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Overwatch's Baptiste is now chucking immortality fields around the PTR

It's alive

Caring not for the sanctity of a normal news cycle, Blizzard released Baptiste on the Overwatch test servers a few hours after announcing him. He's a combat medic who, we know now, has an ability that renders him and nearby teammates immune to damage. Like, all types of damage. People are running around in the death-zones underneath cliffs. They're jumping about in traffic. It's carnage.

Fortunately, lead Overwatch designer Jeff Kaplan is also knocking around with a dev video discussing what Baptiste can do and why. Kaplan's voice is always a bastion in trying times.

As well as that immortality field, Baptiste has a three-shot burst assault rifle, an AOE heal, and boots that let him jump real high. I will be very disappointed if we don't all start calling him Spring-healed Jack.

He also has an ult that doubles the damage or healing of every allied projectile that passes through a big screen. Which is a big deal, but I'm not over the immortality nonsense just yet.

The field comes from a drone that fizzles away after a few seconds. It can be destroyed before that, but not if you say, chuck it behind a corner. Or just use it to jump in front of cars.

You could also take a leaf out of Reddit user Deeakron's book, and go to Hannanora's no-go zone. This is only possible on custom servers with no cooldowns enabled, but it's still something I never expected to see.

Here's a full rundown of his abilities in text form, and here's Jeff Kaplan offering the same and more with aloud words.

Watch on YouTube

Huh. The "P" is silent.

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Matt Cox avatar
Matt Cox: Once the leader of Rock Paper Shotgun's Youth Contingent, Matt is an expert in multiplayer games, deckbuilders and battle royales. He occasionally pops back into the Treehouse to write some news for us from time to time, but he mostly spends his days teaching small children how to speak different languages in warmer climates.
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