Free-to-play shooter Overwatch 2 is launching Season 2 tomorrow and with it a brand new tank character, Ramattra. And like last time, you can either buy the premium battle pass to unlock the new hero instantly or you can grind the free path to eventually gain access to him. But this time, following complaints from players, Blizzard is making that second option easier.
Released earlier this fall, Blizzard’s hero-based competitive shooter hasn’t had a great first few months. Between server issues, bugs, characters being removed from the game, pricey skins, and issues with crossplay and support mains, well it’s been a giant mess.
One of the most controversial issues involved Kiriko, a new support character added in the game’s first season. If you bought the battle pass, you got the new hero instantly. However, for players who didn’t buy the pass, you’d have to grind to level 55 to unlock her. Considering how much of a slog it was to level up the battle pass, not many were happy about this. Leveling up the pass took a long time, and involved playing a lot of matches and completing boring or specific challenges—like pin five enemies with Orisa’s spear—that didn’t pay out much XP. Now, ahead of Season 2’s launch tomorrow, Blizzard is promising an easier path to unlocking its new tank for free.
On Twitter, Overwatch 2 game director Aaron Keller tweeted that Blizzard had reviewed data from Season 1 and decided to move Ramattra from tier 55 to tier 45 in the battle pass. And some challenges will be made “easier” to complete.
“Hey, everyone! Quick update on some changes coming to Season 2,” said Keller. “After reviewing data for Season 1, we’re moving Ramattra into Tier 45 of the Battle Pass and making a few more weekly challenges easier to complete. Excited for you all to see everything new in Season 2 starting tomorrow!”
This is part of Blizzard’s ongoing efforts to make progress in the shooter “more rewarding.” Of course on Twitter, players were mixed. While many seemed happy about the changeothers were still upset that the hero was locked behind such a high tier of the pass, suggesting a lower tier would be betterr.
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Now, it should be noted that unlike in the original Overwatch—which added all characters for free for all players with no restrictions—Ramatra will still be locked behind a paywalll unless you grind. But at least now the grind will be less terrible and once you hit 45 you can stop focusing on challenges and the battle pass and just enjoy your new character. Well, unless Blizzard removes him like Mei or Bastion for a few weeks.
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