Overwatch Update Brings New Hero Baptiste In Test Server

Following a tease and then a story trailer, Blizzard has officially taken the wraps off the 30th hero in Overwatch, named Baptiste. As part of a new update, he's playable on the PC version's Public Test Realm now.

As detailed in his origin story, Baptiste is a combat medic who joined the mercenary group Talon due to a lack of other career opportunities, but he abandoned them and has been wandering the world trying to help people ever since. In Overwatch, that do-gooding involves a variety of experimental equipment and a mixture of solid offense and defensive tools. As a support class, he's great at keeping his allies alive and buffing them at key moments.

Baptiste's primary weapon is the Biotic Launcher, a three-round burst rifle. His secondary fire heals allies near the blast area. His Exo Boots let him jump extra-high by charging first in a crouch. He can trigger a Regenerative Burst that heals himself and nearby allies. His Immortality Field deploys a device that keeps all allies from dying (or dropping below 20% health) for a set time, as long as the device itself isn't destroyed.

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Finally, Baptiste's Ultimate ability is called the Amplification Matrix. It creates a window-like field that doubles any damage or healing effects from your allies' projectiles. As long as you aim it well and coordinate with your team, you can turn some standard abilities and attacks into extra-deadly ones.

As noted above, Baptiste is now live on the PTR, the servers where the company puts new heroes and maps through their paces before public release. Access to the PTR is free for owners of the PC game, though, so you can try him out by selecting "PTR: Overwatch" from the region select menu in the Battle.net client. Or, you can just wait for him to become available publicly on all platforms. As detailed in the patch notes, the update also makes changes to a variety of other characters, such as ending Widowmaker's ultimate when she dies, but making it so that it reveals enemies' health in addition to their position.