After a long wait and numerous teases, Blizzard officially announced Doomfist. The highly anticipated character is playable now in the Overwatch Public Test Region.
As a playable character, Doomfist is in the offensive category with a heavy focus on melee combat. His most defining ability is his Rocket Punch. After charging up this alternate fire, Doomfist lunges forward and forces the enemy back. If the enemy is close enough to impact a wall, additional damage is done. The longer the charge up, the more powerful the attack. Additionally, a charged up Rocket Punch with bust through any barrier or shield.
To gain higher ground, players can use Rising Uppercut. This ability sends Doomfist, along with an enemy, into the air. Comboing really well with this attack is Seismic Slam. Whenever he has some sort of altitude, Doomfist gets a targeting reticle below him. Using the back of his gauntlet, he smashes into the ground, knocking any nearby enemies toward him.
Evening out all his melee abilities is his Hand Cannon. This fires short-range bursts from the knuckles of his fist. These can be fired as four shots very quickly or saved up to be fired individually. Ammunition is automatically regenerated over time. On the defensive side, he is the embodiment of the best defense being a strong offense. Whenever he deals ability damage, he generates a temporary personal shield. This shield increases as he does more damage until it eventually decays over time.
The most important move each Overwatch character has is their ultimate ability. When Doomfist activates his Meteor Strike, he leaps into the air, uses an aiming reticle to choose where to crash into the ground, and deals significant damage to any nearby players. Even if enemies aren’t killed outright, the ability forces them to the ground and stuns them momentarily. This allows Doomfist to finish them off with his other abilities.
Since the initial announcement of Overwatch, Blizzard has been dropping nuggets of information about Doomfist. The original cinematic reveal trailer centered around the attempted heist to retrieve the Doomfist gauntlet from the museum in Numbani. In the game, the gauntlet could be seen as the payload for the Numbani map. Within the same map were three posters referencing three different individuals who wielded the powerful gauntlet and called themselves Doomfist. These were The Savior, The Scourge, and The Successor. More recently, file names within Overwatch‘s 1.13 update of the public test region were referred to as “Doomfist/Summer Games.” Players made the discovery while examining the game’s crash logs.
Just two days ago, Blizzard teased the character’s arrival in a fictional blog post from the Times of Numbani. Here it was revealed that Doomfist had recently broken out of prison with the aid of Reaper. The post suggests that further security breaches were made in addition to Doomfist, possibly teasing further updates down the line.
The character is playable right now for anyone using the Overwatch Public Test Region. Further details of his backstory can be found on his official character page.
Update: We have added extensive detail from Blizzard’s official reveal. New images and videos have been added while past teases and speculation has been revised.
