Overwatch 2’s Mauga has two guns with two different purposes

Blizzard announced the addition of the latest shooter hero. Overwatch 2Blizzcon 2020 will be held in 2023. Polygon conducted an interview with Mauga during the Blizzcon convention. The company got to know more about Mauga and what the players could expect.

“Mauga is a damaged-based tank, and how he sustains himself and his team is through damage,” said lead hero designer Alec Dawson. His abilities were centered on doing the most damage possible. He was created based off of his weapons. They hope that this emphasis on damage makes him more attractive to new players.

The team wanted to ensure his abilities felt good when using both chain guns, but they also wanted to make sure players couldn’t “wipe people out immediately.” To combat that, Mauga has a big spread on both of his guns. This makes Mauga a dangerous opponent in close quarters. “You don’t want to play with Mauga up close unless you know you’re going to take him out,” said Dawson.

Mauga’s Overrun charging ability makes him virtually unstoppable, even against sleep darts. “He uses it to get where he wants to go,” said Dawson. For a nice cherry on top, whenever Mauga directly hits an opponent while using Overrun, he’ll slam them to the ground, stunning them while other nearby opponents will be sent flying.

Image: Blizzard Entertainment

Mauga’s ultimate, Cage Fight, creates a zone that traps opponents and blocks healing from the outside of it. Cage Fight remains active after Mauga’s death, making his ultimate more deadly. Lifeweaver, a support hero who can be used to pull Mauga from the ultimate but enemies will remain trapped until it expires.

Even though he’s a tank, Mauga can do more damage than some DPS heroes, said Dawson. To counter that, opposing teams can attack Mauga while he’s reloading or has burned through his abilities. “He’s such a big body that he really needs support. He needs a high healing output to keep him up at times.”

The dev team and a team of culture consultants worked together to create Mauga in such a manner that was respectful to the Samoan people. “We worked with a traditional tattoo artist from the Samoan culture to guide us. Our engines were pushed to the limit to make it as real and authentic as we could. And it turned out great,” said hero design producer Kenny Hudson.

Image: Blizzard Entertainment

Mauga’s right gun was initially designed to only deal critical damage to flying heroes to aid tanks in combating them when the first tests were conducted. Over time, this was changed and the right-hand gun now deals critical damage to enemies that are set on flames first by his left-hand gun. It was always the intention of the development team to give him two powerful guns. “We always kinda knew that he was going to be a tank with two big main guns, and we wanted to make them just as important and just as useful to players as the other one. We didn’t want one to outshine the other,” said Hudson.

The dev team had to make sure that players could see the visuals when Mauga activates his Cardiac Overdrive, a feature which heals Mauga whenever he or his teammates damage an enemy. So the dev team revisited an old idea where Roadhog’s ability would heal everyone around him. This helped them find the “sweet spot” of not overwhelming the player with too much going on screen. “We don’t like throwing things away. Even if it doesn’t work out for a certain hero, it can come back later on for another one,” said senior test analyst Foster Elmendorf. To help further prove their point, Elmendorf explained how Mauga’s ultimate was originally D.va’s, which involved her making “a dome of lasers.”

Mauga is something the team has worked on for some time. Originally, he was supposed to be released in season 2 instead of Ramattra, “but the team really wanted to take some more time to get the kit just right,” said Dawson. Mauga was pushed back so the development team could polish him and check that his abilities were compatible.