Overwatch devs get their wish as insane D.Va and BOB reworks come to life

Brad Norton
Overwatch BOB and Tracer

Overwatch developers wanted to see a few new abilities for their favorite characters and the community has answered the call with stunning Workshop creations.

Transferring certain abilities to the wrong heroes has been a running gag within the Overwatch community. From Orisa climbing walls to Genji deploying his own turret, the devs have gone wild lately.

Many developers at Blizzard were involved in a September 7 video where they outlined what wacky creations they’d like to see next. Jeff Kaplan asked if Genji could build a turret and the animation team jumped right on it. However, a few requests were left up in the air.

Rather than waiting for official videos, the Overwatch community rushed to rework certain heroes in-game. Through the powerful Workshop toolkit, characters have been given powers they never could have imagined.

The first request met by the community came from Principal Animator Jesse Davis. “I kind of imagine seeing B.O.B. do something a lot more fun,” he joked. “He comes out of nowhere right? I was thinking maybe he could fly.” Just a day later and there’s already a new Workshop mode to meet the demand.

‘EloHellWorkshop’ put together an amusing video on Eichenwalde that showed the companion ‘doing something.’ He spawned in well above the second phase high-ground, shooting down at enemies below. 

To make matters worse, the Omnic was even able to move through the sky during this version of the Ultimate. Typically, B.O.B. is stuck to the ground once deployed. But this rework truly gives him the power of flight.

Next up was a request from Associate Engineer Jessie Yang. “I think we should let baby D.Va blink,” she said. “She has 150HP, Tracer has 150HP… it’s only fair.”

In no time at all this powerful blend of heroes and abilities came to life. Once D.Va was out of her mech, she could Blink around Hanamura just like Tracer.

Perhaps this combination would be a little too powerful for the Tank hero. Though it would certainly make things easier when trying to call in another mech.

Overwatch Bastion gameplay
Bastion could soar above choke points with this powerful rework.

Last but not least, lead character technical artist Dylan Jones put forward a common request. He wanted to see Bastion fly and thankfully, that creation has already gained traction in the community. Following a hilarious demo outside of the game, a new Workshop mode actually took Bastion off the ground.

Most of these hero reworks can be made with relative ease thanks to the Workshop tools. You can mess around with the Bastion rework using this code: A2BTM.

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About The Author

Brad Norton is the Australian Managing Editor at Dexerto. He graduated from Swinburne University with a Bachelor’s degree in journalism and has been working full-time in the field for the past six years at the likes of Gamurs Group and now Dexerto. He loves all things single-player gaming (with Uncharted a personal favorite) but has a history on the competitive side having previously run Oceanic esports org Mindfreak. You can contact Brad at brad.norton@dexerto.com