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At Blizzcon 2023, Blizzard annouced Overwatch 2’s new heroes, its brand new Clash mode and upcoming seasonal themes for 2024.
Meet Overwatch 2’s new heroes
Dion Rodgers, art director for Overwatch 2, revealed the title’s 39th hero: Mauga. The tank is available to play this weekend as a part of a Blizzcon promotion. He excels at diving enemy teams, blasting opponents with his powerful chainguns (fired individually or in union). Mauga’s ultimate allows him to trap foes to support his team.
Mauga is Overwatch’s first Samoan hero, first teased in a 2019 comic. Rodgers highlighted how Blizzard took steps to make sure Mauga served as authentic representation. His name means mountain in Samoan and his tattoos were designed by Samoan tattoo artist Si’i Liufau.
Mauga will be officially released on December 5, when season 8 of Overwatch 2 goes live.
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Blizzard also teased the next two heroes coming to Overwatch 2. The next hero, a damage hero named Venture will debut for Season 10. This will be followed by a support hero, codenamed Space Ranger, will be playable in Season 12.
New modes and reworks
In addition to Mauga, Blizzard also announced the new core Clash PvP gameplay mode. The mode has five points positioned in a row. The center point serves as the first objective and teams push back and forth down the map to attack enemy territory or defend their own. A team wins when they capture all five points or achieve the maximum score.
Blizzard is returning to its roots with the first Clash map. The Honaoka map is a reworked version of the game’s iconic Hanamura map.
Additionally, Blizzard is reworking its competitive system and will feature all new competitive rewards. Similarly, the development team plans to overhaul its seasons with more comprehensive themes. Next year, Overwatch 2’s seasons will be designed around eldritch horror, Egyptian mythology, and a bizzaro universe where heroes become villains and villains become heroes.
Missed opportunities?
While Blizzard gave Overwatch fans a lot to look forward to, the developer did not address some key topics.
Overwatch host Soe Gschwind, hyped up the return of the Overwatch World Cup. The Finals will be played at Blizzcon over the weekend. However, there was no news about the future of the Overwatch League.
Additionally, Blizzard did not go into depth on upcoming PvE content. However, Blizzard has a stream planned for tomorrow, November 4, at 1:30pm PT to discus Overwatch’s future in detail.
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