Overwatch 2 Season 13 is only a few days away, and there is a shed load of new content and changes for players to get their heads around before it begins. Blizzard has already teased a new hero, and gave us a look at some fantastic upcoming shop and battle pass skins, but what I'm really excited about is all the map changes.
The Season 13 trailer gave us a first (and very brief) look at the map changes for Circuit Royal, Dorado, Havana, and Numbani. At first, it doesn't seem as if there are many differences between the new and the old versions at all. But after looking at Blizzard's press centre I can see that there's actually way more on offer than I first thought.
For Circuit Royal, there's five changes in total (although not all of them are massive). There's now a small structure outside the spawn gates, which is probably there to give the attacking team some cover. Back at the third and final point, there's changes to the outside high ground, providing more space, as well as another door next to the defending team's second spawn point.
However, the most interesting change for this map is that there is more cover for the attacking team on the incline after the first point. Pushing a cart up that hill is notoriously tricky as the defence has the high ground, and there's scant cover for little old supports to hide behind on attack (as an Ana main, this new addition makes me very happy).
Dorado also sees similar changes, with more cover being added around the fountain at the first point, up on the balcony at the second point, and in the upstairs corridor at the third point. While that'll be great for long-range supports and DPS heroes, the best changes are probably new accessibility to high grounds around the map.
The rooftop outside of the attack's spawn has a lift now, and the balcony outside the first point has a giant staircase leading up to it. This will really change team composition for Dorado, as before, the attacking and defending teams would want to pick mobile heroes that could easily scale buildings, so you could easily push the enemy team off the high ground or any vantage points. But these new lifts and staircases mean that now an enemy Zarya, who lacks any means to juke or jump, can get in your face even if you're sheltering up on a balcony.
There are also more stairs being added to Havana's third point, and the staircase is being changed next to the second point. Havana also has high ground at the first point now (not like Widowmaker needed another spot), more cover on the defending side at the first point, new doors for the defender's first spawn room, as well as more ground outside the attacker's third spawn.
Then there's Numbani. Over the years, there's been various horrible maps (Volskaya Industries, Temple of Anubis, basically any 2CP), but after all the 2CP maps were binned, I realised just how much I hate Numbani. Defending is easy enough, but attacking is a hellish experience thanks to all the high ground surrounding the first point, the choke points that the defending team can trap you in, and the lengthy trek attacking heroes need to make if they want to flank.
Most of the time, if I ever make it into the bowl (otherwise known as the first point), I'm left looking up at a barrage of attacks like Willem Defoe in that one scene from At Eternity's Gate. So, I was pretty happy to see it on the list of maps that are to be updated.
There aren't as many changes to the map as I'd like, but what we do have will at least make attacking the first point a little easier. The main changes include adding yet another new staircase on the first and second points that'll make it easier for the attacking team to reach the high ground, as well as more cover around the map.
Overwatch 2 Season 13's map changes should really just be called the staircase update, as that's the main component of most of the changes and also probably the feature that'll make the most difference in practice. While this doesn't address every problem with every map, it's still a good starting point and a nice indication that the Overwatch 2 team is still playing around with structural changes to the game.
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