New Overwatch hero Orisa is a tank-class character with some great abilities

Blizzard has announced the 24th playable hero character for its hit competitive online shooter Overwatch. Called Orisa, the character belongs to the Tank class and is capable of placing shields on the map to protect allies.

There's no word yet on when the character will be introduced to the game on PS4, Xbox One and PC, but it will first appear on the public test server on PC, where select players beta test new features for Blizzard.

A new animated short outlining Orisa's origin story has also been released to coincide with the announcement.

The character's origin relates to Efi Oladele, a non-playable character recently revealed to be part of the lore and intrinsic to the new character's story.

After witnessing Doomfist (a character long-thought to be the 24th playable hero) destroy an army of OR bots, Efi rescues and rebuilds one of them – creating Orisa.

Orisa is Overwatch's fifth Tank-class hero, following in the large footsteps of Reinhardt, D.Va, Roadhog, Winston and Zarya.

"Orisa serves as the central anchor of her team and defends her teammates from the frontline with a protective barrier," says her character bio on the official Overwatch site. She can attack from long range, fortify her own defences, launch graviton charges to slow and move enemies, and deploy a Supercharger to boost the damage output of multiple allies at once."

Orisa's primary weapon is a rapid-fire Fusion Driver. Her abilities are Fortify, which protects her from enemy attacks and abilities; Halt, an energy weapon that stops enemies in their tracks and draws them toward it; and a Protective Barrier she's able to place anywhere on the map.

Her (she's a robot but voiced by a woman) ultimate ability is Supercharger, a device that when dropped near allies will boost their damage.

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