It won’t be news to any of our avid eSports fans that the Overwatch League 2022 playoffs took place in Anaheim this afternoon. During this year’s competition, Dallas Fuel conquered San Francisco Shock in a heated Grand Final, earning themselves the title of Overwatch 2 World Champions.
Fans anticipated that Blizzard was going to announce something during today’s event. Many speculated that they might reveal Mauga, an old friend of Baptise and a heavy assault soldier associated with Talon.
Fans were on the money expecting a new hero, but in place of Mauga, we were introduced to Rammatra, an all-new tank hero.
You can watch his origin story below:
Rammatra will join the Overwatch 2 roster during Season 2 on December 6, 2022. Ahead of today’s reveal, we sat down with members of the development team: Dion Rogers, Art Director, Alec Dawson, Lead Hero Designer and Gavin Jurgens-Fyhrie, Lead Narrative Design, to learn more about this upcoming hero.
Introducing Rammatra
Rammatra is an Omnic, an artificially intelligent automaton designed explicitly by humans for militaristic purposes. Following the Omnic Crisis, Rammatra retreated to the Nepalese mountains to study the peaceful teachings of Tekhartha Mondatta at the Shambali Monastery. At the Monastery, Rammatra and Zenyatta were like brothers. However, having witnessed the human atrocities against Omnics during and after the Crisis, Rammatra could not remain idle and abandoned the Monastery.
Presently, Rammatra is a leader of Null Sector, a militia organisation formed in response to the harsh treatment experienced by Omnics.
We don’t know if Rammatra’s involvement with Null Sector strained his relationship with Zenyatta. Art Director Dion Rogers suggests playing the two characters in the same match to prompt lore-rich dialogue lines to help piece together the Rammatra’s full story.
Blizzard held back on sharing too much about Rammatra’s gameplay pending a big reveal, but after chatting with the team, we’re intrigued and eager to learn more about what the new tank will bring to the battlefield.
Playing Rammatra
Rammatra is playable as a tank and can shift between two forms on the battleground. We know that heroes like D.Va and Bastion can also transform during combat but developers insist that Rammatra’s form shift is unlike anything we have seen in Overwatch before.
While in Omnic form, Rammatra uses his large health pool to stay up and his staff to protect his team. He is expected to be used for a poke composition while in this form. A poking composition refers to a comp that deals damage to the opposing team from mid to long-range without committing to a big fight. Poking the enemy team weakens them before a brawl and can bait them into using their abilities and blowing their cooldowns.
Rammatra is also a keen inventor, and according to developers, even tinkers with his own robotic build, and as a result, he can transform into what is known as his Nemesis form. While in this form, Rammatra bolsters his size, commanding his team and intimidating his opponents with a hulk-like demeanour. In Nemesis form, Rammatra compliments a more aggressive playstyle to push a point or penetrate enemy defences.
We don’t know much about Rammatra’s other unique abilities yet, but Blizzard assured us that details are coming soon. In the meantime, Blizzard boasted his other utilities and mentioned that aside from being big and scary, his punch can pierce enemy barriers and his powerful ultimate ability is universally described as terrifying.
Overwatch 2 is free to play on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4/5, Nintendo Switch and PC via Battlenet. If want to know more about Overwatch 2 or just like how we write about stuff, you can also check out our review here.
