Overwatch Priority Pass Details Revealed

Overwatch Priority Pass details have been released. The Principal Game Designer, Scott Mercer, said in the Developer Game Update, "The most important thing we’re looking out for is: at the end of the day, how can we make Overwatch more fun for our players?” With this in mind, we'll break down everything about the Priority Pass.

The Priority Pass was invented because of the queue times players have been experiencing when they are selecting either Damage, Tank, or Support. Damage has been very popular, causing longer wait times. This pass allows you to queue up as either a Flex player, in which you are willing to play as damage, tank, or support. Or you can select damage, spend a token, and have a lower queue time. When players choose the flex option, it equalizes queue times for players who are experiencing an imbalance.

You receive passes based on if you win or lose. Players are also provided a number of passes, though the number might change over time. If you play one flex game, you receive multiple games where you have Priority Passes to use for Damage. You are able to save up to 40 of these passes.

For teams, the Priority Pass will need to spent by players who are affected by the impacted role. So if you are queueing for a game and damage is the impacted role, those that are selecting damage will need to spend a priority pass. The pass will also show you the difference in wait times between if you use a priority pass or not.

One of the reasons this priority pass has been launched is due to the fact that there are more damage characters than there are Tank or Support. In order to try to equalize this balance, Blizzard has been trying to add more and more characters that are either Tank or Support. However, even with these additions, Overwatch is a first-person shooter, and people want to do damage to opponents plain and simple.

Hopefully the addition of the Priority Pass will give us shorter wait times. This is like putting a band-aid on a broken leg right now, however, it's better than nothing at all. We'll see how wait times improve, and hope no bugs or glitches come along with the Priority Pass.