When Moira was first announced during BlizzCon 2017's opening ceremony, the crowd went absolutely nuts. Unlike previous hero reveals, the community had no idea that Moira was on the horizon. Fans have been clamoring for an "evil" Talon healer and Moira delivers in spades. Her healing capabilities are directly tied to how much damage she deals, and her primary method of self-sustain is vampiric beam ability. Sounds pretty evil.


So naturally, as the swarms of fans flooded out of the main stage, I headed straight towards the Overwatch demo stations to play Moira for my self. Before I talk about my playtime with Moira, a couple cautionary details:

1. Everyone was playing Moira, so a realistic take on how she plays with a competitive team was difficult. 3 Moira's on the same team is fun, but pretty chaotic when everyone is firing bouncing orbs on cooldown.

2. We were playing on the new Map, Blizzard World, which made it easy to get lost considering it was our first time. I imagine once people get more familiar with the map, their flanking routes will become more aggressive and perhaps Moira will be threatened more consistently.

3. We were playing on a show floor version of the Moira patch, so things may be subject to change.

That being said, Moira has an obvious and immediate effect on the battlefield. Here is her list of abilities per the official Overwatch website.

- BIOTIC GRASP

Using her left hand, Moira expends biotic energy to heal allies in front of her. Her right hand fires a long-range beam weapon that saps enemies’ health, healing Moira and replenishing her biotic energy.

- BIOTIC ORB

Moira launches a rebounding biotic sphere; she can choose between a regeneration effect that heals the allies it passes through, or a decay effect that deals damage to enemies.

- FADE

Moira quickly teleports a short distance.

- COALESCENCE

Moira channels a long-range beam that both heals allies and bypasses barriers to damage her enemies.

Meet your Talon, self-sustaining support hero

Moira's primary ability, Biotic Grasp provides a lot of healing and can also be used offensively similar to Symmetra's primary fire. Biotic Grasp's offensive mode grants a life-steal ability, which made Moira effective against enemy flankers and anyone trying to trade damage with her. In addition, she is a powerful 1 vs. 1 hero thanks to her shift ability, Fade. Think of Fade like an extremely fast version of Reaper's wraith form. It is a reliable escape move that makes Moira one of the more durable support heroes in the game.


This durability is likely her biggest strength. I imagine her being particularly effective against dive compositions, as she can quickly heal multiple heroes with Biotic Orb while simultaneously dealing damage and healing her self with offensive Biotic Grasp.

Speaking a bit more on Biotic Orbs, they are the most mechanically interesting part of Moira's kit.

The Orbs bounce off walls and move at varying speeds, offensive orb moves faster while the healing orb moves slower. These Orbs don't need to directly hit a hero to affect them, meaning a well-placed orb that bounces back between two points can control space for a long time with little risk to Moira.


During my multiple games on Moira, well-timed Biotic Orbs sometimes felt like instakill Hanzo scatter arrows. When an offensive orb starts bouncing in a small room or choke point, enemy heroes have two choices-- leave that area or face certain death. 

Coalescence is Moira's ultimate and it is devastating. This beam does an incredible amount of damage and healing: preferably you are using it to do both simultaneously. However, the biggest downside of this Ultimate is how visually obvious it is. The moment Moira uses this beam, she paints a huge target on her head and it is virtually impossible to use it without being detected. It is best paired with CC Ultimates for max damage, as the beam pierces through all enemies and is capable huge AoE team wipes.


The beam goes straight through shields and barriers, so a well-timed (and spaced) Coalescence is actually impossible to negate. However, expect Widowmaker to make short work of Moira if she tries to use this ultimate aggressively. During my play time, it seemed as if there was always a huge beam of light pouring out of either team's side, but that is bound to happen when there are 7+ Moira's in the game.

Why pick Moira?

Support heroes in Overwatch have a lot of stiff competition. In a world of Mercy's and Lucio's providing so much team utility and raw healing, it becomes difficult to imagine a new support can replace them.

Does Moira replace these top-tier supports? No, but I think she provides a viable alternative choice. The Overwatch team was very generous on how much healing output they gave Moira and, ultimately, that is where a Support hero needs to shine. The amount of healing she brings in ideal situations is second to none, but these situations are more niche than common. I can't say for certain but imagine if you doubled Mei's primary rate of fire but kept the same range.  This seems to be a good base for how Moira's primary healing feels in game.

Moira has a lot of similarities with Zenyatta (both are capable of offensive plays and surprising damage) but she isn't nearly as versatile. There will be some maps that make it very hard for Moira to take full advantage of her space control (she relies on small choke points) and, due to the close proximity her heals demand, will make her a liability when trying to push against strong Widowmaker or Ana sightlines.


Moira seems to heal as much as Ana, but she needs to be much closer to her allies to do so. This makes her a perfect pairing with tanky heroes like Roadhog or Winston, as her thin hit-box can easily hide behind bulky tanks.

The Verdict:

If you love the niche power spikes Symmetra can offer but still need to bring dedicated heals to your team, I think Moira will be the perfect hero for you. Unlike Orisa her still struggles to find a place of usefulness, the Overwatch team has given the community exactly what they have been asking for: a support hero that contributes big heals while somehow avoiding the heal bot stigma.