by wackygonz

Introduction and Numbers

• Orisa is a Main Tank with 200 Health and 200 Armor.
• Fusion Driver: outputs 11 damage per shot, with a full ammo capacity of 150, and has a reload speed of 2.5 seconds.
• Protective Barrier: has a total HP of 900 and lasts for 20 seconds and is on an 8 second cool down.
• Halt!: launches a ball that sucks in enemies into a certain area, kind of like a mini Grav but on an 8 second cool down.
• Fortify: allows Orisa to be invulnerable from CC and reduces damage she takes by 50%. This ability is on a 10 second cool down, lasts for 4 seconds, but does not start its cool down until after that 4 second duration making it a 14 second cool down.
• Supercharger: This is Orisa’s ultimate that gives her allies a 50% damage buff. It lasts for 15 seconds and can be destroyed or hacked by enemies with its 200 HP.

General Positioning

• Orisa, is naturally a stationary tank that doesn’t want to leave the comfort of her shield. That being said, Orisa works best in maps that allow her to set up in a fixed position, whether it be on high ground or a long distance from the enemy team. Some of the best maps for her are on defense for 2CP maps or first point holds on Hybrid maps. She can also work decently on some Control Point maps that allows her to get value out of her halt ability like Nepal Sanctum, Oasis University and Ilios Well. Orisa can work when attacking on an Escort maps but that means playing patiently and inching your team forward corner by corner.
• With Orisa, it’s important to keep a distance from the enemy team as she doesn’t want to take close range engagements.
• Just because you don’t want to take close range engagements doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be in the front line. Orisa is a main tank and you should almost always be at the front of your team!
• It’s also good to set up in positions that have natural cover right next to you so that if and when the shield breaks there will be a place to hide, while she waits for a shield to come off cool down. Orisa doesn’t create space like Reinhardt or Winston, but instead she maintains space by having her, and her team control areas of the map with overwhelming damage.

The Art of Rotating

• A rotation is when a team or an individual moves to a certain area of the map that is either more effective or safer in correspondence to what the enemy is doing.
• Like I previously said, Orisa wants to be a distance away from the enemy team because that is what her kit is designed for. This means that a heavy tank comp like GOATS or any Rein/Zarya comp with a Lucio will run over Orisa IF you do not preemptively move before they get through your shield.
• General rule is that Orisa wants to move from corner to corner. If your team has a disadvantage, then move to the next corner behind you. If your team has an advantage then inch yourself forward to try to keep pressure on the enemy team. Be aware though that if your team has an established high ground position, it isn’t a great idea to leave it to chase down enemies.
• If you are going to rotate, stop shooting, turn around, and keep moving until you reach a safer position. Orisa is slower when she shoots so valuing your life to reposition is more important than sending out trash damage.
• This is a bit of a complicated subject without the help of visual aids, but if you have any questions about rotations for any hero or a specific team comp then feel free to message me on Discord.

Reload Management

• A beginner mistake with Orisa is not letting her fully reload. She has the longest reload animation in the game at 2.5 seconds and cancelling it with a new barrier or sending out Halt wastes time that could be used laying down fire.
• Find downtimes during the fight or after the fight to reload. If your shield breaks and have to go to cover, that’s a good time to reload, or if you’re rotating to a new position, then you can reload as you are moving to that position. Those are the best times you’ll find yourself reloading during a team fight but just remember, the more you reload the less damage you’re pumping out.
• The only time you would really need to place a shield to cancel reloading is if you are under direct threat and need to reposition your shield to help defend yourself.

Shield Management (Protective Barrier)

• Almost always place a shield right next to a corner or on a high ground position. This allows for you and your team to move to hard cover if and when the shield breaks. Do not place a random shield in the open unless your team is pushing forward to either clean up a team fight or push a clear advantage.
• Orient the shield so that it can cover multiple directions. Orisa’s barrier isn’t flat like Rein’s but instead offers some protection from the sides and top. Find spots in the map that can cover multiple directions if the enemy decides to attack from a different angle.
• Do not be too close to your shield or else you will expose your head hitbox. From the POV of an Orisa it may seem that you’re still behind the shield but if you’re too close, your head will peek out for enemies to hit.
• Shield Stacking: Orisa’s barrier comes off cool down once it is launched so you can look fully vertical, launch a shield, and by the time it lands your next shield will be on a 3 second cool down. Only do this when there is no direct danger and already in an established position. You don’t want to be looking straight up and waiting for a barrier to drop in 5 seconds in the middle of a team fight.
• CSGO Shield: This is launching a shield at a preset location or sending it to an area of a map that you know will be useful. This allows for your barrier to come off cool down by the time your team arrives at the preset barrier.
• Turtling: This is where you place yourself as Orisa in a corner and place the barrier so close to you that enemies can not hit you from any angle unless they walk through the barrier. This is very good for stalling objectives and waiting for your team to reinforce you.
• Barrier Dancing: Very similar to Winston’s bubble dancing, when an enemy like a Tracer, Hanzo, McCree, etc. closes the distance on your do your best to go to the opposite side of the barrier that the enemy is to make yourself a harder target to hit.

Getting Value Out of Halts (Halt!)

• Everyone’s favorite way of using Halt is going for environmental kills to pull enemies into pits like Ilios Well, Nepal Sanctume, Rilato, etc. There are other and better ways to use Halt when enemies aren’t as stupid to fall for the Halt, which I will list below.
• Use Halt diagonally, at your feet or above an enemy so that they move in a predictable pattern to track with your Fusion Driver.
• You can use Orisa’s Halt defensively by pulling enemies back that want to close the distance on you and your barrier like Reinhardt, Roadhog, or Reaper. You can also use it to save you teammates by pulling back enemies that are trying to pounce them.
• It can also be used to either dislodge an enemy position from a barrier or pull an enemy off high ground for your team to follow up on.
• Disorient movement abilities like Genji’s Dash, Reinhardt’s pin, Winston’s leap, etc. so that the enemy has a harder time attacking you and your teammates.
• Combo abilities or damage with your teammates against the enemy team. Best example is Roadhog’s hook, but you can also combo with snipers for easy headshots. If you’re against a Reinhardt burn the shield a little bit as the Reinhardt will just block the hook when you go for the halt.
• Combo Halt with ultimates for easy kills like Dva’s self-destruct, Hanzo’s dragonstrike, and even Pharah’s barrage. Remember it’s like a mini graviton on a cool down that can be used for team wipes.

Stop All the CC! (Fortify)

• Fortify is Orisa’s most important survival tool and should mostly be used reactively against the enemy team.
• Use it defensively when the enemy team has closed the distance on you and there’s no way to escape.
• Don’t instantly use Fortify if your shield breaks, if you have followed my tips about barrier placement then you should already have natural cover for you to hide.
• Only Fortify when you really need to! You can take some small poke damage but you need Fortify for when the enemy team has a significant CC ability or damage.
• Save fortify for key CC abilities like Reinhardt’s charge, Roadhog’s hook and ultimates like Zarya’s grav and Reinhardt’s earthshatter.
• In some situations you can Fortify aggressively to close the distance against the enemy team if your team has to push forward or is pressing an advantage. Just be ready to play defensively again after the ability has been used.
• Smarter players will try to force your Fortify early then use their CC ability on you when it’s on cool down.

Bang That Bongo (Supercharger)

• Use Orisa’s ultimate to turn the ultimate economy into your team’s favor as the increase in damage allows your allies to build their ultimates faster.
• Be careful not to place the Bongo too early as the enemy team will just wait out the ultimate or too late so that the enemy team can easily destroy it.
• You generally don’t want to combo Supercharger with DPS ultimates, especially if you have an Ana with nano boost or a Mercy. It can be used for that situation but Supercharger is more for changing the momentum of a team fight or ending it quickly.
• If possible, try to place Orisa’s supercharger behind natural cover to make it harder to destroy to get the most value out of the ultimate.
• If your team wants to go aggressive then you can animation cancel your Bongo by placing a shield right after.
• Be careful of enemy ultimates like Dva’s self-destruct, Moira’s coalescence, Sombra’s EMP and Hack, which will either destroy or disable your bongo. Try your best to either hide the bongo behind natural cover or your shield when you place it.

What to Communicate

• You don’t need to be a shotcalling master, but there are certain callouts as Orisa that you need to communicate to your team to get the most value out of Orisa.

1. Callout when and where you are rotating so that your team knows when and where to go.
2. Tell your team the HP of your barrier, when it’s about to break, when it’s coming off cool down, and where you are placing it so they have a point of reference. You may surprise one of your teammates who may have been using that barrier and all of a sudden it’s gone.
3. Communicate with your DPS or if you have a Roadhog on your team when and where you are Halting for easy combos. The basic callout is, “I’m pulling (location).” You can say “pulling” “halting” or “yoinking” whatever your preference is. If you have a Roadhog ask him if he has hook then adjust accordingly based on that cool down.
4. Check to see if your team has an ultimate that you can combo with a Halt! Communicate with your teammate that you want to combo and time it accordingly.