Before players dive into the madness that is Overwatch 2's PVP modes, it is well within their best interests to get some practice with the game's many heroes. Considering each of the 35 heroes moves and acts differently, with various roles, abilities, and hitboxes, it can be daunting to learn even the basics of Blizzard's hero shooter. That isn't even taking into consideration the many ways players that can control all the characters.
Thankfully, Blizzard has incorporated multiple ways to train whilst waiting for an Unranked, Arcade, or Competitive match. There is Deathmatch which puts players in a 1 versus all arena matchup against the rest of the lobby, the tutorial is for those who are beginning their Overwatch 2 journey as it teaches the basics of modern first-person shooter games, and then there is the Practice Range, where most players go to refine their aim, keybindings, and mouse or controller sensitivity against multiple training bots. The Practice Range has been in the Overwatch series since Overwatch 1 and hasn't seen any significant changes since its introduction. But with the myriad of new heroes and better player-created alternatives to the default practice mode, Overwatch 2's vanilla Practice Range is long overdue for a rework.
What's In The Overwatch 2 Practice Range?
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When entering the Practice Range, players can choose from all of Overwatch 2's heroes, regardless of whether they own them or not. Once they have picked their desired hero, they can explore the arena and practice their aim and ability usage against 11 hostile training bots. These training bots have 200 hit points each and can be found all over the map. Some are stationary targets just waiting for players to hit them while others move along set routes to make hitting them more difficult. There are even 4 friendly training bots for Support and Tank heroes to practice their teamwork-related abilities on.
When it comes to customization, players can change their hero settings on the fly by hitting the pause button and manually changing their sensitivity or key bindings. Sadly, the only place where hero selection is allowed is in the hero select room where players spawn upon entering the map. To help make up for this design oversight, there is an area right outside the hero select room where players can pick and choose their desired Overwatch 2 hero which they can then turn into a personal punching bag. These heroes have the same hit points and hitboxes as their PVP counterparts and are a step up compared to the rest of the Practice Range's training bots.
The Current Overwatch 2 Practice Range Just Isn't Enough
Unfortunately, that is all there is to the Practice Range. There are no settings that can tweak hero ability cooldowns, no option to switch the training bots with heroes that move and react like actual players, and no way to recreate scenarios like the ones found in Overwatch 2's PVP modes. There isn't even a setting that can add damage numbers to projectiles that hit their marks - something that players would find useful when it comes to calculating how much of a particular skill they must use to eliminate an enemy.
What's baffling is that all these settings can be found in Overwatch 2's Arcade mode. This mode has a myriad of player-created practice ranges that far surpass the original Practice Range. There are practice ranges that pit players against hero bots that behave how enemy players would, and most practice ranges feature unlimited ammunition without reloading as well as unlimited ability cooldowns. There are even specialized ranges made specifically for practicing hero abilities such as Tracer's Blink and Genji's Swift Strike. If there is a particular hero ability or mechanic in Overwatch 2 that players want to master, chances are someone has made an Arcade mode map that caters to it.
The Overwatch 2 Practice Range Should Be The Go-To Place For Everyone
The sad thing about all of this is that players have to look for these player-created maps on their own. Considering how easy it is to enter the original Practice Range when compared to manually searching for a specific Arcade practice map, most players would gravitate toward the former rather than the latter. Most Arcade maps get their reputations via word of mouth, so it can be quite difficult to find the proper code for a specific map. This becomes easier once players find the maps they are looking for as they can bookmark them, but this just feels like Blizzard is looking to cover up the shortcomings of its own Practice Range.
If Blizzard insists on putting the Practice Range front and center for players, it should consider updating it just as frequently as the rest of the game. By inspecting the elements of the player-created Arcade maps and using them as a basis to improve the Practice Range, more players will be able to bring out their best when it comes to actual matches. This would not only make it easier to get good warm-ups in but will also help alleviate (but not solve) some of the toxicity that Overwatch 2 is well-known for.
Overwatch 2 is available now for Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S
