Overwatch 2 is here, and people have finally been playing around with the new heroes introduced in the sequel. However, DPS hero Sojourn has been making waves in the community with many crying out that she’s overpowered. Nonetheless, Blizzard isn’t making any changes to her character, leaving many confused.
So, in this article, we’ll explain why Sojourn isn’t actually OP in Overwatch 2, so she’s not getting nerfed.
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What Does Being OP Really Mean?
It might sound simple, but think about it: What does it mean for something to be overpowered?
In general, most agree that when something is overpowered that it’s the stronger, better choice out of a variety of what are supposed to be equally-good options. So, if you’ve got a bunch of weapons that do 10 damage per shot and then one that does 15 damage, all else equal, you’ve got an overpowered weapon.
However, this definition for OP doesn’t fit Sojourn in Overwatch 2. For the average player, if they load in with Sojourn, chances are they aren’t even not going to dominate, they’re probably not going to be very successful at all. This comes down to Sojourn, while being incredibly powerful, requiring a relatively high level of accuracy to actually be powerful.
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Sojourn’s projectile main weapon doesn’t shred people too quickly, and nor is her energy AoE ability usually racking up many kills. While her mobility is great, other heroes are more mobile. The problem almost exclusively comes down to her Ultimate and her charged shot.
With headshots, a charged shot is basically a kill, and with an ultimate that temporarily gives you infinite charged shots, in your hands lies the capacity to wipe an entire team. If you can hit all those headshots, one after another. In high-level play, as you’d expect, Sojourn is an absolute menace and dominates the DPS hero selection.
So, is that OP? If your answer is yes, then the question becomes is Hanzo OP? Is Widowmaker? Both of these heroes offer a ton of one-shot-kill potential, so if you can lock onto heads, you can dominate a lobby with a Widowmaker, no problem. However, in most cases, if you pick Widowmaker, you’re probably going to get asked to switch.
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Why, if she’s so powerful? Because relatively few are actually good with her, and that number is even smaller on console where that kind of accuracy is even rarer. This is why Widowmaker isn’t considered OP and nor is Hanzo, but is Sojourn any different?
Sojourn, Balance, and Overwatch 2
With Hanzo and Widowmaker, both of these heroes are relatively slow and immobile. They do have movement abilities, sure, but in general, they’re built for long-range engagements, medium-range at the closest. In part, this is done to keep them balanced.
Sojourn, on the other hand, excels at medium range, and she can even take closer-range fights with the right scenario. However, Sojourn works a lot differently from Hanzo or Windowmaker in other ways. For example, long-range engagements are pretty tough for her.
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Sure, a charged shot is a hitscan ability and it deals tons of damage, but to charge up your shots, you’ll have to be close enough to the action to do enough damage to do that. And even if your ulting and have a bunch of charged shots, long-range is probably not the move.
Since you can’t ADS like with Widowmaker and you only have a short window to use your ult, you’ll probably want to be close enough to be able to move around and hit as much as possible, rather than trying to pick somebody off with your ult from a distance.
All this adds up to a delicate risk-reward system where you have to get into the thick of it with Sojourn to charge up your shots and take full advantage of your charged shots, but that also puts you at a much greater risk than other heroes with one-shot-kill potential like Hanzo and Widowmaker that work better further back.
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While all of the above may be true, Sojourn is still causing some a lot of problems, so what exactly is going on?
How to Deal With Sojourn in Overwatch 2
The problem with Sojourn is that with high-skill, high-level play, folks playing Sojourn can and will be getting headshots and devastating teams. However, this is less of a ‘problem’ and more of an inevitability of creating a hero with a high skill ceiling.
Sojourn is like the opposite of Bastion, that few consider OP. With Bastion, he’s slow and big, but he’s got crowd control, lots of firepower, and he’s tanky. In teams that aren’t synergizing much, like in Quick Play or at low ELO, fighting against enemies that aren’t working much together either, Bastion is a great lone wolf, making him tough to take down.
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However, he’s not really played at all in more advanced play because folks know to focus him down and punish him for his slow mobility. The prescription for Sojourn is similar to dealing with Bastion: Focus her when you see her, and consider countering her with flanking heroes like Reaper or Sombra or long-range one-shot-kill heroes like Widowmaker.
Ultimately, buffing Bastion so he’s more relevant at higher levels of play or nerfing Sojourn so she’s less relevant at the top tier doesn’t make a lot of sense for a game with millions and millions of players, especially in the context of a hero designed to reward skillful play.
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