The second-newest addition to the game’s all-star lineup, some Overwatch Baptiste tips will help you with a support hero who’s unique in a variety of ways. From his sky-high jumping to his multi-purpose biotic weapon, Baptiste is kitted out with lots of fun features that can impose an astronomical impact on any given game. He’s also got access to some of the most unique abilities to have appeared in Overwatch yet, some of which may seem a little tough to use properly at first, but can be incredibly effective once you develop a bit of know-how.
Overwatch Baptiste abilities and ultimate
Baptiste’s passive ability is tied to his fancy footwear, or “Exo Boots.” When Baptiste crouches, his exo boots generate a charge, which allows him to skyrocket off the ground up to a height of over nine meters. This is obviously very fun to do, but there are also lots of inconspicuous tactical benefits to exo-jumping. For one, it can provide Baptiste with access to otherwise inaccessible high ground, which can make for some interesting synergies with other vertically-inclined heroes. It can also allow him to jump straight up in the air from the middle of a team fight, enabling him to rain a barrage of healing grenades down from above and keep his team in tip-top shape while being almost completely untouchable. A side benefit to this is that if you're low on health, your other abilities will likely have cooled down by the time you return to ground.
Baptiste’s Immortality Field is one of the most curious abilities we’ve seen in Overwatch to date. Any allies who stand within the field’s range will be rendered temporarily invulnerable, allowing them to survive at 20% HP even if they’ve taken sufficient damage to be eliminated. While this is a very powerful asset to any team, it has a cooldown of 20 seconds so it’s best to use this ability sparingly for maximum effectiveness. Use it when you're grouped up in the midst of a team fight, or have to contest a point for as long as possible in overtime. It also serves as a perfect foil to potentially devastating enemy Ultimates.
Baptiste can’t heal himself with his grenades, but he can use Regenerative Burst, which heals him 30 HP per second for five seconds. Regenerative Burst also heals nearby teammates within a certain radius by the same amount, making it an invaluable ability for massive team fights. If you supplement a well-timed Regenerative Burst with Baptiste’s healing grenades, you'll find yourself with a team bulkier than Reinhardt's Crusaders. So while it’s obviously important to heal yourself, try to make the most of Regenerative Burst by using it near low-health teammates wherever possible.
Baptiste’s Ultimate is Amplification Matrix, which creates a rectangular field through which friendly healing and damage projectiles are amplified by 100%. Essentially, any bullet fired through the matrix will deal 200% damage to the enemy it connects with. It’s important to place this in a position that actually benefits your team, as there’s no point in setting it up somewhere that you can’t fire through, and there's no point using it when you're on your own. It’s also imperative that your team pushes through the matrix when they’re in need of healing, so Baptiste and the other healers can fire through it for 200% healing output. Communication is the key to successfully alternating between firing through the matrix and pushing forward to be healed through it. The best way to maximize utility, however, is to have your allies fire through the barrier at the enemy team while you heal them from the other side of the matrix, but this only works if you place it strategically enough to stand on the other side without being in the enemy team's line of sight.
Overwatch Baptiste tips and tricks
Know your weapon: Like Ana’s Biotic Rifle, Baptiste’s Biotic Launcher is capable of both dealing both damage and providing healing. Obviously as a support hero, it’s essential to prioritize healing over damage output, so you’ll mostly be using your alternate fire, which launches healing grenades that burst-heal teammates within a three meter radius. As a result, it’s very easy to spam heal with Baptiste, especially when you take Regenerative Burst into account. When you decide to deal damage, it’s necessary to go for headshots as much as possible, as Baptiste does barely any damage with his three-round-burst primary fire if the bullets connect anywhere else. Baptiste reloads both his grenades and burst rounds when he reloads the Biotic Launcher, so it’s fine, if not complete economical, to exhaust both when you’re in the thick of an intense team fight.
Know who counters Baptiste: Baptiste is big, but only has a standard HP-pool. As a result, he’s almost as easy to hit as a tank, but is far less formidable a foe. He’s particularly susceptible to snipers like Widowmaker and Hanzo, and high-HP characters like Roadhog and D.Va can easily overwhelm him thanks to his shallow HP-pool and minimal damage output. When you play Baptiste, it’s important to stick with your tanks, as they can soak up damage so you don’t have to. In return, you can heal them relentlessly until you’re sufficiently close to an enemy to swarm them as a unit. Baptiste’s only true means of foiling his counters are by cooperating with his teammates, so be sure to communicate with them to the best of your ability or you'll be sent straight to the spawn room.
Best strategies for Baptiste: When you play Baptiste, you’ll want to play close to the back of your team. That way, you’ll be mostly safe from harm and can heal multiple allies at once with your area-of-effect healing grenades. Whenever your team is nicely topped up, try to get some burst shots off from behind whatever shield your tank is using, preferably aiming for as many headshots as possible. Make sure Regenerative Burst is off cooldown for when the enemy team inevitably breaks through your defenses, and don’t be afraid to use Immortality Field if your team is looking a little worse for wear. Although Amplification Matrix is still a bit confusing for lots of people, don’t fret too much if you don’t get a whole lot of value out of it. Baptiste’s Ultimate charges incredibly fast, so you’ll have another one in no time if you’re healing as much as you should be.
Heroes with the best synergy with Baptiste: Baptiste, like Ana, is a healer that’s specifically geared toward tanks. Baptiste is at his best when he’s splash-healing big targets in front of him, which means he synergizes brilliantly with Roadhog, Reinhardt, Zarya, and pretty much every other tank in the game. DPS picks don’t matter a whole lot when it comes to Baptiste, but certain support heroes can make excellent companions for him. Because of how low his damage output is, Baptiste benefits massively from Zenyatta’s Orb of Discord, and because of how well-suited he is to bulky tank compositions, a Lucio can help him support a fast-moving, tank-heavy team designed to rush points as quickly and aggressively as possible. Baptiste can lay down an incredible amount of healing in a startlingly short period of time, but it’s an absolute must to have at least two tanks on a team with him. Also, most importantly of all: Every time you win a fight, be sure to spam the voice line, “Thank you, Baptiste! Oh, you're welcome." Always support your supports, eh?
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