Not long ago, Blizzard came out with the heaviest Overwatch 2 update and one of the best features, the new Hazard tank in Stadium mode, has already fans mad as hell. The Overwatch official account on Twitter issued a caution stating that this character is ‘very hazardous’ and they also used some devil emojis which quite frankly, should have been everyone’s first hint that things were going to be messed up.
The players’ reaction was… well, let’s just say it was ‘fiery’ at the beginning and still is. Over the players are so dismayed that they’re nearly begging for nerfs, one user named chloe just bluntly saying ‘nerf tf out of him please’ which to be honest, does reflect the overall vibe pretty well. On the other hand, some are really trying hard to come up with strategies in the replies on how to cope with such a big character.
What is the reason Hazard suggested by the community that made him so troublesome? Apparently, he has an area-of-effect auto-aim block which is powered by his ability and comes with life steal making this whole character the worst design decision of all time according to a lot of players. A user going by the name of Hyukui came up with the exact conclusion when they said ‘Aoe auto aim block that scales with ability power AND LIFE STEAL was the worst decision you could make.’ ‘Yeah,’ one might reply, ‘it does sound kind of broken when you put it that way.’
However, the question mark pops up when the issue of Hazard’s being a problem comes together with the recent rule change from best-of-7 to best-of-5 matches in Stadium mode. There’s a tiny group of players that claim the character may be somewhat balanced in a best-of-7 format, where scaling happens much slower. A user called Azyra was having a whole thread about how the format change might have been a last-minute decision that’s making Hazard feel way more oppressive than he should be.
While this is going on the replies are just full of people asking Blizzard to revert back to best-of-7, with several comments stating ‘CAUTION revert back to best of 7 thanks’ and ‘GIVE BACK BEST OF 7!’ It looks like the community has found their new rallying cry amidst all the Hazard chaos.
Then we have the …other kinds of comments. One user, mell, really went on an absolute posting spree with like twenty different demands, ranging from ‘Make the game paid again please, these newgens are ruining Overwatch’ to ‘Increase the size of hazards pecs, please’ and my personal favorite ‘Put jiggle physics on mauga pecs.’ But actually, wait, what was I even talking about? Oh, yes, Hazard being broken.
Some players are so discontented with Stadium mode that they are throwing around that it is garbage without hesitation while, on the other hand, there are people that post actual game-play clips of Hazard overpowering opponents. An user named anzu shared a video with the caption ‘Hazard with a great team ult, DPS clean up most of the kills’, which honestly just goes to show how mighty this character can get when properly played.
And the complaints about the character design in contexts of balance issues do not stop here – some players are even calling him ‘just another boring aimbot’ and at the same time are beseeching Blizzard to ‘add more characters that actually take skill, and remove all the aimbot powers.’ It’s a classic divide between the high-skill ceiling characters wanna be players and the other type who just want to enjoy being with the accessible heroes.
Apart from all that, there exists another sphere of concern about the Play of the Game being broken, with multiple comments demanding fixes to Potg system. The community has so many complaints that they can’t even focus on just one thing – it’s Hazard nerfs, format changes and Potg fixes going on all at once, to the extent that some very vocal users are suggesting we stop making Mercy and Kiriko skins.
What strikes as quite astonishing is that the community has so swiftly turned against Stadium mode, with a few comments saying things like ‘Deadlock outsold this mess’ and ‘We are playing deadlock not this mess.’ It appears that the release of Hazard has created a perfect storm of frustration in the community regarding multiple aspects of the game all at once.
However, at the end of the day, the Overwatch team has certainly achieved their goal – they have given birth to a character that generates buzz. If the chatter is negative or positive, that might be one thing, but the gaming industry has it that the milking of controversy drives engagement and Hazard is definitely the source of engagement at an insane rate right now.
The real question is whether Blizzard will take into account the prevailing feedback and make changes, or if they will be stubborn and keep Hazard in the present state. Based on how Blizzard has previously conducted themselves in terms of balance changes for Overwatch, we can expect some slight tweaks to be made in the next patch but nothing that will totally destine the character to be a non-playable one. Because let’s admit it – changes that the Overwatch team makes based solely on community outcry, no matter how loud that outcry might be, are hardly ever drastic.
So for the time being, players of the Stadium mode will just have to put up with this new dangerous addition to the roster and come up with a playing strategy around it. Or you know, just go play PlayStation or Xbox instead like the rest of the community seems to be doing and suggesting, half the time.
