Overwatch is about to see its 32nd hero, Echo, come to the game. She’s a badass learning AI robot who won’t hesitate to break barriers and hurl sticky bombs at you. She’s very much a damage hero, but if you’ve played Overwatch you’ll know there are already more damage characters than there are heroes from any other role.
This stems from the original four character roles, where the now named damage heroes were split into attack and defence. After players weren’t using the heroes in that capacity, Blizzard merged the two into the one damage category. As such, the damage category dwarfs the tank and support roles which is why fans may be concerned about another damage character (Echo) being added to the game.
Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan agrees with you – he says the game needs more tanks and supports. However, just because the game needs those all-important heroes, doesn’t mean Blizzard is going to halt plans on damage heroes either. He tells PCGamesN: “I want to put our players at ease when I know they’ll have a concern of like, we need more tanks and supports and we absolutely have both in development right now.
“Adding Echo is not us saying we have plenty of tanks and supports and we just need more damage. You know, we’re not going to stop making damage characters, but we also agree we need more tanks and supports. We have a bunch of those in development.”
Those tanks and supports are going to have to wait until the Overwatch 2 release date, as we now know Echo is the last hero before the sequel comes out.
Until then we have a load more information from Kaplan in an extended interview. And if you’re wondering who Kaplan would be in the Overwatch universe, it would be Mercy because of coronavirus.