Blizzard is apparently not done tweaking Mauga, Overwatch 2’s newest Tank hero, just yet, with the game’s lead hero designer promising more changes in the next patch, which will also mark the Samoan warrior’s Competitive debut.
Overwatch 2’s lead hero designer, Alec Dawson said in a tweet on Dec. 15 that, after having kept an eye on Mauga’s latest updates, the changes gave the team an idea of the hero’s positioning in the hero shooter metagame. Based on the conclusions drawn, he confirmed Mauga would be getting “more adjustments before he enters Competitive next week.”
Dawson also revealed one of the changes players can expect in the patch that is set to go live on Tuesday, Dec. 19: “We’ll be rolling back the ignite change on the left-click,” he said, before stating they are working on “tuning up his survivability further.”
If you’re wondering what Dawson meant by the “ignite change,” Dec. 12’s Overwatch 2 patch nerfed Mauga’s Incendiary Chaingun (primary) to require 15 shots—up from 10—before it can ignite an enemy. This will be reversed in the upcoming balance update, so you will be able to ignite enemies with 10 shots of the Incendiary Chaingun.
With discussions regarding Mauga’s underwhelming survivability pouring in since he was first revealed in BlizzCon 2023, Blizzard has been working on eliminating the blaring weaknesses his original design had. During his official launch in season eight, Mauga received a set of crucial buffs (and some nerfs for balance) to bump up his survivability quotient, among other things. But shortly after the season eight patch dropped, players began noting the changes made him a bit too strong in several key aspects. Blizzard then followed it up with nerfs to his weapons and ultimate duration in the Dec. 12 patch. Interestingly, despite deploying a series of changes, the devs are yet to hit the sweet spot with the mighty warrior.
While most of his kit appears balanced, Mauga still struggles to stay alive in hectic fights unless a support hero is completely focused on protecting him. With Blizzard’s plans to tweak his survivability for the second time ahead of his impending debut in Overwatch 2’s Competitive queue, I hope he finally becomes the tank hero he’s meant to be.
