Overwatch is about to hit new heights. The game’s newest hero, Echo, will be released on the live servers on April 14.
Echo is a high-flying damage dealer with speedy moves and a particularly interesting ultimate ability. She’s been available for testing on the game’s Public Test Realm (PTR) for the past few weeks.
Echo is the game’s newest DPS hero, adding to an extensive damage-dealing roster. Her main weapon is a series of ethereal bullets shot from her hands. Echo can also shoot Sticky Bombs, which attach to an enemy and inflict damage. Another important ability is her Focus Beam, which does incredible amounts of damage to enemies under 50 percent health.
Echo can also fly around the map using her movement ability, which shoots her into the air and lets her glide down in a manner similar to Mercy. This lets Echo challenge other aerial heroes like Pharah or go for deep dives against enemy supports.
The most important part about Echo, however, is her ultimate ability, Duplicate. Duplicate allows Echo to become a hero from the enemy team for a short amount of time. Her ultimate generation skyrockets and she can use a hero’s ultimate against them. If Echo duplicates Tracer, for example, she can build up multiple Pulse Bombs during the ultimate’s time limit.
Echo has made it to the live servers in relatively quick fashion despite potential delays. After Echo was introduced, lead game director Jeff Kaplan noted that it could take longer to bring the hero to the live servers due to staff working at home as a part of California’s “safer at home” COVID-19 restrictions.
While Echo will be available to play on all platforms on April 14, it will likely be a week or more before she’s available in competitive play. With every new hero, developers like to give players a chance to test the hero out before taking them into competitive mode.
