With the release of its final new hero, the Damage archetype Echo, Blizzard Entertainment's Overwatch will likely be winding down as developers prepare for the upcoming Overwatch 2. However, Game Director Jeff Kaplan has been active on social media as of late talking to players about how they can expect more for the team-based shooter in the form of new skins and adjustments for different characters, including the infamously powerful Baptiste.
Baptiste is a Support archetype hero released in March 2019 who focuses on healing his allies and casting an "Immortality Field" which prevents any team members in range from dying for a limited time. That Immortality Field has been glitched in the past, but it continues to cause problems due to an exploit on the payload escort map Watchpoint: Gibraltar that came to the attention of Blizzard Vice President Kaplan on Reddit Wednesday.
The post uploaded to the r/Competitiveoverwatch subreddit showcases a Twitch clip in which professional Overwatch player ML7 repeatedly casts Baptiste's Immortality Field in the third round of a match on Gibraltar by camping near his team's base so he can swap back-and-forth between characters. Kaplan commented on the Reddit post saying, "We became aware of this on Monday. We have a fix in the works."
While no clear details were given as to what this fix will entail or when players can expect to see it implemented into the game, this is not the first time Kaplan has had to speak out about Baptiste's presence in the Overwatch meta. This January he teased changes coming to Baptiste and his Immortality Field due to complaints about its rapid cooldown, which Kaplan said made it "oppressive."
The impending release of Overwatch 2 comes after nearly four years of the first title's dominance as a competitive esport for Blizzard, along with all the character tweaking that entails. Currently fans of the game are waiting for the beginning of the 2020 Overwatch Anniversary event, complete with new cosmetics and special loot to collect.
In the meantime, players interested in the competitive side of the game will just have to keep rolling with whatever bugs and exploits are available until Kaplan and his team can push out fixes. Baptiste is not the only culprit of broken skills, as the newest hero Echo was banned just days after release in the Overwatch League Hero Pool.
Overwatch is available now for Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, and Xbox One.