Overwatch’s feisty dwarf engineer Torbjorn has long been considered a“troll pick.” In my experience, it’s common for teammates’ blood pressure to skyrocket whenever players pick him. We already knew Torbjorn was getting a much-needed overhaul, and today, Overwatch’s game director Jeff Kaplan finally announced what Torbjorn 2.0 will look like.
“The goal of all of these changes is to make Torb a more acceptable pick on both attack and defense and less map or role-dependent than he was previously,” Kaplan said in today’s announcement video.
After the update, Torbjorn will no longer use armor packs. His secondary ability will instead look like his current ultimate ability, molten core, which will give him a speed bonus, damage resistance and an increased firing rate. It will be called “Overload,” and according to Kaplan, “it will make Torb more viable as a damage dealer in more situations where he can get in there and scuffle a little bit.”
Without the “scrap” system, Torbjorn’s signature turrets will look a lot different, too. He’ll now be able to toss them around, and, thankfully, he’ll be able to throw them into areas he couldn’t get to before, which might make them harder to take down. With this change, turrets won’t grow stronger with a leveling system. Instead, turrets will only be at the level that we now know as level two, and they’ll go through a “small but fast build time.”
While Torbjorn’s ultimate ability, molten core, will retain its name (and its Pokemon-sounding voice line: “Moolteenn..... Core!!!!!!), the ability itself is getting completely revised. “He can shoot out pools of that liquid magma that are very devastating in terms of area of effect damage,” said Kaplan, adding that “it does extra damage against armor.” Torbjorn’s gun will be getting changes too, but we don’t know what they will look like yet.
Today’s game update also teased some more updates coming to the game, including changes to Pharah and Orisa, as well as the annual Halloween event, in which—buried lede alert—“Junkenstein’s monster finally gets a bride.” Roadhog, we’re so proud! Finally, Overwatch will be pushing out updates for players who are colorblind to improve their gaming experience.
Now, for a Torbjorn voice line: “I foresee great things for you!”