Since the release of Overwatch 2, players have tested various strategies in order to find the most effective ways to climb in the ranks. Here are the top five strongest heroes when played competitively in Season 2.
Road Hog
In Overwatch, the tank role is intended to pose a threat to the enemy team and gain control over important areas on the map. Despite being assigned to the tank role, Road Hog ignores this principle almost as much as he ignores any semblance of good game balancing. If you try to play around corners or work to control high ground, you may actually find yourself playing in the spawn room after being hooked and cooked from across the map. Players will often address this outcome as a result of poor positioning, but the absence of shields has exposed a major issue with Road Hog’s design, ultimately resulting in one of the most frustrating heroes to play against right now.
Orisa
Orisa was already a strong pick close to full release, but now she exists as one of the only answers to Road Hog during a match. This hero has multiple ways to mitigate both damage and projectiles with her fortify and javelin spin, and can stun Road Hog out of his heal or hook combo. Flankers attempting to damage your team’s supports will need to be mindful of when you have your javelin toss available, or face the potential of being stunned. The character recently received a change where her ultimate can damage through shields, which will also enable more opportunities to make plays against heroes with shields.
Sojourn
As one of the most detested heroes in higher ranks, Sojourn is widely considered to be the best hero in the game when used by the right hands. When receiving damage boosts from heroes such as Mercy, Sojourn’s charged railgun can erase nearly half the character roster in a single hit. Despite having such high damage output, the ability only takes about two seconds to fully charge. If the player ever finds themselves with poor positioning, they can easily escape any danger with Sojourn’s power slide ability. With such a massive damage output, it is a miracle that Sojourn made it past playtesting.
Kiriko
As a support character, Kiriko provides plenty of utility for her team. In comparison to other supports, however, her kit is fairly overtuned. Her primary fire, while slow, deals 120 damage when landing a critical hit, making it difficult for flankers to approach her without losing over half their health bar. In addition to high damage output is the ability to teleport to teammates, which can even travel through walls. Kiriko has a fairly controversial ability, ‘Protection Suzu,’ which instantly cleanses all negative effects and makes the affected teammate invincible for 0.85 seconds. Due to the ability to provide invincibility for team mates on a moderate cooldown, it becomes difficult for enemies to finish off targets. Lastly, Kiriko’s ultimate was deemed to be one of the strongest in the game for raising her entire team’s action speed such as fire rate and ability recharge rates, the ultimate recently received a reduction in its scaling. Having a strong and consistent kit makes Kiriko one of the best heroes to play right now.
Ana
Another consistent hero is Ana, who can provide strong healing from long range. On a moderate cooldown, her ‘Biotic Grenade’ not only amplifies her team mate’s healing received by 50%, but also completely prevents enemies from healing. The ability can shut down many support abilities and, when used in the right hands, can easily turn the tide of a fight. Biotic Grenade’s effect duration was recently increased from 3 to 4 seconds, granting more windows of opportunity for allies. To cover up her weakness of having low mobility, Ana can fire a sleep dart at enemies which will stun them for an entire 5 seconds unless woken up with damage. Ana’s ultimate is especially strong during engagements, as she can boost a single ally’s damage reduction and output at once, allowing her teammates to perform above their potential. Common targets for her ultimate are Genji while he uses his own ultimate, or the team’s tank to gain more control of the map. If Ana can stay alive throughout team fights, she will provide massive amounts of resources over time.
If you want to bring your A game into Overwatch 2, consider taking a pick from this list. Although these heroes may be the best when played optimally, there are still plenty of options for players to choose in their own games. The main goal of any video game should always be to have fun, but if winning is the end all be all, you have now the knowledge to claim a spot on the leaderboards.
