After an especially lengthy stay on the PTR, Overwatch’s newest hero, “anchor tank” Orisa, is finally live. She’s accompanied by major changes to precious heal boy Lucio, a new tiebreaker system for competitive matches, and balance changes that span multiple heroes and maps.
First announced a few weeks ago, Orisa is meant to occupy a similar role to Reinhardt, Overwatch’s shield-wielder-in-chief. Ideally, you’ll be able to build teams around her mix of semi-mobile cover and abilities that screw with the other team’s formation. She’s also got a mean damage-boosting ult and generally plays nice with other tanks.
Initially, she’ll be available in every mode except competitive. “We want to give players some time to learn about and play Orisa before she’s placed into the crucible of Competitive Play,” said principal designer Scott Mercer.
There are also a bunch of balance changes in this patch. Ana’s biotic rifle now does less damage, Sombra’s hack and translocator got tweaked, Zarya’s barriers no longer prevent knockback, and Bastion doesn’t gain quite so much armor in sentry mode (on console).
You can take a look at all the other tweaks, bug fixes, and balance changes in the patch notes here.