Blizzard Takes Players By Surprise With Fast Launch Of New Hero, Orisa The Tank

A few weeks ago, Blizzard teased its Overwatch players with some news about a new Hero in the form of the child-genius, Efi Oladele. The company recently made good on this promise a lot faster than it did in the past, with Efi’s robotic creation called Orisa. Intended as a Tank, Orisa is centaur-shaped defense system with a cool set of abilities.

The last Hero that Overwatch introduced was Sombra, who was teased for an incredibly long time before she was finally available for players to use in the game, Forbes points out. It was dragged out so long, in fact, that it even dampened player’s reception of the character. It seems Blizzard learned its lesson and released Orisa in short order, which should please players who like using Tanks.

Right now, Orisa is available in the Public Test Realm, which means that it won’t be available to players in its final form. Officially designated OR-15, it would seem that the machine is meant to be a home defense system when it was built by Efi.

In any case, the new Hero will be joining the ranks of other bullet sponges like Reinhardt, Zarya, and Winston. This makes sense since the last Hero, Sombra is more of a support type. If this trend holds, perhaps Blizzard will next release an offensive character since it already released a sniper.

As for Orisa’s capabilities, its main weapon is called the Fusion Driver, which is an automatic cannon that deals consistent damage, GameSpot reports. To balance things out, the weapon also causes the character to move slowly, thus making it more susceptible to receiving damages.

Orisa can also use Halt, which is basically a gravity bomb that pulls enemies in and slows them down. In order to supplement its Tank abilities, Orisa has Fortify, which boosts endurance. Finally, its Ultimate is called Supercharger, which boosts the damage done by allies.