Highlights
- Overwatch 2 frequently makes changes to balance gameplay, sometimes reworking heroes entirely and removing abilities for better game balance.
- Some of the most notorious ability removals include Hanzo's Scatter Arrow and Mercy's old Resurrect ultimate ability.
- Heroes like Bastion, Symmetra, Orisa, and Torbjorn have undergone major changes to find a balanced kit, with abilities like Torbjorn's Level 3 Turret and Symmetra's Photon Shield being removed.
As an online hero-shooter, Overwatch 2 frequently undergoes changes to better balance the gameplay and keep certain heroes from becoming too much stronger than others. While most of the time these balance changes only require tweaks to existing hero abilities, sometimes they warrant reworking a hero entirely and end up removing some of their abilities from the game. Between Overwatch and Overwatch 2, there have been several abilities that have been removed for various reasons in the name of better game balance.
Although Overwatch 2 was a chance for a few heroes to get major reworks to fit the gameplay design of this new game, some heroes were reworked during the course of the original Overwatch's lifespan. Early on in the game's life, there was a greater need for these balance changes as the meta began to organically evolve and Blizzard was able to react to how gameplay unfolded outside of pre-release testing. Even years into the game's life, it became evident that some abilities needed to be removed, leading to some sudden and drastic hero changes.
All Removed Overwatch Hero Abilities
- Bastion: Configuration: Sentry
- Bastion: Self-Repair
- Bastion: Configuration: Tank
- Cassidy: Flashbang
- Doomfist: Rising Uppercut
- Hanzo: Scatter Arrow
- Mercy: Resurrect (old)
- Orisa: Halt
- Orisa: Supercharger
- Orisa: Protective Barrier
- Reaper: Soul Orbs
- Symmetra: Photon Shield
- Symmetra: Photon Barrier (old)
- Symmetra: Teleporter (old)
- Symmetra: Shield Generator
- Torbjorn: Level 3 Turret
- Torbjron: Armor Pack
Some of the most infamous ability removals have been Hanzo's Scatter Arrow and Mercy's old Ultimate version of her Resurrect ability. Scatter Arrow was a very controversial ability that allowed Hanzo to fire an arrow that would break into six projectiles and ricochet off of surfaces, meaning it was quite easy for him to deal serious damage to enemies without much need for aiming. Mercy's original Ultimate allowed her to mass resurrect teammates within her vicinity, which has since been downgraded from an Ultimate to a regular ability that can only revive one teammate at a time.
It's clear there have been a few heroes who have struggled to find a kit that works for them over the years as characters like Bastion, Symmetra, Orisa, and Torbjon have all undergone some pretty major changes. Torbjorn's old UItimate was incredibly overpowered as it allowed his turret to reach Level 3 status and deal incredible amounts of damage, warranting a complete rework of his turret as a whole. Bastion received a similar rework going into Overwatch 2 where his Ultimate, Self-Healing, and Configuration: Sentry abilities were removed and replaced with a more streamlined and balanced set of abilities.
Symmetra is the character that has undergone the most changes despite currently sitting in a pretty balanced spot. The ability to provide teammates with armor was a big part of the early days of Overwatch with both Symmetra's Photon Shield and Shield Generator abilities, along with Torbjorn's Armor Pack all being able to grant additional armor to allies and all being cut from the game eventually. Her original Ultimate allowed Symmetra to create a Teleporter from the team's spawn to anywhere on the map, which has since been replaced by a reworked Photon Barrier skill and relegated to a regular skill with a much shorter range between entry and exit portals.
While OW2's Orisa didn't see as many changes to her kit during Overwatch's life, she underwent some major reworks going into the sequel that saw a few of her main abilities removed. Overwatch 2 really cut down on the number of barriers a team could have by limiting the Tank role to one and removing Orisa's Protective Barrier ability. Her Halt ability was also replaced by her new Energy Javelin and her previous Ultimate, Supercharger, was replaced with Terra Surge.
Overwatch 2 is available for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
