The fans of Overwatch have been treated to a very Wall-E-esque universe. With Sigma having been the most recent hero released way back in August last year, Overwatch fans have been starved of hero releases. The new hero to arrive on the scene is Echo who gives off the same whimsical vibes as Eve does in Disney Pixar’s Wall-E! What many thought would be a new support hero has turned out to be a DPS leaving support players noticeably upset and the DPS players rejoicing. For the most part, fans are excited to see this new hero and are licking their lips in anticipation of learning Echo.
As a player and viewer, I could not be more excited with the release of Echo. She is the type of hero that has not been added to Overwatch for quite some time. Looking back on previous heroes added like Sigma, Baptiste, Ashe, Wrecking Ball and Brigitte, only one stands out as an entertaining addition to Overwatch (Wrecking Ball). Sigma, Baptiste, and Brigitte have all contributed to the more boring playstyles, double shield, Bastion comps, and GOATS respectively. While it is not clear how Echo will fit in going forward, she seems like a hero that would fit in any situation and composition with her having both the potential to spam, brawl and dive because of her kit, which will be discussed later.
The appearance of Echo is also very interesting. A robotic humanoid creature embellished with the elegant nature of a wisp (credit: Snicker_Snaxx), brings something vastly different to Overwatch in terms of character appearance. Even the recent addition of her skins, emotes, victory poses and highlight intros work extremely well to further this perception of Echo. It is great to see Blizzard put out such a well-designed hero in terms of her appearance.
So what makes her such an exciting hero to play and watch? Well her kit is diverse and does mesh a couple of the already existing abilities in Overwatch with changes.
Her primary fire is not much to write home about since it is just a standard attack however her diversity comes in the rest of her kit. The secondary fire of sticky bombs allows for high burst potential while her focusing beam is great for finishing off low hp targets as well as shields. Her flight ability combined with her glide makes her extremely mobile and hard to track down allowing for quick getaways or quick executions. The most unique and diverse part of Echo’s kit is her ultimate, duplicate. The ultimate does exactly as it says, it duplicates a hero on the enemy team that the player chooses. The true strength of this duplication is that as the duplicate your ult builds up far faster than normal allowing for multiple ults in a short fifteen-second window.
While as of right now it may seem that Echo’s kit is a bit over tuned and requires some balancing the overall look and feel of this hero is incredible. As I have mentioned already, Echo is a hero that can pretty much fit in everywhere, no matter the situation or composition so it is going to be amazing to see how different teams and players utilize Echo to her fullest potential. As a flex DPS player myself, I am overjoyed to master Echo as quickly as I possibly can because she is just so much fun to play. Also, the aspect of playing outside of your role albeit for fifteen seconds at a time is enticing, to say the least. I expect big things to emerge from the release of Echo into the live game and I believe every one of you should as well.
