Plenty of shooter players gravitate to the genre for instant action and twitch skills – which may explain why that certain group of Overwatch players who always pick Widowmaker and McCree over any support hero has become such a meme in the community. When a new character enters the game, players want to know how it’ll shake up the meta – but with Baptiste, Blizzard wants to encourage hitscan fans to pick up a healer.

Asked in Q&A session what sort of meta problem Baptiste’s abilities are intended to solve, lead designer Geoff Goodman says “it’s less of a pure meta pick and more of just ‘more options for support players.’” Or rather, he clarifies, more options for “all players.” Baptiste’s weapons include the hitscan weapons you’d typically expect from a DPS character, and that’s meant in draw in players who main other types of characters.

“Part of this was to give an option to hitscan players, if you’re one of those players that you have the support option that you can play, still do what you really enjoy with hitscan gun. But you also have these great healing opportunities for your team as well. A lot of it was just opening up the breadth of options for all our players.”

The meta is still part of it – and Baptiste’s GOATS-busting potential is notable – but Blizzard is trying to effect a larger change in the mentality of of players who instantly pick their heroes.

It remains to be seen exactly which sort of insult ‘Baptiste main’ will end up being.

Overwatch patch 1.34 is live on the PTR, and it brings along plenty more than just Baptiste. There are a broad array of balance changes affecting characters across the roster, and you can follow that link for plenty of details on everything in the update.