This is not a drill. The 24th hero is real and is already on PTR.
Last week, Overwatch‘s Twitter shared two game lore updates which got the Overwatch community buzzing with new hero speculation.
In summary, Overwatch introduced us to an 11-year-old inventor, Efi Oladele, whose work on robots has won her accolades. Efi was present at Numbani airport when it was attacked by very strong assailant. An image was shared of mangled robots, complete with one smashed into a crater on the wall.
On Monday, Overwatch sent out another tweet, hinting at the fact that Efi was hard at work on a new project in the aftermath of the airport incident.
Today, Blizzard has released a video introducing us to Overwatch‘s newest hero, Orisa. As many people guessed, Orisa is a robot created by Efi. From the brief origin video, we learn that Orisa was one of the ones damaged in an airport but Efi brought it back to life so that it could be the next hero.
Along with introducing us to Orisa, the video also confirms that Doomfist was the one responsible for the airport attack. “I was at the airport when Doomfist attacked,” Efi says in the voiceover. This has been a popular belief ever since Overwatch shared the airport image, and it may be a nod to the fact that Doomfist may still be a playable hero in our future even if it isn’t him being announced now.
In addition to the hero announcement, Jeff Kaplan released a developer’s update video to discuss the details of Orisa.
Orisa will be a tank character. Kaplan describes her primary weapon, the Fusion Driver, as “a projectile-based machine gun” which will have the most range of any tank character’s weapon, but it does slow her down when using it.
The alternate fire on her weapon functions as a mini-version of Zarya’s Graviton Surge. Orisa shoots out a pulse which, when triggered, will bring targets within the radius together for a very short period. Kaplan states that this is used mostly to position or reposition targets. He also adds that this ability may help snipers temporarily have an easy, unmoving shot.
Fortify is Orisa’s tank ability, which makes Orisa take less damage and prevents her from falling prey to action-impairing attacks when used like Pharah’s Concussive Blast. Using Fortify essentially prevents Orisa from being booped.
Kaplan calls Orisa’s Protective Barrier ability her most defining ability. It’s similar in concept to Reinhardt’s shield and Winston’s protective bubble and can be projected in whatever area she faces.
Her ultimate ability is called the Supercharger. Orisa has a drum-like appendage on her back that, when fully charged up, she can throw down onto the ground. Anyone within line of sight of the Supercharger will be damage boosted. However, opponents can destroy the Supercharger, so when in use it needs to be protected.
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To address why Overwatch has decided to add another tank, Kaplan states, “We wanted another tank that teams could build around and position around.” Kaplan cites Reinhardt as an “anchor tank,” a character whose abilities make the backbone of a team but are not necessarily mobile like D.Va or Winston. Kaplan wanted to give players more options in the anchor tank area.
Orisa is currently already one the PTR, and Kaplan says he is looking forward to continuing to smooth out the character until it is perfect and ready for release.