Hello! Another post about flaws in OW:
Today we look at one of the most ignored heroes in Overwatch history, Orisa. A hero whose lack of respect and attention in the overwatch community has been pitiful.
Orisa, the first tank to be added to the game, was released in March 2017. She was meant to be released as an alternative from Rein that could deal damage from a distance. However, upon release, she fit no niche. SirSwag, a pretty profilic OW/gaming YouTuber, put it best when he said (about Orisa) “I can do everything my team can do… only much worse”.
Fun Fact- Orisa was actually the first hero I “mained”. When I bought the game, there wasn’t any hero that I actually found fun because I felt that since other people had the more experience with those heroes that I did, I would never be good enough. But a new hero, with a do-everything playstyle, would put me on roughly the same ground as anyone else- so I played Orisa a lot at first. She was also my first POTG. I played heavily Orisa in my first set of placements. Safe to say, I did not win easily nor did my team receive me very well. I was flamed for playing a “terrible hero”. After that, I stuck to Roadhog.
Orisa has gotten a few buffs since launch- the biggest being the buff to her shield CD that brought it from 12 to 8. It allowed her to occupy a niche where your team could hold a position very easily because Orisa had her shield up much more than Reinhardt and she could pull heroes for damage to spam into, but she was really only played on defense and maps with cliffs to pull stuff off of. That’s still really the only places she’s played at.
She also got a buff more recently that charges Supercharger 15% faster- which was very helpful because Supercharger, along with being a terrible ultimate, charged slower than maybe anything the game for a year or so, even if you always were getting damage off.
Yet:
Overbuff, Competitive, Last Month, Pickrates
Reinhardt- 11.95%
Winston- 3.00%
Orisa- 1.71%
And Orisa has been #3 among main tank pickrates since her release, picked so much less than her counterparts. Why is this?
Well, it has to do with a few things. Like I said above, Orisa had trouble finding her niche and even though she has, she remains a very niche hero even though she was designed to be a more central pick. She struggles to make sufficient pushes on attack because of how immobile her playstyle is. She has a fat hitbox with only 400 HP, the lowest among all tanks, technically a little more than Zarya since she has armor but Zarya also has the advantage of her personal shield and shield regen. Once she loses Fortify, she gets smoked by pretty much every DPS in the game. But these issues are not as central as what I believe her two main issues are, from what all other issues stem.
#1- Her image.
There are multiple accused “F Tier heroes” who are, simply, heroes who are countered all too easily and are unable to do their basic jobs. Orisa, I believe, is among them.
But these other “F Tier heroes” have communities behind them. The Bastion Megathreads, who I’m sure anyone who’s been on this forum for more than a day has gotten a chance to see, are some of the most liked and replied to posts of all time, and Bastion is finally, after a year and a half, is getting buffs. Mei has her own megathread and she is in a much better place right now, with decent winrates, good long range and short range damage, and the ability to stall. Reaper just got buffed and although he might not be great at all ranks yet, he is still a very good hero in lower ranks. Sym has gotten multiple megathreads and her die hard fans frequently rally changes for sym, and she also just got a buff.
But Orisa?
How many people have you met, online or IRL, who call themselves Orisa mains? How many mega threads have been made for Orisa? How much is Orisa even talked about in discussion? You don’t even really have to think that hard about the answers to these questions. We know the answers.
And who can blame the community? In a game of so many dynamic and cool looking heroes, who wants to play as a clunky looking Horse Lady Omnic, who moves at the speed of a rock rather than a horse, who’s only real purpose is to spam her shield, who is a guaranteed death as soon as the main healer dies, who has underwhelming damage despite having a mini gun attached to her arm, whose ultimate is a crap version of Valkyrie? Her only real attractions are the mini grav and the oxygen mask for cc.
She has nothing that really makes her special, nothing that would immediately draw someone to her kit. So she has no fans behind her. She has no group of crusaders, no jungle. She’s just… there. And because of this, she’s ignored by both players and developers alike.
Which brings me to her second problem-
#2- Reinhardt
The problem with Reinhardt isn’t exactly that he’s too powerful, I’m not one of those anti rein people who have popped up recently. He’s got a balanced kit that feels pretty fine to play against and not anything too frustrating. The problem is that he overshadows Orisa waaay too much.
Everything about Rein is better than Orisa. His shield is a better multi purpose tool for protecting on D and pushing on attack, as well as protecting from D.Va much better. He has better damage, long range with firestrike, one shot and mobility with charge, and anti flanker with his huge hammer. His ultimate is probably the single best in the game right now, charging super fast while also having the ability to win team fights by itself. Orisa’s only real advantage over Rein is that she can handle being focused better with halt and fortify.
On practically any map, Reinhardt will be the better pick than Orisa. Considering Orisa takes the same amount of mechanical skill, if not more, than Rein, she should be able to have the same impact, if not more of an impact. But she doesn’t. And so she continues to be difficult to get value with for the people that do play her.
Orisa needs help now more than ever. Now that Rein can tank bash, fortify becomes even less of an important ability. Winston now isn’t ultra countered by Brig as well. She is getting destroyed by power creep.
What to do?
What would be ideal is a rework for some of her abilities that make her more impactful. I have heard some great suggestions, such as reworking supercharger so it gives the effects of fortify instead of a damage boost so it’s not overshadowed by valkyrie, reworking fortify so it’s on a resource meter without having a damage reduction, and allowing Orisa to pick up her shield and move it.
If I had to be realistic and not expect a rework to some of her abilities, her numbers need some serious tweaking. The top things I would suggest-
-Make her have 450 health.
Seriously. A main tank should not have this kind of pathetic health pool while being such a big target. I would even have her have 500, but that could have effects I wouldn’t be able to anticipate.
- Reduce head hitbox
A shield tank should not be such an easy pick for widowmaker of all heroes. Her head is friggin enormous. I would be surprised if you hit the body and not the head.
-Decrease the pull time of halt
In the wake of hogs changes, which make him feel a lot better (thank you!) Orisa also needs a reduction to the delay between activating the ball and pulling. It takes way, way too long to get off and allows people to either walk away from it when they see it coming or walk out of the effects even when they were in the pulls range. The ball should travel faster and activate faster.
-Supercharger?
Supercharger, for how terrible an ult it is, should either have as much health as BOB or not be killable at all.
We need help for the Omnic chieftess now! Rally for Orisa!
