The 24th 'Overwatch' character arrives next week
Orisa is a four-legged robot tank with a lot to prove.
Orisa, the latest character to enter the Overwatch fray, will be widely available on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on March 21st. Orisa is an "anchor tank," as Blizzard calls it -- this means she's the kind of massive, damage-absorbing hero that an entire team can rally behind and use as a home base, even in the middle of hectic fights. Reinhardt is another example of an "anchor tank" in Overwatch.
Orisa is a mix of Reinhardt (a big, healthy character with a giant shield) and Zarya (who has a laser gun and barriers she can throw onto her allies). But, she has four legs. And she's a robot. And she was built by an 11-year-old genius, Efi Oladele, who lives in the peaceful city of Numbani.
But that's enough backstory. Here's what Orisa actually does: Her main gun has two functions, Fusion Driver and Halt. Fusion Driver is a projectile-based, long-range machine gun that causes her to move more slowly as she's firing. Meanwhile, Halt allows Orisa to shoot out a graviton ball that can then suck in all nearby enemies for easy pickings. Think of Halt as a mini version of Zarya's ultimate.
Fortify is a pure tank ability, reducing Orisa's damage intake by 50 percent and making her immune to attacks that would cause her to move position or fall off a ledge. Orisa isn't selfish though: Another ability, Protective Barrier, allows her to launch a shield that protects her teammates from enemy fire.
Finally, Orisa's ultimate ability is Supercharger. She always carries "The Drum" on her back, and when her ult is charged, she can throw it on the ground to provide a 50 percent damage boost to any teammate in the Drum's line of sight. The enemy team can kill the Drum, so Orisa has to be crafty with its placement, either hiding it behind a barrier or setting it up where the enemy team can't see it.
"We wanted another tank that teams could build around and position around," Game Director Jeff Kaplan said earlier this month. "Even though we think that tanks like Winston and D.Va are really great in what they bring to the game, they're not necessarily bringing what Reinhardt was bringing. So we hope that in Orisa, there is now another option to do a low-mobility tank but one that brings a high amount of protection in her protective barrier."
