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It's all working behind the scenes...
There are a lot of systems at play in Overwatch 2. Because of this, it
can be a little difficult to know what information players should be paying attention to that actually impacts the game and what stuff is simply cosmetic. For example, Overwatch 2 features golden weapons that, although they look really cool, don’t actually impact how the game itself is played. The real thing you need to pay attention to is the information on the
“hero details” pages that each character has. Essentially these are snapshot breakdowns of a character’s abilities which includes things such as details of how their weapons and Ultimate moves work and what their unique tactical abilities are. In addition to that, each character gets at least one passive ability based on their class (Tank, Damage, or Support) that is automatically used during a match. More Overwatch 2 guides:
| How to Unlock the Founder’s Pack | How to Unlock Role Queue | How to Unlock Every Character | Can You Fix “0 Players Ahead of You” Error? | Does it Have Crossplay and Cross-Progression? | How to Merge Accounts | Which Characters are Unlocked and Free? | Best Characters in Each Class For Beginners | How to Play Tracer | How to Play Kiriko | What Does MIT Mean? | What Do Endorsements Do & What Do They Mean? | How to Get Golden Weapons | How to Play Orisa |
What Do Passive Abilities Do?
As mentioned above, passive abilities are abilities that work in the background automatically when playing a specific character. Not all characters have specific passive abilities unique to them, but they all get at least one depending on their class. Because of this, it means that come characters have multiple passive buffs running at once which, if utilized properly, can give them an advantage in combat.
For a full breakdown of all passive abilities, check out our guide here.
Role Passives Explained
There are three different roles that players can choose from when picking a character: Tank, Damage, or Support. The different roles help inform the player about what they should be focusing on when choosing a particular character. For example, when picking Mercy, a Support hero, she should focus on buffing the people on her team since her loadout lends itself to doing so. Her role passive simply adds to that.
Every character in a specific role gets the same role passive. The list of role passives is as follows:
- Tank: Reduces knockbacks received. Less ultimate generated by healing and damage received.
This means that when being hit by attacks that are meant to knock you backward, Tank characters won’t be launched as far as Damage or Support heroes. Because Tanks tend to be the first ones targeted by the enemy, however, they gain far less Ultimate percentage from taking damage and from being healed.
- Damage: Eliminations grant a burst of increased movement and reload speed.
When a Damage hero eliminates an enemy, they gain a temporary increase in movement and reload speed. This allows them to get right back into the action to take out more threats.
- Support: Automatically heal over time.
The Support role passive is pretty straightforward. If they get hurt, they’ll regenerate HP without needing to be healed by another character or by grabbing a health pickup. It’s worth noting that they heal gradually, so if you’ve taken too much damage it’s not a bad idea to find health elsewhere that will heal you quicker, but the passive allows Support characters to stay in the fight longer keeping their team healthy and ready to take on the opposition.