During the second Overwatch 2 beta, Team 4 began testing some new ability reworks for some support characters. After much displeasure at the lack of innovation given to the support class so far in the beta stage, there was a wave of changes that were implemented in order to test how players would respond to the changes. After some feedback, the Overwatch developers are now making some tuning changes and reversions to these supports.

Moira saw the Necrotic Orb introduced that intended to add a skill ability to a character that has been seen as easy to play by members of the community. Also, Mercy's Guardian Angel Super Jump glitch was upgraded into a part of her kit. These changes were met with a mixed reception as Moira's Necrotic Orb ability that also de-buffed incoming damage was tuned too far, making Moira and her allies near impervious even to ultimate ability damage. Moira's Necrotic Orb ability was later massively nerfed, but its implementation in the game still was not to the community or Team 4's liking.

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A blog post from the Overwatch 2 developers acknowledges the issues that each of these heroes had in the second beta and vowed that changes will be coming whenever the next beta is announced. For Moira, the Necrotic Orb ability will be completely removed, and her original Damage Orb will be a part of her kit for the time being. The team said that while looking at the statistics for the ability's usage, it did not meet their expectations. Players tended to hold on to the Necrotic Orb longer, and it didn't align with what they intended for the ability.

Mercy OW2

Adding Mercy's Guardian Angel Super Jump into a purposeful ability had some issues in its first iteration. Community feedback included that the ability felt clunky in the version that made it to the Overwatch 2 beta. The team acknowledges that the first pass at making it an intended function wasn't the best form for it and is testing new implementations ahead of the next beta. This will include tweaks to the directionality of the Super Jump that did not respond to left, right, or diagonal movements.

The Overwatch 2 developers promise another blog post update that will show the statistics of ability usage next week giving the community insight into these decisions and the team's ideology heading into another beta period. This is the point of these beta windows: to find what works and what doesn't. These changes are still live in the versions that Overwatch esports players are currently playing and practicing on but will be reverted by August 11.

Overwatch 2 launches in early access on October 4 for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.

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Source: Blizzard