Echo finally made her way to Overwatch‘s test server today.
The character landed on the Public Test Region (PTR) this afternoon and took the spotlight of the latest patch, which also tweaked the practice range and fixed several bugs.
Echo is an omnic created by the late Dr. Mina Liao, one of Overwatch’s six founding members. Blizzard officially revealed her yesterday following a series of teasers about her identity.
She takes the place of a damage dealer and has a robust kit with a tool for each occasion. She has strong damage potential with three different damage skills, high mobility, and a game-changing ultimate.
Her primary fire is Tri-Shot, which fires three projectiles in a triangle pattern. Mastering the skill could be potentially tricky due to the need to lead targets slightly and to the small spread between each projectile.
Echo can also fire a volley of sticky bombs, which stick to targets and detonate after a few seconds. It has a six-second cooldown, can deal good damage, and has good peeking and zoning potential.
The last of her damaging skills is called Focusing Beam. It’s a terrific finishing move that projects a beam of energy into enemy players, dealing additional damage to targets below 50 percent health. It also affects barriers, allowing players to tear down shields that have seen some impact.
Echo’s mobility allows her to fly up into the sky and glide, similar to a mix of Mercy and Pharah. Her vertical speed isn’t as high as Pharah and she can’t propel herself into the air until the cooldown has ended. Her horizontal speed, however, is much faster and allows her to cover more ground. Like Mercy, she can hold the jump button to glide and wait out a cooldown.
Her ultimate allows her to transform into an enemy target. When using her duplicate, she gains access to all the character’s skills and has greatly increased ultimate generation. Skilled players can likely use an ultimate or two of their choice with Echo due to the sheer amount of charge gained from hitting characters.
Echo also ushered in changes to the Firing Range. Blizzard added a “Training Partner” to the Firing Range. It allows players to create a bot of any hero in the game, located right outside the spawn point. The new change makes it easier to test Echo’s interactions with other characters and get a feel for how her ultimate will play out.
In spite of the changes, the PTR patch didn’t bring significant balancing updates. Blizzard improved the accuracy of Tracer’s blinks, which means that she should “end up where the crosshair is pointing” more easily.
The update also fixed minor bugs in general and glitches on specific maps. Players could get stuck in certain spots in Ilios, Dorado, and Havana, and Sombra’s translocator would simply float when thrown in certain areas of Busan.
Additionally, the patch fixed visual glitches with Mei and Moira. Heroes who were already frozen when hit with Mei’s Ultimate would appear to be visually unfrozen and Moira’s fade icon would still appear on the HUD when she was stunned, misleading players into believing the skill was available.
The PTR is Blizzard’s test server where players can send their feedback on new changes ahead of their release. Only PC players can access the PTR, so those who play on console will have to wait another few weeks to get their hands on Echo.
