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Hands-On Impressions Of Overwatch's New Hero Moira
At BlizzCon 2017, I played the upcoming Overwatch support hero Moira on the new Blizzard World map. As a player that generally gravitates toward more offensive heroes, Blizzard has done something awesome with Moira - it's a support hero that's fun to play even if you traditionally prefer a damage dealing role.
First let's take a look at her kit. Moria's main weapon (right and left mouse buttons) is a beam, Biotic grasp. You can hold it down to heal all allies in front of you and consume your biotic energy resource. Alternatively, you can hold down the other mouse button to dish out damage and charge your biotic energy up - this attack also heals Moira via the damage done. It's double duty, damage and healing, all on the base weapon!
Moira's Biotic Orb ability lets you release a massive bouncy ball that you can heal allies with or dish out damage - you select the mode the ball will launch in when you trigger the ability. It's super cool to watch the ball bounce around, delivering doom or healing your allies in a packed room. This is a neatl ability that is fun for everyone, but I'm especially excited to see how skilled players will take advantage of the bounce in various environments. I'm kind of amazed that something as simple as a bouncy ball is this enthralling, but they nailed the design for this skill big time.
Fade lets you move incredibly fast while both invisible and invulnerable, You can't shoot or anything during this, but it's an absolutely amazing escape ability (or even a well timed entry to a fight to position an ultimate or ball). It's an essential mobility skill that keeps Moira alive and keeps enemies stressed to find you.
And then there's the ultimate, Coalescence. A freaking huge beam that blows away enemies and heals any of your allies caught in the attack. Yeah, it's sweet.
Moira's playstyle that lets you select damage or healing (or both at once!) in any situation makes her an absolute blast to play, even for players like me that would normally stray away from the support role. I'm not sure if that's precisely what Blizzard was going for here with Moira, to get players out of their comfortable offense-zone to play something a little more team-oriented, but it sure worked for me. I have a feeling that a lot of games will start seeing more support roles get picked after Moira goes live.
Oh, and the Blizzard World map is amazing fun that gets all those yummy Blizzard IPs in one place and just coats everything in a sheen of theme park magic, right down to food selections at kiosks and skee-ball in the arcade. Blended whimsy works really well here, and I can't wait to dive down into the most minute details of the theme park when that map hits servers as well.
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