Illari is not overpowered; she simply exposes the biggest challenge of the Overwatch 2 community

Overwatch 2 Season 6 is going well after the introduction of PvE story missions, an updated shooting range, and a Peruvian support hero. The new support hero has sparked controversy since being introduced to the ranks of Overwatch 2, although the community agrees that they are one of the most entertaining heroes to play. Unfortunately, this sentiment does not typically apply when facing enemy Illaris.

Due to her kit, Illari reveals some interesting weaknesses in the player base. However, the latest patch notes for Overwatch 2 on August 24 confirmed changes for Illari, Echo, and Orisa. The most prominent ones were the modifications to Illari's ultimate ability "Captured Sun" and her healing pylon. The debate surrounding her primarily focuses on her damage and the usefulness of the pylon.

Overwatch 2 Players Are Struggling With One Part of Illari's Kit

The debate about how much damage support players should deal has been ongoing for several years. However, this topic used to revolve around the damage output of Moira, Baptiste, and Zenyatta. When Overwatch 2 was released in October 2022, along with the transition from 6v6 to 5v5, the damage statistics for support characters increased. Blizzard justified this change by stating that due to the absence of a tank in the game, supports need a means of defense.

Since the game introduced effective healers like Kiriko and Illari, the controversy has only intensified. Unfortunately, apart from her ultimate ability, the developers have not made any changes to Illari's damage values, which has sparked debate among those who believe healers should focus more on healing than dealing damage. Without changes to her solar rifle, Illari is still capable of dealing significant damage, similar to Moira, except the new character is hitscan.

Although the damage of the Peruvian woman is a formidable force, it can be argued that it is not as overpowering as the players seem to believe. A significant portion of her effectiveness comes from Illari's healing pylons in conjunction with her medium-range healing beam. Since her healing beam needs to be charged, the pylon is the first thing the players should try to counter.

Illari is the first support hero since Symmetra's transition to the DPS role to have a turret. She can throw it a good distance and move it unless it gets destroyed, which results in a cooldown of 12 seconds. The standard cooldown is eight seconds, so it is advantageous for the opposing team to destroy it for two reasons: they stop her main source of healing and extend her cooldown timer.

It is quite common in lower ELO ranges for players to struggle against characters with turrets. That is one of the reasons why Torbjörn and Symmetra often perform well in the lower ranks. Since Overwatch 2 is a fast-paced FPS game, players often forget to destroy the turrets. It can also be quite challenging to do so when they are positioned in difficult spots. Unfortunately, turrets pose a weakness in the community.

If teams were to prioritize deleting Illari's pylon, it is likely that she wouldn't be as useful as some people believe. Of course, Blizzard could still benefit from creating patches for its characters and listening to player feedback. With updates promised for the 7th season of Overwatch 2, Illari could receive further nerfs.

Overwatch 2 is now available for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.