Yesterday the news got dropped about a new Overwatch hero, Baptiste. We didn’t know what Baptiste could do yet, but Blizzard was quick to rectify that. So let’s take a closer look at his abilities, shall we?
Baptiste’s primary weapon is the Biotic Launcher. It functions both as a gun with a short, accurate and damaging burst of three hits with primary fire (very reminiscent of Lucio’s sound blaster) and biotic grenades that heal allies in a small radius for a hefty 65 points per grenade with secondary fire. So much as I speculated, you could use it to lob grenades over walls, reaching allies that a character like Mercy would struggle to reach in time.
Baptiste’s 1st ability is a powerful regenerative burst that will heal allies around Baptiste and Baptiste himself for 150 health over 6 seconds. Do remember that it’s not instant, so it’s not going to save a team mate being focused on, but is good at getting back to the fight, similar to Soldier’s biotic field (VERY similar, in fact), with the difference being it’s not stationary, so you are encouraged to use it on clustered team members.
His second ability is an immortality field, which will spawn a device generating an aura preventing allies from dying. Of note is that unlike Orisa’s deployable shield, you can’t run through the field to directly attack enemies standing behind it, ignoring it completely. At the same time, the device can be destroyed. But then again, bullets flying at the drone are bullets not flying at your allies, so it achieves its goal anyway.
His ultimate is Amplification Field which will double the damage of friendly projectiles passing through it. It is deployed just like Mei’s wall or Symmetra’s ultimate. I’m not sure if it works on non-projectile attacks and ultimates. My instinct says it does, but Moira blasting her ultimate through the field is something I am intensely afraid of. But I am happy it’s an almost purely offensive ability, I struggle to find a way to use this defensively (unless you deploy all your abilities in a flurry while blasting grenades on the ground).
And lastly, he has a mobility ability too. When Baptiste crouches, he will gather energy that allows him to jump in a giant leap, similar to Winston’s jump. Except you need to charge it, but unlike Winston’s jump, Baptiste’s crouch-jump doesn’t have a cool-down.
This is certainly an interesting package. It looks like similarly to Zenyata, Baptiste is well suited for heavy pushing. Through a combination of the Amplification Field and his immortality device, he can provide immense support for his team on that final push on the point. But do remember that such tactic is extremely vulnerable to: Hanzo’s ultimate, D’va’s ultimate, Zarya’s ultimate… You get the point.
I like it. I always find that the attacking team is at a disadvantage on maps with a moving payload. This might shake the meta up somewhat.