Zenyatta (Overwatch)

The 2016 first-person shooter video game ''Overwatch'', developed by Blizzard Entertainment, features 32 playable characters known as heroes and a number of supporting characters as part of the game's narrative, which is told through animated media and digital comics outside of the game. Its sequel, ''Overwatch 2'', was released in October 2022 and replaced ''Overwatch''. The sequel builds upon the same hero roster and added more characters, launching with 35 heroes. However, as ''Overwatch 2'' had been developed to be a faster game with five-versus-five teams rather than six-versus-six, several of the characters had tweaks or major rebuilds within ''Overwatch 2''.

The story of ''Overwatch'' takes place on Earth in the "near future" in the years after the "Omnic Crisis," a period in which robots (called "omnics") rose up in rebellion worldwide, and the United Nations formed an elite group called Overwatch to combat them. Overwatch continued to protect the peace until it was disbanded years later under a cloud of suspicion, but its former members have returned to the fore in light of new threats to humanity. Blizzard wanted to create a diverse set of characters to reflect a positive outlook on this near future, incorporating non-human characters and non-standard character traits. The game launched with 21 characters, with eleven more added post-release. Nine characters reprised their role as playable heroes in the crossover multiplayer online battle arena game, ''Heroes of the Storm''.

Background

''Overwatch'' is primarily an online team-oriented first-person shooter, and an example of a "hero shooter" where players select from one of several pre-designed hero characters with their own unique abilities. ''Overwatch'' includes casual play modes, competitive ranked play modes, and various arcade modes where special rules apply. Most game modes bring together two teams of six players each into a match and compete in one of several objective-based game types based on the randomly selected map, including taking control points and escorting a payload.

A match starts with each player selecting from one of the available hero characters. The game's characters are divided into three role classifications: damage, tank, and support. Damage characters are often doing the most damage and help the team with the majority of kills. Tank characters can absorb large amounts of damage for the team, and support characters share healing abilities and similar status effects for the team or against enemies. The game will warn teams if they have an imbalance in their general role selection, and certain game modes require players to select different heroes. Players are able to switch between heroes mid-match after they are killed or if they return to their team's base.

Each hero character has fundamentally different attributes such as health and movement speed, at least one basic attack, and at least one unique skill, collectively referred to as a skill kit. These skills can be used repeatedly after waiting out the skill's cooldown period. Each character also has at least one powerful ultimate ability that becomes available once its meter is charged, either slowly over time or through other actions such as killing opponents or healing teammates. Once the ultimate ability is used, the player has to wait for the meter to fill again. All characters have a close-combat, low damage melee attack that can be used at any time.

Winning matches earns the player experience towards experience levels in the meta-game. The player earns a loot box on reaching a new experience level, which contain a random assortment of character skins, emotes, speech lines, and other cosmetic items for each character without specific game-changing effects. Players can also purchase loot boxes with real-world money. Blizzard has provided free post-release content for the game, such as new levels and characters. Blizzard has also introduced limited-time seasonal events, offering new cosmetic items in loot boxes, themed levels, and gameplay modes.

Overview

''Overwatch'' originally featured 12 characters at its November 2014 BlizzCon convention announcement, but expanded to 21 by the next year's convention. The game is character-driven, and reviewers noted ''Overwatch'' emphasis on the individual differences between characters in the same role (e.g., between two snipers) as a departure from dominant class-based shooter paradigms. Critics widely praised the game's accessible and detailed character design and its role in the game's overall success.

Similar to Valve's initial launch of ''Team Fortress 2'', in the absence of a dedicated story mode, Blizzard tells the backstory of ''Overwatch'' plot and characters through media outside the game, including animated shorts, character press events, tweets, and webcomics. The game's story centers around a technological singularity in which humanity assembles a team of its best heroes, Overwatch, to fight off a rogue artificial intelligence and its robotic army of Omnics in an incident called the "Omnic Crisis". After winning its battle, the Overwatch kept the peace for about three decades before infighting led to its disbandment. The game takes place approximately sixty years in the future, during a time period in which the world is slipping into disarray, and former Overwatch members along with new allies, as well as enemies, are being called on to help protect the peace in their respective favors. Among Overwatch's enemies include Talon, a global criminal network seeking wealth and power.

In early 2016, Blizzard released media kits with granular character detail for fan artists and cosplayers. Preceding the game's launch, PornHub reported a surge in searches for pornography including ''Overwatch'' characters. An intellectual property security firm issued multiple takedown requests to sites featuring such videos and other erotica created in Source Filmmaker.

Development

''Overwatch'' was developed by Blizzard following the cancellation of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game '' Titan'', a project that had been in works for several years. A smaller team from those on ''Titan'' were given the role to come up with a new project, and they came onto the idea of a first-person shooter that emphasized teamwork, inspired by ''Team Fortress 2'' and the rising popularity of multiplayer online battle arenas, as well as their own development team unity they found to keep their morale high following ''Titan''s cancellation.

The development team settled on a narrative of a near-future Earth setting following a global-scale catastrophic event - the Omnic Crisis in which robots, known as Omnics, rose up in rebellion against humanity until stopped by a peacekeeping group known as Overwatch. With selection of this global theme, the developers wanted to create a cast of playable characters to portray diverse representations of genders, ages, ethnicities, and nationalities. The heroes include human, transhuman, and non-human characters such as cyborgs, robots, and a talking gorilla.

The need for a diverse cast was important to the developers, as some of Blizzard's previous games had been criticized before for missing this mark; Metzen explained that even his daughter had asked him why all the female characters from ''Warcraft'' seemed to be only wearing swimsuits. Metzen stated: "Specifically for ''Overwatch'' over the past year we've been really cognizant of that, trying not to oversexualize the female characters."
Kaplan explained that the industry was "clearly in an age where gaming is for everybody", going on to say that "increasingly, people want to feel represented, from all walks of life, boys and girls, everybody. We feel indebted to do our best to honor that."

In addition, Blizzard stated at the 2016 Blizzcon that some of the characters are LGBT, though did not specify which ones at that time. Blizzard has stated that "As with any aspect of our characters' backgrounds, their sexuality is just one part of what makes our heroes who they are." Since then, Tracer has been shown to be in a romantic relationship with another woman through one of the tie-in comics published online by Blizzard.
In a subset lore story, Soldier: 76 was also identified as gay, having had a romantic relationship with a man prior to joining Overwatch. A research paper analyzed this announcement and found that players avoided Soldier: 76 afterwards. However, the pick rate returned to previous levels after around three months.

The team envisioned the characters akin to superheroes in this narrative, each with their own abilities, background and personality that could stand on their own, but could also fit into the larger story; this notion translated into the characters being agents for the game, which Metzen said still captures the "heroism and vibe" that superhero stories carry.
The team did not want to have any characters that served solely as villains in the game, but did develop some of the characters, like Soldier: 76, to have an unsure purpose within the narrative.

Several characters were envisioned for the game during its pre-planning stages, but did not make the cut, or were later incorporated into other heroes. Among characters that were considered included a jetpack-wearing cat, a hockey player that used rocket-power skates, and a Russian woman that would ride a bear and for which her ultimate ability would have the bear rear up and wield his own set of AK-47 rifles. Initially, Reinhardt was an Omnic, but later was settled to be a human character, with the Omnic nature later revisited when the development team crafted Orisa.

Characters introduced since the game's release are generally teased a few weeks in advance or given a cold surprise announcement. The only exception to this had been Sombra, who had been teased by a months-long alternate reality game (ARG) prior to her formal announcement. Blizzard found players reacted negatively to this deployment, and have opted to avoid this type of prolonged teasing for future characters. Blizzard will still seed upcoming hero characters into the game's announcement media but without making comments towards that, anticipating players would find these before the character is officially announced; for example, the 26th hero Moira had appeared in at least two works prior to her announcement. Once a character is announced, they are typically made available on the "Public Test Region" (PTR) for Windows players to try out and help provide feedback to Blizzard. Once Blizzard is satisfied with the PTR character, typically a period lasting two to three weeks, the character is then released to all players on all regions and platforms, outside of competitive play, as to give players a chance to learn the character. Roughly a week following this, the new character then becomes available for competitive play mode.

Character powers are frequently tweaked and adjusted with patches, mostly incremental changes. A few characters have had major overhauls, notably Symmetra (with two separate overhauls of her skill), Mercy, and Torbjörn. Like new characters, these overhauls are tested in the PTR before released to all public regions. A major notable change, reducing the number of roles from four to three (combining "offense" and "defense" heroes into the "damage" category) was implemented in the PTR before being released for all players in June 2018.

''Overwatch 2'' was announced in November 2019, with plans for both a normal PvP element as with the original game and a Player versus Environment (PVE) mode. With the introduction of Echo, the 32nd hero to ''Overwatch'', in March 2020, Kaplan stated that the team's focus was now on ''Overwatch 2'' and it was unlikely they would release any additional heroes prior to the game's release.

After some delays, including the departure of Kaplan and lead character designer Geoff Goodman, ''Overwatch 2'' was released in open early access with its PvP mode in October 2022, with the PvE mode to come later in 2023. While at announcement there was some intent to have a shared multiplayer experience between ''Overwatch'' and ''Overwatch 2'', ''Overwatch 2'' was instead released as a free to play title, with a player's earned cosmetics brought over into ''Overwatch 2''. ''Overwatch 2'' was designed to play faster and avoid the slow pace that some ''Overwatch'' games had become, in part due to the use of "crowd control" (CC) abilities to hamper progress. To correct this, ''Overwatch 2'' is nominally played with five players on each team, with role-fixed games using two damage, two support, and one tank. This necessitated changes to several characters' skill kits to match; notably, Orisa's kit has a significant rework to remove her shield and her CC abilities, while Doomfist was reworked from damage into a tank class. ''Overwatch 2'' also launched with three new heroes, bringing the total roster to 35 by October 2022. With the free to play model, new heroes for ''Overwatch 2'' have been introduced as a free unlock on a seasonal battle pass.

Characters

Tank heroes

Tank characters broadly have a high number of hit points and often have some type of shielding to withstand damage, but tend to have lower range than the other roles and either tend to lack mobility or offensive strength.

D.Va

D.Va, real name Hana Song, is a South Korean mecha pilot and former pro gamer from Busan. She pilots a combat mecha armed with twin ''Fusion Cannons'', shotgun-like weapons that require no ammunition or reload time. Her mecha is equipped with rocket ''Boosters'' for short bursts of flight, as well as a ''Defense Matrix'' that allows it to destroy enemy projectiles in the air. She can also fire a volley of ''Micro-Missiles'' that do splash damage on impact. D.Va's ultimate ability, ''Self-Destruct'', overloads and detonates her mecha, dealing massive damage to all enemies in a huge radius within line of sight. If her mech is destroyed (either by her ultimate or in combat), she ejects and continues to fight on foot, armed with a mid-range ''Light Gun'', until her mecha can be summoned again.

To protect its cities against a massive omnic that rose from the East China Sea, the South Korean army developed automated battle mechs, deployed in a task force named MEKA (Mobile Exo-force of the Korean Army). As the omnic learned from its battles with the South Korean military, it disrupted the mechs' drone-control abilities, forcing the army to turn to human pilots. They elected to recruit professional gamers, who they believed possessed the necessary skills to pilot their mechs. Hana Song was the reigning ''StarCraft II'' world champion at the time, with a reputation for playing to win at all costs and showing no mercy to her opponents. She has since become a global icon, streaming footage of her combat missions.

D.Va was the fifth ''Overwatch'' hero added to ''Heroes of the Storm'', released in May 2017 shortly after the game's version 2.0 update.

D.Va is voiced by Charlet Chung.

Doomfist

Doomfist is both the name of the titular cybernetic gauntlet and the title of its wielder, currently the Nigerian-born Akande Ogundimu, businessman and mixed martial artist turned mercenary. As originally released in ''Overwatch'', Doomfist was classified as a Damage hero, but was reworked to become a Tank role in ''Overwatch 2'', giving him more health and damage resistance. In his original skill kit, he had a short-range ''Hand Cannon'' on his off-hand that fires shotgun-like bursts and regenerates ammo over time, but most of his abilities came through melee attacks from the Doomfist Gauntlet. Doomfist can charge up a ''Rocket Punch'' that lets him lunge forward and punch an opponent backwards, a ''Seismic Slam'' that launches enemies in its range a short distance towards Doomfist, and a ''Rising Uppercut'' that greatly launches a single enemy while doing damage. Each ability that successfully hits also generates personal shielding for Doomfist (''The Best Defense...''). Doomfist's ultimate ability is named ''Meteor Strike'', allowing him to jump into the air and slam the ground, damaging all enemies in a range around that point and pushing them back a short distance. Within ''Overwatch 2'', Doomfist's Uppercut is replaced with a ''Power Block'' that absorbs frontal damage for a short time.

Doomfist is a generational character, the name and titular weapon passed between three people in the game's fiction.

The current holder, Akande Ogundimu, was the heir to a cybernetics and prosthetics company with a love of competitive fighting, but he lost his right arm during the Omnic Crisis and although he got a replacement prosthesis, he was barred from competing. Looking for something to fill the void, he was approached by the previous holder of the Doomfist, Akinjide Adeyemi, to join the Talon terrorist group. Ogundimu agreed and thrived within its ranks, though he eventually grew dissatisfied with Adeyemi's monetary ambitions and killed him to take his weapon, mantle, and control of Talon. Though he was later caught by Overwatch and placed in prison, Talon broke him out, and Ogundimu seized his Doomfist gauntlet to reclaim the Doomfist name and retake his position within Talon.

The concept of the Doomfist has existed since the first cinematic trailer for ''Overwatch'', with the heroes fighting for control of the gauntlet, and since has been teased as a potential playable character in other game updates.
Doomfist was formally introduced as the 25th hero to ''Overwatch'' and was made available to play on all platforms on July 27, 2017.

Doomfist is voiced by Sahr Ngaujah.

Junker Queen

Junker Queen, real name Odessa "Dez" Stone, is the new ruler of Junkertown, a ramshackle city in the Australian Outback. She also oversees the city's combat arena, the Scrapyard. Junker Queen's primary weapon is a hit scan shotgun. Passively, most of her attacks deal wound damage that drains enemy health over a short time while healing her. Her ''Commanding Shout'' buffs nearby allies with speed and regeneration for a short time. Her ''Jagged Blade'' ability lashes a throwing knife at a foe and can be recalled by her magnetic fist that can cause bleeding damage to an opponent. She can use her ''Carnage'' ability to strike with her ax in a heavy melee attack. Her Ultimate ability is ''Rampage'', which wounds and debuffs all enemy players it reaches.

Her backstory is elaborated on in the animated short ''The Wastelander'', revealing that she was banished from Junkertown as a child along with her family. Trained as a warrior to survive the wasteland, she returned to Junkertown thirteen years later to participate in "the Reckoning", a free-for-all combat to challenge the Junker King, Mason Howl, for control of Junkertown. The "free-for-all" turns out to be rigged, as the other two combatants, Geiger and Meri, are in Howl's service, though Odessa is able to turn them against him when she shows more concern for their lives than he does. With their aid, she defeats Howl, who pleads for mercy. She elects to show him the "same mercy" he showed her family and banishes him from the city, taking power as the Junker Queen. She opted to rule Junkertown in a more kind manner, helping the encampment to thrive while still overseeing the Scrapyard fights.

Prior to ''Overwatch 2'', Junker Queen had been given a few voice lines and narrates the reveal video for the Junkertown map released in August 2017, and appears on posters around the map itself. She has shown animosity towards Junkrat and Roadhog, telling her guards to shoot the two on sight. While little else is known, the character quickly gained appeal in the ''Overwatch'' fandom, with some hoping she would be revealed as a playable hero in the future. Blizzard confirmed Junker Queen will be a playable character with the early access launch of ''Overwatch 2''. Lead hero designer Geoff Goodman said that while they had toyed around with Junker Queen's abilities before, she was designed specifically for the launch of ''Overwatch 2'' as an aggressive tank as to emphasis the faster gameplay in the sequel.

Junker Queen is voiced by Leah de Niese, except for her lines heard on the Junkertown map, where her voice is provided by Siho Ellsmore.

Orisa

Orisa is a four-legged centaur-like female Omnic built by 11-year-old robotics prodigy Efi Oladele, to be a "mechanical peacekeeper" of Numbani. Within her ''Overwatch'' skill kit, her primary weapon was the ''Fusion Driver'', a long-range projectile-based machine gun; its alternate fire mode, ''Halt!'', released a slow-moving projectile that the player could detonate to draw in nearby enemies towards the point of detonation, similar to Zarya's Graviton Surge. She could launch a deployable ''Protective Barrier'' similar to Reinhardt's shield which could be used for strategic defenses, and could ''Fortify'' herself to temporarily prevent all forms of crowd control against her, such as Lúcio's sonic blasts or Reinhardt's Earthshatter abilities. Her ultimate ability was ''Supercharger'', a deployable device which gave Orisa and her teammates, provided they were in line-of-sight, an attack boost similar to that of Mercy, though the Supercharger itself could be destroyed by enemy fire and deactivated after a few seconds.

Orisa's skillkit was rebuilt significantly for ''Overwatch 2'', meant to speed up play and reduce dependence on shields. Her Barrier, Halt, and Supercharger abilities have been removed, and instead she gained an ''Energy Javelin'' that can be used to launch enemies away, potentially damaging them if they hit walls. Orisa can also use her ''Javelin Spin'' to surge forward, directly attacking enemies and destroying projectiles. Her ultimate ability is ''Terra Surge'' that draws enemies towards her while making her immune to stun and crowd control effects. Additionally, her Fusion Driver fires large projectiles that shrink down as they travel.

Rebuilt from the wreckage of an OR15 defense robot after an attack by Doomfist in her home city of Numbani, Efi upgraded the hardware and software on the Omnic, emphasizing public safety as its primary objective. Efi's upgrades on the robot also created a sentient identity, in which Efi dubbed the robot Orisa from its designation number. Her name derives from "orisha", spirits in the Yoruba religion of West Africa.

Kaplan believed that Orisa would strategically play similar to Reinhardt as the "anchor" for an advancing team that allies would focus around. Besides being a second anchor tank beyond Reinhardt, Orisa's design came out of trying to push the boundaries of what they could do with a female character in the game, giving her the quadruped tank design and other features. They developed her personality to be somewhat between that of RoboCop and GLaDOS, with the veteran experience of the existing Omnics Zenyatta and Bastion. Because of these disparate elements, the design team came upon the idea of introducing Efi, so that the strange design of Orisa would be that of the ''Overwatch'' world as seen through the eyes of an imaginative child. Orisa became the centerpoint of a popular metagame strategy for the attacking team on Escort and Hybrid maps called "pirate ship", where her barrier, resembling the sails of a pirate ship, would be placed on the payload as it moved and protect one or more players also stationed on the payload, often typically Bastion or Torbjörn's turret, making it difficult for enemies to approach the payload from that side.

Orisa, the game's 24th hero, was revealed on March 2, 2017. Unlike the previously introduced hero, Sombra, which was the subject of a protracted alternate reality game that was met with some criticism, Blizzard opted to tease Orisa over a much shorter period via social media, introducing the character of Efi and new events in the ''Overwatch'' narrative happening on Numbani a few weeks before Orisa's reveal. Orisa was available on the Public Test Servers on the reveal, and was added to the game for all platforms on March 21, 2017, though her appearance in competitive mode was held off for one week as to give time for players to get used to the new character.

Orisa is voiced by Cherrelle Skeete.

Ramattra

Ramattra is an Omnic tank character, originally built as a commando unit known as a Ravager during the Omnic Crisis. He later became of the Shambali Omnic monks along with Mondatta to learn the ways of peace and tranquility with the hope of coexisting with humans and put his previous life behind. He later recruited Zenyatta into the order and became close as brothers. Disappointed with the way humans had violently mistreated Omnics despite many peace attempts. Forced to watch his people dwindle in limited numbers, Ramattra grew resentful to humanity, coming to the conclusion of coexistence was impossible and that the only way to achieve a better future for omnics is by force and left the Shambali Order. He gathered a hand full of omnics who share his vision, creating the Omnic terrorist/extremist faction, ''Null Sector'' as its leader and declared war on mankind.

Ramattra spends most of his time in his normal Omnic form, using his ''Void Accelerator'' to fire projectiles at enemies and protecting his teammates with his projected ''Void Barrier''. He can fire small spheres that when contacting the ground, create a ''Ravenous Vortex'' that draws enemies briefly into it and slows their movement. One skill is the ability to transform into his Nemesis form that changes his attacks to ''Pummel'', an onslaught of melee punches, as well as a secondary skill, ''Block'', that reduces incoming damage, but requires Ramattra to hold still and unable to attack. The Nemesis form only lasts for eight seconds before Ramattra reverts to his normal Omnic form. Ramattra's ultimate is ''Annihilation'', which converts Ramattra to his Nemesis form and send out a continuous beam of damaging nanobots, while blocking all incoming damage by half.

He was briefly introduced during the 2022 Overwatch League playoffs. Prior to his announcement, Ramattra also appeared in the story-based game mode "Storm Rising", where he is offered an alliance with Talon by Doomfist. He was released in ''Overwatch 2'' on December 6th, 2022 along with the second season of the game.

Ramattra is voiced by Ramon Tikaram.

Reinhardt

Reinhardt Wilhelm is a German soldier and adventurer, and one of the founding members of Overwatch. He wears a heavy suit of Crusader power armor, and carries a rocket-powered war hammer (''Rocket Hammer'') as his primary weapon. His main ability is a wide hard-light ''Barrier Field'' mounted on his arm that allows him to protect himself and teammates behind him from enemy fire. He may also launch a flaming projectile that ignores enemy barriers (''Fire Strike''), or use a rocket booster to ''Charge'' into the enemy lines, crushing them against walls. His ultimate ability, ''Earthshatter'', makes him slam his hammer against the ground, sending out a shockwave that incapacitates enemies in front of him.

Reinhardt Wilhelm is a decorated Bundeswehr veteran from Stuttgart who lives under a knightly code of chivalry. He served as lieutenant to Colonel Balderich von Adler, commander of the Crusaders, which served alongside the regular army to act as their shield. Reckless in his younger years, Reinhardt often left his comrades behind to find glory in battle. That would change during the battle of Eichenwalde, where he lost his left eye to the blade of an OR14 assault omnic: Retreating into Eichenwalde Castle, Balderich gave Reinhardt his Overwatch initiation medal and sent him to rejoin the others, admonishing him to "be their shield". Becoming the only Crusader to survive the battle, Reinhardt remained in Overwatch service well into his fifties, his code of ethics and his blunt honesty making him a respected member of the team, until he was forced to retire due to his age and left to watch as Overwatch collapsed. When Winston issued the call to arms to his Overwatch comrades, Reinhardt - living in the ruins of Eichenwalde - answered without hesitation, despite the belief of his friend Brigitte that Overwatch had tossed him aside due to his age.

Reinhardt had started as one of the characters in the cancelled ''Titan'' game, as the "Juggernaut" character. When ''Titan'' was cancelled and the Blizzard team were looking for assets, they redesigned the Juggernaut into the Reinhardt character. Between ''Titan'' and ''Overwatch'', Reinhardt had gone through eight major redesigns, with the version of Reinhardt in ''Overwatch'' having an "08" on one of his shoulder pieces to reflect these revisions. In the redesign for ''Overwatch 2'', Reinhardt had gone through another small revision, and will now have "09" on his shoulder piece. Reinhardt was the most popular tank character during the game's open beta.

Reinhardt is voiced by Darin De Paul.

Roadhog

Roadhog, real name Mako Rutledge, is Junkrat's Australian enforcer and bodyguard. He wields a ''Scrap Gun'' that fires shrapnel in a mid-range automatic firing mode, or a short-range shotgun-like single shot. He also carries a NOS canister filled with "Hogdrogen" to self-heal (''Take a Breather''), and employs a ''Chain Hook'' to pull distant opponents towards him. His ultimate ability, ''Whole Hog'', allows him to put a top loader into his scrap gun, firing it in full auto mode with increased knockback, wider spread, and no need to reload.

Mako Rutledge lived in the Australian Outback in the period after the Omnic Crisis. The government of Australia, in an effort to make peace with the omnics, allowed them to take possession of the omnium and the territory around it, displacing the human residents. Mako and other angry humans formed the Australian Liberation Front to strike against the omnium and the omnics that resided around it. In the end, the ALF overloaded the fusion core, destroying the omnium and turning the Outback into a radioactive wasteland, severely disfiguring Mako's face. Mako donned a mask and took to the broken highways on his chopper, forsaking his humanity little by little until he became a ruthless killer. He has since joined up with Junkrat as his bodyguard, in exchange for half of whatever treasure the ex-Junker knows the location of.

Roadhog is voiced by Josh Petersdorf.

Sigma

Sigma, real name Siebren de Kuiper, is a Dutch astrophysicist associated with Talon. His main weapons are ''Hyperspheres'', gravitic projectiles that can bounce off walls and damage a small area that draw foes into the explosion, and ''Accretion'', which gathers debris into a large projectile to kinetically throw at opponents, causing knockback. He also has two defensive abilities: ''Experimental Barrier'', a barrier that he can deployed outward in front of him to a variable distance and then recall it, upon which it starts regenerating any damage taken; and ''Kinetic Grasp'', which creates a field that absorbs projectiles that hit it which, upon release, coverts that into temporary shields for the character. His ultimate, ''Gravitic Flux'', allows him to fly up briefly to place a black hole on the ground. Any opponents trapped within the range of the hole are thrown up into the air for several seconds before being slammed to the ground, taking half of their maximum health on impact.

De Kuiper was a pioneering figure in his field and conducted most of his research at his laboratory in The Hague. He established a foundation for his work to where he moved onto performing further experiments aboard an international space station. However, an experiment went wrong, briefly creating a black hole that touched De Kuiper. De Kuiper sustained psychological damage from this, and strange gravitational fluctuations persisted around him. Returned to Earth, he was deemed too dangerous to release, and kept in a secret government facility for years, where he became known only as "Subject Sigma". De Kuiper retreated into his own mind, believing he would never see the outside world again. However, the Talon organization discovered his existence, and freed him from the facility, hoping to use his gravitational powers to their own end. Talon helped Sigma to regain his sanity and control of the gravitational fluctuations to use as weapons, though Sigma remained unaware that Talon was manipulating him for their own purposes.

The skill kit for Sigma was designed to create another slow-moving anchor tank, similar to Reinhardt and Orisa, which the team would focus around; at the same time, they worked to develop this kit to avoid too much overlap with Zarya, particularly with her ultimate Graviton Surge skill. The team also knew they wanted to make this tank character related to Talon, establishing the basics of the hero concept early on. However, following the addition of Baptiste as Hero 30, Blizzard had anticipated the next hero would be Mauga, a character introduced in Baptiste's origin story, "What You Left Behind". Blizzard wanted to introduce Baptiste and Mauga back-to-back. However, as they neared release, Blizzard found that the kit did not make sense for the personality they had given Mauga. Rather than revamp the kit, they decided to develop a new character that would be better suited for the kit, holding off on Mauga's release as a hero for a later time. Blizzard quickly focused on an astrophysicist, which would readily tie into the gravity-based kit, and then adjusted the kit to incorporate additional gravitational powers that fell in line with the new character while further distinguishing his kit from Zarya's. They subsequently gave Sigma a tragic backstory as a villain who is unaware he was being used as a tool and as a weapon of mass destruction within Talon; whereas Baptiste had been in the same situation, Baptiste had the mental stability to walk away, while Sigma's ongoing dementia kept him working for Talon. On his reveal, Sigma was revealed to levitate slightly throughout the ground, and to that end, is barefoot, which drew some reaction from fans. Blizzard artist Qiu Fang explained this decision came from real-world mental health hospitals, where patients are often not given any shoes for which they potentially use to harm themselves. As such, leaving Sigma barefoot was to "sell the asylum look".

Following a few teasers on social media in the week prior, Sigma was formally announced as the game's 31st hero on July 22, 2019, and made available on the PTR the following day. Sigma was added across all servers on August 13, 2019. He is voiced by Boris Hiestand.

Winston

Winston is a genetically engineered gorilla, scientist, and adventurer. He wields a short-range ''Tesla Cannon'' that electrocutes enemies at close range, and wears armor that incorporates a ''Jump Pack'', allowing him to make leaps across great distances and damage foes on landing. He can also deploy a ''Barrier Projector'' that provides a temporary spherical barrier to protect himself and teammates from enemy fire. Winston's ultimate ability is ''Primal Rage'', in which he briefly gives in to "the beast within" to get massively increased health and powerful melee attacks with knockback, although he foregoes his primary weapon.

Winston was among a group of genetically enhanced gorillas living at the Horizon Lunar Colony, a research base on the Moon, intended to test the effects of prolonged habitation in space. He took his name from his mentor and caretaker, Dr. Harold Winston, the colony's chief scientist, from whom he also gained his signature glasses. When the other gorillas rose up, killed the human scientists, and took over the colony, Winston escaped to Earth in a rocket he built himself. He later joined up with Overwatch, offering his scientific expertise to the team (such as building Tracer's chronal accelerator). When Overwatch disbanded, Winston went into seclusion at an old Overwatch base in Gibraltar.

Winston appears in the intro cinematic, as well as the animated short ''Recall''. The short recalls how he gained his glasses from Dr. Harold Winston, as well as fending off Reaper and agents of Talon who attempt to hack his database of Overwatch agents.

Winston is voiced by Crispin Freeman.

Wrecking Ball

Wrecking Ball is the ring name for Hammond, a super-intelligent hamster mechanic and adventurer, who competes in battles piloting a large spherical mech suit with two forms: a quadrupedal form used for firing his ''Quad Cannons'', his main attack, and a nearly perfectly spherical form which gives him the ability to ''Roll'' around the battlefield but without any primary attack. He can engage a temporary ''Adaptive Shield'' that increases in strength with the more enemies that are nearby. He can use a '' Grappling Claw'' to attach to a surface, switching the mech to its Roll form, and which he can then swing around, gaining momentum and damaging enemies in his path, and release at any time. He can execute a ''Piledriver'' that slams his mech into the ground, damaging and launching nearby enemies into the air. Hammond's ultimate is ''Minefield,'' which deploys a number of proximity mines around him that damage opponents.

Hammond, previously known as "Specimen 8", had been among the genetically engineered animals who resided at the Horizon facility on the Moon when the gorillas led an uprising against the human scientists. Having displayed an ability to regularly escape from his enclosure, as well as a self-taught aptitude for mechanics, Hammond constructed a capsule attached to the scratch-built rocket built by Winston, and hitched a ride with him when Winston escaped to Earth. His capsule separated from Winston's rocket and landed in the Australian Outback, where he modified the capsule into a combat mech to fight in the Scrapyard arena in Junkertown, earning him the nickname "Wrecking Ball". With his winnings, he upgraded the mech further to escape from the Outback and travel the world.

Hammond's first mention in-game was in the "Horizon Lunar Colony" map added in May 2017. Further, with gameplay changes made to the Horizon map released onto the PTR in May 2018, a new room previously blocked had been opened, showing Hammond secretly coordinating his escape from the colony alongside Winston's own plans. The Blizzard ''Overwatch'' social media accounts also began teasing a new hero starting in late June 2018. He was formally announced as the game's 28th hero on June 28, 2018, as well as being playable on the PTR that day. He was added to the full game roster on July 24, 2018.

Hammond does not speak, as Kaplan said "that would be completely ridiculous", but his animal noises are voiced by Dee Bradley Baker, while his mech's computer, voiced by Jonathan Lipow, translates the squeaks to understandable words.

Zarya

Zarya, full name Aleksandra Zaryanova, is a Russian powerlifter and soldier. She is armed with a ''Particle Cannon'' that can either emit a continuous beam of energy or launch an energy projectile in an arc. She is also able to project a personal ''Particle Barrier'' onto herself or onto one of her teammates (''Projected Barrier''), and soaking up damage with these barriers raises the power of her own attacks proportionally. Zarya's ultimate ability, ''Graviton Surge'', forms a gravity well that pulls enemies in and damages them, leaving them open to other attacks.

In her fictional backstory, Aleksandra Zaryanova's village in Siberia was on the front lines of the Omnic Crisis, which devastated the region. As she grew older, she swore to gain the strength to protect her people and homeland. She became a bodybuilder and weightlifter, expected to break a number of records in the world championships, but the dormant omnium in Siberia awakened on the eve of the tournament, and she withdrew from the competition to join the local defense forces.

Zarya was initially conceived of by artist Arnold Tsang after watching a weightlifting competition. He recognized that the body shape of weightlifters was non-standard but would make for a great, tough female hero.

Zarya was the second ''Overwatch'' hero added to ''Heroes of the Storm''.

Zarya is voiced by Dolya Gavanski.

Damage heroes

Damage heroes are those that have the largest capacity to deal damage to enemy players, and tend to be able to move quickly around the map. However, they can be more vulnerable to attacks from the other team with lower hit points than other roles.

Ashe

Ashe, full name Elizabeth Caledonia "Calamity" Ashe, is an American gunslinger and leader of the Deadlock Gang, a band of arms-trafficking outlaws based in Arizona. Her main weapon is ''The Viper'', a lever action repeating rifle that can be used for short-ranged quick fire or sighted long shots. She also carries a ''Coach gun'' which can knock enemies back and propel her up or away from obstacles as well as enable limited rocket jumping, and can throw ''Dynamite'' bundles that detonate after a short delay or immediately when shot with her rifle, setting opponents on fire. Her ultimate ability summons ''B.O.B.'', her Omnic butler/bodyguard, who charges forward to knock enemies into the air before laying down suppressive fire with his built-in arm cannons. Unlike deployable assets from other heroes, such as Torbjörn's turrets, B.O.B. serves as a temporary seventh player on the team until his health is exhausted, and thus is able to capture or challenge objectives, and can be healed by allies.

Born into a wealthy family with connections to the world's top CEOs, Ashe was largely neglected by her parents and left in the care of their omnic butler, B.O.B. She was regularly involved in fights at school, and also in petty crime. It was a chance meeting with a local ruffian named Cole Cassidy, a string of crimes they committed together, and a desire to make her own "family" that led her to embrace the path of the outlaw, and she was one of the four original founders of the Deadlock Gang. Spurred by Ashe's increasingly larger heists, the Deadlock Gang's quick rise to prominence resulted in violent conflicts with the other criminal organizations in the American Southwest. After years of fighting, Ashe summoned the heads of the other major groups and used her business acumen, learned from her mostly-absent parents, to convince them that they could work better, if not together, then at least not against one another, so long as they kept their word, did not work with law enforcement, respected one another's territory, and punished any sort of betrayal. No longer having to focus on squabbles with other gangs, Ashe continued to build on her reputation, earning her a place at the top of the authorities' most wanted lists.

Blizzard considered Ashe a "unicorn" character in that her route from conception to implementation was straightforward, a rarity from their past experience. They wanted to create a female gunslinger, but needed to differentiate her from either Cassidy or Reaper, and some initial designs felt too goth-like. They settled on a mix of a biker and a cowboy. A similar streamlined experience was found with B.O.B., having been already drawn into the storyboard for the animated short "Reunion" and became an internal favorite to bring into the game, and only required translating his design into the game. One difficulty faced by the team was how to implement and optimize B.O.B., since he is treated as another teammate while on the field, impacting the game's memory and performance.

Ashe was introduced as the 29th hero in the animated short ''Reunion'', shown at BlizzCon on November 2, 2018, and was available to play on the PTR on November 5. She was added to the main game for all players on November 13, 2018, and to competitive play on November 27, 2018. She is voiced by veteran voice actress Jennifer Hale.

Bastion

Bastion is a combat robot-turned-explorer. In ''Overwatch'', it could ''Reconfigure'' between a mobile form outfitted with a submachine gun (''Configuration: Recon'') and a stationary form equipped with a Gatling gun (''Configuration: Sentry''). It also had the ability to ''Self-Repair'' and quickly regain lost health, and its ''Ironclad'' passive reduced damage taken. Its ultimate ability was ''Configuration: Tank'', which allowed it to roll on treads and fire explosive rounds from a smooth-bore cannon for a short period of time. Bastion underwent a major rework for ''Overwatch 2'', losing the Tank reconfiguration in favor of an artillery form that can bomb three locations on the current map. It lost the Self-Repair ability, instead gaining the ability to launch grenades as alternative fire. Its sentry form is now mobile, with a main gun that has more range and less spread, but it is also a temporary transformation with a cooldown.

Bastion is a SST Laboratories Siege Automaton E54, a battle automaton originally designed for peacekeeping purposes; during the Omnic Crisis, they were deployed against their human makers becoming a symbol of the horrors of the war. Bastion was severely damaged in the field near the German village of Eichenwalde in the Black Forest during the final days of the war, and was left dormant and exposed to the elements. For more than a decade, it became overgrown with plant life and the nests of small animals, until it unexpectedly reactivated. It had developed a fascination with nature, but its combat programming still took over whenever it encountered anything it perceived as a threat. Due to conflicts with fearful humans, Bastion largely avoids populated areas in favor of exploring the wild. It is usually accompanied by a small bird named Ganymede, who was building a nest on it when it reactivated, and both humanizes Bastion and makes it relatable.

Bastion is the focus of the animated short ''The Last Bastion'', showing the moments when Ganymede inadvertently reactivated it. Bastion was also the first character to be made available in Lego form through official collaboration between Blizzard and The Lego Group. A limited-time event in 2019 allowed players the opportunity to earn a Bastion skin based on the Lego version.

Bastion is voiced by Chris Metzen.

Cassidy

Cole Cassidy is an American bounty hunter and vigilante with a cybernetic arm and a Wild West motif. He carries his ''Peacekeeper'' six-shooter, with its primary fire that can shoot single shots with high accuracy at moderate range, and its alternate fire allowing him to ''Fan the Hammer'' to quickly unload any remaining ammo at close range in rapid fire with some loss of accuracy. He can quickly dodge attacks using his ''Combat Roll'' ability which also instantly reloads his revolver. In ''Overwatch'' he could throw a '' Flashbang'' grenade a short distance which stunned enemies and interrupted their abilities. In ''Overwatch 2'', the Flashbang ability was replaced with a short-range Magnetic Grenade that deals high damage on a direct hit, but no longer stuns the enemy. Cassidy's ultimate ability is ''Deadeye'', which allows him to line up shots on every enemy in his sight, with resulting damage proportional to the time spent aiming. In ''Overwatch'', Cassidy was considered one of the easiest characters to learn, enabled by the Flashbang/Fan the Hammer combo which could kill most low- to mid-health opponents in one shot.

In the ''Overwatch'' narrative, Cassidy came from Santa Fe, New Mexico, and is a former member of the Deadlock Gang, a group of traffickers in military hardware operating in the American Southwest. He and his fellows were captured in an Overwatch sting operation, and he was given a choice: prison, or serving in Blackwatch, the black ops division of Overwatch. He chose the latter, believing he could make amends for his past crimes, and revelling in the lack of bureaucratic oversight. When Overwatch began to collapse and Blackwatch sought to reform it to its own ends, Cassidy went underground, resurfacing years later as a gunslinger for hire.

Cassidy was one of the few characters developed for the game based on a stereotype, often compared to the Man with No Name, but they developed his character and narratives to embrace that stereotype.
The visual appearance of Cassidy came about based on a ''StarCraft'' tie-in game that the ''Overwatch'' team, following the cancellation of '' Titan'', has considered before settling on ''Overwatch''. Blizzard wanted Cassidy to be a hero strong against agile opponents and to counter close-range abilities, according to Geoff Goodman. To achieve this, Cassidy has seen a confusing sequence of buffs and nerfs in the months after the game's initial release, which led some to jokingly call him "the most indecisive character" of the game. Initially, his burst damage output and versatility on all ranges made him a popular pick in almost any situation, but after numerous tweaks, he lost his main role of a tank killer and became a somewhat ambiguous anti-flanker with additional long-range capability.
When these updates were made, Kaplan said that they were necessary to bring more in line with their vision for Cassidy's role, saying that "We want assidyto be a counter to people like Tracer, Genji and Reaper. What we're not crazy about, right now, is the way in which assidycan absolutely shred tanks."

The character was originally named Jesse McCree when ''Overwatch'' first launched, named after former Blizzard staff member Jesse McCree. In the wake of the July 2021 lawsuit filed by California's Department of Fair Employment against Activision Blizzard related to workplace misconduct and discrimination against female employees, Jesse McCree was confirmed to be no longer working for the company after he had been connected to some of the alleged behavior. In the weeks that followed, during Overwatch League broadcasts, announcers opted to use "the cowboy" instead of "McCree" when calling matches. Blizzard confirmed in late August 2021 that they will rename McCree "to something that better represents what ''Overwatch'' stands for", though will need to review their narrative state before deciding on a new name, as well as alternating plans for release content to make this change. Blizzard announced that with an October 2021 patch, the McCree name would be removed and replaced with Cassidy. Blizzard stated "We know that actions speak louder than words, and we hope to show you our commitment to making Overwatch a better experience in-game and continue to make our team the best it can be." One of ''Overwatch'' character-specific events had been planned for McCree but was pushed back at the onset of legal action, and later ran as "Cole Cassidy's New Blood Challenge" in November 2021, featuring a new digital comic that spoke to Cassidy finding a new identity for himself.

Cassidy is voiced by Matthew Mercer.

Echo

Echo is a female Omnic created by Dr. Mina Liao after the Omnic Crisis. Her primary attack is a ''Tri-Shot'' that is a set of three projectiles at a time, and she can fire a ''Sticky Bomb'' that does initial damage on striking a target and then after a short time explodes that does damage in a small area. She also has a ''Focusing Beam'' that damages a target in the beam, with damage intensified for targets that are below half-health, including barriers. She also has a ''Flight'' ability that can launch her into the air, and her ''Glide'' passive ability allows her to hover and descend at a controlled rate with good horizontal control. Her ultimate ability is ''Duplicate'', which allows Echo to take the appearance and ability of any Hero on the opposing team (save for Echo) for 15 seconds, with an accelerated ultimate gain rate.

Dr. Liao was one of the scientists that had created the Omnics while part of the Omnica Corporation, and who had joined the newly-found Overwatch to deal with the Omnic Crisis. She had created Echo as part of the Echo Project as a more benevolent artificial intelligence to try to overcome her guilt for creating the more harmful Omnics, hoping that AI could be used to save humanity. An attack on Overwatch headquarters killed Dr. Liao. Echo took on part of Dr. Liao's personality, and thus became "her promise, her legacy, her Echo".

Echo was the 32nd Hero to be introduced to ''Overwatch'' in March 2020. She started as a planned character for ''Titan'', though initially was more functional and less human-like, with her more human appearance coming about by the fourth iteration of her design. Her design had always been very light and elegant, so she was envisioned to be a support character at the start. But once they established the character's name as Echo, implying what her abilities may be including her Duplicate ultimate, this made the choice of a support role a poor one, as during the use of Duplicate her teammates would not have her normal support abilities. By making her a damage hero, this did not interfere with the team's support roles, nor overlapped extensively with Pharah, an existing flying hero who does not have as significant control over her flying movements as Echo.

Prior to her announcement, Echo had also appeared in the animated short ''Reunion'', released alongside Ashe's reveal as the 29th hero. Ashe attempts to steal her while she is in a state of hibernation, but she is rescued by Cassidy. When reactivated, Cassidy informs her of Winston's recall of Overwatch agents. She was also shown in the teaser cinematic for ''Overwatch 2'', joining Winston's recall of other Overwatch members to fight new threats. At the time of the ''Overwatch 2'' reveal, Kaplan stated Blizzard planned to introduce Echo as a playable hero at some point in the future. Echo was announced on March 18, 2020, available to players on the PTR the following day, and unlocked for all players on April 14, 2020. Kaplan anticipated that Echo would be the last character to be added to ''Overwatch'' roster until the release of ''Overwatch 2''.

Echo is voiced by Jeannie Bolet.

Genji

Genji Shimada is a Japanese cyborg ninja. His main attack method is to throw three ''Shurikens'', either in quick succession or simultaneously in a horizontal spread. His abilities are ''Swift Strike'', a quick dashing lunge with good range, and ''Deflect'', a defensive stance that briefly ricochets projectiles back at enemies with his wakizashi. His ''Cyber-Agility'' allows him to double-jump and run up walls. Genji's ultimate ability is ''Dragonblade'', during which Genji unsheathes the odachi on his back and delivers powerful, sweeping melee attacks to any targets within reach for a limited amount of time.

In his origin story, Genji transforms from a slacker to a superhero. His family—the Japanese Shimada crime family—ordered his eldest brother Hanzo to kill Genji for his selfish and hedonistic behavior (as shown in the short ''Dragons'' and referenced in-game Hanamura map by a shrine devoted to Genji). Before he could die, Overwatch found him and their chief doctor, Mercy, restored Genji as a cyborg. After quelling the rogue artificial intelligence in the first Omnic Crisis, Genji left the Overwatch team to find peace with his new body, mentored by the Omnic Shambali monk Zenyatta. When Winston reactivates Overwatch years after the first Omnic Crisis, Genji is one of the first to return. He later appeared in ''Hanamura Showdown,'' a non-canon cinematic trailer for ''Heroes of the Storm'' 2.0. Genji also appeared in the animated short ''Zero Hour,'' which functioned as announcement cinematic for ''Overwatch 2.''

Originally, Genji and his brother Hanzo were designed as one character. However, Blizzard Entertainment thought this arrow-firing, shuriken-tossing, and katana-wielding character was too complex, therefore splitting it into two different characters. Hanzo kept the name of the original character, as well as the general aesthetic of that character. The story and relationship between the two brothers were inspired by a documentary film titled ''Jiro Dreams of Sushi'', in which the older brother had to inherit the restaurant and carry on his father's legacy, while the younger brother had more free will.
Gameplay-wise, Genji is a flanker and an infiltrator optimized for one-on-one fights. Genji's ''Deflect'' ability can counter many enemy ultimate abilities. While some characters function best when paired with specific teammates, Genji works best in isolation. Genji is strong against turrets like Bastion and those of Torbjörn, and is effective at flanking snipers. Genji is vulnerable against characters with energy weapons that bypass his deflection, such as Symmetra, Winston, and Zarya. Genji's agile, melee-oriented playstyle is said to be difficult to learn, yet is popular among new players who like his ninja design.

A vocal minority of players began to complain about Genji's balance with other characters in August 2016, as team strategies came to be centered around his rediscovered abilities when the abilities of other offensive characters were reduced. Later that month, Blizzard rebalanced Genji by reducing the power of his abilities. At the end of 2016, Blizzard offered a special "oni" character skin as a promotion for players who also played the company's multiplayer online battle arena game ''Heroes of the Storm''. Genji was added as one of the heroes in ''Heroes of the Storm'' on April 25, 2017.

Genji is voiced by Gaku Space.

Hanzo

Hanzo Shimada is a Japanese archer, assassin and mercenary. He wields the ''Storm Bow'' and is equipped with specialized arrows, including ''Sonic Arrows'' to detect enemies and ''Storm Arrows'' to fire five weaker shots in rapid succession. He is also able to ''Wall Climb'', enabling him to reach vantage points, and ''Lunge'' forward while in mid-air. His ultimate ability is ''Dragonstrike'', in which he unleashes a spiraling spirit dragon that can travel through obstacles to deal damage in a straight line.

Hanzo is the elder brother of Genji, and the heir to the head of the Shimada clan. He was trained from an early age to take over the clan, becoming a skilled warrior and marksman, as well as a strategist. When his father died, Hanzo was directed by the clan elders to bring Genji into line; and when Genji refused, the two brothers battled, resulting in what appeared to be Genji's death. Guilty and grief-stricken, Hanzo abandoned the clan and traveled the world in an effort to restore his honor.

Hanzo is the focus of the animated short ''Dragons'', where he visits his family's castle on the anniversary of his duel with Genji, leaving offerings at the castle shrine to honor Genji's memory.

Originally, Hanzo had an ability called ''Scatter Arrows'', an arrow that split into multiple arrows that could ricochet off the environment and hit targets around corners. Players grew to find this ability cheap since it, if well-placed, could take out even Tank characters with a single shot. Blizzard addressed this with a rework update that replaced the ability with the above ''Storm Arrows'' and ''Lunge'' abilities, which went live in May 2018.

Hanzo appears as a playable hero in ''Heroes of the Storm.''

Hanzo is voiced by Paul Nakauchi.

Junkrat

Junkrat, real name Jamison Fawkes, is an Australian scavenger, mercenary and anarchist. He carries a '' Frag Launcher'' that fires grenades and employs '' Steel Traps'' and remote-detonated ''Concussion Mines''; when he is killed, several primed grenades are released from his body in a final attempt to get back at the attacker (''Total Mayhem''). Junkrat's ultimate ability is ''RIP-Tire'', a self-propelled truck wheel loaded with explosives that he's able to manually steer and detonate. Junkrat was developed by Blizzard to balance out against Torbjorn's turrets.

After the Omnic Crisis, an "omnium" – an A.I. controller that directs omnics as part of a hive mind – was destroyed in the Outback, turning it into an irradiated wasteland. Living in the ruins are the Junkers, a group of scavengers and mercenaries; Jamison Fawkes was among their numbers. The effects of the radiation awakened a sense of madness which soon developed into pyromania. In the heart of the destroyed omnium, Junkrat found a valuable secret, making him the target of bounty hunters and rival gangs. He made a deal with the Junker enforcer Roadhog, who agreed to become his personal bodyguard in return for a 50-50 share of the profits from their finds. His loud personality often drives him into trouble, one of them is by blowing away their deception when attempting a Trojan-horse plan to get revenge on the Queen of Junkertown after banishing him and Roadhog from her dominion.

Junkrat appears as a playable hero in ''Heroes of the Storm.''

Junkrat is voiced by Chris Parson.

Mei

Mei, full name Mei-Ling Zhou (), is a Chinese climatologist and adventurer from Xi'an. She wields an ''Endothermic Blaster'' that can either freeze enemies in place with a short-range spray or shoot a long-range icicle projectile, and she can also use it to ''Cryo-Freeze'' herself in a solid ice block to shield herself from damage and heal injuries, as well as erect ''Ice Walls'' with many versatile uses, primarily for blocking the enemies. Her ultimate ability is ''Blizzard'', which calls down Snowball, her personal weather modification drone, to freeze all enemies in a wide radius.

Mei was employed by Overwatch to help discover the cause for the planet's changing climate, which had been variously blamed on industry, the increasing Omnic population, and increased consumption of natural resources. While deployed at an Overwatch research base in Antarctica, Mei and the other scientists there were trapped by a polar storm that damaged the facility. Lacking sufficient resources to wait for a rescue, they decided to enter cryostasis. But the pods malfunctioned, and Mei was the only survivor when she was found close to a decade later; by that time, Overwatch had disbanded, and all of the bases set up to monitor the climate crisis had stopped functioning. Mei elected to carry on the work alone, accompanied by Snowball. As she restores the base's communication system, she hears Winston's recall for Overwatch, and sets off with Snowball to make her way back to society, joining Winston and Tracer on the first mission to fight the Null Sector off in Paris.

Mei is the focus of the animated short ''Rise and Shine'', showing the moments after she awakened from cryostasis and had to find a way to call for help. She was added as a playable hero in ''Heroes of the Storm'' in June 2020.

Mei is voiced by Yu "Elise" Zhang.

Pharah

Pharah, real name Fareeha Amari (), is an Egyptian security officer. She wears the Raptora Mark VI, a jetpack-equipped combat suit, and wields a ''Rocket Launcher'' as her primary weapon. She has a Wedjat (Eye of Horus) tattoo around her right eye. Her abilities are ''Concussive Blast'', a rocket with powerful knockback but no damage, and ''Jump Jets'', a quick jetpack-assisted vertical ascension comparable to a rocket jump. Her passive ability allows her to ''Hover'' in the air, which is paired well with her Jump Jets ability. Pharah's ultimate ability is ''Barrage'', where she fires a continuous stream of small air-to-ground rockets at targets, while she is frozen still in place.

Fareeha Amari is the daughter of Ana Amari, one of the founding members of Overwatch. She served as an officer in the Egyptian Army and aspired to follow in her mother's footsteps, but Overwatch was disbanded before she could join its ranks. After leaving the army, Pharah took a job with Helix Security International, a private security firm contracted to protect an artificial intelligence facility below the Giza Plateau.

Pharah is a solid attacker able to consistently maintain pressure on the enemy team. Her rocket launcher allows her to hold chokepoints or lay out suppressive fire onto objectives both in offense and defense, and her vertical agility renders her out of reach for characters reliant on close-range fighting. Her ''Concussion Blast'' disrupts enemy formations, and in the hands of a skilled player it can be used to score environmental kills. Pharah is a good match with Mercy, whose ''Guardian Angel'' ability allows both of them to fly alongside each other; this tactic is often called "Pharmercy". Pharah is vulnerable against long-range oriented characters, especially those wielding hitscan weapons, such as Widowmaker or Cassidy.

Pharah is voiced by Jen Cohn.

Reaper

Reaper, real name Gabriel Reyes, is an American mercenary and terrorist, originally a founding member of Overwatch, now a leading member of Talon. He is attired in a black hooded trenchcoat with a white skull mask and wields twin ''Hellfire Shotguns''. His abilities are ''Shadow Step'', a medium-range line of sight teleport, and ''Wraith Form'', a brief period of invincibility and speed increase. He was able to heal himself by consuming the souls of fallen enemies, visible as red burning "Soul Globes" on the ground but later was changed to a passive ability called ''The Reaping'' which allows him to steal a 30% heal from the damage he deals. Reaper's ultimate ability is ''Death Blossom'', a twin shotgun gun kata which deals massive damage in a short radius around him.

Born in Los Angeles, Gabriel Reyes was a veteran officer of the United States Armed Forces who was subjected to a "soldier enhancement program", where he and the other selectees were genetically enhanced to become "perfect soldiers"; Reyes became known as "Soldier: 24". When the United Nations formed Overwatch to combat the Omnic Crisis, Reyes was one of the two men from the program on the shortlist to join up and was initially tapped to lead it. However, he was passed over in favor of his friend Jack Morrison, causing a rift between the two men. Reyes was later named commander of Blackwatch, Overwatch's black ops division, but his jealousy of Morrison (due to Morrison's publicity as the official leader of Overwatch, versus Reyes' secret dealings with Blackwatch) eventually caused Reyes to reveal Blackwatch's existence to the public by murdering a mobster that he was ordered to arrest. This destroyed both organizations and resulted in a battle that destroyed their headquarters in Switzerland. Both men were believed dead, but in reality survived, although Reyes's cells are now simultaneously decaying and regenerating, causing his body to fall apart and rebuild itself over and over again.

Reyes resurfaced years later as "the Reaper", a mysterious mercenary responsible for terrorist attacks all around the world, having been consumed by his hunger for fame to the point that he no longer cared what he was known for. Through the efforts of rogue geneticist and former Blackwatch member Moira O'Deorain, he has developed the ability to steal life essence from his enemies, and also become incorporeal to avoid harm. His true identity is unknown to the rest of the world, as are his motivations, though a pattern of his movements indicates that he is hunting down former agents of Overwatch. He appears in the cinematic trailer, teamed with Widowmaker in a raid in the Overwatch Museum to steal Doomfist's gauntlet for Talon. He also appears in the animated short ''Recall'', where he raids Winston's lab at Gibraltar to steal his list of Overwatch agents, though he was unsuccessful.

Reaper is a flanker/assassin type of character, able to teleport behind enemy lines and attack from the rear to single out targets of importance, before using ''Wraith Form'' to escape. The ability to heal from dealing damage helps him in taking out tanks, due to their large bodies and health pools making it easier for him to heal rapidly. Reaper is vulnerable while executing his ''Death Blossom'', so proper usage of it relies heavily on the element on surprise, taking enemies out with its massive damage output before they get the chance to react.

Reaper is voiced by Keith Ferguson.

Soldier: 76

Soldier: 76, real name Jack Francis Morrison, is an American soldier-turned-vigilante and a founding member of Overwatch. He wears a facemask with a visor and carries an experimental ''Heavy Pulse Rifle'' equipped with an underbarrel launcher that fires three ''Helix Rockets''. His abilities are ''Sprint'', a forward run with no duration limit or cooldown, and ''Biotic Field'', a deployable device which regenerates the health of allies in the immediate vicinity. His ultimate ability, ''Tactical Visor'', puts up a head-up display that allows his rifle to automatically track enemies in his line of sight for a brief period.

Soldier: 76 was originally developed by ''Overwatch''s creative director Chris Metzen in the early 2000s for a comic story used in ''Digital Webbing

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases