Overwatch 2 has three roles, and the purpose of each is abundantly clear. As the name suggests, the goal of Damage characters is to weaken and hopefully kill enemies on the other team. Tanks need to lead the push or hold the line, soaking up enemy gunfire in the process. Lastly, there are Supports, whose primary job is to heal their allies and keep them in the fight. Unfortunately, some Supports are not getting this message.
While Supports obviously need to do some damage to keep themselves alive, pulling out Mercy’s pistol or going for Kiriko headshots to take down attackers, healing should always be prioritized. Unfortunately, some healers are choosing to forego healing entirely, choosing the Support role but not providing any support whatsoever. No Overwatch 2 character showcases this frustrating problem more than Moira, as many players using the evil scientist have hindered their teammates as of late. There are likely a few reasons for this.
Overwatch 2’s New Players May Still Be Learning
One important thing to keep in mind is that Overwatch 2’s free-to-play success has led to millions of new players trying out the hero shooter, and those gamers could have no idea how their selected character works. Someone may queue for all roles despite having never played the game, and they could pick Moira because she is less complex than someone like Baptiste. From there, they may not know how her healing mechanic works, wasting all her spray and being forced to focus on damage instead.
A lack of game sense and a failure to understand what Overwatch 2 is about could be another contributing factor. After all, new players may not realize how important healing is, as they could come from a game like Call of Duty where selfish play is rewarded. In Overwatch 2, winning and teamwork are the core focus of the game, so it is frustrating to see DPS Moiras avoiding Reinhardts who need healing. Ultimately, though, some of this could come down to new players learning the ropes.
Overwatch 2’s Support Role is Not Fun To Play
However, not all the DPS Moiras can be waved off as new players, as there are far too many of them in the game’s current state. While a Moira rework can change that, the reality is that Overwatch 2 needs more Support characters that are fun to play. With only eight characters to choose from, players can quickly get bored of healing their teammates due to a lack of variety, something that leads to them picking a solid damage dealer like Moira and running off to have their version of fun. Support is a thankless job, too, especially with no end-of-match cards in the sequel. With players feeling like they have little impact on the match, they could switch to someone like Moira to make it feel like they are doing more.
A solution to this issue is not just more Supports, but Support heroes that heal and deal damage simultaneously like Brigitte. Clearly, Blizzard needs to prioritize Support characters that feel as fun to play as a Damage character, but do not enable players to avoid helping their allies in the pursuit of easy kills. Moira does this, as players can selfishly suck their enemies and use damage balls to get one-on-one kills, running forward and leaving their team to die. More healers that play like Damage heroes but turn that damage into health for their team could be a viable solution. Unfortunately, new heroes take a lot of time to make.
Overwatch 2 Pushes All Players To Go Support
Perhaps the biggest problem of all is that Blizzard pushes everyone to play Support, regardless of whether they are familiar with the role and should be choosing it. This is because players get 500 battle pass XP for playing Support or Flex in their first match, and 100 extra XP for every match after that. In turn, while it is easy to tell a DPS Moira that they would be better off in the Damage role, they will be getting less XP for selecting it. For those that care more about getting through Overwatch 2’s Battle Pass than winning, they will likely pick Support despite not wanting to play the role properly, using a hero like Moira as if they were a Damage character.
Though some players are mislabeled DPS Moiras, and sometimes the lack of healing can be attributed to teammates having poor positioning, the number of clips and comments online show that there is an issue with this particular hero. Perhaps Blizzard can rework her kit so that it is more focused on healing and outputs less Damage, but DPS-obsessed players could just move to Zenyatta or Baptiste to continue the trend. Further, with Overwatch 2 being free, there will surely be a constant influx of new players, meaning that the growing pains will continue. Unfortunately, while it is easy to identify why this is a problem, coming up with a fix for the DPS Moira issue is a lot more challenging.
Overwatch 2 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.