Hero Pools in Overwatch Will Be Changed
Recently, Blizzard decided that it was time to make some changes to Overwatch. The change would involve Hero Pools, as well as Map Pools. What they decided was to add changes to Hero Pools, while fully removing Map Pools from competitive Overwatch play. According to Blizzard, they are making these changes after getting feedback from players. It’s nice seeing that they care about people’s opinions about the game and make changes accordingly.
How exactly is this going to unfold, though? Here’s what you need to know.
Hero Pools – How Are They Being Changed?
A while back, Blizzard announced the changes that will be made to the Hero Pools, and they have been applied since April 13. Now, there’s more consistency in Hero pools. Basically, before this change, there was no reason why Heroes were getting banned every week. So, Blizzard wanted this to change, hence the update.
Blizzard listened to people’s complaints and decided to make the game much better. “We’ve received a lot of helpful feedback since hero pools came to competitive play that the system was achieving our goal of shaking up the meta from week to week — but we’ve also heard that some aspects of the system are confusing or unclear, including why certain heroes or roles are rotated each week, or why the exact number of heroes available is inconsistent from week to week. In addition, having separate hero pools for competitive play and the Overwatch League in the same week led to a confusing or disjointed experience for players who follow the league.” the developer said.
To make things better, it has been decided that Overwatch and the Overwatch League will have the same Hero Bans. What’s cool about this change is that it is helpful for OWL viewers. As the event is unfolding, they can practice and play with the same hero bans, which allows them to grow in skill at the same time. Isn’t that amazing?
What’s more, there will be a specific algorithm followed for Hero Bans. The heroes eligible for the Hero Bans will be the ones that had high-pick rates during the previous two weeks. As such, those that had the highest play rates will be most likely to get banned. Every week, there will be one tank Hero, two damage Heroes, and one support Hero that will get banned from the pool.
On each Sunday after the final OWL match, Blizzard will make announcements regarding the new Hero Pools.
Removal of Map Pools in Overwatch
Aside from the change of Hero pools, the Map Pools competitive aspect is getting some changes too. Since April 14th, map pools are no longer a thing. They used to be a feature that allowed a list to rotate the available maps when playing competitively. However, it’s not available anymore.
To replace that, every map will now be available in competitive mode, except for two. The exceptions are Horizon Lunar Colony and Paris. Blizzard declared “We saw a lot of feedback asking for map pools to vary more often than every two months at the start of a competitive season.” Regarding the two map exceptions, they had to say the following: “When we make updates to those two maps to improve their play in the future, we’ll add them back into the pool at that time.”
Final Thoughts
Overwatch had some changes for its Hero Pools, as well as the map pools competitive play. It’s important to know them, so you know what to expect from now on. Overwatch will be even more enjoyable now.