Overwatch – Getting to grips with Moira

This is really late, Moira was released on November 16th last year, so I’m not exactly keeping up with Overwatch developments very well……

I just haven’t played Overwatch for a while, and whilst the release and promo for Moira piqued my interest, I have a relationship with Overwatch that sees me play it in bursts.  Sometimes it’s all I play, sometimes I don’t give it the time of day for a couple of months.

So, here we are.  A couple of months late, with a new character to give some time to.  It’s a good place to be, I’m not struggling to select her, because everyone has already had their time to learn her.

Who’s Moira?

Moira is the latest Hero in Overwatch, further padding out the healer category and giving us another option when trying to support a team.

She’s had an origin story video released whereby she was shut down by Overwatch, because her practices were deemed unethical and too dark.  With the ability to heal and drain life from people, she’s got a pretty cool set of skills and fills a void that I didn’t realise existed.

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When playing a healer, I tend to use Zenyatta or Ana.  The ability to heal and disrupt is important to me, I’m just not a good healer otherwise.  If I can assist, and passively kill folk, I’m happy.

Enter Moira, a character that has a similar role to that of Zenyatta, but I feel a more refined, and easier to use set of skills, and the ability to both heal and harm at the same time with her ultimate.

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The above video does a far better job of showing her abilities and how they work, than I would be able to with words.

Getting stuck-in

I had 3 rounds of quickplay to get a quick feel for how she works.  Sometimes I just don’t gel with a hero, sometimes I get it, but I just don’t like it.

Moira was different.

Straight away I got an 8 kill-streak, then a couple of 5 kill-streaks, no problem.  I was healing, I was sending out the dark ball of doom into enclosed spaces to get some decent damage, and I was really enjoying how she works.

The heal/drain abilities on the triggers work really well, and the range is long enough to be effective, but short enough to not be overpowered.  I certainly found myself confidently draining the life of folk, a little too close-up and got squished by their allies.

The best bit, though, is her ultimate.  It can only be described as an “energy beam” which combines both her healing ability, and her draining ability.  It’s really good! You smash the “Y” button and then you can aim it at anyone, you’re either doing damage, or helping your team heal.  The range isn’t massive, but it’s not to be sniffed at!

By the third time I used it, I got play of the game, getting myself a nice triple kill and helping out a room of allies.  It’s easy to use, it’s effective, and it’s supportive.  What more could you want?

It seems to me that Moira perhaps has a pretty low skill ceiling, but who cares?  If you’re effectively supporting your team, and hindering the opposition, you’re doing a good job, and I think she’s the perfect hero to do that with ease.

The bad bits

To be honest, I think Moira is a really well refined and crafted hero. In a game that balances accessibility with people being “masters” of certain heroes, she fits in nicely, fulfilling an important role, and being easy to pick-up, Blizzard deserve some serious kudos.

Frankly, there’s nothing that could be deemed bad.  However, I was seriously disappointed in the selection of skins she has.  Even the expensive ones were a bit naff….I know the best skins tend to come out later, and in events, but there was nothing that stood out as even “nice”.

All in all…..

I’ve played ranked, I’ve played arcade and I’ve played quickplay and Moira is a really versatile healer and attacker.

Quickly able to dash out of the way, able to do damage and heal at a distance, and up-close.  She’s a real all-rounder, giving folk who don’t usually play a healer (is this like 90% of the playerbase?) the chance to do so, and still feel like they can get those eliminations!

I like her a lot, and she’s in my regular rotation of heroes now, and I’ll use her alongside Zeny