June 18, 2026: We added Shion to our Overwatch tier list. Expect further changes as we get to grips with Season 3.
Who are the best Overwatch heroes? With 51 heroes to pick from as of Season 2, knowing where to start in Blizzard’s hero shooter can be pretty daunting. 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 Overwatch characters. That said, most players should be able to look at this Overwatch tier list for a quick snapshot of who to play and why. Join us as we rank every Overwatch hero in the free PC game, from the titanic tanks to squishy supports.
Overwatch tier list
First off, some housekeeping. S-tier is the highest category and represents heroes at the pinnacle of the game’s meta who 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 tiers follow suit, representing the lower echelons of Overwatch’s roster.
While there are some similarities, it’s worth pointing out that our Overwatch Stadium codes for DPS, support, and tank roles don’t align perfectly with this guide. If you’re interested in Overwatch Stadium, our guides break down what makes each character powerful in this separate game mode.
Here is our Overwatch tier list for Season 2:
Tier
Heroes
S
Domina, Sojourn, Zarya, Illari, Sigma, Echo, Pharah
A
Shion, Vendetta, Emre, Jetpack Cat, Tracer, Lúcio, Juno, Hazard, D’Va, Ramattra, Ashe, Cassidy, Zenyatta, Symmetra, Junker Queen, Brigitte, Mauga, Widowmaker, Kiriko, Wrecking Ball, Ana, Genji, Winston
B
Freja, Sierra, Mizuki, Anran, Wuyang, Doomfist, Venture, Reaper, Soldier 76, Orisa, Mei, Baptiste, Junkrat, Moira, Torbjörn
C
Lifeweaver, Sombra, Reinhardt, Hanzo, Roadhog, Bastion
D
Mercy
S tier
Domina
As a hitscan tank, Domina performs at her best when she’s dishing out damage from range behind her large barrier array shield. Though the shield can be broken into segments, it’s big enough that she can easily reposition herself to stay protected. Strong position awareness is critical with Domina as she’s able to combo all of her main abilities together when she has a wall nearby to stun nearby enemies.
Domina’s ultimate ability is like a reverse Zarya bubble, stopping enemies from dealing damage and receiving healing, culminating in an explosion when the crystal bubble bursts. This can be devastating when used at the correct time, instantly putting a stop to an incoming attack. Just as we suspected, Domina has risen to the highest tier now that players have mastered her abilities.
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. Don’t let her overall win rate deceive you: in the right hands, Sojourn is easily one of the best characters in the entire game.
Zarya
Zarya has regularly maintained an excellent standing as one of the best-performing tank heroes. There was a period of time when she wasn’t as popular after receiving a barrage of nerfs, but she has since returned to power.
Zarya has a high skill ceiling, rewarding players who can identify the best time to deploy her barriers. Her cannon deals a lot of damage once it’s gained some charge, and used tactically alongside other ultimates, her Graviton Surge ultimate can easily swing the game in your favor by helping take out multiple enemies.
Illari
Illari has quickly become one of the go-to healers in both competitive and esports-level play. She initially fell down the ranks due to major game changes and has since struggled to be more than a middling pick. Illari has reestablished herself as one of the top support picks thanks to a rather small damage buff, featuring some of the highest win rates across all ranks.
Sigma
Whenever D.Va and Domina receive a hero ban, you can almost guarantee that you’re going to face up against Sigma. He poses a real threat to the majority of heroes, combining his damage abilities to wipe out the bulk of the cast within seconds.
Sigma excels on maps with numerous 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 easily.
Echo
Echo received a massive buff in Season 2, allowing her to duplicate allied heroes. This might not seem like a big deal to most casual players, but to organized groups, this will be a game changer moving forward. We’ve already seen her win rate rise across the higher levels of competitive play as a result of this considerable upgrade. In addition, she’s a highly mobile, tank-busting DPS hero with a diverse arsenal of projectiles, a beam that melts barriers, and the unique ability to duplicate an enemy with her ultimate.
Pharah
Pharah has received several incremental buffs to bring her back into the spotlight, with the recent improvements to her Concussive Force perk turning her into a killing machine. On top of this, her incredible aerial mobility makes her a nightmare to deal with, forcing enemies to counterpick to hitscan heroes.
The classic Pharmercy combo used to be deadly at all levels of play, but these days, Pharah pairs best with Illari, creating a destructive force that can control the battlefield.
A tier
Shion
Shion may not necessarily be the most powerful Overwatch hero in the roster, but as 0f her release she’s certainly its most popular. The Hashimoto Clan elder is ridiculously fun to play, with a kit that’s perfect for flanking and isolating targets. In terms of feeling, we reckon she sits somewhere between Tracer and Cassidy – a not overly frenetic, but still decently mobile handgun-touting DPS.
Vendetta
Vendetta is the newest melee DPS hero added to the game in Season 20. Equipped with a greatsword, she receives a movement and attack speed buff with each strike thanks to her passive ability, turning her into a spinning blade of death once you start racking up kills. Vendetta’s sword can be used defensively, capable of reducing incoming fire by 75%, and most importantly, it blocks 100% of physical damage, making her very strong against certain heroes.
While Vendetta should be incredibly easy to counter due to her limited options when being attacked from range, her damage output is so strong she can usually wipe out any of the most dangerous threats with little to no effort. Vendetta received some nerfs in Season 2, and they seem to have worked, knocking her win rate down enough for us to drop her down to A tier.
Emre
During Emre’s initial reveal, he seemed like the most boring of the five heroes announced for Season 1 due to his shared characteristics with Soldier 76. After seeing Emre in action, it’s clear he’s a lot more than a Soldier 76 replacement thanks to his burst rifle’s impressive damage output and lack of recoil.
While his mobility is poor using the rifle, he can switch to his sidearm to gain a speed buff. When combined with his Heat Sink major perk which buffs his pistol even further, he can gun down opponents when they get too close. He also has access to two bouncing grenades, the perfect ender to a 1v1 fight. Emre’s ultimate ability essentially turns him into a stronger version of Pharah for a short period of time, and while he’s vulnerable during this window, this can be mitigated with the help of his support teammates.
Jetpack Cat
Jetpack Cat’s kit is unlike almost every other hero in the game, allowing her to pick up allies and transport them across the battlefield. While her movement in the air is slow, she comes equipped with boosters to fly through the sky at blistering speeds. Her ability to disrupt the enemy team by tethering them away from the action is incredibly strong, though we suspect this may get nerfed down the line.
Jetpack Cat is already disrupting meta, but only on specific maps where you can bypass traditional routes. As a pure support character, her healing is on the lower side, so if you don’t have the opportunity to surprise the enemy team with a stealthy flanking maneuver, it’s difficult to provide any utility to your team. She was incredibly powerful at launch, but has since been toned down after Blizzard noticed players kept banning her at the start of every match.
Tracer
Tracer is the face of Overwatch and one of the most difficult heroes to play in the game. With her paltry health pool, Tracer can be wiped out quickly if you aren’t paying attention. Her excellent mobility makes up for this, allowing you to teleport past explosives and hazards on the battlefield, making her one of the best characters in the meta right now.
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.
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 from.
Keep your ultimate handy, and you can effectively cancel enemy ultimates 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.
Juno
Juno shook up the meta when she was introduced in Season 12, and the nerfs she received in Season 13 didn’t stop her from dominating. Juno’s ability to heal from a distance and having the option to dart in and out of combat makes her incredibly useful, and it helps that she has one of the most busted ultimates in the game.
Juno’s Mediblaster was hit by nerfs to its falloff range and overall healing, but her mobility remains untouched, ensuring her viability as one of the game’s best support heroes.
Hazard
An incredibly mobile tank, Hazard excels at diving in and out of combat and can focus on vulnerable enemy backlines with ease. Hazard has both single-target DPS abilities, and his ultimate showers a huge area with spikes, damaging any enemies caught in the radius. He can also scale some walls, giving him unique angles of attack.
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 many powerful abilities, including Moira’s Biotic Orb, Reinhardt’s Fire Strike, and Ana’s Sleep Dart.
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, providing you with 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.
Ashe
Ashe is a great damage pick, capable of racking up huge amounts of damage in congested areas. That said, 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. 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.
Cassidy
Undeniably one of the best flankers in Overwatch, Cassidy excels in the hands of strong aimers who rarely miss their targets. Equipped with a magnetic grenade, he’s able to burst mobile heroes down in a few short clicks. His biggest problem is that he struggles against sturdy shields, rendering his lethal headshot damage practically useless. His ultimate is also difficult to get a lot of value from, requiring other abilities like Zarya’s Graviton Surge to truly shine.
Zenyatta
Zenyatta is 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.
Symmetra
One of the most polarizing heroes in Overwatch, Symmetra’s turrets allow her to dominate certain maps, rewarding strategic players who can come up with game-winning ideas on the spot. Symmetra’s teleport can swing matches in her team’s favor as it allows her to catch the opposing team off guard, but this is easier said than done. There’s a reason she’s a popular pick at the highest level of play, requiring the team to be built around her unique abilities.
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, including her passive, which now heals for the additional wound damage remaining on enemies after they die with the wound effect applied. As the Overwatch Seasons have trundled on, Junker Queen has settled into a comfortable spot as a mid-high-tier hero. A safe bet for a tank main, you’ll seldom suffer for playing her.
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. Brigitte is still an incredibly versatile hero and can keep your team topped up on health with each swing of her mace.
Mauga
Mauga can cause players headaches due to his overwhelming power as a tank. While the usual tank counters work against Mauga, you have to play perfectly to take him down. In Season 19, he’s not quite as imposing as he has been in the past, but he remains a decent pick.
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.
Kiriko
Kiriko stands out as Blizzard’s way of bringing DPS users to switch to support. Her healing output is already impressive, but it’s also supplemented further by Kiriko’s incredible mobility and shockingly high damage output.
She can provide her team with temporary invulnerability during clutch moments when the game can be decided instantly. It appears the incremental nerfs have finally caught up to Kiriko in Season 20, as we see her win rate take a big hit across all ranks. At a tournament level, Kiriko is still a must-pick hero, but for everyone else, you might have a difficult time with her.
Wrecking Ball
Wrecking Ball has ebbed and flowed in viability since launch. His main strength has always been his mobility, massive health pool, and regenerative shield, making him an exceptionally durable tank that can get about. Featuring one of the highest win rates at grandmaster rank, Wrecking Ball is incredibly powerful thanks to his ability to swing the game state without requiring much help from his teammates.
Ana
Keeping tanks alive is crucial in Overwatch, 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 friendly heroes and damaging opposition heroes also makes her versatile and fairly easy to use, even though she’s a sniper. Ana’s Nano Boost ultimate can completely change a game when used at the perfect time, providing a huge damage boost to friendly heroes.
Genji
Genji is at his best when he can slip behind enemy lines to take out vulnerable heroes like Mercy and Widowmaker. His shurikens aren’t particularly strong, but they become lethal when chained together with his dash and melee attacks. To make the most out of Genji’s kit, you must become familiar with the Overwatch maps so you can sneak around more effectively and avoid being caught out.
Winston
Winston is a fantastic diver who can both protect his team with his domed bubble shield and leap into the enemy backline to cause havoc. Equipped with an electrifying Tesla cannon, he can jump into the fray and eliminate weakened heroes without breaking a sweat. Winston’s biggest problem is that he’s easily countered by heroes like Reaper and Bastion, but this is something you can work around with enough experience.
B tier
Freja
Season 16 inductee Freja had a pretty rough landing, not quite living up to her ultra-mobile power fantasy and finding herself buried by heroes like Hanzo and Ashe, who could dish out more DPS. Since the hotfix buffs to her mobility tools, she’s carved out her niche as a top-tier complementary pick to dive comps.
Sierra
The newest arrival in Season 2, Sierra is an agile DPS hero who can reach areas that most heroes struggle to reach using her drone, giving her a target to grapple towards. Her primary weapon is very similar to Sojourn’s gun, except it loses the railgun shot and replaces it with a tracer dart that gives Sierra auto-aim for a short period of time. A downside to the tracer dart is that it stops you from landing headshots, drastically reducing her potential damage output.
Sierra’s ultimate is by far the best part of her kit thanks to its relatively low energy cost, sending her drone to carpet bomb the area directly ahead, causing huge amounts of damage to anyone standing in the area. While she was initially lower down on our tier list, the emergency Sierra buffs have seen her skyrocket up an entire tier. Sierra seems to be strong at low ranks, but she doesn’t quite match up to the best DPS heroes at the highest level.
Mizuki
Mizuki has the highest skill ceiling out of the Season 1 characters due to his risky playstyle, forcing him to get close to the action before he can truly influence the game. While Mizuki’s weapon is strong, it’s difficult to land hits with it consistently due to its slow firing speed, effectively making battles at medium to long range unwinnable.
Mizuki needs to take advantage of his ability to teleport out of danger, but it only lasts five seconds, the movement speed buff is shockingly low, and it pushes him out of the space that he thrives in. His ultimate is useful at stopping enemies from a distance, and it usually maxes out his healing multiplier, increasing the team’s survivability after use. He’s received several buffs to his healing aura since his arrival, making him much better than he once was.
Anran
Anran’s gameplay loop is easy to understand: burn the opponent, then fan the flames until they die. Unfortunately, igniting enemies can be difficult to do unless you’re exceptional at landing headshots or you’re willing to take a huge risk and rush into enemies using Anran’s dash. Without the burn effect active, Anran’s damage is significantly worse, making her largely ineffective.
Anran’s choice of two ultimates, not to mention her phasing ability that makes her invulnerable for a few seconds, makes her exceptionally annoying to contend with. She’s able to revive on the battlefield whenever she has her ultimate available, with the main downside being that the opposing team is made aware that she can resurrect on the spot.
Wuyang
The new support hero introduced in Season 18, Wuyang utilizes healing technology from Wuxing University’s Water College to help keep his teammates alive. There’s clear potential in his water-based abilities, particularly his primary attack, allowing you to control a water orb to deal damage from afar. As of Season 19, Wuyang received slight nerfs, but they weren’t enough to knock him down the ranks.
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 randomly pick him over the aforementioned monkey.
Venture
Venture 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.
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 should be in a great spot. However, the speed of the game in the current meta makes it hard for him to have an impact.
Soldier 76
There are plenty of powerful DPS heroes in Overwatch, 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 considered a stepping stone for higher-performing heroes. Soldier 76 received a buff in Season 2, allowing him to reload while sprinting, absorbing one of his major perks into his kit.
Orisa
Orisa’s automatic cannon ensures your front line 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 also pierce through barriers, so you no longer have to rely on your team to break through enemy defenses. Her ability to stay on the battlefield is practically unrivaled, and she provides enough utility that most teams will benefit from her presence.
Mei
Despite losing her crowd-control prowess, Mei is still exceptional at laying down fire and closing out the objective. With only one tank per team, Mei’s ability to stay alive and soak up damage makes her really deadly, especially if you need to hold an area while your tank is healing up.
Baptiste
If you want to play support on the front line, 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.
Junkrat
On maps with many tight corridors, Junkrat used to be a devastating pick. While his trap has been heavily nerfed, 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. Junkrat’s ultimate has always been strong, capable of wiping out whole teams at bottlenecks or disrupting a reinforced line of defense on the point.
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.
Torbjörn
The Swedish engineer was once a victim of Overwatch’s fast-paced meta, but no longer. Sporting big DPS with Overload’s reload, as well as two incredibly strong perks that provide tons of power to his turrets, Torb is in a fantastic spot.
C tier
Lifeweaver
Lifeweaver is a more utility-focused support with access to solid healing and abilities that can reposition allies in a pinch. He has a bit more skill expression than, say, Mercy, though there are still plenty of supports who are much more engaging picks.
Lifeweaver received several big buffs with the release of Season 2 that improved his overall healing output with tweaks to his perks and abilities. Judging by his win rates since the updates, it’s finally time to declare that Lifeweaver isn’t the worst character in Overwatch.
Sombra
Sombra received a rework in 2023, 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.
She excels when paired with dive-oriented heroes such as Winston or Genji, and her EMPs will shut down anyone nearby, making her a great support choice. In Season 2, Sombra received a nerf to her stealth ability, making her noticeably slower whenever she’s revealed. As a result, we’ve dropped her down a tier.
Reinhardt
Arguably the truest tank in Overwatch, Reinhardt is good at soaking up enemy fire and bringing the rest of your team into the fights. A well-timed charge can pick off any squishy targets, while a big ultimate can immediately win a fight.
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 the game’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.
Roadhog
Roadhog easily benefitted the least from the tank changes back in Season 11, which left 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.
Bastion
Despite receiving a rework, Bastion is still a little too much of a sitting duck. While he has strong DPS potential against agile tanks like Winston, the odds are he’ll be dismantled before he can do the damage. 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.
D tier
Mercy
Despite Blizzard’s efforts to improve some old heroes like Mercy by integrating perks into their kits, it ended up doing more harm than good in Season 2 by reducing her mobility in response to the buffs she received.
Mercy still brings value with her ability to boost damage for allies, but this support hero is otherwise not worth bothering with. Here’s hoping you find an excellent Pharah player to pocket, as they can do some work with your involvement, but she’s far from the best support in the game.
That’s all there is to know about the current Overwatch tier list and meta. Alternatively, take a look at the best Overwatch crosshair settings for your chosen character, which can give you the edge while climbing the Overwatch ranks in competitive mode.
