Overwatch Reaper Rework, Hero Bans, and More

The Overwatch Reaper Rework is coming soon, and we may even see new abilities. Here is what’s new.

There is no arguing that Reaper is one of the most popular Overwatch 2 heroes. Despite the fact that he hasn’t been that good lately, the Overwatch 2 Season 8 DPS tier list revealed that he can be played in specific situations. Nevertheless, the hero is only efficient against certain comps and opponents. That’s why it’s no surprise the developers have started talking about a potential Overwatch Reaper Rework.

Overwatch Reaper Rework – The Problem

Despite the fact that Reaper is a fun hero to use, his kit feels basic when compared to others. Sure, he deals a lot of damage up close, but he is not effective at all in longer-range matches. On top of that, the hero gets countered by some of the hot DPS.

Due to those reasons, a lot of people have been asking for an Overwatch Reaper rework for some time now. It seems like Blizzard decided to listen because the devs said that a rework is coming in 2023.

The changes

Even though no one knows what the Overwatch Reaper Rework will give us access to, Reddit revealed that the hero could get new abilities. The hero designer said that the team is reviewing the interaction between Shadow Step and Wraith Form, so we can expect to see changes in those things. 

As for the new abilities, the hero designer said clearly that Blizzard will not add something new just for the sake of it. If something like this does happen, there will be a reason behind it, so it will be interesting to see what’s going to happen in the future.

The only bad news about Reaper’s changes is that we do not know when they’ll arrive. Considering we had to wait months for Sombra’s rework, the Overwatch Reaper Rework could take at least a couple of months.

Hero Bans Overwatch – Can this feature become available?

If you look at some popular games, such as Dota 2, you can see that they have a hero-ban system. The idea is that players can choose which heroes they don’t want to see in-game, which should make games feel more balanced.

There have been discussions about a potential Overwatch 2 hero ban system for a while now, but Blizzard has yet to add something like this. There are a lot of pros and cons for such a thing, but in the case of Overwatch, we need to remember that there are not that many heroes. So, once players choose a few that won’t be available, it will become even harder to pick something they like.

Changes to swapping

Besides the potential ban system in Overwatch, Blizzard is also considering adding a limit to the number of times you can swap a given hero. This is a very interesting change because the idea of swapping heroes is to counter a specific enemy. However, if we have a cap on the number of times we can do it, it will make the game feel a lot more interesting.

Remember that Blizzard has already taken a few steps in this direction. Several months ago, an update reduced the maximum ultimate charge when swapping, which reduced counter-picking. It will be interesting to see what’s going to happen in the future because some players are unhappy with the potential swapping changes. After all, counter-picking has an essential role in Overwatch 2.