Overwatch Characters Part 1: Backgrounds and Abilities

Overwatch, since its launch on the market, has immediately achieved excellent success. One of the reasons why players immediately appreciated Blizzard’s game is because it offers a great variety of characters. In fact, there are many Overwatch characters present, each with their own story and their own abilities. In this article, therefore, we will provide you with a general overview of them, so that you can have information on each of them.

Overwatch Tank characters

There are 38 Overwatch characters and each of them is very different from the other. Furthermore, in addition to their history and their abilities, they are also differentiated into different categories: Tank, Damage, and Support. In this article, we will tell you about Overwatch Tank characters, who specialize in absorbing damage from enemies and destroying their positions, even if they are fortified. If you are a player who prefers a very offensive style of play and who is not afraid to face even groups of multiple enemies, the Overwatch characters that we indicate below are the ones that are right for you.

D.VA

After South Korea was attacked by a mechanical monstrosity, the government established a special army, called MEKA, which was tasked with protecting the country from this threat. However, the military soon began to run low and so the government turned to professional gamers to take their place. This is where, then, Hana Song, known as D.VA, comes into play and becomes one of the Overwatch characters.

Before long, her skills grew immeasurably, making her one of MEKA’s best pilots. Unfortunately, however, the threats continued to grow, forcing Hana to fight and protect her land alone. Even though she was an excellent pilot, the mission turned into a game over. At this point, her commander assigned her a position as one of Overwatch’s new guards, in order to face the threat of her in the company of other companions.

Abilities

• Fusion cannons: automatic short-range spread weapons
• Light gun: automatic weapon
• Boosters: fly in the direction you are facing
• Defense matrix: block projectiles in an area in front of you
• Micro missiles: launch a volley of explosive rockets
• Self-destruct: eject and overload your mech, causing it to explode after a short time
• Call match: call down a new mech
• Eject: eject out of your mech when it is destroyed

Doomfist

Akande Ogundimu, Doomfist’s real name, is the son of a wealthy family that owned a technological prosthetics company. Talon’s rise as a leader begins after the loss of his right arm which, in fact, causes his fighting career to end prematurely. In fact, even though his arm was replaced with a mechanical one, Doomfist no longer had any rivals, which didn’t satisfy him and so he looked for something else to dedicate himself to and invest all of himself in.

At this point, he met Akinjide Adeyemi, the reigning Doomfist, who took him under his wing and trained him until he became his best adept. However, he soon realized that he wanted more and therefore decided to kill his lieutenant and take his place. The rest of Talon, then, understood that he was a very determined person and that he managed to achieve what he set out to achieve. Under his guidance, Talon changed his face, coming out of the shadows and after being captured and locked up in prison, he waited for the right moment to escape and take his revenge. This makes him one of the villains in the Overwatch characters.

Abilities

• Hand cannon: short-range weapon with spreads that reloads automatically
• Rocket punch: hold to charge then release to lunch forward and knock an enemy down. Damage increses if the enemy hits a wall
• Seismic slam: leap and smash the ground
• Power block: protect yourself from frontal attacks. Blocking heavy damage empowers rocket punch
• Meteor strike: Press Q to leap up into the air. Move the targeting circle, then press ABILITY 3 to strike the target area

Junker Queen

Odessa “Dez” Stone has been the leader of the Junker factions for more than a decade. Born in a small Outback settlement and daughter of six, she had to fight from an early age to assert herself. Her parents, both former members of the Australian Liberation Front, taught her how to work in a group, how to survive, and what the rules of the wasteland are. For the people who live in the shadow of the ruined Australian ominum, the Omnic Crisis has never seen a true end and Dez and his friends learned to fight at a very young age.

The world becomes acquainted with Dez during a Reckoning, a regularly held event where everyone can show off their fighting skills. In his debut in this event, Dez manages to get the better of all the participants and ends up clashing against the Junker King. The fight is epic and Dez comes out on top. This allows her to become the Junker Queen and begin her plan to unite all the factions, imposing force when necessary and training squads of soldiers to fight the omnic menace along with other Overwatch characters.

Abilities

• Scattergun: pump action shotgun
• Jagged blade: throw the blade if active. Re-active to pull it back, along with any impaled enemy. Wound enemies hit by quick melee or throw, dealing damage over time if passive.
• Commending shout: grants temporary health and movement speed to yourself and allies
• Carnage: wound all enemies in front of you, dealing damage over time and reducing the cooldown for each enemy hit
• Rampage: charge forward and wound enemies, dealing damage over time and preventing them from being healed
• Adrenaline rush: heal from all damage over time dealt by wounds

Orisa

Orisa was built by eleven-year-old Efi Oladele to protect her town from any kind of threat. These types of robots were used in the past, only to be taken out of production after the war. However, twenty years later, the government decided to reactivate the program with new robots, which however did not last long due to an attack by Doomfist. Eleven-year-old Efi then decided to buy some parts and build her own prototype, calling it Orisa.

However, the robot was not ready and needed one last piece to be fully functional and reliable. Luckily for Efi, Lucio decides to help her by giving her the piece she needed. When Talon decides to attack the city of Numbani, therefore, Orisa was ready to protect the city and managed, with the help of some other Overwatch characters, to expel Talon’s forces from the city.

Abilities

• Augmented fusion driver: automatic heat-based weapon. Deals more damage at close range
• Energy javelin: launch your javelin at an enemy to stun and knock them back. More effective if the enemy hits a wall
• Fortify: gain temporary health, reducing all damage taken and becoming unstoppable. While active, heat generated by your weapon is reduced
• Javelin spin: spin your javelin to destroy projectiles and block melee attacks, while also pushing enemies and increasing forward speed
• Terra surge: sweep in enemies and anchor down, gaining the effects of Fortify and charging up a surge of damage

Ramattra

After the Omnic Crisis, Ramattra decides to travel to the Shambali Monastery in Nepal, to seek answers to the rumors she had heard about a mysterious omnic called Aurora. Ramattra overcomes the arduous journey and joins the monastery, where he studies under the supervision of Tekhartha Mondatta to learn the secrets of the monks. Years later, he decided to begin journeys of discovery and during one of these, he met an omnic named Zenyatta, and guided him to the monastery with the hope that he would follow his own path. However, over time, Ramattra no longer sees the positive in the pacifistic approach of the monks, while his people were dying and therefore decides to change and do something.

Once he leaves the monastery, he decides to track down all the omnics who were fighting in the shadows to protect them from the humans. At this point, his peers began to see him as a mentor and Ramattra gradually established a sort of military organization. Not much later, his organization was strong enough to strike a first blow and they chose London as their target. Things didn’t go as planned and the Null Sector was defeated by Overwatch. At that point, Ramattra disappeared, although there are testimonies of having seen him in various places around the world.

Abilities

• Void accelerator (omnic form): fire a stream of projectiles
• Void barrier (omnic form): create a barrier at the targeted location
• Pummel (nemesis form): punch, creating a wave of piercing energy with every swing
• Ravenous vortex: fire a shape of energy that creates a slowing vortex on the ground, damaging enemies within and pulling them downward
• Annihilation: enter nemesis form and create a deadly swarm that lashes out at nearby enemies, persisting longer when damaging enemies

Reinhardt

Reinhardt was part of the Crusaders, warriors who wore large armor and had particular skills. Reinhardt was part of the first Overwatch that managed to put an end to the Omnic Crisis and thanks to his personality he was one of its best known and loved followers, who never missed the opportunity to remember that the organization’s work was for the common good. However, as time passed, Reinhardt was forced to retire due to his age and could only watch the decline of the organization to which he had dedicated his entire life.

Despite his retirement, Reinhardt did not want to sit idle while the world fell into ruin, and so he decided to put on his armor again and help those in need. However, once he joins forces with the daughter of one of his companions, he decides to join the cause even though he is now quite old, but he can help other Overwatch characters with his wisdom.

Abilities

• Rocket hammer: devastating melee weapons
• Charge: charge forward and smash an enemy against a wall
• Fire strike: launch a fiery projectile
• Barrier field: deploy a frontal energy barrier
• Earthshatter: knock down all enemies in front of you

Roadhog

Mako Rutledge was one of the inhabitants of the Australian Outback and when the government decided to make a deal with the omnics, both he and the other inhabitants did not take it well. For this reason, both he and the other inhabitants became rebels and created the Australian Liberation Front to try to take their land. However, the fighting became so bloody that an explosion leveled the entire land, and Mako and his citizens watched it become an apocalyptic battlefield. At this point, in a rage, Mako decided to let go of his humanity and transformed into Roadhog.

After forming a partnership with Jankrat, he was expelled from Junkertown and they became wanted criminals. The two were contacted by the CEO of Hyde Global to free a warehouse held hostage by omnic terrorists, but they realized that the whole thing was a scam. However, at some point, Roadhog returned to Junkertown and the plan to take out Junker Queen failed miserably.

Abilities

• Scrap gun: short-range spread weapon and medium-range spread weapon
• Chain hook: drag a targeted enemy to you
• Take a breather: heal yourself and reduce damage taken over a short time
• Whole hog: damage and knock back enemies in front of you

Sigma

Siebren de Kuiper was a famous astrophysicist, considered a pioneer in his field. He has dedicated his entire life to studying a way to control the power of gravity. One day, after several experiments, he decides to conduct one in the international space station, since I thought I had finally reached the final experiment. However, something went wrong and triggered the creation of a black hole. Although de Kuiper was exposed for a very short time, this had strong repercussions on his psyche.

Once back on Earth, the scientist was placed in isolation in a government facility to conduct experiments on him and understand the long-term consequences of that exposure. However, when Talon discovered his existence, he sent some of his best soldiers to infiltrate the facility and kidnap de Kuiper. Under their custody, the man began to be able to control his powers through his will.

Abilities

• Hyperspheres: launch two charges which implode after a short duration, dealing damage in an area
• Kinetic grasp: absorb projectiles in front of you and convert them into extra health
• Accretion: gather a mass of debris and throw it at an enemy to knock them down
• Experimental barrier: hold to propel a floating barrier, release to stop
• Gravity flux: manipulate gravity to lift enemies into the air and slam them back down

Winston

Winston is a super-intelligent engineered gorilla who was named after the human scientist who cared for him since he was a cub. In fact, Lucheng Interstellar created a base where experiments were conducted on animals to make them have a sort of consciousness like that of humans and Winston was the one who first of all managed to stand out in this program. However, one day, the other gorillas decided to claim the base for themselves and Winston managed to escape and join Overwatch.

But when the organization fell into disrepair, Winston retreated into the shadows, waiting for the golden days to return, sooner or later. In fact, when Talon tried to infiltrate Watchpoint: Gibraltar, Winston was called back to work with him to protect the facility. After this, in the company of other Overwatch characters, he took part in other missions to try to save the world and defeat threats.

Abilities

• Tesla cannon: electric frontal-cone weapon and fire-focused electricity
• Jump pack: leap forward into the air and land on an enemy to damage them
• Barrier projector: deploy a protective energy dome
• Primal rage: gain immense health, but you can only leap and punch enemies

Wrecking Ball

Wrecking Ball is another of the experiments conducted on the Horizon Lunar Colony that has made this hamster bigger and more intelligent than usual. Hammond, this is the name of the hamster, as he grew, he became more and more curious, which led him to escape to different areas of the base. However, the scientists were unaware that Hammond was looking for a way to teach himself everything it took to become a mechanic.

When the gorillas decided to claim the base, Hammond didn’t hesitate for a moment and took advantage of the confusion to escape. With Winston’s help, he then escaped from the base and landed in the Australian Outback. Once there, Hammond modified his pod to be able to take part in matches and win. From that moment on, he will become one of the Junker Queen’s faithful.

Abilities

• Quad cannons: automatic assault weapon
• Grappling caw: launch a grappling claw to rapidly swing around the area. Enables high-speed collisions to damage and knockback enemies
• Roll: transform into a ball and increase maximum movement speed
• Piledriver: slam into the ground below to damage and launch enemies upward
• Adaptive shield: create temporary personal extra health. Amount increases with more enemies nearby
• Minefield: deploy a massive field of proximity mines

Zarya

Aleksandra, this is Zarya’s real name, was born in a remote Siberian village. As it was a frontline region during the Omnic Crisis, the entire area was devastated, even after the troops retreated. Moved by the death of her father, she promised herself that once she became an adult she would help her people and therefore I decided to start hard training which made her become an excellent athlete.

However, during a tournament, an attack caused her village to fall into war for the second time. At this point, Aleksandra immediately decided to abandon the life of an athlete and join the military corps to become a soldier. Once she rose through the ranks, the CEO of Volskaya Industries gave Zarya a special weapon to use in combat, with which she was able to save her people. However, in the attack, Katya Volskaya was killed and her new mission was to bring her killer to justice.

Once Zarya managed to find her culprit, she decided to return to her homeland to continue protecting her people. And it is precisely at this juncture that the head of Overwatch decided to make Zarya one of her new followers, promising her the possibility of protecting her people on a large scale. Zarya did not hesitate and accepted his request and helped other Overwatch characters, always keeping in mind the revenge to be taken against her father.

Abilities

• Particle cannon: short-range linear beam weapon and energy-granade launcher
• Particle barrier: create a damage barrier around you
• Projected barrier: create a damage barrier around an ally
• Graviton surge: launch a gravity well that pulls enemies to it
• Energy: damage blocked by barriers increases particle cannon damage