Blizzard lastly confirmed off how Overwatch 2‘s Wuyang works with a deep-dive into the help character’s package. gamerlifemedia had an opportunity to see this package in motion throughout a roundtable interview forward of the reveal and to speak with senior recreation producer Kenny Hudson and senior narrative designer Joshi Zhang about how Wuyang performs. The largest shock was seeing Wuyang’s package in motion and realizing he is a help character who’s designed to, effectively, help.
Wuyang’s main hearth sends a water orb at a goal, and it offers minor harm when it explodes. You can too management the trajectory manually for precision aiming, and these remote-controlled water bombs deal heavier harm. He can place an orb on an ally to heal them so long as they continue to be in sight or generate a steady stream of therapeutic to revive extra well being, a bit like Mercy, however with the restricted sources of Illari’s photo voltaic rifle or Moira’s biotic grasp. Wuyang’s mobility ability sees him surf on a low wave to get round quicker, and it will increase his leap peak as effectively. It is helpful, however senior narrative designer Joshi Zhang mentioned it is also meant to be a nod to Wuyang’s private background.
“One of many influences that I had for this character was the protagonist from Legend of the Condor Hero, which might be one thing that nobody’s ever heard of, but it surely’s that type of Wuxia, Kung Fu fantasy sort of factor the place the hero is like, leaping throughout water and all that sort of actually cool stuff,” Zhang mentioned.
Wuyang’s different capacity sends out a wave that knocks enemies again whereas amplifying incoming therapeutic for allies it touches. Then there’s his final, which he can use on himself or an ally. It encases them in a water cocoon that explodes after a number of seconds, flattening enemies and therapeutic the goal ally.
Blizzard calls Wuyang an “offensive help” unit much like Zenyatta, and Hudson informed gamerlifemedia in a follow-up e-mail that the workforce gave Wuyang passive therapeutic particularly so gamers may concentrate on maximizing his harm potential. I can already think about how expert of us will use him, zooming round on his surfboard-like wave and popping aimed bubbles to attain huge hits earlier than crusing away once more. Nonetheless, it is arduous to not examine him to extra support-focused healers as effectively, like Lucio, along with his velocity and knockback talents, and even Ana, the one different character whose capacity will increase incoming therapeutic.
Even when Blizzard desires to place Wuyang as an offense-oriented character, he is a marked distinction to Overwatch 2‘s different help heroes — Kiriko, together with her deadly crit-hitting kunai; Lifeweaver’s lethal thorn volley that shreds weaker opponents in seconds; even Illari, made extra harmful together with her perk that ignites enemies. Certain, all of them have excessive therapeutic potential, however they lack a skillset that lets gamers make sudden combos with different heroes. When Illari debuted, gamers even joked on Reddit that her workforce comps did not matter a lot, that you simply need not fear about therapeutic when she and most of her fellow supporters can simply wreck the enemy workforce.
The difficulty of position erasure, the place each character skewed towards harm and misplaced their position id, popped up often on Blizzard boards and Reddit after Overwatch 2‘s launch, and in July 2024, former recreation director Aaron Keller mentioned the workforce was conscious of those complaints and deliberate to handle them in future updates. Past the position matter, a help character who does greater than shred the opposing workforce simply has the potential to be extra pleasurable and performed in distinctive methods. Even Hudson theorized through the roundtable interview about a few of the strategies Wuyang’s package may mix with different heroes’ talents, like giving Reaper the therapeutic bubble earlier than he teleports or utilizing Wuyang’s final on Doomfist, so the wave explodes proper when Doomfist fees into the enemy ranks.
“Once we have been doing our hero workforce playtest, you’ll simply hear this like explosion of laughter coming from any nook of the constructing,” he mentioned. “And also you simply knew that they’d provide you with one thing superior and tremendous enjoyable.”
If you happen to’re eager to experiment with Wuyang’s water mastery your self, Blizzard is internet hosting a trial weekend from Aug. 14-18 forward of his debut in Season 18 on Aug. 26.
