After a series of teasers, Blizzard finally rolled out Orisa as the 24th hero for massively popular multiplayer shooter Overwatch.
Orisa is an omnic quadruped tank, and she was designed as a protective ally similar to Reinhardt that will benefit allies if they position themselves around her, as opposed to disruptive tanks such as Winston and D.Va.
The Skills Of Orisa
Before we dive in to gameplay tips and tricks, let's take a look at the skills of Orisa and how to maximize them, for players who can now try playing her in the game's PTR.
Orisa's main weapon is the fusion driver, an automatic projectile cannon that delivers sustained damage, but she moves slower while firing. Redditor Rawflax discovered that her projectiles travel at about the same speed of the orbs of Zenyatta, so players who are good with leading shots will find their targets with Orisa's fusion driver. The magazine of her main weapon takes 16 seconds to discharge, which means that Orisa players will not need to reload much and will likely be able to keep firing during the duration of group fights.
Orisa's skills, meanwhile, feel like a mashup of abilities of other Overwatch characters. While Fortify is a unique skill that reduces the damage she takes and provides immunity to crowd control effects such as stuns, knockbacks, and freezing, her Halt skill works like a mini-Graviton Surge of Zarya and her Protective Barrier skill works like Reinhardt's Barrier Field but with a cooldown like Winston's Barrier Projector. Orisa's ultimate, the Supercharger, powers up the damage of nearby allies, functioning like a bigger and better version of Mercy's damage boost.
The combination of these skills, and their relatively short cooldowns, makes for an interesting hero that plays an anchor-tank role with a primary function "to keep you safe," as she says in her origin video.
Orisa Tips And Tricks
Orisa players should maximize the usage of Fortify, as it greatly buffs up the robot hero's ability to soak up damage and fight through skills of opponents. When Fortify is activated, damage received is reduced by 50 percent, and Orisa can do things such as breaking Junkrat traps without getting caught, blocking Roadhog's hook, and disabling McCree's stun. Orisa can also stop Reinhardt's Charge skill while Fortify is activated, though the effect of reversing the stun onto Reinhardt is said to be a bug that will be fixed in the future.
The Halt skill, meanwhile, can be used to set up opponents so that teammates can unload their skills all at once on them. When the graviton charge of the skill is launched, all enemies it passes will be slowed down and a yellow line will be shown connected to them. This yellow line can help players judge the opponents that will be affected when the charge is detonated, though the blast radius of the skill has been found to be pretty big.
Players can also spam the Protective Barrier skill because its cooldown timer starts when it is launched, not when the shield ends. Orisa can start group fights by launching the shield, which is capable of absorbing 900 points of damage, and will have the chance of the skill being once again ready after the first shield wears off.
Supercharger provides a massive buff to teammates, but it can be destroyed and is pretty easy to stop. Orisa players should place the device around corners or protect it with the Protective Barrier so that it will be able to boost the damage of allies for the maximum time.
Lastly, Orisa players should keep in mind their role of being an anchor-tank. Orisa should stay in front of teammates and provide the necessary protection and boosts when necessary, and not charge in solo and try to kill enemies by herself.
