Late March Is Earliest Time Before Orisa, New ‘Overwatch’ Character, Goes Live

Blizzard Entertainment is fixing a lot of issues about Orisa, the first new character of “Overwatch” for 2017. The changes that the game developer is making are based on feedback it received. The implication of the fix still happening is that the earliest the new character would be seen by gamers is late March.

Feedback From PTR

The feedback came after “Overwatch” fans viewed Orisa on Blizzard’s Public Test Realm. But she would remain in the PTR for a little while, Jeff Kaplan, “Overwatch” director, says. Since she was introduced on PTR last week, Blizzard had reduced her weapon’s magazine’s size and hiked her Ultimate’s cost, GameSpot reports, based on an update released on Tuesday. According to Escapist Magazine, the Fusion Drive of Orisa was cut to 150 from 200, while her Supercharger ability went up by 15 percent.

Kaplan admits that the wait for Orisa to launch on “Overwatch” is a little longer compared to other PTR periods. It took Ana and Sombra, new heroes of the game, only one week to go live since they were introduced in the PTR, Polygon points out. However, Kaplan believes it would be for the better of the game. He writes in the forum, “We know how anxious you all are to have Orisa join your ranks… and she will soon… but most likely she will go live later in the month rather than this early.”

Tweaks On Other Characters

Besides Orisa, changes were also made on other “Overwatch” characters such as Zarya and Bastion, according to the PTR Patch. Ana, Winston, and other characters also underwent some tweaks. The damage from Ana’s biotic rifle decreased to 60 from 80, while the damage and healing of her grenade reduced by 50 percent to 30 from 60, and 50 from 100, respectively. However, these changes are only in the beta version and would not become official until Blizzard pushes it to the game’s full versions on all platforms.