Mauga is finally live in Overwatch 2’s Competitive queue, and thanks to Dec. 19’s Winter Wonderland update, he’s now armed with a set of crucial buffs to his kit. As exciting as it sounds, the buffs might have bumped up his current potential too much, leaving players worried about the meta.
Deeming the latest Mauga buffs as “outstanding,” a player named u/Xardian7 on Reddit concluded the Samoan warrior to be “a must pick, and a must counter in competitive from today onwards at any rank” in Overwatch 2. As expected, players agreed to the idea that some of the changes were overdone.
“The survivability buffs are pretty massive, 100 more armor is huge by itself, the berserker buff seems a little much,” a top comment reads. If you’re not aware of what’s changed for the hero, here’s a quick rundown of it:
- Mauga’s base health was reduced to 250 from 350, and his armor was increased to 250 from 150.
- The number of shots with Mauga’s Incendiary Chaingun (Primary) to ignite enemies has been reverted from 15 to 10.
- Firing spread has been reduced to one from 1.1 when only one chaingun is active.
- His passive ability, Berserker, will now convert 60 percent of the critical damage he deals to overhealth—up from what was previously 50 percent.
While players noticed multiple gaps in Mauga’s kit ever since he was revealed in BlizzCon 2023, the most prominent flaw was his survivability. Players were not happy about the fact that Mauga struggled to survive on his own; he always needed a support hero to babysit him. Blizzard has been focusing on improving just that, hence the increase in armor.
Now, with the buffs to his armor and passive, players say he has become painful to play against, which also makes him a must-pick in the current meta. “They nerfed the wrong things, and now they overbuffed him in response. Glad to see the primary fire changes reverted, but the armor changes plus Berserker buffs are actually insane,” one player said
Overwatch 2’s tank meta has proven to be difficult to balance all this while, and with Mauga’s release, Blizzard’s going to have a harder time. Considering the player base’s response to the hero’s latest update, I wouldn’t be surprised if the devs are forced to tweak Mauga again, and if so, that will be for the fourth time after his launch in season eight.
