OverwatchOverwatch Orisa Guide and Overview

Created to be the defender of Numbani, Orisa holds the front line better than anyone else. She is arguably the most difficult Tank to kill and has decent damage to go along with that survivability. While she lags way behind in mobility, her long-range damage outclasses the rest of the Tank roster. Good Orisa players learn how to cycle her cooldowns and utilize cover when waiting for Fortify to come back online. Orisa is a good choice if you want to play on the objective and constantly attack.

TLDR

Play As

• Rotate and maintain distance. Orisa should always move around the objective with her team, trying to keep the enemy team away.
• Don’t use all her abilities together. Use just Javelin Spin, then after it ends, use Fortify, then Energy Javelin. Using them together greatly reduces her survivability.
• Always play near cover. Because there will always be gaps between Fortify uses, Orisa needs cover to hide behind to stay alive.

Play Against

• Ignore Orisa. The best way to counter Orisa is to avoid her and target the rest of her team. She’ll try to stop you, but she can’t chase you down.
• Wait out Fortify. If you see her golden, either hide so you don’t take damage, or switch targets, and attack someone else.
• Go beams. If all else fails, the easiest way to counter Orisa is to play a beam hero. Orisa is free ult charge to them.

Strengths

Fortify

Becoming unstoppable and reducing all incoming damage by nearly half is Orisa's greatest strength. She's the only tank who can simultaneously be CC immune while walking forward and attacking.

Great counterpick

Lore accurate, she counters Doomfist through her crowd control, and with Fortify's knockback immunity. Orisa is also an excellent counterswap to shut down Reinhardt, Ramattra, Hog, and Hazard.

Ranged damage

Most tanks have either very low or zero long-range damage. In the poke phases of fights, or from medium to long distance, Orisa will be bringing more value to her team than any other Tank.

Weaknesses

Vulnerable to beams

Because Javelin Spin does not block beam damage like Zarya and Symmetra, Orisa becomes weak against beams anytime she doesn't have Fortify available.

No team damage mitigation

Unlike most other Tanks, Orisa doesn't provide any overhealth or barriers for her team. She can only absorb attacks with her own body or Javelin Spin, but doesn't directly bring any extra survivability to her teammates.

Immobile

Orisa's biggest weakness is being slowed while firing, having no vertical mobility, and just a tiny bit of movement buff from Javelin Spin. Heroes with a lot of mobility can simply avoid Orisa, and she can't do much about it.

Primary Fire: Augmented Fusion Driver

Tips for Augmented Fusion Driver

• Keep your distance and poke
• • Orisa has better ranged damage than any other Tank. Mauga can compete, but with Fortify, his burning gun doesn’t even crit Orisa anyway. Deal as much damage as possible before letting the enemy Tank close the distance on you.
• Don’t overheat
• • It’s always better to stop shooting just before overheating than to get hit with the 3-second overheated penalty. 

Secondary Fire: Energy Javelin

Tips for Energy Javelin

• Play keep away
• • Since Orisa generally outranges the rest of the Tanks, she wants to use Javelin Spin to keep the enemy pushed back and away from her.
• Peel for your backline
• • The knockback of Energy Javelin is a strong tool for keeping any enemy away from your backline. If you see an enemy Tank or DPS attacking your team behind you, try to hit them with the Energy Javelin.
• Wall collisions
• • Energy Javelin deals extra stun and damage when it knocks back the enemy into a wall. Try to take advantage of this by rotating around your target so they are between you and a wall or structure. 

[SHIFT]: Fortify

Tips for Fortify

• Orisa's most important ability
• • Fortify makes Orisa nearly unkillable and literally unstoppable. When using Fortify, Orisa can press forward, counter CC, and force the enemy team to fall back.
  • Fortify has a long cooldown, so it’s important not to waste. Only activate Fortify when the enemy team has to focus you because you are being an active threat through your damage and positioning.
• Use while you still have Armor
• • Using Fortify while you still have armor stacks the damage reduction (up to 50%). Additionally, you’ll be more likely to still have Armor health when Fortify ends if you still had some when you first activated it because of this.
  • If Fortify ends and you have no Armor, RUN!
• Counter Ults
• • Save Fortify when the enemy has stun Ultimates like Blizzard, Graviton Surge, Gravitic Flux, Downpour, and similar.

[E]: Javelin Spin

Tips for Javelin Spin

• Cycle with Fortify
• • Don’t use Javelin Spin while using Fortify. You need to use these two survival tools separately, or the enemy has a massive window of time to kill Orisa.
• Secure elims
• • Since Javelin Spin blocks enemy healing and damage projectiles while also CC’ing the enemy, it’s quite effective at finishing off low HP targets. 
  • Get between your target and their Supports, then activate Javelin Spin to push them towards your team
• What doesn’t Spin block?
• • Doesn’t block beams or splash damage, and doesn’t destroy airborne deployables like Symmetra's turrets before they land.

Ultimate: Terra Surge

Tips for Terra Surge

• How long should I charge Terra Surge?
• • You need to channel Orisa Ult for about 3 seconds to one-shot DPS and Supports.
• Ignores barriers
• • Slam damage cannot be blocked by barriers like Reinhardt Shield.
• Breaking LoS stops damage
• • LoS can be used to prevent damage. So any environmental structures or Mei and Hazard's walls can block the damage for example.
• Get some height
• • If Orisa is above the enemy (Petal Platform, jumping, jumping off high ground, etc.) the enemies will first be pulled all the way up to Orisa, then have to fall way back down to the ground before being able to walk away. 
  • Always jump before activating, but whenever possible, use the payload or environment to get extra height.

Minor Perks

Defense Protocol

• Makes Terra Surge an ok panic button. The healing will help you take more damage, and can save you when you are at low health.

Mobile Fortification

• Very powerful and enables aggressive play when Orisa is already at her most powerful. Feels unstoppable to the enemy team.

Major Perks

Charged Javelin

• Overall, the better Major Perk
• • In most scenarios, having to give up Javelin Spin is not worth the barrier. Orisa is already very tanky, and Javelin Spin blocks all projectiles for almost 2 seconds. Moreover, the speed boost during and after, plus the CC is stronger than having a shield.

Protective Barrier

• Match up dependent
• • Against Mauga, it could be considered the better Major Perk since it can be used to help counter Cardiac Overdrive. 
  • Against Zarya, deploy a barrier anytime she uses bubble to block her damage and relieve the pressure of needing to break her barrier and charge her.
  • In theory, you can use the Barrier to block Ramattra's ult LoS and try to end it early. The 600HP barrier may not survive long enough to rely on this tech, however.
• Double Barrier tip
• • When on defense or when the enemy team is returning from spawn, shoot the Barrier straight up. By the time it lands, you’ll only have 3 seconds before your next Barrier.

Orisa is always going to be a good choice on maps that favor poke comps. An objective area with wide-open space and long, straight payload routes that play into her strengths. Because she’s very tanky, she’s not bad on small maps either, but it makes it harder for her to execute her keepaway game plan. She can contest high ground with her ranged damage, but she can’t ever access the high ground herself, so she’s also at a disadvantage on maps with lots of high ground that favor dive comps.

Best Maps

• Junkertown
• Midtown
• New Queen Street

Worst Maps

• Dorado
• Numbani
• Hanaoka

Coming Soon!

Coming Soon!