Blizzard is moving forward with a new feature forOverwatch’s twenty-first competitive season called “Hero Pools.” It’s a feature that will lead to week-to-week bans for several heroes, removing them from availableOverwatchheroes. Hero Pools will be limited to Competitive, likely to experiment with constantly changing metas. Blizzard also makes very clear that Hero Pools is currently only planned for Season 21 and will only be kept if it works out well.
Each week, theBlizzard design teamwill select a “few"Overwatchheroes to go into the pool. These heroes will be banned from competitive play for the duration of the pool. The pool will change every week, though it could be changed to be daily or even by match depending on what the design team decides. Players will be able to select any hero not in the pool, like regular.
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Blizzard does provide a reason for the introduction of the Hero Pools feature toOverwatch’s Competitive mode. It’s explicitly stated that Blizzard’s goal is to, “allow the meta to change … and see more hero diversity in matches.” Hero Pools will allow the Blizzard design team forOverwatchto figure out what feels the most fun for competitiveOverwatch. The one thing it appears Blizzard has decided on for sure is that a full season of the same heroes and little meta shifting is too long.
Since this is a major change for Competitive mode, Blizzard plans to reveal more information aboutHero Poolssoon. Competitive players should keep an eye on theOverwatchblog for this update.
There are several other big changes that Blizzard plans to implement in the near future. Perhaps the biggest one is Blizzard’s intention to release more frequent and “impactful"balance updates forOverwatch. These updates would intentionally shift the meta, rather than be wary of making waves. There will also be a new card added to the Play screen inOverwatch. This card will be for major experimental changes that likely won’t come to standard play, but will serve as important tests for other ideas. Blizzard also plans to boost its anti-cheat efforts going forward.
This next major update forOverwatchis planned to release in early February. Expect more information about patch 1.45 soon.
Overwatchis available now on Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
