AnOverwatch 2player discovered that when an enemy Echo uses their ultimate ability it prevents players from swapping heroes for the entire duration of the ability. TheOverwatch 2hero selection menu shows a message saying, “Hero select disabled by Echo” instead of letting the player select a new hero to play as.
Echo is a damage hero inOverwatch 2, and her ultimate ability allows her to duplicate any enemy hero for fifteen seconds. During that time, she copies their appearance, hitpoints, and abilities. AnOverwatch 2player figured out that Echo’s ultimate also prevents the enemy player from switching to a different hero while they’re being duplicated when they tried to swap heroes to Junkrat mid-match. Apparently, however, this is not anOverwatch 2bug, but an intended interaction.
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u/TazzyPup posted an image showing their hero selection screen with the aforementioned message front and center. While this does seem annoying, since hero swapping is a key part of gaining the upper hand in a match, it has been a part of Echo’s ultimate since she was released in 2020 and is apparently supposed to happen when Echo players use her ultimate. While this is frustrating and can be strong in PvP, the ultimate ability doesn’t seem to be as effectiveinOverwatch 2PvE events.
According to some of the comments on the post, this effect is at least partially due to coding constraints within the game itself. Whenever a player selects a hero, that hero is loaded into the player’s graphics card memory, and when Echo uses her ultimate to copy that player’s hero, she uses the data already loaded into the memory card, so the copied player can’t switch to a different hero until the ultimate duration expires. The originalOverwatchwas built with 6v6 matches as the base game mode, butOverwatch 2was released with 5v5as the base game mode, and with 12 players on the field, having too many duplicates could potentially cause issues.
If the reason the ultimate locks players from selecting a new hero is related to technical limitations,Overwatch 2could be an opportunity for Echo’s ultimate to be changed and allow for enemy players to select a new hero while Echo has copied their old one. Of course, the current function of the ultimate does allow for some very interesting tactical moves and could even come into secure a clutchOverwatchvictory.
It definitely seems like a potentially polarizing effect. Echo players probably enjoy the added utility of their ultimate, while players getting locked out of hero switching are probably less appreciative. Unless Activision Blizzard makes a change though, it’s here to stay.
Overwatch 2is available in early access for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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