Follow yesterday’s origin story video, Overwatch has now released the full kit of hero 30: Baptiste. A support character that either gives you “a bandage, or a bullet”, Baptiste has defected from Talon, and answered the call to join the fight.
From his introduction video, to the entirety of his kit, Baptiste looks like he’ll certainly add something new to the fight. Ranked as a three star character, his skills offer something different into the game. While most people were hoping for something to shake up the GOATs meta, it’s still too early to tell how Baptiste can and will effect 3-3 compositions.
Baptiste’s Kit
As stated in the patch notes, Baptiste has a lot of interesting abilities. Combined together, they make a good blend of damage output, which some support heroes lack, and healing output, still making him viable as a healer choice.
His first ability includes his biotic launcher, which can shoot bullets as well as projectiles of healing towards his teammates. The notes specifically say that his gun rewards accuracy, making the sniper comment from the initial letter where Baptiste was teased true to his playstyle.
Baptiste also has an ability called regenerative burst. This enables him to pump himself, as well as close by teammates, with a health over time. This ability will be good in situations where a team wipe seems inevitable. By providing teammates with healing over time, similar to Moira’s healing spray and Brigitte’s inspire, Baptiste gives them a chance to fight back.
Maybe the most talked about ability upon his release is the immortality field. From the video, it seems like this field is deployed around allies and stays stationary. When in the field, teammates that take life threatening damage do not die. Instead, they drop to no lower than 20% health, giving Baptiste time to heal them back up and allow them to get back into the fight.
His passive ability, exo boots, allows Baptiste to jump and reach high places. For some characters, this is easy. However, for low mobility characters, it’s hard to accomplish. Giving him a sense of independence takes a stab at the notion that healers must simply stay with their tanks. Baptiste can protect himself.
Lastly, Baptiste’s ultimate. The amplification matrix is a stationary shield that projects itself into the middle of the battle field. Looks wise, it portrays itself as much smaller than Symmetra’s shield, and more similar in size to a Reinhardt shield. This matrix allows teams to deliver double damage to enemies that stand behind it. Additionally, when teammates are behind it, healing effects are doubled as well. This is something to use in clutch situations. Dropping an amplification matrix will ensure that your headshots are killing blows.
What Does This All Mean
Will Baptiste change the meta? It’s too early to tell. The way things are shifting right now, the public is demanding something to kill GOATs. Baptiste could be part of the solution, but also part of the problem. His kit looks immensely impressive, and the fact that he’s ranked as a three star hero gives some more mechanical skill to the support heroes in this game. So far, only Ana has really presented herself as a character with some challenge. This new hero certainly shakes things up, and offers something for players who like to play damage, and who like to play support as well.
Currently, he’s live on the PTR right now. Update the game client, give him a try, and see what Baptiste can do in a full team setting!
Featured Image Courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment.
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