Overwatch has introduced the 24th hero to its lineup. Orisa takes diversity to its logical conclusion, as she happens to be a female robot centaur. She is also yet another tank character that’s meant to cover the approach of her allies.
As a tank, Orisa is meant to take massive amounts of damage. She has a Fortify ability that boosts her own ability to absorb damage. The Protective Barrier ability is similar to Winston’s force field bubble, but in Orisa’s case it is only a half dome.
On the offensive side, Orisa left-click attack is a Fusion Driver; which is a long range machine gun with decent accuracy. Her right-click attack deploys a mini-Graviton Surge that drags opponents in but doesn’t hold them in place.
The Supercharger is Orisa’s ultimate ability, and provides a boost for allied heroes within its line-of-sight. The only catch here is that the Supercharger is a physical object and can be destroyed by the opposing team. In other words, it will have to be carefully placed where it won’t be destroyed the moment it’s deployed.
Orisa’s role is what the developers are calling an “anchor-tank”, which means that she is meant to be the focal point of her team. A position that’s currently only filled by Reinhardt. The developers are hoping that the introduction of a second character in this role will add a new dynamic to the game. Not that the current Overwatch meta really needs more tanks.
Blizzrd is currently testing Orisa in the PTR, and it’s likely her abilities will get shifted around a bit before she’s released to the public. That being said, new heroes have traditionally seen very little change from their time in the PTR; and we should be seeing Orisa on public servers soon.
