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Mauga is large and ferociously in charge. Overwatch 2’s newest tank hails from Samoa and is a force to be reckoned with, a high-damage brawler wielding two chainguns and one of the game’s most intimidating new ultimates, Cage Fight.
While some leaks manifested ahead of BlizzCon 2023‘s reveal, they did little to affect fan excitement at the reveal of the brash Samoan mercenary and his fiery personality. Bumping Overwatch 2’s roster to an impressive 39 heroes in total, Mauga bolsters the tank class as an attack-oriented monster with no barrier to speak of.
Instead of a shield, Mauga enables nearby allies to essentially lifesteal with his Cardiac Overdrive ability aura, CCs and disorients enemies with his Overrun abilities, and isolates and impairs them with his particularly brutal ultimate, which traps foes in a cylindrical cage while granting him unlimited ammo. We explore ways to counteract and contend with this ultimate in greater detail below.
A 12th Tank To Round Out The Year, Playable Now For a Limited Time
Overwatch 2 increases its roster slowly throughout the year, releasing only one hero at a time following careful consideration and experimentation, often using a PTR and professional players to test. Not the case here, as per Hero Producer Kenny Hudson: “He’s not a hero that Overwatch League got their hands on.”
BlizzCon 2023 saw a small panel discuss Mauga’s creation and explore his new kit and application (and counters), including Hudson, Lead Hero Designer Alec Dawson, Senior Test Analyst Foster Elmendorf, and Senior Character Artist Rakan Khamash. As the chat began, players around the world had the chance to test Mauga themselves over the BlizzCon weekend in advance of his proper introduction to the game near the end of the year.
Mauga’s Kit: Overrun
2023 has already seen the addition of two support class heroes – Lifeweaver and Illari – but its tank class has now gone almost a full calendar year without a friendly new face. Like Orisa’s last rework, Mauga’s lack of a barrier ability emphasizes an aggressive playstyle which requires full team coordination and awareness, and his Overrun feels something like a hat trick composed of Orisa’s unstoppable fortify, Reinhardt’s dash, and Winston’s jump.
Dawson expands on Overrun further:
There’s a nice little precision bonus, actually. If Mauga lands directly on top of someone, he will stomp them down onto the ground. Other people around the radius, they’ll get knocked up into the air, but If you land right on top of someone, they’re going to fall over and they’ll be briefly stunned. So, it just creates a nice skill ceiling there for the ability itself.
The Mauga trailer showcases Overrun’s dismissal of Mei’s Blizzard, Sigma’s Gravitic Flux, and really anything being thrown at the charging tank. With Overrun, he seems custom-built to devastate an unprotected backline, and his abilities make for a hero which requires consistent peeling to protect vulnerable supports like Ana and Mercy, and direct focus fire to melt down his beefy 650+ HP; while Mauga lacks armor and shields, he’ll make up for it in overheal with effective play.
Mauga’s Kit: Gunny and Cha-cha
Two silly names for two monstrous guns. Unlike a character like Orisa, who automatically alternates fire with her two arm-mounted cannons, players have precise control over Mauga’s left and right chainguns, which will require some nuance to extract utmost value during combat.
Gunny is an incendiary chaingun, and will proc burning tick-damage after steadily firing on an enemy. Cha-cha is a “volatile chaingun,” which will cause critical damage on enemies which are already burning. While the two guns can be fired simultaneously, smartly managing burn and crit potential adds a fresh mechanical layer and rewards accurately tracked combatants for Mauga players.
Some may even want to swap keybindings – they default to Gunny as left-click and Cha-cha as right-click – since Cha-cha seems more like a finishing tool for when Gunny is done softening up a target. Proper team coordination and focus will further ensure that Mauga scores a kill on each target.
Countering Mauga’s Ultimate Cage Fight
Invariably, most questions to the Overwatch 2 panel regarded Mauga’s ultimate ability, Cage Fight. The game has maintained a fraught relationship to CC ever since its original incarnation, but the new tank’s ultimate is a perilous gamble: not only does it trap enemies in a ring, it completely inhibits mobility for trapped heroes and blocks direct healing from the outside while active.
We asked the team about potential counters to the ult, and Dawson pointed out some of its weaknesses:
The ultimate is a ring around him, so if you can get above it, you can shoot down into it pretty effectively. So, Pharah from a distance is pretty solid. If you can get Widowmaker up on a ledge from a distance, she can fire into it. I think those kinds of things will develop over time. But there are definitely pretty clear counters, once you get used to it.
Elmendorf observes a few counterpicks, focusing on characters which aim to prevent Mauga’s self- and team-healing qualities:
Since Mauga’s a tank that relies on damage to sustain himself, there’s definitely some counters there. Things that can shut him down: Sigma and D.Va are the two that really stand out. Sigma can shut a lot of that down, D.Va Defense Matrix can shut a lot of that down. He needs to be able to deal critical damage, needs to be able to get that temporary health on himself to stay alive a lot of the time.
Baptiste’s lamp can be thrown into the ring, and heroes can even directly enter Cage Fight themselves, albeit with the knowledge that they will then be similarly trapped and chained to Mauga for its duration. Hudson explains healing in these encounters:
“Any heal that doesn’t go through the barrier won’t go through it. If you’re outside of it and you throw Moira’s orb into it, the orb will go through it because it’s a barrier. But if you’re Ana and stuck outside of it, you can’t heal your friends unless you commit to being inside of it, too.
So if you throw the lamp in, then it’ll continue to work inside. But Mauga is in there with infinite ammo…so I don’t know how long your lamp is going to survive.
Doubling-Up on Cardiac Overdrive
Mauga’s dual hearts plays into his support ability, Cardiac Overdrive. What players may have quickly found out over the weekend, though, was that there’s no current cap on healing for Mauga’s teammates. What this means is: players which already draw healing with damage will find that these abilities are buffed by their new tank teammate.
Dawson explained that even Reaper’s passive will stack with Cardiac Overdrive, which should develop the pair into a seemingly unstoppable DPS onslaught. Expect Junker Queen’s Adrenaline Rush and Moira’s Biotic Grasp to similarly compliment Mauga’s ability nicely and help turn some teamfights.
Mauga’s Personality and His *Very* Good Relationship with Baptiste
Rounding out the panel were some questions and comments on Mauga’s character and background, though panelists were a bit canny about the finer details and fan theories. We asked about any romantic potential exhibited by what we know of the Baptiste and Mauga’s history. Hudson carefully clarified:
So, Baptiste saved Mauga’s life, obviously, right? They’re really deep friends, they have a rich history together in Talon. But, other than that…I mean, there’s not much we’re willing to go into on any potential romantic ties, or whatever’s been going on online.
Is that no comment, or just no comment right now?
Right now they’re just two really good friends and have a deep mutual respect for one another. And I think that’s a good thing.
We also inquired about any expected event modes to be scheduled in the future that might focus on the new character. Hudson quickly checked with management to confirm this point, but we were gently denied any additional details. “Can we say yes?” Dawson asked. “Yeah. I’m going to say yes.”
Any Overwatch 2 fans at home should jump into game and try out this feisty new tank brawler – playable this weekend in all modes outside of Competitive – and get ready for his full debut in Season 8 on December 5.
