Overwatch 2 reworks Orisa and Doomfist, who’s a tank now

Overwatch 2The team shooter is undergoing major changes, with the goal of reducing the number of teams from six to five. The new structure makes tanks even more vital. Every team will be equipped with two support heroes, two damage heroes and tank protection.

Blizzard states that two hero upgrades are coming for the tank class. One, the centaur omnic Orisa has almost new equipment and the second is Doomfist who has been moved into the tank category. Blizzard provided details on Wednesday.

Doomfist is an infamously irritating damage-dealer, and he’ll keep a couple of tools from his old Overwatch kit. He will now have more health (increased from 250 to 450), and while he’s lost his Uppercut, he’s gained an ability called Power Block to protect himself from frontal attacks. Seismic Slam does less damage than Rocket Punch, but it still gets Doomfist right in the middle.

Image: Blizzard Entertainment

Doomfist’s ability to lock down opponents makes him difficult to balance as a damage class, Blizzard explained.

“We were basically at a fork. Either he needs a light rework — potentially even a heavy rework — as a DPS to somehow function correctly without just giving you a ton of crowd control while he’s killing you, or try him as a tank,” said Geoff Goodman, Overwatch lead hero designer, in an interview. “He’s very threatening and he causes you to be in positions you don’t want to be in, especially on maps where there’s a heavily fortified defensive position like a ledge. He’s really good about breaking up those fortifications.”

Orisa on the other side is losing all her old equipment. Her Protective Barrier, Supercharger and Halt! are no more available. Instead, she has Energy Javelin, which forces her enemies back — and they take extra damage if they hit a wall. Orisa’s new ability Javelin Spin allows her to propel herself forward by destroying all projectiles and bringing down enemies. Terra Surge is her new ultimate. Orisa can channel it to drive enemies toward her. Terra Surge lasts for three days.

“Overwatch could have this tendency to get really bogged down with these defensive abilities,” says Goodman. “Playing against a double-barrier combo of Orisa and [Reinhardt] and you’re like, ‘I never even get to shoot at players anymore. I’m just shooting all these barriers.’”

Image: Blizzard Entertainment

Orisa’s centaur form and her defensive kit also led to a mishmash; her new form is an “engaging, brawly tank,” according to senior hero designer Brandon Brennan.

“The kit she had before could have worked in 5v5,” Brennan said in the same interview, citing Sigma as an example. “But the way she looks and the way she played, they didn’t really match. That was something we wanted to fix. It would make things more logical if Orisa saw herself and her actions. We thought that the brawly engagement direction works really well for someone that is, you know, as the community calls her, the centaur horse lady.”

It Overwatch 2Developers said that they tried many different models for a new Orisa. One was a bipedal model, but in the end, they decided to keep it true to its horsey roots. As a result, she’s gone from one of the most passive tank heroes in the game into an aggressive tank that will dive into the back lines to take out the enemy squishies.

Overwatch 2’s beta is set to go live on April 26, and it will include these two new reworks. It also contains new hero Sojourn as well as a variety of balance and quality-of life enhancements.