Haitian Healer Baptiste and a Boatload of Hero Changes Now Live on the Overwatch PTR

Published: February 26, 2019 4:40 PM /

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Overwatch's 30th hero Baptiste is now live on the game's Public Test Realm servers. The latest and greatest hero to join the cast of Overwatch is a hybrid healer and DPS character with one of the most intriguing kits I've seen in recent memory. It will certainly be interesting to see how he plays out!

Baptiste was announced yesterday and with an Origin Story videoOverwatch Game Director Jeff Kaplan has released a Developer Update talking about the new hero:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akplvZwGJZI

Baptiste Abilities

Baptiste is a hybrid healer/DPS character with a lot of interesting abilities. He certainly seems to have a lot going on and my gut tells me that he's going to have a pretty high skill ceiling. Here are his abilities:

Biotic Launcher (Primary Weapon)

Baptiste's Biotic Launcher is one of the most interesting weapons to make its way into Overwatch. To start, it has two ammo types. Left click will fire a three round burst of bullets and right click will shoot a healing grenade that can restore the health of allies. Both ammo types are in one magazine, so hitting zero on either of them will necessitate a reload.

Exo Boots (Passive)

The Exo Boots allow Baptiste to jump pretty high, but he has to charge them first. Crouching will charge up the boots in four stages. After a little over a second, the boots will be fully charged and you can jump many times higher than the average hero.

Regenerative Burst (Left Shift)

Baptiste can apply a HoT (Heal over Time) effect to himself and any allies within range. Combining this will his Biotic Launcher can create some serious potential for bringing back allies from the brink.

Immortality Field (E)

Immortality Field keeps allies from dying. No, really. That's not to say they can't take damage—they will simply remain at 1 HP until the Immortarily Field runs out. Of course, it does have its weaknessess. The Immortality Field has a generator that floats in the air and can be easily destroyed. Did I mention that this is Baptiste's E ability and not his Ultimate?

Amplification Matrix (Ultimate)

Baptiste projects a square energy field that doubles the damage of any friendly projectiles that get shot through it. Oh, and it also doubles any healing projectiles that go through it, too. (Say it with me folks: "Ana synergy".)

baptiste overwatch

Other PTR Changes

That's it for the new information on Baptiste. Unfortunately, we don't yet have any of his skins available to check out just yet.

In addition to the newest hero, the Overwatch PTR has made a bunch of balance and hero changes. Some of these changes have been made to accommodate Baptiste, but the majority seem to be genuine balance shifts that will tweak the meta in various ways.


General Updates

  • Armor
    • Armor now reduces beam-type weapon damage by 20%.
    • Damage over time effects are no longer mitigated by Armor.
  • Damage Boost
    • Damage Boost will now be applied when a projectile is shot instead of when it hits.
  • Knockback
    • Knockback distance is affected less by the target's movement and should be more consistent.
    • Flying heroes (Mercy in Valkyrie, D.Va using Boosters) can now be knocked back and slowed
  • Sound
    • A new sound plays when you land a hit that was damage boosted.
    • A new sound plays when you land a hit that doesn't do any damage.


Hero Updates

  • Ana
    • Nano Boost heal reduced from 300 to 250.
  • Doomfist
    • Rising Uppercut cooldown reduced from 7 to 6 seconds.
    • Seismic Slam cooldown reduced from 7 to 6 seconds.
  • Hanzo
    • Sonic Arrow detection radius increased from 7 to 9 meters.
  • McCree
    • Fan the Hammer (right click) damage dropped from 55 to 50.
    • Deadeye's damage per second increased from 275 to 550 after locking on to a target for 2.5 seconds.
  • Mei
    • Endothermic Blaster (primary weapon) DPS increased from 45 to 55.
    • Ice Wall health reduced from 500 to 400.
  • Moira
    • Biotic Grasp heal over time duration increased to 4 seconds (up from 3 seconds).
    • Total healing increased from 50 to 65.
  • Orisa
    • Fusion Driver (primary weapon) movement speed penalty reduced from 50% to 30%.
  • Soldier: 76
    • Pulse Rifle damage increased from 19 to 20.
    • Delay before you can fire after using Sprint reduced from 0.5 seconds to 0.3 seconds.
    • Tactical Visor can now target Baptiste's Immortality Field and Junkrat's RIP-Tire.
  • Sombra
    • Hack cooldown is halved if you use it on a health pack.
  • Torbjörn
    • Base health increased by 50 armor.
    • Overload armor gain reduced from 150 to 100.
  • Widowmaker
    • Infrasight now reveals enemy health bars.
    • Infrasight is now canceled when Widowmaker dies.
  • Wrecking Ball
    • Adaptive Shield will no longer force players out of Roll Mode.


Hoo boy, that's a hefty patch! There are even more details in the full patch notes, so make sure you read them if you want to see all of the other changes currently in play on the Overwatch PTR! PC players can try out Baptiste for themselves right now.

What do you think of Baptiste? Do you think his abilities will have an affect on the game's meta? What's your favorite hero change in this patch? Let us know in the comments below!

Have a tip, or want to point out something we missed? Leave a Comment or e-mail us at tips@techraptor.net


A photograph of TechRaptor Senior Writer Robert N. Adams.
| Senior Writer

One of my earliest memories is playing Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo Entertainment System. I've had a controller in my hand since I was 4 and I… More about Robert N

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