Will Overwatch 2’s new hero Wuyang shake up the esports scene?

Overwatch 2 support hero Wuyang in-game character model

Blizzard Entertainment has officially revealed the full kit of Overwatch 2’s latest hero addition, Wuyang, coming in Season 18.

From weapons, abilities, perks and more, here is everything fans need to know about the new support character and what impact he will have in the esports scene.

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The abilities are almost a one-to-one match to those that were leaked back in July. The abilities were also displayed through the gameplay trailer posted online.

Here are all of Wuyang’s confirmed abilities:

  • Weapon
    • Xuanwu Staff: Fire a damaging water orb. Hold to control its trajectory and empower its explosion.
    • Restorative Stream: Place a passive healing stream on an ally. Hold on the target to manually heal at an improved rate, consuming resource.
  • Abilities
    • Guardian Wave: Sends a water wave forward that increases the amount of healing received by allies and knocks enemies back.
    • Rushing Torrent: Ride water to move faster and jump higher.
  • Ultimate
    • Tidal Blast: Protect an ally or yourself with water that detonates after a short duration. The explosion knocks down enemies and massively heals the host target.
  • Passive
    • Role – Support: Begin regenerating health more quickly.
  • Minor perks
    • Overflow: Gain 10 ammo and 33% healing resource when rushing Torrent is activated.
    • Balance: When you deal damage with water orbs, increase Restorative Stream’s passive healing by 40% for two seconds.
  • Major perks
    • Ebb and Flow: Guardian Wave rewinds to its starting location. Deals 50% decreased damage while rewinding.
    • Falling Rain: Simultaneously control three water orbs that deal 60% decreased damage and have 25% decreased empowered explosion radius.

Will Wuyang be Viable in Esports?

It is unclear how Wuyang will fair against some of the most popular picks in competitive. Only time will tell where the support hero sits in the meta, and whether he will see any play at professional levels beyond OWCS Stage 3.

His greatest strength possibly lies with his ultimate ability, Tidal Blast, which shows a lot of synergy potential. His abilities could pair well with popular support picks in esports, such as Kiriko and her Kitsune Rush, Ana and her Nano Boost, and Lucio’s Sound Barrier.

His ability to control the trajectory of his primary fire, combined with his high mobility, could make him useful in poke-focused comps. Though his survivability is still in question, as a lack of consistent self-healing could hold him back from being a must-pick.

Fans have seen new characters take the meta by storm in the past, such as the 43rd addition Freja, so it’s entirely possible that Wuyang could see a similar impact.

The 44th addition to the hero shooter will be available to play temporarily through his hero trial, running from August 14th to 18th, 2025 midway through Season 17.

Source: https://esportsinsider.com/