There are 30 heroes in Overwatch to choose from with a variety of strengths and weaknesses. With six players on each team, that creates a huge number of choices to make in order to win any given match. This is a game about picking the right hero at the right time and learning to adapt to your own team just as much as you adapt to the enemy team.
Overwatch also has a significant range of skill levels across its player-base. So this tier list can only recommend you the best heroes for most people — not everyone. If you watch any Overwatch League game, you’ll see that heroes like Sombra, for instance, are incredibly potent in the current meta. However, her power comes with a cost: she relies on team coordination. For many players, the self-healing and generally self-reliant hero, Soldier: 76, is a better pick. This guide will help you choose heroes that are reliable, easy to learn, and the least demanding of your five other teammates.
- Overwatch Beginners Guide – Heroes, Modes, Tips, and Basics
- Overwatch Moira Guide – How to Heal and Damage Efficiently
- Overwatch’s Ashe Is Uninspired but Might Be My New Main
Overwatch Tank Hero Tier List
Tank heroes are the backbone of Overwatch. They initiate team fights that lead to captured or contested objectives. They posses some of the strongest ultimates in the game and the kind of abilities that enable your teammates to deal massive damage. A tank’s huge health pool also allows you to take attention away from your allies and still make an impact.
D.Va – Rank S
For all maps and almost any enemy team composition, D.Va is the tank of choice. She has a whopping 600 health and the ability to delete most bullets, projectiles, and ultimate abilities out of the air with Defense Matrix. Her boosters let her control high ground and contest deadly sniper heroes like Widowmaker and Hanzo. She can also chase down flanking heroes like Genji and Tracer who try to hurt your supports. On top of all of that, her Self-Destruct ultimate can take out several enemies at once, or zone out an entire portion of the map.
Reinhardt – Rank S
Reinhardt is one of the original tanks that launched with the game. And he’s still near the top for a good reason: he’s a stalwart rock in most games. His massive, 2000-health barrier shield and 500 hero health make him a powerful wall to rally behind. A good Reinhardt will protect an entire team from long-range heroes. He also has the ability to charge forward and pin people to walls, which deals tons of damage if he doesn’t kill a target outright.
His ultimate, Earthshatter, can hit and stun all six enemies and set up amazing combos with other ultimates. Reinhardt struggles with verticality but, for most players, he’s the tough leader you need to survive intense battles.
- Zarya – Rank A
- Orisa – Rank A
- Roadhog – Rank B
- Winston – Rank B
- Wrecking Ball – Rank C (technically potent, but very complicated and relies on teamwork)
Overwatch Support Hero Tier List
Support heroes enable everything in Overwatch. They restore health, but also increase damage and outright save their allies. Some of them have strong healing output (like Moira and Mercy). Others offer considerably less healing, but way more utility. Supports are typically weak and easily punished by heroes like Genji and Doomfist. If played well, however, they can be the primary factor behind winning games.
Baptiste – Rank S
Baptiste has high, easy-to-use utility that’s better than most other supports in the game. He doesn’t have Lucio’s speed boost or Zenyatta’s Discord Orbs, but he has immense healing output, Immortality Field, and a damage-boosting Ultimate. He works with any other healer in the game’s roster and can make up for a lack of damage in your own team comp if needed. Baptiste does it all and also offers room for high-skill players to use his abilities in clutch, game-deciding moments.
Ana – Rank S
If you like to play snipers, but want to directly aid your teammates, Ana is the pick for you. She doles out huge health at long-range with her Biotic Rifle. She can also drop a burst of healing with her Biotic Grenade to multiple allies. Nano Boost, her ultimate, doesn’t just heal, either. It gives an ally 50 percent damage reduction and increases their damage dealt by another 50 percent.
Anyone hit with a Nano Boost can solo kill several enemies in short order. So the ultimate is commonly combined with Reinhardts and Genjis to turn the tide of team fights. Ana can even put opponents to sleep, stunning them for about five seconds. It’s a quick way to guarantee a kill, stop an ultimate ability, or save yourself from close-range baddies.
- Moira – Rank A
- Zenyatta – Rank A
- Lucio – Rank B
- Brigitte – Rank B (previously rank S)
- Mercy – Rank D (still in the lowest rank, but suffered even more nerfs in the last patch)
Overwatch Damage Hero Tier List
Overwatch has 16 damage heroes. Each damage hero has their uses, even the role is increasingly less important in the current meta. That makes it incredibly difficult to recommend any one hero in particular — and even harder to rank them. If you’re looking to play damage heroes, you need to practice switching mid-match and discovering which ones work with your team composition. Their role is to provide consistent damage output, secure kills, and win fights with their aggressive ultimates.
Hanzo – Rank S
Hanzo’s bow and arrows take some getting used to. His shots take time to charge and the arrows have travel time. They also gradually drop as they fly through the air. That said, Blizzard has made the speed of arrows at mid-range almost instant. And the new Storm Arrow ability allows you to fire several arrows at full charge at once.
Hanzo can destroy barriers and tanks with ease and his ultimate, Dragonstrike, can fly through walls to clear out enemy positions. He can also headshot enemies for instant kills. That can very suddenly and surprisingly turn the fight in your favor. If anyone jumps you, you can even Leap to safety and fire off more arrows in response.
Soldier: 76 – Rank A
Soldier: 76 holds a powerful rifle that can instantly connect with enemies over long ranges. He can heal himself and has the ability to burst damage enemies with his Helix Rockets. He’s a reliable pick for most team compositions. Although his ultimate, Tactical Visor, isn’t as useful against teams with barriers. It simply automatically locks his aim onto enemies. You still can’t really go wrong with Soldier: 76, though—especially if the enemy team has a Pharah raining rockets from above.
- Junkrat – Rank A
- Reaper – Rank A
- Ashe – Rank A (newly added)
- Pharah – Rank B
- McCree – Rank B
- Mei – Rank B (previously rank D)
- Sombra – Rank B (previously rank C — a great pro hero, but too demanding for normal teams)
- Tracer – Rank C
- Genji – Rank C
- Bastion – Rank C (previously rank D)
- Widowmaker – Rank C
- Torbjorn – Rank C (previously rank D)
- Doomfist – Rank D (previously rank C)
- Symmetra – Rank D
Please bear in mind that our March 2019 Overwatch tier list won’t be valid forever! There are always upcoming balance changes and new heroes on the way. So this tier list is forever subject to change. And, as always, you should focus on the heroes you have the most fun playing. That being said, these are the heroes you should generally look to practice if you just want to improve at the game and secure as many wins as possible.
