Following the success of Apex Legends’ return to the original Battle Royale experience and Fortnite’s release of its old-school Remix mode, Overwatch 2 is also bringing back the classic experience. Blizzard released a trailer for Overwatch which showcased this new game mode. In Overwatch 2 Classic players will be able to play from the original roster of Heroes that will be present at the time of the release of Overwatch. They will also feature their original abilities and cooldowns. The teams will also comprise of 6 players instead of 5.
Official Trailer
The official channel of PlayOverwatch on YouTube is titled “Overwatch: Classic.” This 1-minute and 29-second-long gameplay trailer showcased everything that players can expect from the classic 6v6 experience. This new mode will start on 12th November 2024 and will go all the way to 2nd December. The trailer first showcased a team of 6 heroes comprising two Supports, two Damage, and two Tanks heroes and then immediately transitioned to a team comprising 6 Torbjorn.
Overwatch 2 Classic will not only allow players to play in 6v6 mode, but it will also allow them to play any character no matter if any other member of the team has selected them. This means the game will feature a No Hero Limits rule. This game mode will feature 21 original heroes and 12 maps, which were present during the launch of Overwatch. However, all the maps will not be reverted to the original state in case they went through some updates or changes.
Abilities and Balance
All 21 heroes will have the abilities that they had during the game’s original release in 2016. Cassidy will have his Flashbang Grenade back which will allow him to stun enemies in front of him. Reaper will have the ability called The Reaping which will allow him to collect Soul Globes to restore his health. Bastion will have his original Ultimate ability back which allows him to transform into a tank and deal massive bursts of damage with his cannons. He will also have his Self-Repair ability back, allowing him to heal.
Hanzo will also have his original Scatter Arrow ability back. This will allow his arrow to split into a volley of projectiles that will ricochet off of walls. Mei’s primary fire will also allow her to freeze enemies. Torbjorn is now able to upgrade his turret all the way to level 3 and can provide armor packs to his allies.
Mercy has probably the biggest change with her ultimately being able to resurrect every fallen ally. Symmetra also has her old abilities back with her ultimate being a teleporter that connects to the spawn room. Every character will also receive their ultimates relatively quickly as the regeneration rate was significantly greater in the original Overwatch.
Patch Notes
The update of Overwatch 2 Classic also came with some mid-season balance updates for various heroes. There is also a store update where Soldier: 76 is getting his very own Mythic weapon skin.
- Doomfist: Ultimate cost is reduced by 8 percent and healing while in ultimate is improved.
- Junker Queen: The base projectile size of Jagged Blade is reduced as well as wound damage self-healing.
- Mauga: Cooldown of Overrun has been decreased from 6 to 5 seconds while increasing the movement speed by 15 percent.
- Hanzo: The time to fully charge the bow decreased from 0.87 to 0.8 seconds.
- Junkrat: Cooldown of Concussion Mine increased from 7 to 8 seconds.
- Reaper: The Lifesteal ability of Reaper has its potency reduced from 35 percent to 30 percent.
- Tracer: Cooldown of Recall has been reduced by a second.
- Ana: Damage and healing have been increased from 70 to 75 points.
- Juno: Ultimate cost has been increased by 10 percent.
- Kiriko: Ability cooldown has been reduced for both Swift Step and Protection Suzu.
- Lifeweaver: The Cooldown of Lifegrip has been decreased with healing increased by 35.
- Moira: Self-healing has been increased from 24 to 30.
