Overwatch Tips: How to Play Orisa

Orisa Abilities

Orisa Tips – Overwatch

First up, let’s run through Orisa’s kit, which is focused mainly around defense. None of her abilities are too exciting, relying more on tactical shielding, gravitoning, and ability blocking.

Fusion Driver (Left Click)

Your left click sets off Orisa’s main weapon – her machine gun hand. This puts out sustained damage, but lowers Orisa’s movement speed while firing.

Halt! (Right Click)

This shoots a graviton charge that will move outwards from Orisa. When it collides with a surface or is triggered by a second right click, it will pull in nearby enemies. The cooldown is eight seconds.

Protective Barrier (E)

Orisa throws out a shield that will stand at her target location. Only one shield can be out at a time, and the cooldown is a fairly small twelve seconds.

Fortify (L Shift)

This ability reduces incoming damage and makes Orisa immune to action-impairing effects. The buff lasts a few seconds, and the cooldown is eight seconds.

Supercharger (Q)

Orisa sets out a device that increases the damage output of nearby allies.

Overall, Orisia’s skills read like a mini version of a lot of beloved tank skills already in Overwatch. Her Halt! is a mini Zarya ultimate, Protective Barrier is a great, small Reinhardt alternative, and Supercharger feels just like a Mercy boost. But while she may not be earth-shatteringly different, it’s the combination of these abilities and their relatively short cooldowns that make her a joy to play. If you know what you’re doing, that is. Now let’s take a look at some vital gameplay strategies you should keep in mind.

Be More Laid Back Than Reinhardt

Orisa Tips – Overwatch

Orisa isn’t as shield-hefty or melee-adept as Reinhardt, which means you need to take his sheildy mindset without trampling into battle. Set up your shields often and intelligently, and then stay behind them. They only hold up against 900 points of damage (compared to Reinhardt’s 2000), but will be up every 12 seconds. It’s a much-welcomed alternative to the big guy, and a boon when taking defensive postures. She’s not going to be the hardiest Overwatch tank, but there’s more to her than tossing up barriers…

Use Your Fortify Often

Orisa Tips – Overwatch

Orisa’s shift ability is a buff that reduces incoming damage and makes her immune to action-impairing effects for a few seconds. That means while activated, she can’t be affected by a McCree stun, a Reinhardt charge, a Roadhog hook, Mei’s freezing, and more. Use it when you spot a hero ready to CC all over you, or when entering a pack of enemies that definitely has their cooldowns reset.

Fortify has an eight second cooldown, so when you’re not blocking specific abilities, feel free to toss it up and prevent plenty of damage. Orisa tends to be fairly killable in high pressure situations without it. 

Remember How Immobile You Can Be

Orisa Tips – Overwatch

Orisa can really struggle against more mobile Overwatch champions if she isn’t adept with her Halt! ability. Heroes like Tracer can easily glide past her shield and take her out while her Fortify isn’t running. On top of that, her bullets shoot fairly slowly, and her movement is slowed while shooting.

Your shield and Fortify aren’t exactly difficult to wield abilities, and most of Orisa’s skill then comes in with her use of Halt!. It moves away from her rather slowly, and can be detonated before collision. Shooting it across the battlefield and catching a few, mobile champions is a great way to disrupt the enemy team and pin down some squishy targets for you and your team to focus on. Get used to the graviton charge’s speed and range, which is shown by glowing tendrils between it and champions. If you’re in a high pressure situation, it’s always great to just shoot it right at the feet of your opponent.