Overwatch fans eager for the release of the game’s newest hero, Brigitte, will probably have to wait an extra week, according to Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan, who wrote a short post on the game’s official forums saying that “(the) testing has been awesome. You all have been a huge help. Probably not (released) this week but she’s looking good. Almost ready.”

The tank-support hybrid was revealed by Blizzard in February, and since the end of last month has been on the Public Test Realm for testing, so if you yet didn’t have the chance to play her, you can still go and give her a try!

Brigitte’s kit is unique, as unlike other supports, she specializes in armor. According to Blizzard, "she can throw Repair Packs to heal teammates, or automatically heal nearby allies when she damages foes with her Flail.”

She also has a Barrier Shield that provides additional defense while she attacks enemies with Shield Bash, meaning that Brigitte also offers some self-sustainability. Although she will not likely excel at either role, she will be an excellent choice to round up fairly balanced compositions, who already have a main healer and tank.

Meanwhile, after being first announced in January, the much expected changes to Hanzo are likely to hit the PTR in April, following Brigitte’s release, according to another post by Kaplan today: “The animation, visual effects and sound work are scheduled to begin post-Brigitte release. PTR will be after that. Hoping for a PTR sometime in April,” said the game director.

Hanzo is currently on a weird spot, with players complaining how “unfair” it is to get one-shotted by his Scatter Arrow, forcing Blizzard to look for several different solutions – and failing, according to Overwatch’s principal designer Geoff Goodman in a post on the forums last month.

According to Goodman, the design team tried several variations for Scatter Arrow, including Piercing Arrow, “which was an arrow that had an extremely fast projectile speed and would pierce through enemies and barriers,” which however, despite sounding cool, proved to be even more frustrating to play against, as players suddenly found themselves being “headshotted” despite staying – theoretically safe – behind a barrier.

Other ideas including simply changing Scatter Arrow, turning it a very fast projectile, who could only ricochet one time, and it could no longer split off the floor. That concept was however discarded because, Goodman wrote, “just felt really hard to use (the ability) consistently.”

With that in mind, it will be exciting to know which solution Blizzard has found for the “Hanzo- dilemma” and what we should expect as April approaches.


(Photos courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment)