Say Hello To Orisa, Overwatch's Newest Tank Character

After dropping a couple of hints over the past few weeks, Blizzard has at last revealed Overwatch's next hero, a tank character named Orisa. Though fans initially suspected a new character by the name of Efi Oladele, it turns out that she was merely the mastermind behind Orisa, who is a four-legged robot centered around supporting and protecting her allies in battle.

In a developer update today, Overwatch Director Jeff Kaplan spends some time talking about Orisa's background and why the team chose to introduce a new tank into the mix. Orisa is Overwatch's 24th character and sixth tank, though she serves a different purpose than most of the other tanks in the game. Kaplan calls her an "anchor tank," and considers her to be similar to Reinhardt, who relies on his positioning and his defensive skills to allow his team to engage and disengage from battle.

One look at Orisa's skills is all you need to understand what Kaplan is talking about. Her main weapon is her Fusion Driver, which offers good range and accuracy in return for a decrease in movement speed while firing. The Fusion Driver's alternative fire has a lot of utility, firing what's called a graviton surge in front of her, which pulls enemies toward it as it passes by and then detonates later, pulling nearby enemies in.

If that graviton surge is close enough your enemies, it'll stop them entirely, giving your damage dealers a chance to get a few shots in while mobility is limited. Her first skill is called Fortify and reduces her damage taken while at the same time making her unstoppable. This means that Fortify will be a good counter to abilities like Roadhog's hook, Pharah's concussive blast, or Lucio's soundwave.

With her Protective Barrier skill, we can begin to draw similarities between Orisa and Reinhardt. Use this skill to drop a stationary shield that can protect your allies from fire – Kaplan notes that this isn't as strong as Reinhardt's barrier, but it offers a good trade off in that it allows Orisa to continue fighting.

Finally, we come to Orisa's ultimate ability: Supercharger. Activate this to drop a device that buffs your allies' damage output as long as they're within its line of sight. It can be destroyed by the enemy team, so you'll want to make sure it stays protected as you dish out punishment.

Orisa sounds like an interesting addition to the Overwatch team, and one that will add some more diversity to the selection of tanks on offer. She's going live on the PTR today, so she should be getting a full release in Overwatch sometime within the next few weeks.