Blizzard Entertainment finally brings the much-awaited Ping System with Overwatch 2

Overwatch 2 will finally incorporate the Ping System into the game, a feature demanded by its players for quite some time now. For any first-person shooter out there, the ping system plays a crucial role in pinpointing the current or the last known location of an enemy.

Most first-person shooters like Valorant, Rainbow Six Siege, Apex Legends, and more have this important quality of life feature. These small markings on the map have the potential to help players emerge out victorious in certain situations that would otherwise seem impossible to win.

The same feature will be brought to Overwatch 2 whose release date is yet to be officially announced by Blizzard.

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How will the ping system work in Overwatch 2?

The Ping System in Overwatch 2 will work in a similar fashion to other first-person shooters in the market. This improvement has been demanded by new and veteran players in the community and will finally be implemented with the upcoming sequel from Blizzard.

First, players will need to assign a button to ping a particular location or hero. A contextual ping will get activated depending on what lies within the line of sight for the player. For example, if someone is playing Genji and an enemy Tracer comes in front, teammates will be able to hear Genji call out that Tracer’s location upon pinging.

Pings will stick to a particular hero as long as they are visible. While the location of heroes will be pinpointed frequently, there will be certain heroes who have the ability to teleport or become invisible for a short period of time.

Under such circumstances, the last known location of that particular hero will be shown to the rest of the players in the team if someone pings them. The same method is applicable for the rest of the heroes as well. If a particular character switches position quickly, it will get out of the line of sight and its last known location will be shown.

Heroes like Reaper have Shadow Step and Wraith Form, Sombra has Translocator and Stealth while Tracer has Blink and Recall abilities. Therefore, it is highly likely that their last known locations will be shown most of the time to the players of the team.

Reaper's last known location pinged when not in player's line of sight (Image via Blizzard)

Holding down the ping button will open a wheel that allows players to tell their teammates where they're attacking, defending, when they need help, and more. There's also a unique set of interactions available to respond to a teammate’s ping. Using the communication wheel to tell your team to 'Group Up' or 'I need healing' will now activate a ping on top of your hero.

Holding down the ping button will open a wheel with unique set of interactions (Image via Blizzard)

The ping changes depending on the hero's abilities. Sombra’s Translocator, Doomfist’s Meteor Strike, Moira’s Fade, and Tracer’s Recall are all examples of abilities that will cause the ping to fall off.

Ping vanished when Reaper used his Shadow Step (Image via Blizzard)

With the introduction of the new ping system, communication among the team members will be far easier. Often, there will be teammates who do not want to use the mic in matches. This quality of life improvement in Overwatch 2 will allow players to communicate freely without the need to use their microphones.