I believe that the fact that they gave him a specific ability like the shield he sported on the story ACTUALLY makes him a candidate for a tank hero.
If they just wanted to give us insight on a Talon Heavy as a person, there was no need to add the shield to the depiction.
Jeff even teased it with the Developer Update, I’d say he’s Hero 31. I’d be so sad if he isn’t the next hero, he’s such a cool character 
Same here. I really like his design.
I haven’t really kept up with the lore… like at all… But I saw this thing on Reddit about a terminal somewhere being accessed remotely, and the only known hacker we have so far is Sombra, so I’m guessing it’s a Talon tank. I only say “tank” because it’s the only class Talon doesn’t have a hero in… so probably Mauga.
Also, along with Mauga, I’m guessing there’s going to be an “Overwatch vs. Talon” arcade game mode.
Sprays can’t really be a evidence for anything. It is not like they can’t make his own sprays.
However, since the last hero that dropped was batiste, it is unlikely the next one to be related to him right away.
I hope his niche is to bribe red players to fight for you.
Im guessing that whoever the next hero is its going to have either
like its the norm for newcomer heroes nowadays.
Me neither, because he looks too much like Reaper
Orisa and Doomfist we’re kinda related to one another also. Doomfist and Moira too, in a way, both of them being Talon characters. Junkrat and Roadhog before the release were also introduced one after another. So you never really know.
He’s oviously gonna be the next hero. Everybody’s just ignoring it in favor of speculating for somebody else (why? Seriously, why?)
He’s:
Part of Talon
A Tank with a unqiue Shield
Has a backstory and fleshed-out character in the short story
Seriously, why are you guys ignoring the obvious hints? They’re basically flat-out saying “This is the guy. This guy right here. Open your eyes, people!”
Is it the idea of fighting a Heavy Assault just too much for people to fathom the idea of him as the next hero?
So long as the next hero is actually fun to play, I don’t really care who it is. Though, since the last one we got was Baptiste, one we hadn’t heard about before, it’s probably safe to assume that the next one is someone we’ve at least had mentioned. Not to say it’s Mauga or Edgebot 3000, but they are contenders.
I think the biggest giveaway is that they mentioned him activating an energy shield. Like, that specific detail really points out to him being an actual tank hero. Plus the fact that he told Baptiste “Keep me healed and I will protect you”. I just don’t see them pulling a 180 after huge hints like these, it will for sure make people really mad.
They went into some great detail about his kit. Hope he is hero 31.
I’m skeptical of Mauga being the next one. I’m ecstatic he exists, like thank god… a badass polynesian in a video game. I decided to leave the excitement there.
I couldn’t help but think, “Yeah, but if he is… then they just completely shelved the teaser for that one omnic.” That seemed the problem with that one, “that one omnic” we don’t even have a name for it.
I think he’s just as you mentioned, a face to put behind the Heavy (which makes me hopeful for the assassin someday; just for the lore behind it). For Baptiste, it was a story that made him a complete character.
What I really think though… Baptiste’s new skin makes me pretty upset about Storm Rising (something I defended quite a bit). Could have easily just put in a Talon healing unit.
If only Blizzard was bold enough to release more than one hero at the same time:
All of them dropping together for the summer would bring lots of people back to OW, I’m sure.
That can be pretty tricky and time consuming though.
There is a lot of work that goes into making a hero… You have a model with a unique hitbox and abilities. You have to make sure they properly interact with every other character in the roster, and then all of the stages as well.
It’s like they combined the tedious nature of making maps in FPS games with making characters in fighting games.
It’s gotta be mauga, Jeff kinda teased it with his words in the dev update and it has to be a tank.
I completely understand; don’t get me wrong. It’s just wishful thinking at this point.
Part of the problem is that a lot of characters have been teased or introduced in the lore, without a real indication whether they will be heroes or not; or when they will come out, if they come out at all.
However, we can start to connect some things too.
It was mentioned some time ago that they were simultaneously working on 6 characters, those characters were just in a different order of being ready.
With reveals, we can at least start to have ideas and narrow down who is at least being worked on. Some things can kind of piece together who is where in the production line.
I don’t know about next but I get a good feeling about eventually at least.
He drops out of nowhere with lore and plenty of description and visuals. Money being spent means intent. They already have a pretty solid foundation for the hero with Heavys being in game which means less work producing, coding, testing.