The Colosseo is wide open and one of its stars is arriving in season 20 of Overwatch 2. Say hello to the game's 45th hero, Vendetta.
Before players get a chance to try out Vendetta in her hero trial next week, I spoke with Blizzard devs in a group interview last week to get the first details about hero 45, who is now confirmed to be the game's first melee-based DPS character.
Overwatch has history with some of its characters using melee abilities, like Reinhardt's hammer, Genji's slash, or Orisa's Javelin Spin, but as the first fully melee-based Damage hero, Vendetta's kit is all about getting up close and personal with her giant sword to deal damage and wreak havoc on Supports.
"What you'll find with Vendetta, not only is she quite deadly, she's also quite mobile," associate game director Alec Dawson said. "This is a dive-oriented hero, through-and-through. She wants to play alongside Winston, she wants to jump into the backline and wreak a bunch of havoc."
Vendetta uses her massive sword, Palatine Fang, to deal a three-hit melee combo up close, but she needs to move quickly to do so and remain in the fight. That's why two of her abilities are movement based, Whirlwind Slash and Soaring Slice, while the rest are for dealing damage once she's in close proximity to her prey.
Whirlwind Slash is her Left Shift ability that she uses to lunge forward and slash in a circle, while Soaring Strike sees her throw her sword into the air and then jump to it, and she can then follow up with her primary strike for a big overhead slash to the ground.
"I was absolutely over the moon being able to work on this character," senior character modeler Bryan Bedford said. "I'm a classic Tracer main going all the way back to OW1 beta, and so this hero is the ultimate dive hero. If you want to get into a backline and cause chaos, she is the character for you."
Vendetta "operates more on a strategy level" compared to other dive heroes, according to Bedford, especially considering her Warding Stance ability that operates on a resource meter. She can use this to hold up her giant sword to block damage, but also from the stance she is able to fire a projectile ability called Projected Edge that will use up about one-third of the resource.
Her final ability, Sundering Blade, is her ultimate, where Vendetta will charge up a massive attack in three phases that will slash downward and cleave through armor and overhealth in the area of effect.
In the interview, the devs mentioned that there are definitely similarities to OW1's DPS Doomfist in Vendetta, and while she won't have the same sort of big burst damage combo as the DPS-turned-tank, she will have similar plays where you want to single out an out-of-position hero to try and take them out. Her passive ability Onslaught enables her to gain movement speed and attack speed when dealing damage, and will likely help this a ton.
With her kit in mind, Dawson said characters with strong crowd control abilities like Ana's Sleep Dart or Cassidy's Flashbang should be able to help counter her in the backline. The devs said if she gets stuck out of position, she can quickly be dealt with, especially with something like a Discord Orb from Zenyatta.
"She's kind of this high risk, high reward personified, more than a lot of our cast," Bedford said. "Once she's in the enemy backline, if she gets stopped or stalled for any reason, she's not a tank, so unless she has saved some of her mobility resources to get back out, she can get shut down."
Vendetta may not be popular with everyone as a strictly melee character, but as a hero who's very high skill and "hard to master," as the devs explained, she'll likely be a big hit with players who love to dive and can manage her resources and cooldowns to get in, deal damage, and get out safely.
OW2 players will be able to judge the DPS character for themselves when Vendetta's hero trial begins next week on Nov. 26 and she launches in the full game when season 20 drops on Dec. 9.
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