New hero: Joseph

This hero is an architect of the game. He uses his abilities to build bridges, walls and other constructions that can increase his tactical advantage.

Background

Joseph is a talented architect from Singapore, a prosperous country that has always been famous for its advanced architecture. After the fight between Overwatch and Doomfist, part of the city was damaged and Joseph amongst the ones chosen to reconstruct the city. However, he always had bigger dreams. Joseph thought that his skills can be helpful in a fight. After the reconstruction was finished, he left his country to help the ones fighting for world peace. Maybe with his support, the massive disruption will be stopped.

Role

Support

Abilities

Laser Beam (Weapon - Beam)

Unleash a medium-range beam in the direction Joseph is facing, which splits in two after 5 meters. Homes in on the nearest enemy within range, the splitting point shifts to where he's standing.

Notes: The angle between beams is always 120 degrees. The original beam deals less damage than its branches.

Photon Bridge (Ability)

Construct a bridge towards the direction Joseph is facing, its length depends on how long the button is pressed. Lasts 10 seconds, then dissipates. Cooldown: 30 sec.

Photon Reflector (Ability)

Construct a mirror. Every projectile can ricochet off it, doubling its range and damage. Beams are reflected; their length and damage doubles as well. Lasts 5 seconds. Cooldown: 12 sec.

Photon Slide (Ability)

Construct a slide 10 meters tall, 5 meters in width. The players walking on it are pulled towards its highest point and maintain their speed for 1 second after jumping off it. Lasts 6 seconds, then dissipates. Cooldown: 20 sec.

Notes: If the player runs up the slide all the way up, it is possible to use it as a trampoline. This also works with D'va's exploding mecha.

This ability can be replaced with the following one if the hero turns out to be useless.

Photon Polyhedron (Reserve Ability)

Provide the ally with a polyhedron shield. Depending on its mode it can either reflect some damage taken back to the attacker or increase the damage of the owner every time he receives damage. The shield doesn't block damage no matter which mode is on. Joseph can switch the modes while the shield is on using the same key. Joseph cannot apply shield on himself. Duration: 10 seconds. Cooldown: 15 seconds.

Saturated Surface (Ultimate Ability)

Saturates the round area with the photons. Photon beams start to shoot into the sky randomly, dealing damage to the enemies hit. Once struck, the enemy becomes visible to Joseph's team for 20 seconds. The enemies can't enter or leave the area before the duration is over. Lasts 15 seconds. Beam radius: 1 meter. Beam count: 7 per second. Beam duration: 2 seconds. Area radius: 15 meters.

Expected gameplay

This hero's main ability is Photon Reflector. Placing it so that the teammates will be able to shoot from the relatively safe position is Joseph's ultimate goal. Apart from it, he also has two additional abilities to further help him manipulate the battlefield with various constructions. These unique qualities should make him a decent complementing character, a cherry-on-top for the team's general strategy.

Dealing damage while playing Joseph, though, is a hard task. You need to constantly move according to the movement of the enemy team to make your beam's branches hit someone. Using Photon Reflector to keep a distance from the foes is essential, but also requires the player to be even more skilled.

Ultimate is considered as a positioning tool but is susceptible to being either too weak or too strong. It can be replaced if it turns out to be imbalanced.

Character notes

Joseph is a creative and dreamy person. He is willing to help his teammates using his talents. He clearly understands that deaths are inevitable. His ultimate goal is to stop the war as fast as possible to prevent more people from dying. After that, he plans to reconstruct the damaged cities.

The technology Joseph is using is somewhat similar to the one developed by Vishkar, there are rumors it was stolen, however, no proofs were provided yet. This is, however, used not only to rehabilitate the destroyed cities but also to provide better living conditions than there were before. In particular, because most of the structures emit photons, the roads are always bright no matter what time is it.

Possible interactions

Symmetra - Symmetra blames Joseph's team for stealing Vishkar's technology.

Lucio - Lucio adores Joseph's works and regrets he wasn't the one to reconstruct his country.