In the world of class-based first-person shooters, Overwatch remains one of the top dogs. Despite originally releasing back in 2016, the Game of the Year-award winner is still as popular as ever, thanks in large part to active updates and semi-regular character additions. The game's highly-anticipated sequel, Overwatch 2, was announced at the last BlizzCon, promising improvements on the original Overwatch. One area that could specifically use some retooling in Overwatch 2 is the Damage class, as its characters vastly outnumber the other two classes.
Overwatch's roster consists of 32 characters who are broken up into three classes: Tank, Damage, and Healer. In total there are eight Tank characters, seven Healer characters, and 17 Damage characters. This wasn't always the case, as there were originally four classes. Overwatch's Damage class was split up in two separate classes, Offense and Defense. The two were eventually combined to create the Damage class, and Defense characters were retooled to feel more offensive. The update was a welcomed changed at the time despite the character disparity between the classes, but the introduction of Overwatch's Role Queue created difficulties with the Damage class.
Role Queue was added with the intended purpose of creating more balanced Overwatch teams in online play. It forces players to pick their class before going into a match so that teams can have an even distribution between the three. This works fine for the Tank and Healer classes, but not so much for the Damage class. Because there are so many characters in the Damage class, more people want to play it, which leads to longer waiting times to find a match. It can sometimes take over ten minutes to find a match when playing Damage. Priority Passes were recently introduced to help players cut the wait time for each class, but they really only seem useful for the Damage class. Rather than finding ways to cut the wait for the Damage class, Overwatch 2 should try to make the classes and wait times more evenly distributed.
Overwatch 2 Needs More Tanks and Healers
One way to fix the disparity between Damage and the other two classes would be to simply add more Tanks and Healers. Two of the last three new characters were a Tank, Sigma, and a Healer, Baptiste, but the trailer for Overwatch 2 has already revealed two new Damage characters, Echo, who has already been added to the game, and Sojourn, who was previewed in the trailer. The fact that the first two new characters revealed in the Overwatch 2 are both from the Damage class is somewhat frustrating, but that could mean Blizzard is saving more for later. It's hard to imagine there won't be more Tanks and Healers coming to Overwatch 2, so perhaps the fact Damage characters are being highlighted first could mean there are some big things in store for the two classes.
The return of Overwatch's Defense class could be another way to help evenly distribute the classes in Overwatch 2. Of course, that would bring up some issues with Role Queue and would also mean retooling the characters again so they fit back into the mold of a Defense character, which may not be in Blizzard's best interest. Adding a third Damage character to matches and changing games from six vs six to seven vs seven could be another simple fix. There are just so many Damage characters, and there's still more to come, so why not let a third person play as Damage in matches? This would allow more people to play as their favorite Damage characters, while also cutting down on wait times for matchmaking by increasing the need for players.
There are a lot of different ways Blizzard could go about fixing the Damage class, but nonetheless, something needs to be changed. One class accounting for as many characters as the other two classes combined just doesn't seem right. Hopefully fans will have a better idea of what to expect out of the upcoming Overwatch 2 and any changes that might be coming to the Damage class after BlizzConline this February.