Blizzard revealed Echo as the 32nd hero of Overwatch, with a unique ultimate ability that is already drawing both excitement and concern.
Echo is the creation of robotics expert Mina Liao, one of the founding members of Overwatch. The robot was first seen in the animated short Reunion featuring McCree and Ashe at BlizzCon 2018, and again in the Overwatch 2 cinematic trailer at BlizzCon 2019.
Echo’s abilities were detailed in a developer update hosted by Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan.
Echo’s primary attack is the Tri-Shot, which launches three shots simultaneously, while her secondary attack is Sticky Bombs, which fires small bombs that attach to opponents, then explode after a short delay. Sticky Bombs is similar to the Bomblet Gun, which was discovered early this year as a possible skill for Echo.
The Flight skill, meanwhile, allows Echo to quickly surge forward then fly freely, and the Focusing Beam skill that lasts for a few seconds deals massive damage to opponents with less than half of their full health.
Echo’s ultimate skill, Duplicate, allows the robot to copy enemy heroes, including their skills, with “extremely accelerated” versions of their own ultimate skills that may allow Echo to launch them a few times before Duplicate wears off.
Duplicate may result in interesting situations in matches, as it will reward players who have a firm grasp of what their team needs and who have a mastery over multiple heroes. Kaplan, however, admitted that Echo’s ultimate may be toned down if it proves to be too powerful, which is a good reason why the robot needs to take her time in the Overwatch Public Test Region, or PTR.
The last Overwatch hero
It remains to be seen when Echo will be officially added to the main game, but she is expected to be the last hero that will be released for Overwatch, as Blizzard focuses its work on Overwatch 2.
“We don’t know yet when Overwatch 2 will release, but since Echo will be the last hero for the base Overwatch game, we don’t expect it will take years until the game sees the light of day,” Kaplan told IGN Nordic.
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