'Overwatch' News: Orisa Nerfed For First Time via PTR; Sombra, Winston, Junkrat and Zenyatta Also Get Buffs

Screengrab from the "Overwatch" character reveal video featuring Orisa. YouTube/PlayOverwatch

Orisa and four other "Overwatch" characters have been recently nerfed on the game's public test realm (PTR).

 Shortly after Orisa was announced as the game's newest character, the spider-like robot hit the PTR, allowing players who has access to try it out and give their feedback. Although the new hero was revealed less than a week ago, it seems that Blizzard already has enough data to make changes to Orisa.

VG247 reports that today's PTR update promises to slightly tone down the character, particularly her Fusion Driver. Changes to Orisa include lowering her magazine size from 200 to 150 and increasing her Supercharger ability cost by 15 percent.

 Also buffed for the latest update are Sombra, Winston, Zenyatta and Junkrat. Stealth hacker Sombra received sound effect tweaks, as well as a reduced cooldown for her Translocator. Winton, on the other hand, has been updated to fix his Barrier Projector. Zenyatta can now fire through barriers, while Junkrat can no longer hurt himself when using Total Mayhem.

Prior to Orisa's reveal, many fans thought that the game's next character would be Doomfist. It was later confirmed that Orisa is the latest addition to the roster and she is created by the 11-year-old prodigy Efi Oladele. Aside from her spider-like features, gamers have also noticed that Orisa has similarities with other tank characters, specifically Reinhardt.

"Overwatch" lead writer Michael Chu was at a GDC session last week and he explained that Orisa was actually developed to be an alternative to the said character. "Orisa was a character that emerged from game design. We wanted to have what we called an anchor tank: an alternative to Reinhardt," he said. "We needed a spark, and we were looking for it. The thing about Orisa is, in a lot of ways she was unconventional, and she was hard to come to terms with," he added.

Developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment, "Overwatch" is available for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.

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