One of Overwatch’s original meme heroes gets his most divisive ability back

With the release of Overwatch 2 season six today, Blizzard is bringing plenty of changes to heroes across the board, from the new support hero Illari to other more standard patch notes. One of the patch’s targets is a popular hero who has remained relatively weak. But one update is aiming to bring an old aspect of his kit back.

Bastion, alongside some changes to his grenade ability and his ultimate, now repairs 50 armor when he configures into his assault form starting with today’s season six update. Considering how armor and health are more tied together in Overwatch 2, this is the closest thing we’ve seen so far to Bastion getting a form of healing back.

Back in the original Overwatch game, Bastion was known for being extremely annoying to deal with in very specific scenarios for two reasons. One was the amount of damage he could output, but the second was that he could heal himself at any time he wasn’t shooting. That self-heal was very controversial as it was crucial for Bastion to stay alive when he was stuck in his turret form but it also made him one of the few non-support heroes with a self-heal ability.

Related: Overwatch 2 players have come to a decisive verdict about new support hero Illari after reveal

Overwatch 2’s changes really narrowed down what made each role unique, removing a lot of stuns and making them mostly for tanks or supports—and removing Bastion’s self-heal in his rework. Now, with this change for season six onwards, this small tweak has the opportunity to mean a lot for the bot’s viability in competitive play. 

That point was brought up by former pro player and content creator Brandon “Seagull” Larned, who pointed this out as, potentially, the most important change to Bastion so far in Overwatch 2.

It was a short statement, but he specifically mentioned the armor repair addition as “very significant.” Considering how mobile Bastion is in comparison to his pre-rework state, the heal allows him to switch forms without as much worry of dying immediately, which has been a consistent issue. Even the Overwatch 2 team knows that, with the patch notes saying “Bastion’s weakness of being a large and immobile target has proven tough to overcome.” 

This armor version of a self-heal when he configures into his assault form could be the start of a self-healing Bastion once again in Overwatch. But considering his usage rate, it might be a necessary evil to make the hero viable once again.