Overwatch 2 Reveals Why Vendetta Is Not a Tank

Vendetta, Overwatch 2’s new hero coming in Season 20, may look like she could easily be a tank, but Blizzard decided to make her a DPS hero so that she could create a completely unique gameplay style. Though Vendetta broke an unofficial Overwatch 2 hero release rule in doing so, she is also breaking ground in a way that no other character has in the game’s history.

Overwatch 2 recently revealed Vendetta, a highly mobile gladiator who devastates the battlefield with massive swings of her hard-light greatsword, Palatine Fang. Between her close-quarters playstyle and the fact that 2025 already got one damage hero in the form of Freja, most fans assumed Vendetta would be a tank.

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Overwatch 2 Reveals New Hero 45 Vendetta

Blizzard officially reveals Vendetta, the third and final playable hero coming to Overwatch 2 in 2025 as a part of Season 20 in December.

Vendetta Fills a Unique Role As DPS in Overwatch 2

However, Overwatch 2 surprised players by revealing Vendetta is going to be the game’s first melee damage hero, rather than a tank. “It’s more about servicing that playstyle that we really didn’t have in the roster,” associate game director Alec Dawson told PC Gamer during a recent interview. “I think part of our mission at all times is to create things that we think will be really exciting for players, and that was one that was constantly asked about.” Fans have wanted a melee DPS hero for years, and Vendetta offered the perfect opportunity to make that dream a reality.

While there are dedicated melee characters in Overwatch 2 right now, none of them are in the DPS role. Heroes like Reaper, Torbjorn, and Venture are all deadly in close combat, but they are still not actual melee heroes. Doomfist was the closest thing to a melee damage hero in Overwatch 1, but he was turned into a tank in the sequel, and while Genji temporarily becomes melee-focused while using his Dragonblade ultimate, he is technically still a ranged hero most of the time.

Of course, making Vendetta a damage hero did throw off Overwatch 2’s unofficial release pattern. Since the sequel’s release, it has never put out more than one damage hero in a single year, with 2023 actually having no DPS at all. “I saw a lot of very confident expectations that hero 45 was going to be a tank based off of a recent release pattern that we’re now switching up a little bit,” senior character artist Bryan Bedford said in the same PC Gamer interview, “but I think one of the most important aspects of adding a new hero is honestly just coming up with something that’s fun to play.” The developers had to “bend the rules” and release two Overwatch 2 damage heroes in 2025 in order to make this happen, but finally delivering on the melee damage hero fantasy with Vendetta was worth doing so.

All New Heroes Added in Overwatch 2

Season 20 of Overwatch 2 and its new damage hero arrive on December 9, but players won’t need to wait that long to try her out. Vendetta’s extra-long Hero Trial runs from November 26 through December 1 to account for Thanksgiving in the US, giving gamers a couple of extra days to try her out. Bedford, in particular, is excited for fans to give Vendetta a try, saying that she had the developers “absolutely hooked” during playtesting. “I cannot overstate how fun it is to just jump in and start tearing through the sky with that blade throw.”

Released

August 10, 2023

ESRB

T For Teen // Blood, Mild Language, Use of Tobacco, Violence