Expect to see Overwatch 2 ultimate charge changes in the next season, as Blizzard says the way hero switching affects your charge will be adjusted for Overwatch 2 season 3. Executive producer Jared Neuss shares details on the current state of development on Twitter, noting that Blizzard is focused on addressing “foundational issues” with Overwatch competitive play and team balance in the multiplayer game before moving on to other features.
Currently, when you change heroes in Overwatch 2, you keep 30% of your ult charge. This makes quick switches to counter-pick your opponent’s hero choices after losing the opening fight a lot more powerful, as you aren’t significantly punished for the change. Overwatch 2 content creator ‘SVB’ took to Twitter to complain about this change, saying “the tank experience has gone down the toilet since then directly because of it” and querying why the developers haven’t mentioned it recently.
In response to this, Neuss comments, “Changes are coming for this in season 3! Details will be in the patch notes, if not earlier.” He follows up on this by addressing the call for more communication, saying, “The lack of acknowledgement isn’t a lack of concern, just to be clear. It’s much less interesting than that: We need better ways to communicate with players about issues like this.”
Neuss explains that currently, players find themselves in one of three situations. There’s either silence from the devs while they work on new features, specific tweets from developers that will likely not be seen by a large majority of players, and long-form blogs that focus on bigger topics. He says, “There needs to be a quicker middle ground. It’s not a hard problem to solve, it just took a back seat to launch and 2023 planning for a bit.”
He draws comparison to Destiny 2’s regular ‘This week at Bungie’ feature, commenting, “As a Destiny player, and former Destiny dev, I agree that TWAB is awesome. It takes a long time to get something like that right, though.” Neuss says he wants the team to start with consistent, short updates and then expand from there. He also adds, “I don’t blame developers who don’t want to communicate like this, though. It’s scary,” pointing to the likes of harassment and death threats faced by many developers on social media platforms.
Neuss has also previously commented on how the current minimal communication means that all dev tweets are meticulously analysed for any potential news (sorry about that, Jared). However, a shift towards more regular “official” communication in the form of blogs would certainly help to keep the community up to date on the current plans. Live service games such as Overwatch 2 will always be under constant scrutiny, so clear communication is always welcome.
Ultimate charge isn’t the only change on the table for season three, either. In response to a query about the possibility for features such as tournament modes or a hero draft, Neuss remarks, “There are enough foundational issues to address that I think features like this (if we were to do them) would come much later down the road.” He mentions complaints about confusing rank updates, team imbalance, and general matchmaking woes as priorities for the team before any new Overwatch features are considered.
For the time being, take a look at our Overwatch 2 tier list for the best characters to use as Overwatch 2 season 2 rolls on. We’ve also got the latest word on the Overwatch 2 PvE rollout. You’ll also want to make sure you’re rocking the best Overwatch 2 settings to ensure you hit peak possible performance in-game.