At BlizzCon, Blizzard had a new Overwatch 2 hero to show off. His name is Mauga and he’s playable until Sunday. He’ll officially join the roster when Season 8 goes live on December 5.
During a deep dive panel, members of the Overwatch dev team explained Mauga’s abilities. First, here’s a quick overview of what the new tank can do with his kit, which includes two chainguns.
- Primary fire: Incendiary Chaingun aka “Gunny” — Automatic weapon that ignite enemies on repeated impacts
- Secondary fire: Volatile Chaingun aka Cha-Cha — Automatic weapon that deals critical damage to burning enemies
- Ability 1: Overrun — Charge forward and stomp to launch enemies. You are unstoppable while charging
- Ability 2: Cardiac Overdrive — Nearby allies take reduced damage and heal by dealing damage
- Passive: Beserker — Gain temporary health when dealing critical damage
- Ultimate: Cage Fight — Deploy a barrier that traps yourself and enemies. Gain unlimited ammo while inside
That’s a pretty fun, creative kit. The chainguns share the same ammo allocation and you can fire them simultaneously. The weapons are also hitscan.
“When developing Mauga, the team wanted to look at a tank that could counter Pharah or Echo and have an ability to actually contest them while they’re in the air from afar or even up close,” lead hero designer Alec Dawson said during the panel.
It takes 10 primary fire hits to set an hero on fire and put them in a burning state, Dawson said. Alternatively, you’ll deal more right click damage when shooting a hero that Ashe has set alight with Dynamite, meaning Ashe and Mauga might make a sensible duo. The same goes for Torbjorn and his ultimate.
Mauga is a gun-centric hero — his massive chainguns are larger than Tracer’s entire model — and his abilities are largely secondary. As the largest hero in the game, though, Team 4 wanted to make sure he had at least one ability that tied in with that. Enter Overrun. It’s interesting that no crowd control abilities can stop him when he’s charging. That kind of invulnerability is rarely seen outside of Orisa’s Fortify.
There’s some skill involved with Overrun as well. If you manage to land on an enemy directly with the stomp, it delivers a brief stun. So, time it right and you can interrupt an ultimate such as Cassidy’s Deadeye or Moira’s Coalescence.
Hero design producer Kenny Hudson shed more light on how this works in an interview with media. Mauga won’t stop running if, say, a Reinhardt tries to stop him with Earthshatter or Sigma attempts to pull him into Gravitic Flux. During Overrun, Mauga will glance off of a fortified Orisa rather than crash to a halt.
A Mei wall can block Mauga but even that won’t stop him from running. If Mauga’s teammates are able to destroy the parts of a wall that are blocking him before Overrun ends, he’ll push on through.
Cardiac Overdrive also lines up with Mauga’s personality and playstyle. Both the tank and nearby allies will have reduced damage and heal up depending on how much damage they deal. That encourages Mauga and his teammates to play aggressively. This ability is seemingly powered by the two hearts Mauga has: a cybernetic one and an upgraded organic heart.
Mauga’s passive helps set him apart from other tanks, Dawson noted. You’ll be rewarded for dealing critical damage as that helps sustain Mauga’s health. That means Mauga is more likely to be a good fit for aggressive players and he’ll likely have a high skill ceiling as you’ll need decent aim to be most effective with him.
Cage Match, meanwhile, is a really fun ultimate. Enemy players who are on the outside of the barrier can’t heal or deal damage through it. For the duration of Cage Match, Mauga is chained to a totem in the center of the barrier. So too are any enemies caught in the ability’s radius when a Mauga player triggers it. That means he doesn’t need to go far to pummel opposing players with his chainguns. So, charging into a bunch of enemies with Overrun and quickly activating Cage Match seems like a good strategy.
There are counters to Cage Match. Like any other shield, the barrier can be destroyed. Doing so will interrupt the ultimate. Fun fact: a version of this ultimate was originally planned for D.Va way back when.
Although Mauga has a lot of abilities that reward aggression, you’ll need to be smart in how you use them. Meanwhile, I’ve done enough writing for one day given that there’s a new hero to get my hands on.
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