Overwatch 2’s top Wrecking Ball player explains why new tank ability is a “waste”

Overwatch 2’s top-ranked Wrecking Ball main Charlie ‘chazm’ Jones is expressing concerns about the tank’s reworked Adaptive Shield ability, calling it a “waste.”

In Season 10, Wrecking Ball became the latest hero to receive a rework with some changes to his Grappling Claw, Adaptive Shields and Minefield health.

The biggest change came in the form of his shields, which now can be redistributed to allies, granting them an additional 75 HP of overhealth.

On paper, this S10 change appeared to be designed to play into Ball’s strengths in a dive comp, making heroes like Tracer and Genji even more formidable foes for backline heros now that they have extra durability in coordinated play.

Just one day after the patch, however, the AWW YEAH tank isn’t all that impressed with the rework because of Wrecking Ball’s gameplay style.

“The combination is meant to be shield up, dive in, right? The problem is, you dive, I use my shields, and then you get out. You use the shields to get out,” he said during a Twitch stream.

As such, giving shields to teammates can have a negative effect in that it can make Wrecking Ball a lot more vulnerable, especially if your allies can’t take advantage of the extra HP.

According to chazm, there just hasn’t been a moment for him where his Tracer teammates have been able to make use of the shields.

“It needs to last longer,” he added. “The problem is, if I press E and give it to my teammates, they get four seconds of shields, so like, me using my E for a four-second shield is just a waste rather than having an 8-second shield.”

“I think the biggest problem is [the ability] needs LOS and it doesn’t go through enemy shields. It’s so situational.”

That said, the tank main had some kind words to say about other parts of the rework, calling the new Grapple movement “insane” and probably even in need of a small nerf.

It’s still very early days for Season 10, we’ll have to see how the meta develops, especially with the new hero Venture added to the mix and Lifeweaver receiving some massive buffs.