Zarya

Zarya, the Defender of Russia, is a ranged Support Hero from the Overwatch universe. Aleksandra Zaryanova is one of the world's strongest women and was a promising athlete, but all that changed when the Siberian omnium reawakened. As a soldier in the Russian Defense Force, she now proudly uses her strength to protect the ones she loves.

Zarya is a Support who can enable deadly allies and is good at preventing burst damage.

Background
is one of the world's strongest women, a celebrated athlete who sacrificed personal glory to protect her family, friends, and country in a time of war.

Aleksandra was born in a remote Siberian village that was on the front lines of the, which began some thirty years ago. Although Russian forces defeated the robots and shut down their omnium, the region was devastated by the conflict. Only a child at the time, Aleksandra was surrounded by the post-war destruction, and as she grew older, she swore that she would gain the strength to help her people recover.

Focusing on weightlifting and bodybuilding, Aleksandra was identified by the national athletics program as a potential star. She trained extensively, moving up the ranks while representing her country, and was expected to shatter longstanding records in the upcoming world championships.

But on the eve of the tournament, an attack came from the long-dormant Siberian omnium, and her village was thrust into war once again. Aleksandra immediately withdrew from the competition and rushed home to enlist in the local defense forces, sacrificing the life of fame and fortune she might have had. Now she serves—a symbol to some, a stalwart fellow soldier to others. But for Aleksandra, it is a chance to use her great strength to protect the ones she loves.

Gameplay
Zarya is a ranged Bruiser who combines protective shields with strong damage capabilities. Zarya is capable of shielding herself and nearby allies. Upon taking damage, shielded targets (herself included) increase Zarya's Energy, which can greatly increase her damage potential. Her Basic Attack animation is unique, as it allows her to hit multiple enemy targets at the same time.

Strength

 * Offers great protection with her Shields against burst damage
 * Her Basic Attacks allows her to damage multiple enemies
 * Does not require Mana

Weaknesses

 * No crowd control until Level 10
 * Extremely dependent on her Energy level
 * Requires the player to carefully analyse the battlefield and shield targets that are likely going to be attacked.
 * Very limited mobility

Abilities

 * See Data Page for a table of scaled values at key levels.

Development
Even before the launch of Overwatch in 2016, the designers on the Heroes of the Storm team were practically beating down the starting zone barriers to begin implementing some of the now-iconic Overwatch heroes into the Nexus. Tracer was the first to debut, but Zarya was earmarked almost immediately as a must-have addition to the roster. It was up to game designer Jade Martin], whose Hero designs include [[Dehaka, Ragnaros, Cassia, Qhira, and others, to translate the back-and-forth bruiser from Overwatch into the Nexus. Zarya was one of Jade's most played Overwatch Heroes, and he knew that he not only needed to create a translation that would pass muster for internal designers, but also bear the scrutiny of diehard Zarya fans. “Anytime we look at bringing a Hero into the Nexus we always consider our fans’ expectations for the character. It’s not just the public either; all of us on the team are huge fans of Blizzard games and lore,” says Jade. Making sure they stay true to expectations means digging into what draws people to these characters and “finding the core of what players love and translating it into the gameplay experience. We target that early and make it our goal.” says Jade.

Just like in Overwatch, Jade and the team knew that Zarya's core gameplay needed to be that in-your-face, “hit me and see what happens” style. With that in mind, Zarya was originally destined to become a tank whose primary purpose was one of standing up front and taking the hits for her team. However, the unique aspects of her original abilities screamed for her to take on more of a hybrid bruiser role, where she could exist at the frontlines and be a lethal threat if played well.

Translating a character initially designed in a first-person shooter over to something played from a top-down perspective meant that certain sacrifices had to be made. One was losing the component of “aim” that acts as a major skill determiner in FPS games. To retain some skill-based reflex checking, Zarya's alternate fire (shooting orbs of energy) became a spammable accuracy-reliant ability in Heroes. To further reward those players who knew they had the chops, Jade says they created talents like “Pinpoint Accuracy” which grants bonus damage if you hit those perfect shots.

The Overwatch design team was involved throughout the process of re-imagining Zarya for Heroes. When it came time to create a second Heroic Ability (the Heroes of the Storm equivalent to an ultimate), Jade and the Overwatch team collaborated and even dug up some of Zarya’s early ability explorations before creating the zone-controlling counterpart to Graviton Surge, Expulsion Zone. In addition to these design riffing sessions, Overwatch designers were also brought into early playtests, to make sure that the “feel” for Zarya in the Nexus was a true representation of what they originally created.

Trivia

 * Zarya first appeared in Overwatch (May 2016).
 * Zarya is voiced by Dolya Gavanski.
 * Zarya was one of the two heroes revealed at Gamescom 2016.
 * She is also the second Overwatch hero in the game, the first being Tracer.