GamesFPSOverwatch 2Overwatch 2 director apologizes for the way self-healing heroes in Season 9 was announced: ‘It was a mistake to talk about this lone change out of context’When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

GamesFPSOverwatch 2Overwatch 2 director apologizes for the way self-healing heroes in Season 9 was announced: ‘It was a mistake to talk about this lone change out of context’When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

(Image credit: Blizzard)

Close up of Overwatch 2�s Mercy on white background.

Overwatch 2 game director Aaron Keller has apologized for last week’s announcement of upcoming changes that will grant every tank and DPS hero a self-healing ability, saying that there’s a whole host of changes coming to the game in season 9 and talking about this one out of context “was a mistake.”

The upcoming addition of self-healing for tank and DPS heroes represents a genuine sea change for Overwatch 2. Associate editor and Overwatch knower Tyler Colp said Blizzard is “taking a sledgehammer to the way Overwatch 2 is played,” calling the new passive ability “the first explicit step toward untethering support players from focusing on their team, an essential reason why anyone would want to play the role in the first place.”

Keller’s subsequent apology isn’t for the planned addition of self-healing, but for the way it was revealed. “Clarifying a few things with the self-heal,” Kellertweeted. “It’s one part of a much larger set of changes coming to the game in S9. Internally we’re talking about, and targeting some of these changes at damage spikiness in game, the role of DPS in securing kills, and the strength of healing.

“It was a mistake to talk about this lone change out of context, since its a part of a much bigger set coming to Season 9. Sorry for that, and I look forward to more discussion around S9 balance changes when we drop more details.”

(Image credit: Aaron Keller (Twitter))

Clarifying a few things with the self-heal. It’s one part of a much larger set of changes coming to the game in S9. Internally we’re talking about, and targeting some of these changes at damage spikiness in game, the role of DPS in securing kills, and the strength of healing. It was a mistake to talk about this lone change out of context, since its a part of a much bigger set coming to Season 9. Sorry for that, and I look forward to more discussion around S9 balance changes when we drop more details.

The implication is that the addition of self-healing for everyone, which has not gone over well with an awful lot of players onRedditand theBlizzard forums, will make more sense when considered alongside everything else Blizzard has coming in the new season. Of course that’s impossible to judge until it’s all revealed, but there’s also no overlooking that this means the addition of a universal self-healing passive—which is undeniably a very big change to the game—is just one part of an even bigger overhaul coming to Overwatch 2 than we expected.

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There’s no word on when the rest of the changes coming to Overwatch 2 in season 9 will be revealed, but given the current state of player unhappiness, I expect we’ll see something soon.

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