Plenty of shooter players gravitate to the genre for instant action and twitch skills – which may explain why that certain group of Overwatch players who always pick Widowmaker and McCree over any support hero has become such a meme in the community. When a new character enters the game, players want to know how it’ll shake up the meta – but with Baptiste, Blizzard wants to encourage hitscan fans to pick up a healer.

Asked in Q&A session what sort of meta problem Baptiste’s abilities are intended to solve, lead designer Geoff Goodman says “it’s less of a pure meta pick and more of just ‘more options for support players.’” Or rather, he clarifies, more options for “all players.” Baptiste’s weapons include the hitscan weapons you’d typically expect from a DPS character, and that’s meant in draw in players who main other types of characters.

“Part of this was to give an option to hitscan players, if you’re one of those players that you have the support option that you can play, still do what you really enjoy with hitscan gun. But you also have these great healing opportunities for your team as well. A lot of it was just opening up the breadth of options for all our players.”