Overwatch players want visual changes to AOE ability range

Some Overwatch players want to see a major change done to the visual effects of AoE abilities in the game, claiming that they don’t do enough to show which areas are actually affected, and which ones aren’t.

One of the biggest issues Overwatch players have faced since day one is the game’s not-so-accurate visual representations of heroes’ AoE (area of effect) abilities, like Lucio’s healing and speed auras.

Every player has had those moments where, you assume you should be safe under Baptiste’s Immortality Field or getting heals from Lucio only to discover you actually weren’t – usually, after you’ve been cruelly eliminated.

Learning the unwritten rules about how and where AoE abilities work is a big part of getting better at heroes like Baptiste or Lucio, but it can be very confusing. So confusing, in fact, that a number of players are calling on Blizzard to make things clearer, but it might be something that has to wait until Overwatch 2.

The clip above is a classic example of how confusing AoE abilities can be, even for the heroes they belong to. It definitely seems like Baptiste should have been protected from elimination by his field, right?

Well, yes, except for the fact that the wall was in the way between the generator and the point, cutting off a large portion of the actual protected range, even though from just looking at the ability’s aura you’d think you were in the clear.

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All in all it seems like it should be a simple fix. Just make the areas that the AoE ability doesn’t cover shaded differently, or removed entirely. If Overwatch were only on PC that would probably work, but such a change might require too much computing power dedicated to it for smaller systems like the Switch.

There’s no doubt that Overwatch still has plenty of room for improvement more than four years after release, but it’s unclear how high on the list AoE ability visuals are for developers as they work to get the new title ready.

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We won’t know for sure how much of a change AoE abilities will be getting in OW2, if any, until we get more details on the upcoming game, which has basically been treated with radio silence from Blizzard since it was unveiled last Fall.