#Magic or science? Overwatch 2 devs make clear Wuyang’s water-bending elemental skills – Destructoid

Overwatch 2’s new hero Wuyang hasn’t even launched but, however he’s precipitated fairly a stir among the many neighborhood together with his skills.

After Wuyang’s movement comedian revealed that he can summon and bend water together with his workers, and his sister Anran can summon hearth, OW2 gamers kind of blew up with a commotion about the truth that magic doesn’t exist in Overwatch lore, as Blizzard has talked about earlier than.

Talking with a number of Blizzard devs final week, together with senior narrative designer Joshi Zhang and lead character idea artist Daryl Tan, the reply I bought on this topic is definitive: Wuyang’s skills come from his mastery of tech, not magic.

“The workers and the way in which that the water strikes is managed by expertise, so there’s zero magic concerned,” Zhang confirmed. “I’ve seen slightly little bit of whisperings, you recognize, out and about, and I simply needed to assist debunk. It’s not magic in any respect.”

Wuyang’s water skills embrace launching orbs at foes to deal harm, utilizing water to heal his teammates or himself, summoning a wave to knock again enemies, and browsing on water as a motion increase.

The devs continued to make clear, saying that there’s tech in each the workers and his glove that he makes use of to regulate the trajectory of the water via the air, “and it’s one thing that he has to apply to grasp.”

“His workers, proper now, how we’re promoting it in-game visually is that it’s a workers that helps him conjure up water, be it via… taking a water vapor within the air, condensing it collectively and like giving him the power to govern it,” mentioned Tan. “It pairs collectively together with his gloves and his gauntlet, too, and people assist him manipulate the water that the workers produces and throws it out. So, I suppose you’ll be able to take into consideration the workers giving him the ammo and he would be the one to make use of that ammo to destroy his enemies or heal his allies.”

Wuyang isn’t just a tech geek wielding highly effective equipment, although. The devs say that all the pieces he can do is due to arduous work, coaching, and his mastery of the expertise given to him, leaning into the truth that he’s additionally a martial artist.

“An enormous a part of him wielding his water, it has to do with him being proficient at it,” Tan continued. “So, no quantity of tech can provide him that proficiency if he doesn’t practice. So subsequently on his visible design, we condensed all of the tech to exist solely on his gauntlet and his glove and his workers, and nowhere else on his physique can we see further tech round as a result of we don’t need that to promote the thought like, ‘oh, he’s solely good at what he’s doing due to all of the tech that helps him.’ Like, he’s solely in a position to do what he does as a result of he’s went via a lot coaching and he labored actually arduous to get to the place he bought.”

OW2 followers can check out Wuyang throughout his hero trial this weekend, and within the full recreation when he launches in season 18 on Aug. 26.