Director’s Take: Welcoming Venture to Overwatch

Hello! It’s been a while since my last blog – but we’ve been hard at work! Let’s get right into it!

First off, I am thrilled that you have welcomed our newest hero, Venture, to the line-up. Venture’s ecstatic personality has charmed many of you, and you have already asked us so many questions about their backstory and personality. While I am unsure if they like to munch on rocks, they have drilled their way to being the top-picked hero in Quick Play this past weekend. We’ll be revealing more about Venture’s story and how they were developed shortly after Season 10 launches.

One of the biggest reasons so many of us instantly fell in love with Venture is the incredible voice talent of Valeria Rodriguez. We instantly knew they were a hit when we saw how much energy they could put into their voice and how they matched Venture’s personality perfectly. We are also thrilled that many of you have welcomed Valeria into our community.

Watching all of your reactions from the hero trial, we’re pretty happy with how Venture’s initial kit turned out.  The team was really happy with where Venture landed from a balance perspective during the trial, and it gave us confidence that they could release early into Competitive. We’re still deciding how early, but we feel they are in a suitable state (fun to play and fair to play against). While we don’t foresee needing to make many changes to their kit, we’re going to be listening closely to your thoughts on how Venture is doing in-game.

We’ve heard a lot of feedback that you like the tempo momentum Venture brings, being able to engage and disengage in fights.  But we’re looking at tweaking a few things for Venture at the start of Season 10. First, we’re slightly shifting some of their burst damage from their Drill Dash and Clobber (their melee) into damage over time. Next, we’re looking to reduce the vertical knockback of Tectonic Shock. Alongside those minor changes to Venture, we have a number of other hero changes coming in Season 10.