Illari is ‘not overpowered’ but is still getting nerfed, Overwatch dev says

One week after the start of Overwatch 2 season six, game director Aaron Keller took some time to give some thoughts and opinions about the wide range of new content in the game, and perhaps his hottest take was one we almost should have expected.

Keller wrote that he believes the new support hero Illari is “very strong,” but she is “not overpowered.” Despite that, he said that the hero design team is working to nerf a couple of her abilities ahead of Aug. 24, when she will be unlocked for use on the competitive ladder.

“Our balance goal for the release of Illari was to make sure that she felt strong (but not overpowered!) at launch,” Keller said. “I think we hit that goal. Illari is very strong, but some of what helps Illari not feel overpowered is her Support role and kit. Were we to release a Damage hero with a one-shot ability, we would be a little more careful with their power level. Illari will enter our Ranked mode on Thursday, August 24, and we will be making a few adjustments to her by then – most likely to her Healing Pylon and Ultimate.”

Related: Seagull expects new hero Illari to be one of the strongest healers in Overwatch 2

His comments about upcoming nerfs are ones echoed from a previous post to social media by the game’s lead hero designer Alec Dawson earlier this week. In a post to Twitter, Dawson said that Healing Pylon and Captive Sun were due for some tuning, and fans largely seem to agree that Illari’s Healing Pylon in particular is too strong.

Healing Pylon has 150 total health, half of which is shields that regenerate, and it heals 50 health per second. As one fan promptly pointed out, its healing is powerful enough that it will outheal the damage from a Torbjörn turret. That, matched with the powerful burst healing from Illari’s Solar Rifle, gives her some of the strongest healing per second in the game.

Keller didn’t specify exactly what tuning would be coming to Illari’s abilities, but one might expect that the healing throughput of Healing Pylon will be lowered at least a little bit, and perhaps the damage threshold requirement for the Sunstruck proc on Captive Sun will be raised, particularly for tank heroes.