The new Overwatch, formerly named Overwatch 2, but now just Overwatch has been upon us with five new heroes for about a month, and one thing is clear: people really, really don't want to play against Jetpack Cat. Little Fika is the most-banned new hero in the game, but Blizzard seems pretty sure Domina doesn't deserve to be the runner-up.
"Surprising absolutely no one that's played a Competitive game over the past few weeks," Blizzard writes in a new blog, "Jetpack Cat has been catching more bans than any other new Hero. In Role Queue 5v5 Competitive matches across the globe, poor Fika faces ban rates from 66.5% on North American servers to a staggering 80.7% on South Korean servers. Sheesh."
Jetpack Cat's overall ban rate is 69.1% across all platforms and regions – excluding China – which is not a very nice introduction for the kitten Overwatch fans had been waiting a decade for. Blizzard seems to have learned its lesson, with associate game director Alec Dawson recently saying the team doesn't want new heroes "to be perma-banned."
Jetpack Cat has already gotten some nerfs, but Fika isn't the only one high on the ban list. Domina has a 59.7% ban rate, which is far above any of the other new heroes introduced in the last update. But it seems Blizzard doesn't really believe that ban rate is justified for Domina. Maybe you all just need to counter her?
"Our balance team believes Competitive players might be following the perception that Domina is overpowered, even though her win rate says otherwise. Her ban rates may drop over a longer period as clear counters to Domina emerge. Have a bonus hint from our devs: look to aggressive Heroes like D.Va and Reinhardt to shut Domina down," Blizzard advises.
Here, let me translate that into terms modern gamers can easily understand: Blizzard is saying Domina haters need to get good. I haven't played much Overwatch since the game first launched in 2016, but I certainly remember the days when everyone thought Bastion was an absolute OP terror. Thankfully, that was in the era before hero bans existed, because we quickly learned that nah, we all just needed to play better. Nowadays I guess Blizzard is just willing to say it to our faces.
