Board 8 > Overwatch 2 PvP Beta starts Tuesday April 26th at 11am

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/overwatch/23798985/welcome-to-the-first-overwatch-2-pvp-beta

Lots of important information in there, but here's some key highlights.

• You can sign up for a chance to enter the beta here: https://playoverwatch.com/en-us/beta/.
• If you don't get the beta invite, you can also guarantee (?) an invite with a Twitch drop opportunity on Wednesday April 27th. If you link your Twitch to your Battlenet account and have drops on, then you can watch any of a large number of streamers (you can see a list in the link) for an invite. You need to watch a total of four hours between the hours of 10am to 6pm on that day.
• The beta is for PC only (although consoles are planned to be included in future betas).
• If you get an invite and don't own Overwatch for PC, you will be given a free trial of it to be able to access the beta.
• The current beta will run for three weeks, from April 26th to May 17th. As mentioned above, more betas are planned for the future.

I've been watching a lot of streamers who had early access talk about it and have shown off footage of it. Apparently it's pretty good. It's a bit of a different game from OW1, with more of a focus on individual play and skill, as opposed to the "everyone group around the shield and see which team outlasts the other" mentality the original game had, but apparently it's fun and fast and takes the game to a new level. I hope to try it out myself.

Grand Kirby posted...

Apparently it's pretty good. It's a bit of a different game from OW1, with more of a focus on individual play and skill, as opposed to the "everyone group around the shield and see which team outlasts the other" mentality the original game had, but apparently it's fun and fast and takes the game to a new level. I hope to try it out myself.

Interesting. I think the two issues I had with the original (which tie into each other) were:

1. Time to kill was pretty fast, so battles were generally over before you had time to think about individual strategy.
2. Ultimates dictated the pace of the game a lot. TF2 had something like this with the medic's uber, but every character having ultimates made the gameplay feel a lot more stale because they are happening constantly.

I dunno if OW2 has changed these aspects at all, but maybe I'll check out some footage.

Neither of those really look to have changed in OW2. Everyone still dies pretty fast from what Ive seen since supports had healing effectiveness nerfed during combat

VintageGin posted...

Interesting. I think the two issues I had with the original (which tie into each other) were:

1. Time to kill was pretty fast, so battles were generally over before you had time to think about individual strategy.
2. Ultimates dictated the pace of the game a lot. TF2 had something like this with the medic's uber, but every character having ultimates made the gameplay feel a lot more stale because they are happening constantly.

I dunno if OW2 has changed these aspects at all, but maybe I'll check out some footage.

Really? One of the biggest complaints I always hear about Overwatch 1 is how fights can drag out too long. OW2 looks like it's much more like a traditional shooter where making decisive plays will get you kills and win fights quickly, so unfortunately don't expect too much overall MOBA-style team based strategy. It's more about the small-scale, fighting game-style individual strategy and playmaking that matters more. I don't know how that will fit in with what you disliked.

As far as the ultimate situation goes, I don't know how long it's been since you've last played, but Ultimate charge rates were nerfed multiple times over the course of the years so they're not as oppressive or happen as often anymore. In addition to that, they're even less common in Overwatch 2 because tanks now naturally give less ult charge, and there's one less tank per team to farm off of (and some people are suspecting there was another stealth nerf to the charge rate, but it hasn't been confirmed). So you won't be seeing them happening all the time.

I only really played during the first year or so, so it's possible things changed a lot. I don't remember fights dragging out that long, but I do remember you'd get some standoffs that last a while because there'd be a choke or a point and you'd need a critical mass of ultimates to clear it-- just trying to advacne would mean you'd get torn up very quickly because of how easy it is to get one-shot or two-shot.

VintageGin posted...

2. Ultimates dictated the pace of the game a lot. TF2 had something like this with the medic's uber, but every character having ultimates made the gameplay feel a lot more stale because they are happening constantly.

This is still my biggest complaint with Overwatch. It's not as bad as it once was when Mercy could rez your entire team with her ult but it's still pretty bad in my opinion.

The more I see of Overwatch 2 the less excited for it I become. I'm a big fan of Overwatch because of the tight team gameplay and complimentary styles. Turning it into a more freestyle shooter doesn't appeal to me as much. We have scores of shooter games already, and Overwatch was unique because it emphasized teams playing their roles well. I still plan on playing it, and hope to join the beta sooner rather than later, but my preliminary expectations are that I won't like it quite the same way I do the original.

I'm pretty excited for Overwatch 2 pvp.

Overwatch got pretty toxic--your teammates got increasingly picky about what hero you were playing, as the years went on, and that's the opposite of what I want from the game--I wanna play who I want to, when I want to.

Jury's out on if OW2 pvp fixes this, but I'm pretty sure it will help, 'cause it looks like there is less team strategy, more individual skill.

I'm much MORE excited for OW2 PVE though, it's sad we haven't heard much about it in a while. I wouldn't be surprised if it gets quietly cancelled.

I signed up for it ages ago but man I figured I'd get some emails about it but I haven't

VintageGin posted...

2. Ultimates dictated the pace of the game a lot. TF2 had something like this with the medic's uber, but every character having ultimates made the gameplay feel a lot more stale because they are happening constantly.

frequent ultimates is the most fun part of OW imo

Overwatch 2 already came out.

https://youtu.be/oC33AblrR_A

I guess I just gotta keep an eye on my email then

https://twitter.com/PlayOverwatch/status/1519014298231652352

"Throughout the day". Honestly I'd kind of prefer knowing at one specific time instead of having to refresh my email.

@VintageGin I'm watching Yeatle play and he mentioned he thinks the Ultimate charge rate is "the best it's even been". Lots of neutral team fights before the ults start coming out.

https://twitter.com/Punnyshment/status/1519161822233997312

The drop campaign has started. Link your Twitch to your Battlenet account and watch a total of four hours of participating streamers to get a beta key. You have until 6pm.

^hey yall, wanna watch my stuff? LOL

Blizzard REALLY needs to fix the marketing for Overwatch 2. So many people online think it's a $60 upgrade just to play the new PVP. I've seen a ton of posts saying "why isn't it just a free upgrade" and it IS a free upgrade!

I understand why they're calling it OW2 but they gotta do something about this marketing.

Theyve said what it is multiple times before. They cant fix people being stupid and not paying attention. It might be worse its free even because its pasting over OW1 so if you hate 5v5 the game is just dead to you altogether since theres no going back (until they inevitably bring back 6v6 when the game declines even further imo)

They should at least try because they're going to get destroyed once they start sharing details about the battle pass. "Free to play micro-transactions in a game that I have to PAY for?"

And to be fair if you don't have OW1 then you would still need to pay for OW2 PVP I'm assuming.

Drops usually get enabled when I stream OW but its not doing it right now so I guess I'm not cool enough but

I AM streaming now if yall want to see some

Played a bunch of OW2 yesterday, and watched a bunch of streams.

I like it a lot. The 5v5 with fewer barriers, is better than I expected. It's just a faster, less frustrating game.

Even when I'm losing or dying a lot, I still feel like I'm having a ton of opportunities to make decisions, and test my skill, whereas before I often felt I was relying on the team strategy and team comp (and matchmaking), and the game was pretty much on rails.

Tanks are fun. Orisa is insanely fun. Old Orisa was my favorite hero, but the new Orisa is just way more active. The javelin-throw right click in particular is a very satisfying skill shot.

Playing support kinda sucks, because you really get bullied hardcore by tanks and DPS, and they also have the fewest changes (almost none) compared to tanks and DPS. It's no surprise that the support queue is instant, but the tank queue is quite long.

Tank will turn out somewhat similar to how it is now by the time the game goes live for everyone. Its already by far the least played role and theres nothing they can do to get DPS mains to main tank instead. They gotta keep role queue just for that really because otherwise QP would be first two people locking into DPS as fast as they can and the other 3 probably just leaving the match sadly

swordz9 posted...

Its already by far the least played role and theres nothing they can do to get DPS mains to main tank instead.

It seems like they're doing a lot! I mean I hope you're right (selfishly) because I usually just play the fastest queue, and I'd like it to be tank...but they're doing quite a few things to fix the tank shortage:

1. Tanks play basically like DPS now, but with more HP, and more CC abilities. What's not to like!
2. There are more tank heroes to choose from, than before (doomfist).
3. There's only 1 tank slot, so that makes it much harder for the world to not have enough tank players to fill games.
4. There's no risk that another player will steal your favorite tank...because there is no other player!
5. There is less pressure to choose a tank that synergizes well with your other tank.
6. Tanks used to be a prime target for CC...but there's less CC in the game!

Honestly I've felt that all they needed to do to make the tank role more popular was simply make the tank role more fun to play. They had the experimental card a while back that buffed tanks a lot and the role was the most in demand for the entirety of the card's run.

And I agree that the changes OW2 are making will help a lot. At the very least with only one tank role to fill, and the increase in the number of players the sequel will bring, queuing will be better than before.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/9/6/AABtbFAADLS4.png

I'm on my way

I personally love tank and support so much more than DPS but I guess I'm the outlier since in basically any game that has 'classes' I gravitate towards that

Grand Kirby posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/9/6/AABtbFAADLS4.png

I'm on my way

I'm like an hour from my twitch drop and I want it to happen now

Heres the thing though. A fair amount of the tanks left LIKED being defensive tanks and dont care to be DPS. Most of them liked the tank synergy that existed in OW1 and doesnt exist at all in OW2. Most of them didnt want to be more like Hog who is basically all damage and does very little to actually protect his team in most cases. Tank players will also likely be blamed for most losses due to how toxic OW is. It sounds like DPS ear supports alive too so theyre kinda slaughtering two roles lol

I redeemed my twitch drop but it's still not showing up. Did you have to do anything special?

skullbone posted...

I redeemed my twitch drop but it's still not showing up. Did you have to do anything special?

Like the servers are getting hammered probably. After claiming your drop, just check on the launcher every once it a while until you see it show up. It took me about 15 minutes after I claimed the drop.

So they removed Mei's ability to freeze someone. It "slows them down" but they still aren't slowed down that much. you may as well be shooting them

they gave her a faster fire rate that takes up less ammo but her damage was also nerfed

yes she can still put up walls but...I have NO idea what they want her to be now.

she has no stopping power nor can punish people for diving in, as well as less GOOD options while fighting close

my poor sweet mei baby

yea the game promotes more aggression and they are removing barriers to push that point

but some of the DPS just feels like they've been smoothed out and they don't hit as hard anyways

I do like that it feels faster paced though with the new maps.

Going on 90 minutes without seeing the tech test in the bnet launcher :-(

At least I have the twitch drop I can use to verify if it comes to that.

Have you tried closing it and re-logging in?

argh servers come on and work and let me play OW2

this is somehow more frustrating than waiting for elden ring servers to come up

God I love new Orisa. Went from one of my least favorite characters to play as to one of my favorite.

While I haven't played them all yet, Tanks look like a big winner in all these changes.

https://twitter.com/overwatchleague/status/1519436768612958209

If you couldn't get one yet, the Overwatch League is doing a campaign to get beta codes

I guess I'll try that option since it's been over 3 hours and I doubt this launcher is going to start working at this point.

I just left a streamer on for like 4 hours and got the drop for the OW2 Beta that way.

Worked pretty well, now just gotta wait until it appears on my launcher.

I'm enjoying it so far. Fights definitely feel slower paced which is really nice, makes it feel more tactical and getting a pick means so much more.

Shields also feel super strong right now with the reduced CC and and 5 person teams.

Tank queues are so long lol.

24 hour update: still no beta access lol

It's definitely not happening for me at this point. Tried a bunch of methods to get it to appear but no luck.

That's so weird. Your Battlenet account was connected to your Twitch, right?

Yep I even booted up Overwatch 1 just to see if that might make a difference and my claimed legendary lootboxes were there from Twitch.

Apparently a lot of people online had this issue and they did another sweep of everyone who claimed but still can't access. I guess that wasn't enough still!

Wow. That sucks. Hopefully they can work out this issue and make things right.

Just checking, but are you not seeing it as a version switch like shown here?

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/8/0/AAC8J1AADLm8.png

Yeah I just have the "Live" option. Most recently I tried uninstalling b.net and that didn't work either. It's probably just a lost cause at this point.

gonna give it another run if yall wanna hang out

Oh hey, achievements are available in this. I just got Bastion's.