While his introduction to the game hasn’t drastically changed the meta, Baptiste is still a solid support pick with a kit that allows for some unique synergies and clutch plays. Let’s take a quick look at his abilities and see how they set him apart from the other support heroes!

Combat Medic

• Biotic Launcher – Baptiste’s primary fire is a burst fire hitscan with a total ammo count of 45. It does a respectable amount of damage and can headshot, making it a fairly decent self-defense and poking tool. His secondary fire is a projectile that heals over a small AoE on impact, and while this is his main healing ability, it doesn’t affect himself.
• Regenerative Burst – His shift ability heals everyone around him (including himself) for 30hp/s over five seconds. It has a long cooldown, and it’s his only means of self-sustain, so use it sparingly.
• Immortality Field – A small hovering object that protects everyone within range, preventing their health from going below 20% until the device expires or is destroyed.
• Exo Boots – While crouching, Baptiste charges his boots to increase his jump height. This can be reset by crouching immediately after release or just waiting one second for it to go away.
• Amplification Matrix – Baptiste’s ultimate creates a wall that amplifies any ally projectile or hitscan attack that passes through it by 100%. (Stacks with other damage boosting abilities, such as Orisa’s Supercharger)

Strengths and Limitations

As cliché as this sounds, Baptiste is as good as whoever’s playing him. Since his main healing ability is a projectile, it’ll take a bit more effort and skill to actually land it, especially in the heat of battle. If your team is spread out, you’ll have a tough time keeping everyone alive, and if you’re under fire yourself, your team’s second support might be too busy healing you as well. Because of this, he works well with less mobile comps or ones that are centered around barriers, which enable him to cover more people with his splash healing and Immortality Field.

His Exo Boots allow him to easily get to high ground and escape flankers. Take advantage of this passive by jumping high during teamfights in open areas, as this will make it easier to land precise hits (or Immortality Fields) on dying teammates (just be wary of hitscans targeting you). With that in mind, it’s also typically a good idea to use high ground to distance yourself a bit from your team, as your only means of healing yourself is on a whopping 15-second cooldown timer, leaving you very vulnerable on the frontline.

Team Comps

One of the most common team compositions that make good use of his abilities is the so-called “bunker” comp, which usually revolves around hunkering down with an Orisa and Bastion. This kind of comp has players clumped together, and as a Baptiste, your role here is to keep Bastion alive for as long as possible, combining Amplification Matrix and Orisa’s Supercharger to boost his damage to ridiculous lengths when needed.

Aside from that, he works fine with most other comps (GOATS and deathballs) as long as your team is sticking together. Just refrain from picking him with a dive team, because you’d have a very hard time healing people.

Unkillable

Immortality Field is a powerful ability that can be used to completely shut down certain fatal ults that deal one large burst of damage, such as D.Va’s Self-Destruct and Junkrat’s RIP-Tire. If you see these headed your (or a teammate’s) way and you (or they) have no cover nearby, quickly throw out your drone just before they deal damage. Doing this will immediately destroy your Immortality Field, but it will leave anyone that was within its radius with around 20% of their HP left, which you should easily be able to heal back up. Also, you can preemptively use Regenerative Burst a second or two before the drone is destroyed, as it will continue to heal for the rest of its duration even when used on people with full HP.

One of the worst heroes you can go against as Baptiste is Sombra. Not only can she hack your Immortality Field (which is usually faster than just destroying the drone), her EMP can also destroy your Amplification Matrix. If you ever find yourself facing a Sombra, always be wary of your surroundings and pay close attention to any Immortality Fields you throw out, as she can simply shut them off if uncontested.

Conclusion

Despite his seemingly low pick rate in competitive, Baptiste has a very impactful kit that enables obscure heroes such as Bastion to shine. As of writing this, he’s about to receive a few slight buffs that could boost his popularity, so if you’re looking to add another support to your hero pool, then you should definitely consider picking him up!

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