t even think to try standing on the roof, despite it being a fairly large object and relatively close to the ground in a high-traffic area, is because it doesn’t look like you should be able to.

We’ve all been conditioned, over many years of playing Overwatch and its sequel, that those sloped rooftops aren’t something you can stand on. The roof in question isn’t even the most shallow on the map, either – it’s actually sloped at a fairly notable angle. Players on the Overwatch Reddit agree, too, mentioning just how many times they have played the map “without even considering that this would be a viable high ground.”

Some users say they discovered it after seeing it pop up on Twitch streams or YouTube videos, while others landed on it purely by accident only to realise they weren’t immediately thrown back down to the ground. Another laughs, “No, don’t show everyone my Bap spot, lol.” With the prominence this is gaining around the community, we’ll likely find out soon enough whether this was an intentional design decision or simply an overlooked bug.

In the meantime, check out our Overwatch 2 tier list for the best characters to play right now. We’ve also got everything you need to know about the Overwatch 2 Lunar New Year 2023 event, as well as what we can expect from Overwatch 2 season 3 when it arrives in February. The Overwatch 2 PvE rollout is still in the process of being finalised, but we’ll keep you up to date on that as well.