With BlizzCon 2017 having already kicked off, many have been curious as to what Blizzard will unveil at the event. One of the first things that the company decided to unveil was not only a new Overwatch map and animated short, but they showed off a new hero as well.
The new hero, Moira, will be a support hero with the ability to switch and synergize between healing and dealing damage. Her ability to heal will be resource based, and it will be fueled by the amount of damage that she does. Her main ability, biotic grasp, will allow her to use a small beam-like ability to heal a single target, or she can use her secondary ability, biotic orb, to heal in an AoE. At the same time, she can use her biotic grasp as an attack to sap health from enemies to fuel her resources, or use her biotic orb AoE to deal damage to the enemy team instead of healing. She will also sport a movement ability, fade, which will allow her to quickly teleport over a short distance. Her ultimate ability, Coalescence, lets her unleash a beam that will heal any allies caught in it, or deal damage to any foes caught inside of it. Further details on Moira can be viewed on her Overwatch hero page.
In addition to Moira, a brand new Overwatch map was shown off as well. The map, titled Blizzard world, will be a theme park that is based off of the various IPs from Blizzard. Blizzard World will be a hybrid map, meaning that the first part of the map will be capture point, and after the first point has been captured, will evolve into a payload map.
Like most newly announced maps and heroes, gamers can expect these two announced things to be available for play soon on the PC version of the game with the Public Test Region, or PTR. This special Overwatch server region is used by Blizzard to test and balance ideas before launching it onto the main game. It is not known when these will be available on the main game, but we can hope sooner rather than later.
Last but not least, Blizzard also showed off a brand new 7-minute Overwatch animated short featuring the tank hero, Reinhardt.
With the rest of the day still chock full of games and workshops, BlizzCon 2017 is shaping up to be bigger than ever.