Overwatch 2 devs confirm Hanzo rework after hero ‘lost’ identity in Season 11

Overwatch 2 devs have revealed they are looking at Hanzo next for a rework after the hero “lost” his identity in the current meta.

Over the course of Overwatch 2’s lifetime, the devs have been very liberal with reworks as they try to modernize some of the game’s older heroes, or in the recent case of Cassidy, revert him to his old kit.

After Cassidy was reverted, the devs shared they are now looking at some other DPS heroes to rework and revealed that Hanzo is in focus.

In an interview with streamer and coach, Spilo, Overwatch 2’s Lead Gameplay designer Alec Dawson talked about which heroes the devs felt needed some change, before mentioning Hanzo as one of their targets.

“Hanzo’s the one we’ve been talking about in terms of… he’s kind of lost his identity within the cast,” Dawson said.

As for the specifics, while it’s early days yet, devs are “playing with” all sorts of ideas. From looking into Storm arrows to possibly “bringing back some of the one-shot thresholds,” nothing is out of the question.

According to Dawson, the devs have already been testing bringing some of the more mobile heroes’ health down to 225 HP to see if Hanzo could be a viable one-shot counter against the likes of Tracer and Kiriko.

The devs had previously revealed they were testing another major HP revamp – similar to what they did in Season 9 – to make Hanzo’s one-shot lethality stronger. Though they were well aware this wouldn’t only be a buff to him.

As for when we’ll get to see the discussed reworks, Dawson said Hanzo is on their list for future changes. This means that as of now, there is no real date set in stone for when this new version of Hanzo might come into play.

For now, the next hero to receive a rework looks to be Reaper, as it has been teased for quite a while.