Blizzard revealed the newest hero to hitch the ever-growing roster of its shooter Overwatch 2 at Blizzcon 2023. Throughout an interview on the conference, Polygon received extra particulars about Mauga, what gamers can anticipate from him, and the method of making a brand new tank.
“Mauga is a damaged-based tank, and the way he sustains himself and his crew is thru injury,” mentioned lead hero designer Alec Dawson. He was designed based mostly on his weapons, together with his skills centered round doing as a lot injury as attainable. The designers hope this deal with injury will make him extra interesting to new gamers.
The crew wished to make sure his skills felt good when utilizing each chain weapons, however in addition they wished to verify gamers couldn’t “wipe folks out instantly.” To fight that, Mauga has a giant unfold on each of his weapons. On the identical time, this makes him a risk in shut quarters. “You don’t need to play with Mauga up shut except you’re going to take him out,” mentioned Dawson.
Mauga’s Overrun charging means makes him just about unstoppable, even towards sleep darts. “He makes use of it to get the place he needs to go,” mentioned Dawson. For a pleasant cherry on prime, each time Mauga straight hits an opponent whereas utilizing Overrun, he’ll slam them to the bottom, beautiful them whereas different close by opponents can be despatched flying.
Picture: Blizzard Leisure
Mauga’s final, Cage Combat, creates a zone that traps opponents and blocks therapeutic from the skin of it. What makes his final much more harmful is that Cage Combat stays lively even when Mauga dies. Assist hero Lifeweaver can pull Mauga out of the last word, however the enemy gamers will nonetheless be trapped inside till the power runs out.
Despite the fact that he’s a tank, Mauga can do extra injury than some DPS heroes, mentioned Dawson. To counter that, opposing groups can assault Mauga whereas he’s reloading or has burned by means of his skills. “He’s such a giant physique that he actually wants assist. He wants a excessive therapeutic output to maintain him up at occasions.”
When it got here to creating Mauga, the dev crew labored intently with a tradition advisor crew to make sure the studio displayed him in a means that might be respectful to the Samoan neighborhood. “We labored with a standard tattoo artist from the Samoan tradition to information us. We tried to get as genuine as attainable and as near actual as our engines might deal with. And it turned out nice,” mentioned hero design producer Kenny Hudson.
Picture: Blizzard Leisure
When Mauga was first being examined, the crew initially had one iteration the place his proper gun solely dealt important injury to enemies within the air to assist tanks combat flying-based heroes. As time went on, the crew scrapped that, and now the proper gun offers important injury each time an enemy is ready on hearth first together with his left gun. However the concept to have him use two massive weapons was one thing the dev crew at all times meant to do. “We at all times kinda knew that he was going to be a tank with two massive fundamental weapons, and we wished to make them simply as essential and simply as helpful to gamers as the opposite one. We didn’t need one to outshine the opposite,” mentioned Hudson.
One of many challenges the dev crew confronted was making the visible cues noticeable to gamers when Mauga makes use of his Cardiac Overdrive means, which permits Mauga and his crew members to heal each time they injury an opponent. So the dev crew revisited an outdated concept the place Roadhog’s means would heal everybody round him. This helped them discover the “candy spot” of not overwhelming the participant with an excessive amount of occurring display screen. “We don’t like throwing issues away. Even when it doesn’t work out for a sure hero, it could come again afterward for one more one,” mentioned senior check analyst Foster Elmendorf. To assist additional show their level, Elmendorf defined how Mauga’s final was initially D.va’s, which concerned her making “a dome of lasers.”
The crew has been engaged on Mauga for a while. Initially, he was presupposed to be launched in season 2 as a substitute of Ramattra, “however the crew actually wished to take some extra time to get the package good,” mentioned Dawson. Pushing Mauga again allowed the dev crew to shine him up and guarantee his skills performed easily with each other.
