The arrival of a new Overwatch character always brings one
thing specific to the table: the fact that every team for the next few weeks
will have someone running that character. Fortunately, this gives us a good
chance to learn that specific hero’s strengths and weaknesses and what exactly
they bring to the table.
Since she launched on Tuesday I’ve
been seeing Orisa a lot. Right now the hardest part of playing her isn’t
figuring out her kit or where to put her shields. The most difficult part of
playing Orisa is trying to be the first person to lock her in in Quick Play before
someone beats you to it.
But how is she really? Is she another
true team anchor tank like Reinhardt or is she more akin a disruptor tank like
Winston or D.Va? And the biggest question of all: is she going to be a viable
Competitive pick?
It’s still early, and since it’s
currently a race to grab Orisa it’s hard to get any practice with her outside
of No Limits mode (where it’s essentially six Orisas vs six Orisas right now)
it’s kind of hard to find someone who really knows how to use her
professionally. But what I can tell from playing several matches as Orisa and
many more against her that she’s an incredibly strong character that legitimately
has the potential to change the game.
Looking at Orisa I’d have to say she
works much better playing Defense, but she can be a complete powerhouse
offensively as well. Her firing range isn’t quite as far as, say, Bastion’s,
but it’s still impressively far for a tank and can deal hefty amounts of damage.
She’s equipped with a lot of ammo as well, but with an extremely slow reload
animation as an exchange. It’s definitely recommended you wait until a lull in
the battle to reload just so the enemy team doesn’t catch you with your pants
down.
As her character is built around
keeping the citizens of Numbani safe, Orisa has several tricks that work
extremely well in keeping the enemy team off points and payloads. Her secondary
fire is known as “Halt”, which is basically a miniature version of Zarya’s
Graviton Surge ultimate ability. Orisa shoots a glowing orb on the first press,
and on the second it drags ant enemies in the vicinity towards it. This ability
is incredibly useful on maps like Ilios and Lijang Tower where there is a lot
of bottomless pits to pull unwitting foes into, but I do find it doesn’t have
much use otherwise. I’ll sometimes shoot one to try and slow down a Tracer or a
Genji, but otherwise it doesn’t last long enough to be a really viable solution
to a problem unless you can get it over a pit.
She also has “Fortify” or as I like to
call it, the Anti-Reinhardt Shield. Orisa surrounds herself in a golden shield
that reduces how much damage she takes, while also preventing her from being
stunned by something like McCree’s Flashbang or Reinhardt’s Earthshatter.
Again, this is a good ability, but it really only comes into play under certain
circumstances. If the enemy team doesn’t have someone who can stun or push
heroes around, Fortify won’t be used much.
But by far the most versatile ability
Orisa has in her arsenal is her Protective Barrier. Similarly to Winston’s
Barrier Projector, this ability allows Orisa to leave a large barrier anywhere
on the map for the team to rally behind. Unlike Winston, however, this barrier doesn’t
disappear after a few seconds, instead staying up until the enemy team destroys
it. It doesn’t have quite as much health as Reinhardt’s shield, but it’s strong
enough that it really gets in the way of enemy attackers. A combo I’ve been
noticing a lot on Control maps is having Orisa set up a barrier in front of
Bastion while Mercy is damage-boosting him. This leads to some insane
protection and is a huge help when trying to control a point.
Her ultimate is known as the
Supercharger, and trust me when I say that this thing can turn entire games
around. Similar to Symmetra’s Shield Generator, the Supercharger damage-boosts
anyone standing within a few meters of it. This is very useful if you’re having
trouble slowing down the enemy team’s payload, as an army of damage boosted
heroes is hard to deal with. The Supercharger doesn’t last too long and can be
destroyed, so it’s best to use it when there are about four or less enemies in
your sight that need to be taken down. While it can change the flow of a match,
it’s not a guaranteed win button.
Orisa, overall, is a very strong
character that I really think can be devastating once people learn how to use
her. When placed correctly, her barrier can really shake up games, especially
if your teammates with longer range on their weapons rally behind it. While
both Halt and Fortify are incredibly situational abilities, when used right
they can really slow down the progress of the other team, and the Supercharger
has the potential to turn entire games on their head. I’d recommend getting a
bit of experience playing as, with and against Orisa soon, because we might be
seeing the beginning of a new meta here.
No comments:
Post a Comment