Overwatch 2’s Mauga has two weapons with two completely different functions

Blizzard revealed the most recent hero to hitch the ever-growing roster of its shooter Overwatch 2 at Blizzcon 2023. Throughout an interview on the conference, Polygon bought extra particulars about Mauga, what gamers can count on from him, and the method of making a brand new tank.

“Mauga is a damaged-based tank, and the way he sustains himself and his crew is thru injury,” stated lead hero designer Alec Dawson. He was designed primarily based on his weapons, along with his talents centered round doing as a lot injury as attainable. The designers hope this give attention to injury will make him extra interesting to new gamers.

The crew needed to make sure his talents felt good when utilizing each chain weapons, however in addition they needed to ensure gamers couldn’t “wipe individuals out instantly.” To fight that, Mauga has a giant unfold on each of his weapons. On the similar time, this makes him a risk in shut quarters. “You don’t wish to play with Mauga up shut except you realize you’re going to take him out,” stated Dawson.

Mauga’s Overrun charging capability makes him nearly unstoppable, even in opposition to sleep darts. “He makes use of it to get the place he desires to go,” stated Dawson. For a pleasant cherry on high, at any time when Mauga immediately hits an opponent whereas utilizing Overrun, he’ll slam them to the bottom, beautiful them whereas different close by opponents shall be despatched flying.

Picture: Blizzard Leisure

Mauga’s final, Cage Combat, creates a zone that traps opponents and blocks therapeutic from the skin of it. What makes his final much more harmful is that Cage Combat stays lively even when Mauga dies. Help hero Lifeweaver can pull Mauga out of the last word, however the enemy gamers will nonetheless be trapped inside till the flexibility runs out.

Despite the fact that he’s a tank, Mauga can do extra injury than some DPS heroes, stated Dawson. To counter that, opposing groups can assault Mauga whereas he’s reloading or has burned by his talents. “He’s such a giant physique that he actually wants assist. He wants a excessive therapeutic output to maintain him up at instances.”

When it got here to creating Mauga, the dev crew labored intently with a tradition marketing consultant crew to make sure the studio displayed him in a method that may be respectful to the Samoan group. “We labored with a conventional tattoo artist from the Samoan tradition to information us. We tried to get as genuine as attainable and as near actual as our engines may deal with. And it turned out nice,” stated hero design producer Kenny Hudson.

Picture: Blizzard Leisure

When Mauga was first being examined, the crew initially had one iteration the place his proper gun solely dealt crucial injury to enemies within the air to assist tanks combat flying-based heroes. As time went on, the crew scrapped that, and now the correct gun offers crucial injury at any time when an enemy is ready on fireplace first along with his left gun. However the thought to have him use two large weapons was one thing the dev crew at all times supposed to do. “We at all times kinda knew that he was going to be a tank with two large important weapons, and we needed to make them simply as vital and simply as helpful to gamers as the opposite one. We didn’t need one to outshine the opposite,” stated Hudson.

One of many challenges the dev crew confronted was making the visible cues noticeable to gamers when Mauga makes use of his Cardiac Overdrive capability, which permits Mauga and his crew members to heal at any time when they injury an opponent. So the dev crew revisited an previous thought the place Roadhog’s capability would heal everybody round him. This helped them discover the “candy spot” of not overwhelming the participant with an excessive amount of happening display screen. “We don’t like throwing issues away. Even when it doesn’t work out for a sure hero, it might probably come again in a while for an additional one,” stated senior take a look at analyst Foster Elmendorf. To assist additional show their level, Elmendorf defined how Mauga’s final was initially D.va’s, which concerned her making “a dome of lasers.”

The crew has been engaged on Mauga for a while. Initially, he was speculated to be launched in season 2 as an alternative of Ramattra, “however the crew actually needed to take some extra time to get the equipment excellent,” stated Dawson. Pushing Mauga again allowed the dev crew to shine him up and guarantee his talents performed easily with each other.