Overwatch 2 is making huge changes to balance tanks in open queue and arcade modes

The Overwatch 2 developers have announced some big balance changes to tanks coming soon to make them much more fun to play against in open queue and arcade.

Tanks received some major buffs going from Overwatch to the sequel with the removal of one tank per team to better fit the 5v5 gameplay.

With larger health pools, revamped cooldowns, and a new passive decreasing knockback, tanks became super powerful. While these updates were a nice adjustment for role queue, in open queue, where multiple tanks can be played, they can be extremely oppressive.

During a recent patch discussion with Twitch streamers Emongg and Flats, Lead Hero Designer Alec Dawson revealed that the team will be making some nerfs to tanks to help balance them for non-role queue modes.

Overwatch 2 devs confirm tank nerfs coming to open queue

As Dawson explained to Flats, the devs wanted to give the new tanks some time to see how they perform in open queue and arcade, but it came abundantly clear they were too powerful.

“We’re going to be lowering tank health overall in those modes,” he said, using death match and open queue as an example. “So in role queue, tanks still have that bonus health, but outside it, they won’t.”

Dawson further said that the team will see how these nerfs end up affecting the game, further citing how a hero like Roadhog could easily dominate Death Match and it would be unfun for those playing against him.

The developer didn’t say how much health would be lowered by, but the changes should help make the game more enjoyable if tanks are easier to eliminate and won’t dominate as often as they do at the moment.

We’ll have to wait and see when these changes go live, there’s a good chance Blizzard implements them once Season 3 begins in early February.