Overwatch 2 is better than the original game

I was worried about the game’s new 5v5 format. I was wrong

Last year, the Overwatch development team announced that the hero shooter was moving to a 5v5 format, essentially dropping a tank in an effort to improve the game.

When they made this announcement, I wrote tat the game didn’t look like the Overwatch I’d come to know and love. Now almost a week into the Overwatch 2 beta, I can happily say that I was wrong.

The sequel and its 5v5 gameplay is more fluid and dynamic now. Without a second tank, a ton less damage and healing is in the field, simplifying the game and letting individual players look for their own plays.

The game has reworked several heroes, moving Doomfist to the tank category and making him less oppressive to backline supports by removing his one shot ability. Orisa got a complete rework, shifting from the long distance bunker tank of old and giving her several abilities tied to her new spear. She went from a tank wanting to keep her distance behind her shield to a dynamic brawler that can even bully Reinhardt.

As a support player, I find the game much more compelling. I no longer have two tanks to pocket and can look for more opportunities to do damage or land big anti-nades that will help my team win the teamfight.

Here are a few things that lower ranked players can keep in mind to improve going into the new era of 5v5:

1. Use natural cover: with one less tank soaking up damage, the days of sitting safely behind your tanks and shields and putting damage into the other team are over. Instead, you’ll need to learn to use walls, corners, and high ground to give yourself safety. Even if you are a tank, you should always be looking for objects you can duck behind so your healers can top you off.

2. Give your supports time to heal you: no supports in the game can sustain you through the damage of multiple enemies. There are temporary things we can do, like throw Ana’s nade on you, which increases our healing temporarily, or use Baptiste’s immortality field. But once those are gone and your support needs to reload, you are dead. What you think is a healing diff is really just you not understanding the limits of damage and heals in the game. Find cover, even for a second.

3. Use high ground: this should be obvious to anyone who has ever played a shooting game but is ignored by a shockingly high number of low level players. High ground gives you cover. All you have to do is back up and enemies no longer have line of sight to shoot at you. It also gives a view of the entire teamfight and boosts you above the enemy tank. If you’re a tank, help your team drive the enemy off of their own high ground before you go to the objective, even if you are a short range/melee hero like Reinhardt. Remember, you’re the bully on your team now, you can carve out valuable space for your team and deny it to the enemy team.

4. Shoot at the supports: another concept that should be obvious but isn’t to low ranked players. The enemy supports are their life blood. Without healers, the enemy has to scramble for health packs to survive. The team that kills the other team’s supports first usually win the teamfight. Go into every confrontation thinking about how you can kill their supports before the enemy kills yours. So often in OW1, my team would ignore the three enemy divers killing me and then smugly state “healer diff” after the team gets rolled. Either you help your support stay alive or you kill their supports fast, anything else is largely a waste of time.