NEW Experimental Card to play the game with different hero balance changes on the LIVE client on ALL platforms.
Balance changes will come far more aggressively and target the meta-game
Hero Pools for Competitive Play - Starting in Season 21, a limited number of heroes will be selectable each week as decided by the game (not the players). Subject to adjustments and changes.
Hero pools will also apply to the Overwatch League starting March 7th. Learn more here.
New Anti-Cheat initiatives coming in the next two patches of the game
Big Workshop update coming soon
New Career Profile quality of life improvements coming including the ability to sort Player Icons.
Major Career Profile overhaul coming to Overwatch 2 much later down the road
The ability to pin and save a specific replay is coming soon.
Facts about hero pools
Heroes that are removed from the pool each week will be based on collected game statistics.
Hero pool rotations will take place weekly, but this may change if needed.
The Overwatch League will only remove one tank, one support, and two damage heroes from any given pool. Furthermore, no one hero can be out of the pool for two weeks in a row.
Overwatch League will start using hero pools on March 7th.
UPDATE!
Game Director Jeff Kaplan is answering multiple questions about Hero Pools and the upcoming updates in this thread:
First, Experimental Card. Something Iāve (and probably others) thought ofā¦ oof, a while ago. Iām glad theyāre doing it, basically putting the PTR in the main game and rewarding. Also a great addition for consoles.
Second, aggressive balance changes targetting the meta. Oof, that sounds harsh for heroes that typically are the most versatile in their class, like D.Va or Lucio. I fear this kind of hero will get kneejerk changes often, and thatās annoying.
Third, hero pools. Absolute no from me. People complained about 2-2-2 removing freedom, this DOES remove freedom. Massively. Basically hero bans, but instead of changing every game, they last for days. Terrible idea. Keep it for OWL if you want, but for ladder, thatās a no-no.
As usual, bitter-sweet stuff. The first one is definitely good, the second sounds like something that will end up being poorly executed, and the third oneā¦ Yikes.
Moving the PTR to the main game and actually use it for testing changes and not just for sorting out bugs is a smart move. A bit late after 4 years maybe, but better late than never.
Hero pools is an interesting idea, but i would have loved to hear how many heroes are included.
Also kind of hypocritical from Jeff as this idea also tells you what you can and cannot play just as hero bans, only difference being that its coming from the devs at random, not the enemy, but whatever.
NEW Experimental Card to play the game with different hero balance changes on the LIVE client on ALL platforms.
Cool. Very late but cool.
Balance changes will come far more aggressively and target the meta-game
Donāt be afraid to experiment with ideas that might seem OP. You can always balance downwards afterwards.
Hero Pools for Competitive Play - Starting in Season 21, a limited number of heroes will be selectable each week as decided by the game (not the players). Subject to adjustments and changes.
Thatās it for me, Iām tired of being limited in what to play, where to play, and now who to play. What made me love this game was the diversity of strats and comps. The whackiness. Now everything is getting streamlined.
Yay for more balance patches, too bad above will make me not want to play nearly as much. Good thing Iāve really gotten into Sea of Thieves lately, hereās to hoping Anthem is rebooted too.
