Overwatch 2 buffs Mauga so he’s as strong as he looks

Monitoring 2 let the players take Mauga, the new hero shooter tank character, for a test drive at BlizzCon earlier in November. I didn’t really like him at the time, and somehow found him, despite his giant build and powerful abilities, to be a bit of a pushover. This is not what you want in a Monitoring tank, and it looks like Blizzard heard this feedback enough to make changes to Mauga before it launches in Season 8.

In a post about the civil servant Monitoring 2 website, director Aaron Keller looked at the feedback the team received during Mauga’s testing phase. One of the key takeaways was that Mauga felt weak. I can attest to that. He’s a giant dude, but it was like he melted under the slightest fire of concentration. It seemed like I could unload a clip and a half into his head with Soldier: 76 and he would go down with minimal resistance. Changes are therefore underway and will arrive before the official launch of the new hero. Keller shared some details, and it definitely looks like Mauga is getting a survivability overhaul.

Two sweeping changes include reducing his head’s hitbox, meaning it will be harder to headshot and do more damage per bullet, as well as turning 150 of his 650 health into armor. Armor has a 30% damage reduction over standard health, meaning that for the first 150 damage you deal on Mauga, you’ll deal slightly less damage per shot. This gives Mauga more time to fight back before eliminating him.

As for his abilities, Overrun, which is essentially his version of Reinhardt’s Charge, will now reduce up to 50% damage while active instead of 30, and Cardiac Overdrive, which heals teammates when they deal damage, will grant more to those within range. Steal life for the damage caused.

The full summary is as follows:

• Replace some of his health with armor. We are testing 150 of them internally.
• Reduce the size of his head’s punch volume.
• Increases damage reduction when Overrun. Initially it was at 30%, we are testing it at 50%. Additionally, this can no longer be interrupted by Hack.
• Increases lifesteal on Cardiac Overdrive.
• There are quite a few in-flight changes to his weapons. We’re testing different spreads and rates of fire when using both weapons simultaneously, as well as different damage, ammo, and mitigation numbers. We’ll have more details on these as they solidify.

Mauga will join Monitoring 2‘s on December 5. Blizzard also announced the the next two heroes at BlizzConincluding Venture, the game first non-binary hero.