Overwatch April 9 hero pools ban Lucio and others from rotation

Week 6 of Overwatch hero pools is here, with Blizzard locking away four heroes for the next few days of competitive play, including fan-favorite healer Lucio and more.

After a few weeks of experimenting, Blizzard have finally finessed the Overwatch hero pools formula. From now on, four heroes will be banned ⁠— one support, two damage, and one tank, just how they intended.

Week 6’s unlucky victims ⁠— who have been taken out of Competitive Play as of April 9 ⁠— are off-tank Zarya, projectile DPS heroes Pharah and Symmetra, and Lucio.

Breaking down the bans, some popular team comps will be completely gutted by the exclusion of these heroes. Reinhardt-Zarya GOATS-esque compositions had been making a slow resurgence, but those will be off the board for the following week.

On top of that, Mercy players who were hoping to get back into the groove of a “Pharmercy” combo will have their hopes snuffed for another week too. With the other half of the duo off the board, there won’t be any aerial threat to worry about this week once again.

• Read more: Overwatch devs announce changes to map and hero pools

With Lucio finding himself on the sidelines once again, teams might have to opt in for more Mercy-dive compositions. Winston and D.Va are both up, alongside the likes of Genji, so players could be getting a throwback to early 2018.

This hero pool will not be in the rotation for long though. Blizzard have announced sweeping changes to how the bans will operate starting April 13, with the pools for casual players and Overwatch League pros alike being mirrored.

“[We want] the Overwatch League and Competitive Play to mirror each other as closely as possible and make a more consistent viewing and play experience,” developers said.

• Read more: Echo release date finally revealed

Heroes will be chopped based on “high-level Competitive Player matches” from the previous two weeks, and no hero can be banned two weeks in a row.

If you are a main of either Zarya, Symmetra, Pharah, or Lucio, you might want to stick with quick play this week.

The big positive, however, is that they are unlikely to be out of operation for too long, with the changes coming through in just four days.