Overwatch players demand Orisa’s ‘unkillable’ Fortify buff be reverted

Michael Gwilliam
Orisa bull skin for Overwatch Lunar New Year

The new Overwatch Experimental Patch hit the game on February 11, and with it, Orisa was on the receiving end of a huge buff that some players think is way too strong.

Orisa can be quite a chore to battle, thanks to her Halt and Fortify abilities. Halt can lock opponents in place and send them back a bit, leading to some easy headshots or combos for teammates.

Fortify, on the other hand, is incredibly strong defensively, as it amplifies Orisa’s survivability as a tank. When Fortify is active, the Omnic hero is immune to all crowd-control abilities such as stuns, boops or even Mei’s Blizzard.

That’s not its only benefit, though: When it’s activated, Orisa takes 40% less damage, making her insanely tanky.

Now, for whatever reason, the developers decided that Fortify will also prevent critical headshot damage, essentially making a headshot count the same as a body blow.

Players are not on board. Contenders pro Lethal tweeted a clip of him trying to kill an Orisa using Fortify with a Harmony Orb. The tank hero was able to survive all eight shots at point-blank range from a Reaper.

“Orisa just doesn’t die in Fortify,” he captioned the video, and proceeded to even post a follow-up of the interaction on the live version of the game.

In this video, Orisa’s non-experimental Fortify was unable to withstand all of Reaper’s shotgun attacks and ended up being eliminated.

It should be noted that Reaper did receive a damage nerf in the Experimental Patch as well, but his role of a tank-buster remains the same. Thus, the fact Orisa can withstand so much is a tad bit concerning.

Elsewhere, players took issue with the fact the change discourages aiming for the head in a first-person shooter.

“Discouraging players in a shooter to actually click heads, do you have any clue what your game is supposed to be?” Twitch streamer Metro blasted.

Blizzard does occasionally go back on buffs or nerfs being tested in the Experimental Mode, so we’ll have to see if this backlash pushes them to cancel this change.

About The Author

Michael Gwilliam is a senior writer at Dexerto based in Ontario, Canada. He specializes in Overwatch, Smash, influencers, and Twitch culture. Gwilliam has written for sites across Canada including the Toronto Sun. You can contact him at michael.gwilliam@dexerto.com or on Twitter @TheGwilliam