Overwatch’s hero roster just got a bit bigger with the addition of Orisa, who Blizzard announced today as the latest character to join its popular team-based competitive shooter. Orisa marks the third character to be added to the game post-launch, following the release of Ana last summer and Sombra in the fall.

The character comes after a mercifully short teaser campaign (compared to the months-long Sombra ARG) which introduced fans to 11-year-old scientist Efi Oladele. In the Overwatch world, Efi is inspired to build Orisa out of the wreckage of an OR15 defense robot after witnessing an attack by Doomfist, one of Overwatch’s most notorious villains (who has yet to appear as a playable hero in the game itself, to some fan’s dismay).

Orisa is a Tank class character, meant to soak up a lot of damage and help defend teammates, which fits right in line with the hero’s origin as a security robot. Orisa’s primary weapon is the Fusion Driver, which functions like a projectile-based machine gun, with some of the best range of any of Overwatch’s tanks. The Fusion Driver has an alternative fire mode that can drag enemies in place to more easily fire at. Her Protective Barrier ability is similar to Reinhardt’s shield or Winston’s bubble, but with the added twist that Orisa can place the shield away from herself to shield allies. Aditionally, there’s the Fortify ability which prevents Orisa from being knocked back by other heroes when activated. Finally, Orisa’s Ultimate is Supercharger, is the drum-like device on her back that Orisa can place to provide a damage boost for all allies within line of sight (although players will need to protect the Supercharger once it’s placed, since it can be destroyed).

Like most major Overwatch updates, Orisa will be available on the Overwatch Public Test Region (PTR) server for PC players to try out today, with a final release for primary PC servers and consoles scheduled for the near future.

Via [www.theverge.com]