Blizzard has announced that Orisa will be delayed for a week in competitive mode. She will be available to play in all other modes including quick play from today.
It’s an interesting choice considering previous character releases. However, the good news is the meta won’t get turned on its head straight away. It also means you team won’t be dragged down by someone who’s never used her.
Principle Designer on Overwatch, Scott Mercer gives his reasoning on the Battle.net forums.
When patch 1.9 releases tomorrow, Orisa will not initially be available for Competitive Play. We want to give players some time to learn about and play Orisa before she’s placed into the crucible of Competitive Play.
She’ll still be immediately available in Quick Play, the Arcade (including custom games with the competitive ruleset), and Play vs. AI.
Many fans are likely to be upset by the move, but it’s a smart one on Blizzard’s behalf. Both Ana and Sombra were release during competitive seasons — 1 and 3 respectively — and both were available immediately. Blizzard is always listening to fans and working to improve the Overwatch experience, so the delay is likely a move in response to events of the past.
Orisa has been called the Swiss Army Knife of Overwatch and it’s not far wrong. Her moveset includes Foritfy, Halt, Protective Barrier and Supercharger. Orisa’s main weapon is the Fusion Driver which fires like a faster, more accurate version of D.Va’s cannon.
Fortify provides Orisa with a personal shield. The shield reduces all damage and prevents her from being moved so Pharah’s Concussive Blast or Reinhardt’s Charge won’t have an effect. Halt is essentially a scaled back version of Zarya’s Graviton Surge. It will be devastating for team’s that bunch too closely together and is a definite game-changer.
Her protective barrier is much like Winston’s. It allows allies to fire through it, but doesn’t move with Orisa. It will be best used on the payload. Finally, her ultimate ability — Supercharger — is placed on the ground and powers up all allies in line of sight. Using it the perfect moment can be devastating.
I know I’ll be hitting quick play and training when I get home. And I’ll be playing against Orisa bots until I can work out how to counter her.
Orisa is available now and will hit competitive play in a week’s time.
