In Overwatch 2, Baptiste is adaptive in every sense of the word. He can clutch an offensive push with his hyper-aggressive ultimate or save the lives of every single player in his team using his immortality field. No matter what side of his Biotic Launcher you’re on, this support hero is one to watch.
Baptiste’s abilities let you switch between dealing out high damage and supporting your team with healing. These skills force enemy heroes to think twice before engaging the war-torn medic in battle.
For his opponents, the ex-Talon combat medic has one of the most frustrating abilities. In Overwatch 2, Baptiste can self-heal and use his Immortality Field to shield his team from all incoming damage for five seconds. An important tool for saving yourself and your teammates from enemy ultimates.
Like some other heroes in Overwatch 2, Baptiste has a high skill ceiling due to his hitscan abilities and offensive Biotic Launcher. This support hero can heal his team while dealing serious damage to his enemies. This dual role means that mastering his playstyle can be incredibly rewarding, regardless of the lack of kind words that may be flung your way. So let’s take a look at what makes this healer so effective.
Overwatch 2 Baptiste
Overwatch 2 Baptiste: Story and Background
Baptiste is known as the generous medic who has recently dedicated his life to helping those in need and victims of war all over the world. However, he wasn’t always as kind-hearted as he is today.
Hailing from Haiti, this medic first made a name for himself in the trenches working for the infamous terrorist organization Talon. This criminal gang has a roster of many well-known heroes. From the ex-Overwatch operative Reaper to the newest omnic tank on the block, Ramattra, Baptiste has many associates from this life of crime.
After being led into this immoral life through the promise of easy riches, Baptiste slowly began to realize the extent of the damage he was doing and how many innocent people he placed in harm's way. This led to the support hero having a change of heart and leaving Talon for good.
Overwatch 2 Baptiste: abilities
Primary Fire: Biotic Launcher
Description: A three-round burst gun that can damage enemies and heal allies.
This is a hitscan weapon due to the lack of time delay when firing bullets and the fact they travel in a straight line like a laser. In Overwatch 2, Baptiste’s Biotic Launcher also allows for headshots, meaning you can take on all the challenges thrown at you, whether it be a terrifying airborne Pharah or a particularly aggressive gun-swinging Cassidy.
The alt-fire for the Biotic Launcher launches healing balls that work as arching projectiles. They don’t travel in a straight line, and there is a time delay. You can send out these orbs at the right click of your mouse (or right trigger if you’re playing on console) to heal allies. A direct hit results in 70 health gained, while a heal explosion's fallout will only give 50.
Some tips and tricks to note about this weapon:
- The healing orbs will travel through full-health allies, making it easier to restore health in a crowd.
- You cannot heal yourself with this weapon, so it is crucial to keep an eye on your own health bar.
Ability: Regenerative Burst
Description: Activate this ability to heal yourself and your nearby allies instantly.
Rest assured, in Overwatch 2, Baptiste can heal himself. The Regen Burst will provide those that have less than 50% HP with 100 health plus 50 over five seconds and will give those with more than 50% HP 50 health instantly and 50 over five seconds. This can be an instant game changer for intense battles where everyone is grouped up in a room or around the objective.
Some tips and tricks to note about this ability:
- The healing begins immediately and not after the animation is complete, meaning that hacks or deaths cannot stop this ability.
- Due to the incredibly long 15-second cooldown, it is a good idea to use this ability only when you and your team are on your last legs.
Ability: Immortality Field
Description: You can toss a device that will prevent allies from dying within a certain radius.
We have already talked a bit about the Immortality Field. It’s hard not to, considering it’s Baptiste’s best-known ability and one of the more frustrating skills in Overwatch 2. Once you place the disc on the ground, it will rise above the team, acting like a halo and providing a safe space within a small radius. As long as everyone is close together, it’s big enough to encompass the whole team.
In Overwatch 2, Baptiste’s immortality device is so strong that it can save you from a close-up D.Va ultimate bomb. This is remarkable, considering her self-destruct usually means instant death for anything within a 20-meter radius.
However, while this device can make you immortal, it isn’t. The Immortality Field device has 150 HP but can be instantly destroyed with Sombra’s Hack ability.
Some tips and tricks to note about this ability:
- The Immortality Field will immediately remove the effect of Ana’s Biotic Grenade.
- The arc of the Immortality Field is identical to the Biotic Launcher’s health grenades, so once you master one, the other will come naturally.
Passive Ability: Exo Boots
Description: Hold crouch to jump higher
By holding crouch, in Overwatch 2, Baptiste can charge up a jump that can reach up to 9.1 meters at full strength. This can help Baptiste escape sticky situations or allow him to participate in Dive compositions which are made up of a team that can scale vertical buildings easily and disengage from fights quickly.
Some tips and tricks to note about this ability:
- It is important to note that a passive ability means that a hero can use this skill at any time with no cooldown.
- This power effectively allows Baptiste to get to hard-to-reach locations and great vantage points for healing your team at a safe distance.
Ultimate: Amplification Matrix
Description: The matrix provides a window that will double the damage and healing of projectiles shot through it.
This power-boosting window will last up to 10 seconds and amplify projectiles from either side of the matrix, meaning that you can move around it to ensure targets can’t escape so easily. However, in Overwatch 2, Baptiste cannot amplify melee-based projectiles like Junker Queen’s Whip Shot or Roadhog’s Chain Hook.
This ultimate is slightly out of the ordinary for the support roster. While all the other support heroes have ultimates that primarily focus on healing their teammates, in Overwatch 2, Baptiste's ultimate promotes and supports offensive attacks.
The other offensive support ultimate that can help the whole team is Kiriko’s, Kitsune Rush. This comparison demonstrates yet again how influential Baptiste’s style of play will be for the future of Overwatch 2, as Kiriko is now the staple of what developer Blizzard expects future support heroes to look like.
Some tips and tricks to note about this ultimate:
- This ultimate can be deadly when used with the right combination of attacks. Whether it’s Soldier 76’s ultimate Tactical Visor of Bastion when he is in turret form, you should always look to work with DPS heroes who have quick-fire and range weapons.
- Before the matrix is deployed, you can change its orientation by pressing the ultimate key again.
Overwatch 2 Baptiste: Gameplay breakdown
In Overwatch 2, Baptise is a support hero with a high skill ceiling. This means he is hard to master, mainly due to his ability to switch from healing to damage at a moment's notice.
Like Ana in Overwatch 2, Baptiste is also a hitscan hero thanks to his Biotic Launcher, which can fire bullets in rounds of three bursts using a scope that will hit instantly in a straight line. This means he is relatively effective against any hero he comes up against.
One of Baptiste’s best-known abilities is his Immortality Field, while this was a one-of-a-kind skill in Overwatch. However, Overwatch 2 has introduced Kiriko, who mimics this ability with her Protection Suzu. This is significant because it shows how incredibly helpful this power is in the sequel.
This ability is also helpful now there is one less tank and fewer shields on the field. Frustratingly, there is much less protection available at a moment's notice. If timed right, Baptiste’s Immortality Field can negate ultimates and save the life of your entire team. All of this proves that Baptiste is quickly becoming one of the most effective supports in Overwatch 2.
