
Overwatch 2’s introduction of Hero Perks fixed one of the worst parts of the OW’s meta that was causing the game to grow stale.
Hero Perks, while slightly controversial, have injected a much-needed freshness into Overwatch 2. Overwatch was largely a “solved game,” and with Marvel Rivals siphoning much of its player base away, Blizzard’s hero shooter needed something to bring it back to life.
Enter the Perks system, a hot idea for OW that offers a compelling alternative to Marvel Rivals’ team-up mechanic. As you play a hero throughout a match, they gain experience and level-up, granting them access to new skills and abilities that can dramatically change the way they play.
It sounds like a drastic change, but largely, it’s changed the game for the better. And one way it improved was a shift in Overwatch’s problematic meta game that involved an excessive amount of counter-swapping.
Counter-swapping isn’t as severe anymore in Overwatch 2
Counter-swapping was exacerbated with the move to 5v5, as the loss of a second tank meant it was harder to compensate for a weakness on your team. Counter-swapping became so powerful that the state of Tanks in Overwatch became a “counter-swap” meta. Running Doomfist? Get a Roadhog. Now that you’re Roadhog, they go D.Va or Orisa. Rinse and repeat.
It was a rock-paper-scissors bonanza that didn’t really allow players to shine on their preferred hero, since counter-swapping was so necessary. Balance didn’t help either, as the existence of hard counters versus soft counters made the problem even worse.
Hero Perks, however, add a pretty major incentive to stay on your character regardless of the circumstances. When you swap off a hero, your progress towards Perks are reset. While you do gain experience slightly faster to compensate, this results in you being down one or two perks versus the enemy team.
Related

Some perks are weaker than others, making swapping less painful. However, if you’re running a Level 3 Winston with a Primal Rage buff and healing bubble shield, it’s hard to justify going to another Tank just because the enemy team decided to send a Bastion your way.
The great thing is, Hero Perks don’t completely invalidate counter-swapping. Counter-swapping has always been a part of Overwatch, and that’s how it should be. But Hero Perks do help create a drawback to the system and force players to think about whether or not it’s worth it to switch to another character.
Hopefully, as Hero Perks are refined, Overwatch enters a healthier state in terms of the meta and balance. Hero Perks are definitely a fun addition to the game, but concerns about balance are slowly creeping up as this new mechanic is solved. However, Perks also give the devs more control than ever over how powerful a hero is.
So, while there may be some growing pains when it comes to balancing Perks, the system has already proven to be a vast improvement over the way Overwatch was before.