The Overwatch devs suppose you are banning the flawed heroes

The Overwatch staff has lifted the veil on hero ban charges for its 5 newcomers, and two members clearly lead the pack, whereas one appears to be slipping by unnoticed regardless of a equally sturdy win price. I am a sucker for stats, and I am not alone; Blizzard says demand for this sort of hero knowledge breakdown was “a transparent winner” in a ballot for Weekly Recall matters that it carried out late in 2025. With Overwatch Season 1 now extra settled, it is no shock that Jetpack Cat stays the most important speaking level, however let’s examine how the numbers stack up.

This newest spherical of Overwatch stats comes from Blizzard analyst Ben Trautman, who you may keep in mind as statistics specialist ‘Captain Planet’ in the event you watched the Overwatch League again in its heyday. Slightly than wanting throughout all the roster of Overwatch characters, this new weblog digs into the 5 additions to the lineup: Jetpack Cat, Domina, Anran, Emre, and Mizuki.

You will not be stunned to listen to that Jetpack Cat is prime of the FPS sport’s ban checklist by a transparent margin, being forbidden from Function Queue 5v5 Aggressive matches 66.5% of the time on North American servers, 68.8% for the EU, and a whopping 80.7% in South Korea. Not far behind is new tank Domina, nonetheless: she’s banned 59.8% of the time in NA, 57% in EU, and in 61.3% of South Korean video games.

Comparatively, Anran, Emre, and Mizuki’s ban price are tiny, with the latter two hovering near being at all times obtainable. But Blizzard questions why that is, and specifically why Domina bans have been regularly ticking upwards over time.

“Our steadiness staff believes aggressive gamers is perhaps following the notion that Domina is overpowered, regardless that her win price says in any other case,” Trautman writes. He speculates that these ban charges might begin to fall “as clear counters to Domina emerge,” and makes some strategies to assist: “look to aggressive heroes like D.Va and Reinhardt to close Domina down.”

Whereas Emre and Anran had been each struggling early on, with the DPS having a very robust time at a mean win price of 47.6%, buffs helped to stabilize their efficiency. Emre obtained further major fireplace injury, whereas Anran’s Dancing Blaze had its distance raised, and this took nearly quick impact. Conversely, a 12% enhance to Domina’s ult value brought about her win share to drop by lower than one level, giving “an excellent indication that steadiness modifications had been wanted.”

Sneaking below the radar, nonetheless, is Mizuki. The brand new assist boasted a 53% win price out the gate, larger than each Domina and Jetpack Cat, but his ban price sits at 1.8% on US servers, 1.6% on EU, and a couple of.6% in South Korea. He is not fairly as brash and in-your-face as Domina and Jetpack Cat, however do not let that idiot you – he is quietly turning the tide.

Blizzard additionally reveals simply how sturdy Jetpack Cat’s Territorial and Claws Out perks had been earlier than they had been hit with the nerf hammer. These extra aggressive choices had been so dominant that Fika’s win price with them was 7% larger (53% versus 48%) than when utilizing the 2 options, Headbutt and Transport Shielding. As a comparability level, the win deviation between Wuyang’s strongest and weakest pairings is simply 3%.

With all that in thoughts, maintain a detailed watch on Mizuki subsequent time you queue, as a result of he is perhaps Overwatch Season 1’s secret killer. I promise I am not simply penning this as a result of I would like extra possibilities to play as Domina, though I will take the wins the place I can get them.