What is Wave Respawn in Overwatch 2? 

The Wave Respawn in Overwatch 2 is a new respawn system, slated for release in the upcoming Season. This innovative respawn mechanism aims to bring a structural change by replacing the concurrent Group Respawn system. Game Director Gavin Winter unveiled this new system in the Season 12 update's intel blog. The update is set to become active on August 20, 2024.

According to the developers, the new respawn system is designed to enrich the core gameplay experience in the title. This article provides an overview of the Wave Respawn in Overwatch 2.

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Wave Respawn in Overwatch 2 explained

The Wave Respawn in Overwatch 2 is a new respawn system that will replace the ongoing Group Respawn system in the game. Introduced in Season7, the Group Respawn system aimed to lower the number of one-sided matches in the game. While the system worked in higher tiers, it failed to impact the matches at the lower ranks.

Under the Group Respawn system, Heroes who got eliminated within five seconds of each other would Respawn together, resulting in some players having a slightly longer to shorter queue than the standard ten seconds. This often led to players being buried by a lengthy sequence of teammates dying in a row, resulting in a longer respawn time.

With the reformed Wave Respawn in Overwatch 2, the Developers are looking to address this issue. The new respawn system fixes the aforementioned problem by ensuring that the respawn time will always be less than the default if another hero has already been eliminated.

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You might be interested in: Overwatch 2 Season 12: Release date and what to expect

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All changes coming with Wave Respawn in Overwatch 2

Wave Respawn in Overwatch 2 is going to bring an array of changes that will affect how the title will be played after the Season 12 update. Here is a list of all such changes:

• Default respawn time increased from 10 to 12 seconds.
• Overtime respawn time increased from 13 to 14 seconds except in the Flashpoint mode.
• Wave Respawn is disabled in Overtime and when the Payload is near the end of the track in Escort and Hybrid game modes.
• When the first hero on a team dies, they start a new Wave for their team.
• Any hero that dies within 6 seconds of a Wave starting joins that Wave.
• A hero joining a Wave will respawn at the same time as the hero that started the Wave.
• Should a character initiate a Wave without any other character having joined by the time their respawn timer hits six seconds, a two-second reduction is applied. Consequently, they will respawn in a total of ten seconds.

The developers have stated that Wave Respawn will reduce the average respawn times in Season 12. This means that heroes will be respawning in less than 10 seconds alongside their teammates, instead of respawning alone like earlier.

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