Overwatch Hero Guide: Echo

Overwatch’s latest hero is finally here, and it is none other than Echo, creation of Dr. Mina Liao. The new hero is an omnic that is a damage hero who could be best classified as a glass cannon.

Echo has been teased on numerous occasions, ranging from original Overwatch promotional materials to McCree’s cinematic short Reunion. She was the super-intelligent AI designed by the creator of omnics and founder of Overwatch, Dr. Mina Liao. Her abilities fundamentally change the game and introduce some new mechanics, pairing with old ones to breathe life into the game.

There are a few things to mention about Echo before we begin breaking down her abilities. Echo is extremely powerful, and Jeff Kaplan even expressed his feelings about her remaining in the PTR for a while before making her way to the main client. She has a passive ability called Glide, which allows her to do just that, opening up some unique movement opportunities when falling. Finally is that her ultimate is a brand new system for the game, and even Jeff Kaplan called it “the most game-changing ultimate we’ve ever added to Overwatch.”

 Tri-Shot

Tri-shot is Echo’s primary fire, which allows her to shoot out three electrical shots in a triangle pattern. Her primary has no drop off making her potentially decent at focusing down low health targets. The primary fire does 100 damage with a headshot, but the projectiles are slower than a normal hitscan hero’s bullet such as McCree.

Sticky Bombs

Her first ability, Sticky Bombs, allows her to throw out a cluster of sticky bombs that can cling on to enemies and surfaces. These bombs are deadly, often thrown onto an enemy to burst them down quickly. There is still plenty of time to see what tricks the pros can come up with for the bombs, but more commonly used to burst down a tank’s health or shut down an opposing DPS hero. Additionally, they can cause damage to surrounding players when detonating, making them a useful tool for zoning and separating the enemy team. The sticky bombs are thrown out in rapid succession, so having a clear goal or target is vital to making this ability shine.

Flight

Echo’s second ability puts her in the skies with Mercy and Pharah, allowing her to take her assault to the skies. Echo moves about similar to Mercy’s movement during Valkyrie having full mobility in all directions.  Combining her Flight ability with her passive ability to glide gives Echo a distinct advantage when making it back to her team. Flight can be canceled at any time and combined with her passive Glide to cover large distances after the ability has ended.

Focusing Beam

The name might be super creative, but the ability is a perfect final touch on the Echo skillset. This beam of energy is the nail in the coffin for most enemies as it does more damage to targets with less than half health. The beam is like Symmetra’s and only lasts a few seconds, but with considerably less power.

Ultimate: Duplicate

Echo’s ultimate ability is her most anticipated features and one that will undoubtedly lead to some meme-worthy moments. Duplicate allows her to take on the form of any enemy hero and use any and all of their abilities. On top of that, she gains the opportunity to use the enemy hero’s ultimate ability on a maybe too fast charge. If Echo is killed as the enemy Duplicate, she returns to her normal state with full health. Being a duplicate makes echo the number one target on the field given that she can charge an ultimate ability faster than any other hero during that period. Echo can use duplicate on an enemy Echo’s duplicate form, essentially evening out the battlefield or outperforming their counterpart.

Echo has a fairly small health pool and can get burst down fairly easily if not careful. Jumping in the air to drop Sticky Bombs from above or just lay fire into the enemy backline is what she’s good at. Echo is in the PTR and playable now, but as you can imagine, everyone and their mother wants to play the new hero.