GoKawiilOverwatch's Reign of Talon season 1 is starting to wind down, and the biggest story has been the five new heroes who joined the roster. A lot of attention has understandably gone to Jetpack Cat, a hero once scrapped in the game's early design, but resurrected on the cusp of the game's 10th anniversary. She's been the subject of bans and memery due to her unique kit that features permanent flight and the ability to fly any other hero through the air with her Lifeline ability.
But another support hero has quietly gone under the radar as one of the most-played characters in the new season: Mizuki.
Mizuki is a complex hero, similar on paper to support heroes Brigitte and Lucio, who mix damage with healing in the radius around them, but with his own unique mechanics. He has a constant healing aura around him, which grows more powerful as he deals damage with his weapon or uses other healing abilities. His main weapon is a projectile that bounces off surfaces. One of his abilities, Katashiro Return, offers a burst of movement, but also the ability to teleport back to your starting point within a few seconds.
That all adds up to a hero design that gives players lots of options but also requires you to carefully strategize to turn the tide of battle. Do you stay with your team to maximize the value of your healing aura? Or do you split from them for a higher-risk, higher-reward play? Do you use your Katashiro Return ability to flank behind an enemy team, or save it to disengage from an unexpected attack?
In this clip, I used Mizuki's Katashiro Return ability to take a risky flank with a guaranteed escape. Good thing, too, because I didn't expect to meet a Junkrat in a small room. Blizzard/Capture by Adam Benjamin/CNET
Despite spending most of my time in Overwatch playing support heroes, including Ana and Kiriko, I found Mizuki challenging early in the season, even as I watched enemy Mizukis pump out damage and secure clutch kills while constantly healing their teams.
This "unlockable challenge" element was an intentional part of Mizuki's design, as I was soon to learn from chatting with the hero's creator, a former Overwatch eSports pro.
By and large, support players have embraced this challenge. An Overwatch spokesperson told me via email that "Mizuki is consistently in the top four for all support picks in Season 1, across every region." He's one of several elements powering a revival of the game, along with a new ongoing story, weekly faction missions and the promise of more new heroes every season. People have flocked back into the game since the start of Season 1, with its average player count on Steam more than doubling over the past month.
Mizuki's design was led by Scott "Custa" Kennedy, a longtime presence in Overwatch's professional scene as both a player and match analyst, and now an associate hero designer. I spoke with Scott at Blizzard's spotlight event and also spoke with him and Mizuki's character artist, Melissa Kelly, in early March to discuss how they created one of the game's most popular heroes.
I fought many a Mizuki duel in season 1. I didn't win them all, but I won this one. Screenshot by Adam Benjamin/CNET
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