Overwatch 2 tier list - the best characters to play in 2024

Who are the best Overwatch 2 heroes? With 41 heroes to pick from, starting in Blizzard’s hero shooter can be pretty daunting, and it’s not always easy to tell how strong your chosen character is when you’re constantly coming up against different counters and team comps.

Of course, just because we say a hero is a must-pick doesn’t mean you can’t do a better job with your preferred main character, but most players should be able to look at this Overwatch 2 tier list for a quick snapshot of who to play and why. Join us as we rank every hero in the free PC game, from the titanic tanks to squishy supports.

Overwatch 2 tier list

First off, some housekeeping. Our Overwatch 2 tier list isn’t divided up into specific roles, but we have a hero for each role represented in every bracket. S tier is the highest category and represents heroes who are at the pinnacle of the game’s meta and don’t require specific team comps or strategies to dominate with. A tier picks aren’t necessarily worse than their S tier counterparts, but they’re generally harder to use and get the best out of. B, C, and D tier follow suit, representing the lower echelons of Overwatch 2’s roster.

Here is our Overwatch 2 tier list:

S tier

D.Va

With one of the most effective ultimates in the game and a rounded kit, D.Va is as strong as ever. Her mobility makes her especially effective at hunting down damage and supporting heroes, and you can do a lot of work if you can successfully breach the enemy backline as part of a dive comp. In addition to this, D.Va’s Defense Matrix directly counters a number of powerful abilities, including Moira’s Biotic Orb, Reinhardt’s Fire Strike, and Ana’s Sleep Dart. Finally, her Explosion got a buff from 900 to 1,000 damage, and the damage falloff now begins at six meters, which is a staggering huge upgrade.

Winston

Winston’s charged railgun attack means he can now deal substantially more burst damage when diving onto the scene. This charged attack also gives you more options when it comes to picking your approach. For example, if you land a charged shot on a support backline Hero, you can leap in and finish them off pretty quickly. You can also play Winston from a much safer distance, giving him more survivability – that’s essential for Overwatch 2’s solo tanks.

The great ape saw many buffs during the Season 9 patch, now sporting 225 health and 250 armor, as well as increased punching damage from 40 to 50 via his Primal Rage ability and his Tesla Cannon’s primary fire, increasing damage from 60 to 75 damage per second. You’ll need to change your playstyle from how you probably played Winston in the past, so you’re ambushing around corners rather than poking around them to take out foes.

Reaper

Reaper remains the premier tank-buster and is especially potent against off-tanks like D.Va and Winston. With tons of damage to his name and a kit that allows him to reposition and devastate, Reaper is in a great spot right now. As the meta has moved away from hard healers like Mercy, Reaper’s self-healing is even more valuable than ever.

Tracer

Tracer is the face of Overwatch and one of the most difficult heroes to play in the game. With her paltry max health, Tracer can be wiped out quickly if you aren’t careful. That said, her mobility is excellent, and she’s by far the best character in the meta right now, combined with certain characters who also have huge buffs.

On top of this, Tracer can be good for zipping in and destroying squishy heroes with one strong burst of damage. She’s also one of the very few glass cannons fast enough to evade Roadhog’s hook, and she’s a great alternative to mobile flankers like Genji and Sombra, who have been hit hard with nerfs. We also see her being used alongside Wrecking Ball, as he is now a far more viable tank.

Lúcio

Playing as Lúcio can sometimes feel like you’re not helping the team all that much, but constant passive healing with well-timed ultimates makes Lúcio an asset for any team. His high mobility is great for attracting attention away from the heroes you’re healing, and his soundwave – or boop – makes him lethal on maps with bottomless pits and cliffs to knock enemies off of. This got a huge buff in Season 9, as it now does 35 damage, 12% knockback, and an increased movement lockout duration of 0.45 seconds, and it’s not really been nerfed much since.

Keep your ult handy, and you can effectively cancel out enemy ults to flip the situation completely in your favor. Timing his projectiles isn’t easy, but once you get the hang of it, you can provide a lot of damage output. Pairing him with Ana can lead to some incredible speed and nano-boosted attacks, and a well-timed anti-nade on top of the sound barrier can swing team fights heavily in your favor.

Brigitte

As a melee support with some tank potential, Brigitte offers her teammates a suite of passive buffs and protection. She can also score kills when you combo her mace attacks and shield bash – though we recommend using the latter as an escape rather than as part of a full-frontal assault.

Her health is now higher thanks to the near-universal health rework, increasing to 200 from 150, and the Rocket Flail got a buff from 35 for 45 damage. That’s significant because it means that, along with Zenyatta’s buffs, we are seeing the return of the combo these two heroes had in the first Overwatch. She’s still not the best in her field, but she’s worth learning in case one of your teammates decides to main a frail character like Tracer.

Sombra

Sombra received a rework in Overwatch 2, placing less emphasis on her disabling abilities while increasing her damage output. Her hacking ability now attaches a massive damage amplifier to the target, which you can apply while invisible, which is ideal for a backline assault. Sombra excels when paired with dive-oriented heroes such as Winston or Genji, and they’re both in a fantastic place. Also, her EMPs will just shut down anyone nearby, making her a great support choice.

Kiriko

Kiriko stands out as Blizzard’s main way of bringing DPS users to switch to support. Her healing output is impressive on its own merit, but it’s also supplemented further by Kiriko’s incredible mobility and shockingly high damage output. To top it off, she can provide her team with temporary invulnerability during clutch moments when the game can be decided in an instant. While she did receive a reduction to her base projectile size, she’s still an excellent option if you fancy experimenting with the support/DPS. Take a look at our complete breakdown of Overwatch 2 Kiriko abilities if you want to see what she’s capable of.

A tier

Doomfist

Doomfist is good at hunting down backliners, snipers, and aerial heroes, but all of his offensive capabilities are only really effective in close-quarters combat. As a dive tank, he doesn’t provide much of a shield for your team, and he’s not as mobile as heroes like Winston. We currently don’t see much of a reason to pick him over the aforementioned monkey.

Echo

This tank-buster is much weaker in Overwatch 2 as her duplicate ability now has a health point cap, preventing you from cloning a tank and steamrolling the enemy team. Despite this, she’s still a highly mobile, highly damaging DPS hero with a diverse arsenal of projectiles, a beam that melts barriers, and the unique ability to duplicate an enemy with her ultimate.

Reinhardt

Arguably the truest tank in Overwatch 2, Reinhardt is good at soaking up enemy fire and bringing the rest of your team into the fights. Though he suffered in Season’s 9 and 10, the tank changes in Season 11 have given him a new lease on life.

Ashe

Overwatch 2’s 5v5 format and highly mobile heroes mean there’s a lot more open space on the battlefield, and that’s had a pretty noticeable effect on the potency of Ashe’s dynamite, which does tons of damage in congested areas. She’s a great damage pick, but you really need to land your shots to get the best out of her now that it’s harder to farm for her ultimate ability with dynamite.

However, her long-range primary fire means she can apply pressure without the threat of melee heroes, and Bob is an excellent tool for routing the enemy and turning the tide of a match. In fact, Bob got a massive buff in Season 9 to the weapon damage from 14 to 17, so he became even better than before.

Baptiste

If you want to play support on the frontline, then Baptiste is an excellent hero. His primary fire makes him genuinely dangerous in the right hands; he can self-heal, and he can provide temporary immortality – roll all that together, and you have a hero that regularly comes in clutch. His Exo Boots also allow you to reach high vantage points, which pairs brilliantly with his range of support throwables; you can escape some ultimates with it. Dedicated Baptiste mains can certainly justify their place on most team comps, but there’s no denying that Kiriko is also a great alternative pick.

Wrecking Ball

Wrecking Ball hadn’t seen much love in Overwatch 2 since launch, but he’s since come into his own after a significant round of buffs. His main strength has always been his massive health pool, making him an exceptionally durable tank. However, a portion of that health has now been converted to a regenerative shield, allowing him to continue to press the advantage without being forced to pull back for healing at vital moments.

That said, Wrecking Ball did have some time to shine during Season 9, but this hamster mech was reworked in Season 10. During the mid-season patch notes, he was also been given buffs in his Grappling Claw damage, Piledriver movement lockout duration, and the effectiveness of his Minefield. He’s pretty solid as a result, but the rework hasn’t made him an overpowered force of nature, which is the right balance for a re-tuned character.

Mei

She might have less crowd-control potential than before, but her weapon no longer freezes enemies in place. Mei is still very good at laying down fire and closing out the objective. With only one tank per team in Overwatch 2, Mei’s ability to stay alive and soak up damage can make her really powerful, especially if you need to hold an area while your tank is healing up. It’s also worth mentioning that using her ice wall to pick off stragglers is still a viable strategy, though the opportunities to do so are a bit more limited in Overwatch 2.

Torbjörn

The Swedish engineer is another victim of Overwatch 2’s fast-paced meta, and while he’s able to chip away at advancing enemies with his turret, most heroes can get around it with ease. His Overload ability is an ideal counter to a one-shot meta, granting him 100 armor and a 30% increase in his movement speed. He’s a bit better now, but only due to the universal health increase across the board.

Ana

Keeping tanks alive is crucial in Overwatch 2, which is why Ana is one of the best supports available – she can both heal your team’s tank and disrupt the enemy’s with sleep darts. Her ability to seamlessly switch between healing friendlies and damaging opposition heroes also makes her versatile and fairly easy to use, despite the fact that she’s a sniper.

To top it off, Ana’s Nano Boost ultimate can completely change a game when used at the perfect time, providing a huge damage boost to friendly heroes. With all the good she can do with the sniping, the only reason she’s really this low down is that the meta is not favoring healers in Season 9, which instead buffed heroes with great damage and mobility. These are not Ana’s primary targets while healing.

Venture

Venture is a budding archeologist, introduced in Season 10, and is one of the freshest characters to date. They can dig through the ground with their drill and emerge from underneath with a huge amount of force. Though they have been rebalanced a few times since joining the roster, this mostly changes impact damage to be lower while damage over time increases, making sense for a drill-based weapon.

Venture can potentially one-shot a player, but if you somehow manage to dodge them, they need a while to recover, making them vulnerable to counterattacks. We do think that Venture is a solid pick, but they’re nowhere near a dominant force.

B tier

Cassidy

Like Hanzo, Cassidy is great when you’re landing every shot and awful if you’re having an off day. His stun grenade has been replaced with a magnetic grenade in Overwatch 2, removing his ability to deal with tanks on his own. The magnetic grenade is highly effective against other DPS heroes, capable of dealing up to 100 damage in under two seconds. Cassidy’s main problem is that he has no chance of survival against certain heroes.

When Cassidy had his flashbang stun, he could compete against most heroes in the game, but now his overall damage output isn’t enough to save him in dangerous situations. Cassidy’s roll is no longer hindered by enemy player collision, but the focus on close-range heroes in the current meta means that this change provides limited scope to help you escape with your life. Thankfully, he’s a bit tankier now with the increased health from Season 9.

Genji

Genji benefited hugely from Overwatch 2’s shift to 5v5 match formats and the removal of crowd control abilities that would previously leave him vulnerable. These nerfs served to reposition Genji in line with the performance of other flanking heroes, but thanks to the recent changes to how hitscan and projectile shots work in Season 9, he’s one of the main beneficiaries.

If you manage to slip behind the backline, you can still chain swift strikes to take out vulnerable heroes like Mercy and Widowmaker, but Genji’s reduced ammo makes it more likely to stall during a reload while diving. To make the most out of Genji’s current kit, it’s vital that you become familiar with the Overwatch 2 maps so you can sneak around more effectively and avoid being caught out.

Pharah

Pharah hasn’t changed much at all, but her aerial mobility and damage output can still prove lethal in the right hands. She’ll require a dedicated healer when coming up against hitscan damage heroes like Soldier 76, particularly as they were the main beneficiaries of the Season 9 patch.

On the rare occasion when the enemy team isn’t running any hitscan heroes, you used to be able to punish them with the deadly Pharah and Mercy combo to deal devastating amounts of damage from the sky.

Ramattra

As the first tempo tank to debut in Blizzard’s hero shooter, Ramattra’s kit is versatile by design. His Omnic form is a defensive stance, giving you access to his Void Accelerator staff and Void Barrier, which can be placed to help your team push a fixed point or retreat accordingly. Alternatively, Ramattra’s Nemesis form can be triggered to deliver an eight-second burst of aggression, imbuing him with the additional armor needed to survive a direct melee assault on the enemy team that ignores shields and barriers.

Ramattra’s been a solid pick right from the get-go, particularly in more linear maps, but he took a significant hit in the Season 9 update in terms of his usefulness. Fortunately, with the recent tank buffs he’s slowly ascending back to prominence. If you’re still getting to grips with the Null Sector leader’s kit, our Overwatch 2 Ramattra abilities primer is sure to help.

Juno

Season 12’s new girl, Juno has already received some tier-altering changes. Though we’ve rated her lower before, Juno’s fire rate nerf was later reverted, massively improving her viability. Though she’s still pretty ultimate-dependent, she currently feels much better to play.

Moira

Moira’s key strengths lie in her survivability thanks to Fade which lets her easily weave in and out of combat, and her ultimate is fantastic for clearing congested areas. Her healing abilities are still as potent as ever, and you don’t need incredible aim to get the most out of Moira. Her Damage Biotic Orb remains a constant threat on the battlefield as it drains health from unsuspecting players in tight areas.

Moira is the type of healer who deals plenty of damage alongside her healing duties, racking up numerous assists for doing very little. Try to pick Moira on smaller maps where it’s easy to heal numerous teammates in enclosed areas. Survivability is the main thing that makes or breaks support, and Moira has the ability to do that better than most characters right now.

Zarya

Zarya suffered a similar fate as Genji. At launch, she enjoyed an excellent standing as one of the best-performing tank heroes. Soon, though, she received a barrage of nerfs to her barriers to increase her window of vulnerability. Thankfully, the mid-season patch mitigated this somewhat by reducing the duration of her energy degeneration and doubling the delay before degeneration begins.

As a result, Zarya can still hold her own – her cannon (which has increased width in Season 9) deals a lot of damage once it’s gained some charge, and her ultimate can take at least one hero out of the fight. The hotfix also increases its minimum damage to 95 and max damage to 190 per second, meaning a significant buff.

Sojourn

It’s easy to think of Sojourn as Soldier 76 but with a much higher skill ceiling. Attacking enemies with Sojourn’s primary weapon charges up her railgun, giving you access to a hitscan beam capable of dealing 200 damage if you land a headshot.

Her ultimate provides constant railgun charge for a short period, and each shot can pierce, so if you’re landing shots, you can wipe a team in seconds. It is smaller now, so you need to be more precise than before, but the damage output is still a concern for opposing heroes.
Sojourn debuted with a truly formidable kit, so it’s no surprise she’s received some nerfs in recent months. Her Disruptor Shot no longer slows enemies caught in its range, which means they’re no longer sitting ducks for some target practice. Additionally, her slide cooldown has been increased by a second, but you’ll still find that you can almost always escape a gunfight with your life. Our Overwatch 2 Sojourn abilities primer has more information about her kit.

Widowmaker

Widowmaker’s ability to take down a support hero with one charged headshot is always going to make her a strong pick in the right hands, especially as that leaves the enemy team’s solo tank vulnerable. Her extreme range means that she can remain at a high vantage point and avoid small skirmishes, with only an opposing Widowmaker serving as an immediate threat, especially thanks to the buff to her shots.

That said, her viability as a team pick is almost entirely map-dependent – she excels on large maps with open spaces but is mostly useless when fighting at close range. If you insist on picking Widowmaker, you need to learn how to play as an additional DPS hero as a backup choice to manage situations where a sniper just won’t cut it.

Orisa

Orisa’s automatic cannon ensures your frontline is always lethal. She can escape imminent death by combining her Fortify and Javelin Spin abilities and disrupting or pushing enemies around with her Energy Javelin. Her Terra Surge ability can now also pierce through barriers, so you no longer have to rely on your team to break through enemy defenses.

Orisa’s health bonus provided by her Fortify ability has been reduced from 125 to 75 to deal with her defensive wall, but with strong support behind her, it’ll be tough for enemies to rout her, thanks to her armor increase from 275 to 350. However, her main job is to shoot at the enemy and keep them at bay until someone falls. There have been a few nerfs to her Fortify and Javelin Spin, but they’ve so far had little effect.

C tier

Sigma

Sigma was no slouch in Overwatch 1, but a recent slew of buffs has turned him into an incredibly strong tank pick. His new HP total makes him a lot more durable, and he now poses a real threat to the majority of heroes, as you can combo his spheres and rock attack to dish out tons of damage. Sigma excels on maps with a lot of congested areas as it’s almost impossible to miss his projectiles, and his Gravitic Flux ultimate can separate aggressive enemies from the pack, allowing your hitscan teammates to dispatch them with ease. There will be times on certain maps where you may feel like you’re doing nothing, though.

Hanzo

As always, if you can hit your shots with Hanzo, he’s one of the best damage heroes in the game. That’s a pretty big if, though, especially with Overwatch 2’s increased mobility and one less enemy hero to aim at. When paired with the right set of heroes, Hanzo’s ultimate is capable of wiping out entire teams on the spot, but his inability to deal with heroes with high mobility makes him a hard sell.

Illari

Introduced in season 6, Illari quickly became one of the go-to healers in both competitive and esports-level play. She fell down the ranks in Season 9 due to major game changes, but has now managed to return to her rightful place.

Junker Queen

Proving to be a bit too powerful as both an attacker and tank in the beta, Junker Queen’s abilities were nerfed at launch to make her less of a threat. She’s since received buffs to several abilities during Overwatch 2 season 2, including her passive, which now heals for the additional wound damage remaining on enemies after they die with the wound effect applied. Carnage’s cooldown has also been reduced by two seconds for each enemy it impacts, increasing the chance to apply wounds in a skirmish and net that additional healing.

Junker Queen has since fallen in the rankings despite a buff to her health from 300 to 375 and her Rampage wound damage over time increasing to 90 from 60, but the other buffs to other characters outshine her new update. Be sure to check out our Overwatch 2 Junker Queen abilities guide for more helpful tips.

Junkrat

On maps with lots of tight corridors, Junkrat used to be a devastating pick. While his trap has been heavily nerfed in Overwatch 2, no longer pinning players who step into it, that hasn’t slowed his roll. On the contrary, he’s got a two-hit combo that’s possible to pull off by dropping a concussion mine at the same time as flinging a grenade, which is lethal to squishier targets that drift into close range. The Season 9 hotfix also significantly buffed his Concussion mines so that the cooldown is decreased to seven seconds, while his minimum damage is 55 and maximum is 120. That said, with all the buffs to health and the nerf to his projectile size, it’s unlikely that anyone’s dying to his traps.

And that’s the issue with Junkrat. He just didn’t have much going for him outside of a few niche cases on certain maps at the beginning of Season 9, and now even those tricks are heavily compromised by the various health and armor buffs across the board. At least Junkrat’s ultimate has always been strong, capable of wiping whole teams at bottlenecks or disrupting a reinforced line of defense on the point.

Mercy

Ouch. The impact on healers in Season 9 did a number on Mercy. She still brings value with her ability to boost damage for allies, but this support-based character is otherwise not worth bothering with. Here’s hoping you find a really good Pharah player to pocket, as they can do some work with your involvement, but she’s far from the best support in the game.

Bastion

Despite receiving a rework, Bastion is still a little too much of a sitting duck in Overwatch 2. While he has strong DPS potential against agile tanks like Winston, the meta has skewed so far toward a slower pace that you’ll likely not reap that benefit. That said, this potential does extend to support characters, which Bastion can dispatch with ease. It’s certainly possible to secure a match with Bastion on your team, but his dependence on support heroes to help him perform at his best means sacrificing your team’s composition, and it’s rarely worth the trade-off.

Symmetra

If any hero needs a revamp right now, it’s Symmetra. Her kit was relatively effective in the first game as it charged off shields, but with one less tank on the battlefield, she’s not as potent, which leaves her open to dives from the roster’s more agile heroes. Symmetra has seen some use as part of rush comps purely due to her ability to teleport the team out onto the field at the beginning of a match – anything to get one step closer to the objective than the enemy team.

Roadhog

Forget the top dog, here’s the bottom hog. Roadhog has easily benefitted least from the tank changes in Season 11, leaving him lagging behind the rest of the pack. Though he can still stick out a mean hook, he’s not going to have a fun time against the shield-based or high-mobility tanks/off-tanks that are currently dominating the meta.

Mauga

Mauga had been causing players headaches due to his overwhelming power as a tank. While the usual tank counters work against Mauga, you had to play perfectly to take him down. However, as other tanks have become even more powerful with the Season 11 changes, Mauga’s fallen down the pecking order.

Soldier 76

There are plenty of powerful DPS heroes in Overwatch 2, but Soldier 76 has one of the simplest and most effective kits of the lot. He can sprint and self-heal, which is great for escaping a pinch, but really, his strength lies in the amount of damage he can put out with his standard assault rifle. His large ammo clip and forgiving rate of fire ensure beginners and pros will get on with this damage stalwart, but in many respects, he can be seen as a stepping stone for higher-performing heroes. Hitscan heroes got a major buff in Season 9, meaning that his shots do more damage, and he has an increased health pool from 200 to 250.

D tier

Lifeweaver

The main problem with Lifeweaver is that he’s a jack of all trades, and while that might sound like a good thing for some characters, this is awful for a supporting character whose main purpose is to keep their team alive. Lifeweaver’s healing is far too slow to be effective, and he has the added annoying factor of his healing potentially helping the other team – a problem no other hero has.

Zenyatta

Zenyatta is arguably the hardest support hero to master due to his high skill ceiling, forcing players to get to grips with his strange abilities. It’s worth learning his gameplay style, though, as his ultimate can single-handedly thwart any coordinated attack by providing the team with constant healing for five seconds. In addition to this, his Orb of Discord, which got bigger in Season 9, was very strong, and the current meta is to keep the orb on Tracer for the entire game, which is extremely powerful. Combined with a decent Brigitte, it could be devastating. However, since then, he’s been nerfed drastically.

Despite shining brightly in Season 9, his stats have gone way down and the effectiveness of the tanks has increased immensely in season 11.

That’s all there is to know about the current Overwatch 2 tier list and meta. Check out our Overwatch 2 characters guide to discover more about the latest heroes joining the roster. Alternatively, take a look at the best Overwatch 2 crosshair settings for your chosen character, which can give you the edge while climbing the Overwatch 2 ranks in competitive mode.