Overwatch 2 Possible Reaper Rework & New Abilities

Overwatch 2 has had a ton of reworks to characters to bring them up in complexity relative to their new releases. In the past year, we have had new abilities added to Cassidy and Roadhog, as well as some big changes to how Brigitte works. It looks like Blizzard has decided that Reaper is going to be the next target, with his kit being considered very basic in the new age of Overwatch 2. In this article, we are going to go over everything we know about the future rework of Reaper.

Overwatch 2 Developers Confirm Reaper Rework

The Overwatch 2 hero design team was recently engaged in a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything), where they were asked many questions regarding the development of new heroes, abilities, as well as reworks to the older members of the roster. Reddit user darthnick426 asked the developers whether or not they have been looking at Reaper in terms of their future reworks, as he has a very basic kit with little agency over how many decisions you can make in the game.

Lead Hero Designer Alec Dawson answer the question in the following way:

Reaper is also on that list! Had our first brainstorm and have aligned on our overall goals for what we want to see with Reaper's abilities. One of those goals is modernizing Reaper's kit, Shadow Step and Wraith Form standing out there.

We may also explore some new abilities for Reaper (on the right-click), but don't want to take the space just because it's available. If we add something there, we'll want it to give him slightly more decision making in-combat than he has currently.

Based on this response, we can see that the developers are already planning to modernize Reaper's kit either with new abilities or an update to his old Shadow Step or Wraith Form. This is great news as Reaper is one of the characters that is only being played as a counter to certain enemy compositions. The hero is regarded as a 'tankbuster', being able to deal massive damage to big targets in close-range, but outside of that, there is not much he can do.

Overwatch 2 Reaper Rework Release Date

There is no current information about when this rework of Reaper's kit is going to take place, but judging by Alec Dawson's response, it might not even be in development yet. We don't expect this rework to come out before Season 10, which is months away at this point.

Nonetheless, we are very excited that Blizzard is taking a look at these older heroes and updating them to be more complex and fulfilling to play!

That is everything we know about the future Reaper rework in Overwatch 2. For now, he is still going to be that counter-pick hero, but all of that might change in the following months. For more Overwatch 2 content, check out the rest of our website!