Blizzard will soon be adding its 28th hero to its Overwatch roster. The new character is a mech called Wrecking Ball, and it is piloted by a sentient and chubby hamster named Hammond.
According to Wrecking Ball’s origin story, Hammond was on the same Horizon Lunar Colony as Winston, one of the first playable heroes at the game’s launch. Like Winston, Hammond was subjected to the same genetic modifications, which in turn gave him a high level of intelligence.
During Winston’s ejection from the space colony, Hammond “hitched” a ride by attaching his own ball-shaped escape pod to Winston’s. Unfortunately, while Winston landed at Watchpoint, Gibraltar, Hammond ended up crash landing near Junkertown in Australia (due to a malfunction). It is here that Hammond built his own ball-shaped mech: Wrecking Ball.
Wrecking Ball is very clearly a tank. Like D.Va, he shares the same HUD and layout for his two main guns, but that’s where the similarities end. Instead of Fusion Cannons, Wrecking Ball’s primary weapon of choice are Quad Cannons.
As a tank, Wrecking Ball is built to take a massive amount damage via the use of his Adaptive Shield. Hammond’s mech can also shift into what Overwatch game director, Jeff Kaplan, describes as “Ball Mode”, allowing him to roll around the battlefield quickly.
On the offensive side, he can transform himself into his namesake by deploying his grappling claw to any high point, allowing him to gain momentum by swinging around and hitting his enemies. If Wrecking Ball gains enough height, players can also execute his Piledriver ability by pressing the crouch button. This causes Wrecking Ball to slam down into the ground, causing massive amount of damage to any enemy players who are beneath him at that point.
Wrecking Ball’s ultimate ability is the Minefield; upon activation, Wrecking Ball deploys a massive number of proximity mines within the immediate vicinity. Like all minefields, anything that moves through that field will get juggled around and take a lot of damage in the process.
Much like D.Va and Zarya, Wrecking Ball is designed to be a highly mobile and highly disruptive tank. In other words, he’s designed to absorb most of the hits from the opposing team, but still agile enough to throw in disruptive hits before moving out of the killzone.
Wrecking Ball is currently being tested in the PTR. As it is with all new characters, Wrecking Ball’s abilities will most likely be shifted around before being released on public servers.
