How Moira Affects the Meta of Other Healers

A new hero has arrived! We all know that another healer was needed in the game and Blizzard delivered. I must admit, this was not the type of hero i was expecting, but the more gameplay I watch, the more interested I am in playing her. When I first saw her released at BlizzCon, my initial thoughts were that they took character mechanics from a bunch of existing heroes. Her primary heal reminded me of Mei's primary fire, her attack mechanism reminded me of Symmetra's beam, he relocation ability had me thinking about Reaper and her orbs brought up thoughts of Zenyatta and Orisa's mini graviton ability. However, the more I look into Moira's abilities and her overall skill set, the more I think her skill set is unique and very different from any other hero's in the game. I think she is going to be a fairly difficult hero to master, but I think she is going to hold viability right away, unlike Orisa.

Anytime a new hero gets released, this question is raised: How will this new hero affect the meta? It's a worthwhile and valuable question to ask, but I want to dive into how I think this new hero will affect the remaining healers in Overwatch. I first wanted to hear the communities' response, so I posted a poll in the Google+ Overwatch group. The results were somewhat surprising, as to which healer would suffer the most (in usage) with the release of the new hero:

Heroes
	Mercy	Zenyatta	Ana	Lucio
Percent Vote	55%	33%	7%	5%

What is interesting to me, is that most people jumped on Mercy. Whether it be because of her popularity in the current meta or the fact the she is currently the best solo healer, it was not my first thought. Mercy's skill set as a healer is very different than that of Moira. Mercy can only heal one hero at a time and she has a completely underwhelming offensive skill set, at least directly from herself. My thought is that Mercy will continue to dominate the meta as the most widely used healer until she is nerfed or changed. Moira cannot Bonnie to Pharah's Clyde in pharmercy, and in reality, one of Moira's best counters will be Pharah. The only comparisons I can identify is that they both have the ability to primary heal and both have solid mobility.

Zenyatta was the second most popular hero selected. This one makes more sense to me, however I feel like players see a yellow and purple orb and that's how they make their decision. Their orbs are very different from one another. Zenyatta's healing orb stays on one teammate and only heals one hero at a time, while Moira's healing orb bouncing around with the ability to heal teammates in close proximity. Zenyatta's discord orb does not damage directly. Rather, it increases the damage applied by teammates or Zen's orbs of destruction to a given hero. Moira's attacking orb applies directly damage as it's bouncing around enemy teammates.Finally, Zen's and Moira's mobility are completely different. Zen is a sitting duck that has to fire and heal from range, since he's such a slow character. Good tracer's have field days against Zen. Moira is a fairly fast moving character with the ability to hop out of a fight with her teleportation ability. There is no doubt that the offensive skill set of Zenyatta is better, but with Moira's ability to heal and attacker from a distance as a healer does draw some similarities and I could see Zen being swapped out for Moira in different situations.

What about Ana? I was surprised that more players didn't select Ana. I think that Ana suffers the most from the release of Moira, given each of their skill sets. Firstly, we all know that Ana has fallen heavily out of the meta, but until she gets a nice buff, I think having Moira around makes her even more of a non-factor. Each hero has the ability to heal multiple teammates at once. Ana has her bio-grenade and Moira has her primary fire, healing orb and ultimate. This is something that Mercy and Zen cannot do. Which one is going to be easier to do? Well, Moira's healing is constant and has a short cooldown (reload time). Ana can also provide decent damage from her gun directly and her anti-healing ability can be a useful attacking ability. Moira has both her attacking orb, beam and ultimate to provide damage to the enemy team. Which is easier an consistent damage? Moira is the easy pick again. As for mobility, they both have pretty solid escape systems. Ana has her sleep dart, that if accurate, can get her out of most situations. Moira movement speed is solid, along with her transportation ability. Again, Moira mobility takes the gold, being easy to use and more consistent.

Overall, it is likely that Moira will cut into the playtime of all healers. However when you dig into skill sets of each hero, I think you will see Ana being played significantly less than she is even played now. Don't be surprised if you see many two healer teams with Mercy and Moira, or Moira and Lucio going forward. Do you agree? Let me know in the comment below!









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