Overwatch 2 devs testing another major HP revamp to make Hanzo more “lethal”

The Overwatch 2 devs say they’re testing another global HP change that would make Hanzo’s headshots a lot more lethal.

Back in Season 9, Overwatch made a series of significant updates to hero HP across the board along while also making projectiles larger to compensate.

One of the side-effects of this HP change was that not every ability was balanced around it, meaning some heroes now had to put in more work to confirm eliminations.

So, even though it may be easier to land headshots as Hanzo, ultimately, the archer hasn’t been able to confirm snappy frags as some of the heroes who used to die instantly now survive.

As it turns out, Hanzo mains might be getting some of that lethality back and the devs are already in the early stages of testing another update to health across the board.

In a Reddit AMA, Lead Balance Designer Josh Noh explained that they’ve been experimenting with, “adjusting health pools for some of the more evasive or high damage heroes which would also put them back into the range of lethal Hanzo headshots.”

Reddit

Noh says that this change wouldn’t just benefit Hanzo, either and other heroes who used to be able to easily combo enemies to death could be able to again if they’re HP gets lowered to 225.

However, a balance patch like this doesn’t come without its share of challenges, something the dev team is aware of and are trying to work around.

“It would bring some interesting texture to hero interactions overall there are also a bunch of other problems to solve if we want to go through with it,” he added.

Noh further noted that the Shimada clan member is still doing well despite lacking some of his power from prior seasons calling him an “effective mid-range burst damage hero even without the one-shot kills.”

There’s no timeline for when a huge HP revamp like the one suggested could make its way to the game, but players should expect a series of significant updates in Season 11 with the devs already teasing Reaper and Cassidy buffs along with some long-awaited healing changes to Mercy.