Big changes are coming to Overwatch. In addition to a new character in the form of the hacker Sombra and the new “Arcade” game mode, Blizzard is also changing up the game’s leveling system. It’s that last change that has some players worried.
Each time a player levels up they get a loot box, which contains various skins, sprays and voice lines for the game’s characters. As Overwatch works now, the first few levels (roughly level 1-23) go by pretty fast, as they need far less XP than the remaining 24-100 levels. After hitting level 100, players then prestige and their level rolls back to level 1, upon which they can earn loot boxes very quickly before they once again hit level 24 for the second (or third, or fourth) time.
One common practice employed by some of the game’s most dedicated players is to hit level 100 and essentially stop playing until Blizzard launches a new Overwatch event, which so far have come every few months. These events add new skins and items to the game. That way players can prestige and earn a batch of loot boxes extremely quickly due to their level being reset.
In what shouldn’t come as a surprise to anybody, Blizzard doesn’t like the idea of people not playing Overwatch for this reason. Come the game’s next update, hitting level 100, prestiging and then earning a batch of loot boxes quickly will no longer be possible. Instead, the amount of experience required from level 14-100 has been slightly reduced. While the amount of XP needed from levels 1-13 remains unchanged, all levels gained after level 100 will require a constant 20,000 XP.
To summarize: overall, it will now take less time to level up and earn loot boxes at higher levels, but players will no longer be able to plan their leveling so that they can earn a batch of loot boxes in a relatively short amount of time after prestiging.
(Photo : Blizzard Entertainment)
Some fans aren’t a fan of the change, saying Blizzard is simply making the change to encourage players to buy more loot boxes with real money. Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan says that’s not the case on the game’s forums.
“We want you playing Overwatch or not playing Overwatch when you want/don’t want to,” Kaplan writes. “That’s the entire reason for this change… nothing else.”
Fans will have to take his word for it. No exact word on when Sombra and the leveling changes are expected to go live, but it should be within the next few weeks.
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