[Update #2]: Overwatch devs are now experimenting with a Triple Damage game mode, along with some major tank buffs.

[Update]: Hero Pools have now landed onto the PTR alongside some massive improvements to the Workshop tools!

If you've been paying attention to the Overwatch community over the past year, you've likely noticed that most of the complaints are focused around two things: the lack of frequent balance changes and the often rigid meta. Thankfully, it would appear that Blizzard is taking both problems incredibly seriously as they have just announced some rather drastic changes.

First and foremost, balance updates will now be more frequent and aggressive. If anything ends up being too broken, or if a hero falls out of favor entirely, Blizzard is also prepared to simply roll back the tweaks and try again. How exactly all of this will pan out, only time will tell, but if you ask me it's certainly a step in the right direction and something Overwatch has been desperately needing for years now.

Speaking of which, Blizzard has also announced that they will be bringing PTR style changes and tweaks directly to the live client as a separate new game mode. So if you want to help the developers out by testing new changes, be this on PC or consoles, you'll be able to do so without downloading an entirely new client and worrying if you'll even be able to find anyone to play with.

Hopefully this means that we'll never see a single hero dominate the entire game again

However, the most exciting part of this developer update has nothing to do with balance changes, but rather with the heroes themselves. In order to keep the meta fresh, the next Competitive Play season (Quick Play and Arcade are not changing) will have a couple of heroes banned on a weekly basis. These bans will be curated by Blizzard themselves and will mostly target over-represented heroes, though no hero will ever get banned two weeks in a row.

The details behind the Hero Pool feature are still few and far between, but if the Overwatch League is any indicator, the bans will take out one tank, one support and two DPS heroes. In theory, this should be enough to thoroughly shake up the meta, while still giving players plenty of different heroes to toy around with. Whether that will work in practice, I once again have no idea, but I have to admit I'm quite eager to give it a try. After all, having an entire week without snipers would be quite the change of pace!

You can learn more about the future of Overwatch, as well as the above-mentioned additions, through the recently posted developer update. Enjoy, it's a pretty exciting one!