Summary
Illari has been a particularly popular hero since she was introduced toOverwatch 2earlier this month, but Blizzard brings a few nerfs and ability adjustments to the support hero in the game’s latest update. Hero balance seems to be an ever-changing thing inOverwatch 2, though the game’s new update makes no sandbox changes aside from those affecting Illari.
Added to the game near the beginning of the month alongside Season 6 andOverwatch 2’s massive Invasion update, Illari is a capable support hero who can dish out some serious damage along with her healing. Her primary weapon, the solar rifle, can interchangeably deal damage to enemies and heal allies not unlike many other support weapons in the game, but her ability kit allows her to effectively exploit advantageous positions and dig into her unusually damage-heavy playstyle. Her healing pylon ability acts as a sort of healing turret that can autonomously heal teammates from a protected location, and she also makes good use of her outburst ability which affords her added mobility. Her Ultimate, Captive Sun, lets loose an explosive projectile that can spread damage to enemies and punish them for grouping up.
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Blizzard initially discussed the prospect ofIllari balance tweaks just a week after her arrival inOverwatch 2, confirming in advance that she’d see nerfs to her healing pylon and Ultimate abilities as she becomes available in competitive play. The August 24 patch forOverwatch 2sees those changes made, bringing her healing pylon’s healing down from 40 to 30 and reducing its shields from 75 to 50. The development team also made some bold changes to her Ultimate ability, with Captive Sun’s initial impact and explosion damage now being blocked by barriers. The duration of the Sunstruck effect has also been reduced from 7 seconds to 6, though Captive Sun’s projectile size has also been decreased by 50% to make the projectile more difficult to intercept.
According to developer comments, these balance changes have been made to encourage a more comfortable balance between healing and damage from Illari, while also improving opposing players' opportunities to counter her abilities. The latest patch also fixes a number of bugs that have been disrupting players' experiences in both the PvP and PvE activities, with the new update returning apopularOverwatch 2voice line that had gone missing.
WhileOverwatch 2’s state of hero balanceis usually quite turbulent, the latest update makes noticeably few changes to the game’s sandbox, possibly suggesting that Blizzard is reaching a point where the state of character performance is more in line with expectations. The constantly shifting nature of live-service games such asOverwatch 2makes it nearly impossible to perfect balancing, but with hero overhauls coming in the future, fans can only wait and see howOverwatch 2’s sandbox will continue to evolve.
SUPPORT
ILLARI
Developer Comments: Illari has had a strong showing since her launch. The following changes are meant to promote a better balance between healing and damage while adding more counterplay against her abilities. We are making the Healing Pylon weaker, as it’s often placed out of line-of-sight or at odd angles and isn’t being destroyed as often as we expect. Captive Sun ignoring barriers is not immediately intuitive, but we are also reducing the projectile size, so blocking or destroying will require more precision. Finally, the Sunstruck effect lasts too long to reasonably avoid the detonation damage threshold.
Gothenburg
Underworld
Overwatch 2is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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