Blizzard made fans quite happy when they announced the newest addition to the ranks of the Overwatch heroes. Wild West girl Ashe is, in many ways, going to be a contradiction. At first glance, she seems like a sniper character, much like Widowmaker and Hanzo are, but that’s not quite true. She is a little low on health and though her main semi-auto rifle is powerful, it’s not quite the same as what other heroes bring to the table.
She doesn’t seem to fit into the existing character roles all that well, so clearly Blizzard is trying something new here – for now, fans are pretty happy. Ashe’s weapon, the Viper, shoots quick, moderate-damage shots or, in scoped mode, slower and more high-damage ones.
She can hurl a bundle of dynamite that will either explode the traditional way (after the fuse is burnt) or immediately if you shoot it. It deals damage on impact and can be shot not just by Ashe herself but also by other characters, meaning there’s a chance they’ll accidentally blow themselves up if they shoot it close enough to themselves.
The dynamite also inflicts fire – possibly it’s most useful skill – which does damage over time, in addition to the explosive damage. Ashe is a real package deal: Her ulti is summoning B.O.B. a huge robot wearing a bowler hat. Unsurprisingly he accrued a slew of fans as soon as they caught sight of the dapper gentle-robot.
Huge threads on the matter have already spawned, a series of memes featuring bowler-hats has launched and so on – it’s safe to say, B.O.B. is a little more popular than the lady who summons him. While he’s in game, he acts like any other hero and can be healed, buffed and even capture points.
As for Ashe, her shotgun gives her a pretty cool ability – she can use it to get further away from enemies that get too close, or she can aim it at the ground and catapult herself up into the air. Used properly, this can give players a pretty good advantage – it’s essentially a DIY vantage point.
It’s worth noting that all of Ashe’s skills are pretty neat but come with the kind of downsides we’d expect – her health drains incredibly fast and D.Va or Winston can mow her pretty much by accident if they so much as brush past her. She’s far more subtle and less ‘Hulk Smash!’ than the last two additions to the game, Hammond and Brigitte.
Ashe is definitely targeted at a different type of player audience – strategists and support players, more than tanks or DPS types. For players annoyed by the amount of knock-back heroes recently added, Ashe should be a welcome boon – she’s definitely not that.
B.O.B., Ashe’s companion is definitely the more brawny one here…and if test-servers are anything to go by, he’ll soon have a dedicated fan club demanding he become his own hero soon. We’re not saying we’d join but we’re also not saying we haven’t checked how much bowler hats cost these days.
