Continuing with a regular release on new heroes and features, Blizzard has revealed their 28th hero. The new hero called ‘Hammond’ has long been teased in several animated shorts and stories. But seeing a Hamster added to Overwatch’s diverse and varied character list is definitely exciting. Hammond’s in-game name, however, is The Wrecking Ball.

This is probably because he plays inside a mech and if the mech breaks, the character is eliminated. The character, which the official website describes as ‘A resourceful tinkerer with remarkable mechanic skills, Wrecking Ball is rolling around the world seeking out his next challenge to overcome’ has dominated social media.

People love and hate the character and this shows one of the key aspects of game designing. You can rarely appease everyone, there will always be haters.

Hero Abilities

Quad Cannons

The primary fire of the 14-year-old Hamster is quite effective mid-range, a unique feature for the Tank category. With 80 ammo per clip, it is rare for him to have to reload during a team fight. Hammond is a very mobile tank in the game and is effective in dislodging enemy character with his other skills.

Roll

This is key to Hammon’s abilities. Hammond can transform into a Ball. This increases his movement speed and his usefulness in a team fight. Watching Hammond transform into a ball definitely will be exciting to watch in a team fight.

Grappling Claw

Launch a grappling claw to rapidly swing around the area. Enables high speed collisions to damage and knockback enemies.

The Grappling Claw is instrumental in enabling Hammond’s movement abilities. This can be used offensively and defensively, however judging by the rest of his kit, offensive seems the way to go. Hammond can roll into a ball and use the Grappling Claw to roll into enemies.

Adaptive Shield

The hero creates an adaptive shield around it. The Shield amount increases depending on a number of enemy nearby. Wrecking Ball can become a hero with a massive HP pool, possibly the biggest in the game if he uses the Adaptive Shield ability properly. This ability also has great synergy with the Grappling Claw. Wrecking Ball can roll into a ball, use the Claw to get into the midst of the enemy. Then using the Adaptive shield to become extremely tanky and use multiple enemy resources on him. It clearly gives his team an advantage in terms of not only positioning but also abilities usage.

PileDriver

This ability is in conjunction with the Grappling Claw. Using the Grappling claw allows you to slightly reposition yourself and even gain height. When you reach a height, you can use this ability called ‘PileDriver’.

It slams into the ground and launches enemy upwards displacing them. This ability is useful when you have grappled yourself to a high object. Hence the ability works only on certain maps and architecture. This ability might just be the deciding factor on which maps Wrecking Ball is the strongest.

MineField

Minefield is the ultimate ability of the hero. It deploys several ‘mines’ at regular intervals in an area. The mines are visible to allies as well as enemies. But they will blast when they come in contact with enemy players. The opponents can try to cross the field with proper positioning and movement, however, it is a big distraction. The minefield allows your team more mobility and greater team fighting capabilities. This ultimate will be very useful when it comes to payload maps especially since they can just use the ultimate on the payload and secure their advantage.

Hammond – The Wrecking Ball

Hammon is integral to the storyline that Blizzard is building up. It seems after learning from their Sombra fiasco, Blizzard is always working on releasing multiple heroes, all intertwined into the storyline. We had heard about Hammond quite some time ago, and then Junkertown was released.

The colony was eventually thrown into chaos when some of the gorillas rose up against the human scientists and took control. Not all of the animals participated, however, and one of the gorillas, Winston, was making a plan to escape to earth. Hammond sensed his opportunity. He built a makeshift capsule and secretly hitched it to Winston’s craft as the gorilla blasted off. As the two entered earth’s atmosphere, Hammond broke off and landed in a different location: the wasteland of the Australian Outback. Hammond modified his escape pod to enter the lucrative mech battle arena of the Scrapyard. Working his way up the ranks, “Wrecking Ball” went from contender to champion, though the pilot’s identity remained a mystery to all. Gathering his winnings, Hammond was able to upgrade his mech enough to survive the dangerous trek out of the Junker-controlled Outback. Now free to travel and do as he pleases, Hammond is exploring the world and finding new adventures along the way.

The hero has a long history and comes from Horizon Lunar Colony. The Lunar colony was a testing lab for genetic modifications. Most of the subjects were chimps and gorillas, but there were also other animals. Hammond, the Hamster is one such example. Despite being a Hamster, he has great intelligence and attached a ball to Winston’s escape pod. He landed somewhere near Junkertown and built together with his mech from scraps lying around.

Alright if there was any doubt overwatch was just releasing stuff to inspire people to make disgusting pornography, their new hampster hero has finally put the debate to rest. Cant wait for the gimp suit horse hero next u sick bastards — SirActionSlacks (@SirActionSlacks) June 29, 2018

Despite not being from Junkertown, he has participated in several competitions in Junkertown without revealing his identity. Junkertown citizens know him as the ‘Wrecking Ball’.



We leave you with this video from OhNickel which shows the abilities and the new hero in detail. The Wrecking Ball is available to play in PTR right now. So if you are a console player, you still have to wait a few weeks to be able to play the 28th Overwatch character.