Back in his heyday, Torbjorn Lindholm was the most accomplished engineer of his time. Armorer of the original Overwatch unit, his weapons were the most advanced – and most sought after- in the world. After Overwatch’s fall, Torby dedicated his life to cleaning up the messes that his stolen and re-purposed technology made at the hands of bad guys across the globe.
In game, Torbjorn is a defensive powerhouse, building turrets that lock down zones with heavy automated fire and buffing his allies with armor.
Abilities
Torbjorn’s primary weapon is his Rivet Gun. It can fire single shots over a long range or a shotgun blast of metal scraps for short range destruction. It’s a great option for mid range harassment, though it’s not the most powerful gun in the game. The alternate fire is a nice surprise for enemies running up on your zone, as it packs quite the punch and can easily put a more frail attacker down with ease. Alternatively, he has a Forge Hammer that can be swung for moderate damage up close. But the hammer’s real job is to upgrade turrets.
Build Turret is Torbjorn’s signature skill, and it makes him the most unique and recognizable Defense Hero in the game. When built, the turret acts autonomously, firing at anything within its 40m range. At level 1 it’s sort of just annoying, but when upgraded (after several whacks of Torby’s hammer), his turret is downright scary. Concentrated fire from this thing will put down any hero quickly, which makes it perfect for covering choke points and places you don’t want enemies to be. Torby can only have one turret active at a time, but he can continue to repair it to give it longevity.
Torbjorn can also make armor packs, which he tosses on the ground and can be picked up by any friendly, including himself. It adds 75 armor on top of your health, and it can stack with other health boosting effects from characters like Symmetra and Lucio. He must have at least 50 scraps to build them, though. Passively, Torbjorn can pick up piles of scrap left around the map and add them to his pool. Scrap gets dropped from dead heroes and broken turrets, and he can hold a maximum of 200.
Molten Core, his ultimate ability, overheats his forge and gives Torbjorn a heave boost in damage and armor. If a level 2 turret is active, it’s automatically upgraded to an ultimate-only level 3. This gives the turret a huge amount of life, as well as a heavy rate of fire boost and a damage spike. If there’s no turret present, Torbjorn can build and upgrade one at far greater speeds.
Tips
- Placing a turret conspicuously in a choke point can serve as an effective deterrent. Not wanting to get shot by it and lacking the long range options to safely dismantle it, enemies may choose to take alternate routes, which could lead them right into ambushes from your teammates – especially if you have a Reaper or two waiting in the side paths.
- Hiding turrets around corners and less obvious fire vectors lends you an element of surprise that may be more lethal than simply just covering the most ground possible. The turrets firing angles may not be as wide, but reactionary enemies will get caught by it almost every time.
- Don’t be afraid to leave turrets unattended. Under concentrated fire, Torby won’t be able to keep it standing, anyway. A much better use of your time after upgrading the turret is to roam near its perch to catch people trying to dismantle it. Alternatively, wandering around in an area covered by your turret and openly firing at enemies can serve as the proper bait to get them to pursue you to their doom.
- Turrets can be overwhelmed when facing multiple targets, as it can only deal with one at a time. If it’s got a shielded Reinhardt in its sights, then it’s vulnerable to whomever he’s escorting.
- Heroes with long range, high damage attacks like Pharah and Hanzo are your turret’s worst nightmare, as they can render it inoperable well outside of its firing range.
If you need some more advice on how to be a better builder (or have some advice of your own to share), come to our Overwatch Wiki. Let us know how your Torb game is coming along on Facebook and Twitter.