What are Echo’s abilities? Echo is finally coming to Overwatch. We’ve all known about the highly advanced AI robot for a long time in the game, but we’re only just finding out what she can really do, and she’s not the healer some thought she might be.
We got the chance to play with Echo, her abilities and strategies, and got to see what she was all about. She’s highly mobile in a similar fashion to Pharah, but can’t sustain airtime as well as Pharah or Mercy. She’s speedy too, making her a great flanker, but Echo’s reliance on her abilities makes Sombra a really powerful counter.
If you want to know more about who the character is, and how she came to be, here’s our guide to who Echo is in Overwatch, and she’s not Athena, just so that’s clear. Otherwise, we’re sure we all just want to know what she can do and how to use her right so let’s get on with Echo’s abilities in Overwatch
What are Echo’s abilities?
Primary: Tri-shot – Echo shoots three projectile shots at once in a triangle formation.
Secondary: Sticky bombs – Echo fires a volley of small sticky bombs that explode after a short delay.
Flight: Echo surges in a direction (vertical or horizontal), before freely flying at a slower rate.
Glide: Echo can glide while falling. Falls fast than Mercy, for context.
Focusing Beam: A beam is fired from Echo’s hands. It deals very high levels of damage to targets with less than half health – barriers included.
Ultimate: Duplicate – Echo duplicates a targeted enemy hero and becomes a copy of them for a short time. During this period, the ultimate charge is extremely accelerated.
Echo’s ultimate, Duplicate, works like D.Va’s mech in some ways. If you’re Echo as Roadhog, for example, and his health reaches zero, then you become a full health Echo, you aren’t eliminated straight away.
Note that due to the way that Overwatch as a game works, if Echo has duplicated an enemy hero and that hero dies, they cannot change hero until Echo has finished her ultimate. This, most of the time, will not matter because her ultimate length is around that of a respawn time, however, it is something people may notice during gameplay.
What is Echo’s health?
Echo has the average health bar of 200HP.
Tips on how to play Echo in Overwatch
- Echo is highly mobile and has the ability to fly, much like Pharah. Her flight ability rushes her in the direction you require, which means that it should be just reserved for upwards mobility – consider using it in the way Moira might to avoid getting hit.
- Echo’s mobility leads her to being a great flanker, but don’t get greedy. Doomfist suffers a similar problem when all his abilities are used, he’s vulnerable and Echo is the same. Also, like Doomfist, expect high-level players to use Echo’s ultimate as a resort to getting out of combat that would otherwise kill them. It may seem like a waste at first but it also might win your team the game.
- Who to target can be tricky, and it’s tempting to think that changing to an enemy Genji is the best idea, but also consider healers and tanks. Choosing an enemy Mercy as your ultimate and resurrecting one of your teammates might be the better play for your team, especially if you’re down a tank or healer.
- This is for those playing against a good Echo. If you’re playing against an Echo and she keeps duplicating your team’s Tracer or Hanzo, and making massive plays, swap off of that character if you can. Eliminating her is important, but if you can take away the hero she’s favouring, it might mean that the Echo becomes a lot less effective. Give it a try if she’s giving you trouble.