The last time an Overwatch hero captured my heart like this, I ended up maining an old sniper for almost a decade, so I think I’ll be seeing a hell of a lot of Overwatch’s newest hero: Doctrine.
Unveiled at Blizzcon over the weekend, Doctrine is the newest addition to the Support roster (alongside Sombra), but he’s unlike anything we’ve seen before. He’s got some usual mechanics like a shift similar to Moira or Anran’s—with a Sandevistan twist—a primary fire that can heal and damage, and an AOE ultimate which heals allies and reduces the health capacity of enemies. That’s all standard stuff, and not particularly exciting—the juice of Doctrine’s build comes from his second ability and right click.
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Doctrine’s second ability, Invigorating Drones, attaches to an ally and boosts their attack speed and healing. It is a nasty ability to tag onto a hitscan hero like Soldier: 76, Sojourn, or Sierra, especially if a Kiriko ult is in the mix.
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As a support main, I’m always looking to support my team in more ways than just healing (although that should always be the priority), and helping teammates with an attack boost is something I didn’t know I needed. I had so much fun over the weekend treating all DPS heroes as if they were pawns who I could buff just at the right time to instigate some impressive enemy team wipes. But even this isn’t the star of Doctrine’s kit.
The real hero is his right click, Infuse. This adds powerful effects onto whatever piece of kit he uses next:
- He moves faster when shifting and has vertical reach with the added benefit of Fly.
- Invigorating Drones can be used on himself buffing his attack speed and passive healing.
- Primary fire changes to a charged hit which deals more healing and damage.
It doesn’t seem like a lot, but this one mechanic raises up Doctrine’s skill ceiling dramatically by giving him so many options to support his team in both healing and damage and provide great engagement and disengagement possibilities.
Doctrine is testimony to just how creative and innovative Team 4 continues to be. Since the rework earlier this year, they’ve been on something of a generational run when it comes to its new heroes. Each one has felt exciting in new ways, and offers up different approaches to the FPS, but Doctrine is the best I’ve seen so far.
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