When it comes to most competitive games there is usually a tier list and for Overwatch it is not different. Rather than giving a rundown of what heroes are the best and the tiers they belong in, here are 6 heroes that you should place a high priority in mastering as you go into competitive Overwatch. These heroes have a very high impact on the game when played at a high level and provide a great deal to their team due to what they have to offer.

Pharah

All images courtesy of Overwatch Gamepedia

Pharah has one of the highest damage projectiles in the game with her rocket launcher dealing 120 damage. Able to kill most heroes in the game with two rockets and her ultimate, Rocket Barrage, dealing a great deal of damage, makes her a valuable offensive pick. One of the most difficult aspects about Pharah is the difficulty her opponents have killing her. With only 5 heroes (not counting heroes with weapons that spread like shotguns) that deal immediate damage without travel time, Pharah can be extremely slippery and can wreak havoc on a team. In a recent tournament Luminosity Seagull displayed fantastic Pharah mechanics.

Soldier 76

Soldier 76 can be easily brushed off as a noob’s hero. He's fairly simple to pick up and play but extremely important for what he provides for a team. Soldier 76 offers a steady stream of respectable DPS with his pulse rifle as well as having the ability to deal 120 damage with the Helix Rockets (Shift) to surprise heroes with invincibility such as Reaper and Mei. What I find the most valuable about Soldier 76 is his ability to reliably hit Pharah. With a lower number of heroes who can shoot upwards with reliability, Solider 76 provides assurance that, should Pharah enter the air space above your team, she will be taking a beating.

Soldier 76 is also self-reliant in the sense that he doesn’t have to come back to his support to be healed and can even provide his team additional support with his Biotic Field which restores a total of 200 HP over its entire duration. This can often give you the advantage when dealing with threats such as Pharah, Reaper, and Tracer.

Soldier 76’s Tactical Visor is straightforward as it allows him to mow down the average target but this ability truly shines when facing slippery heroes such as Tracer, Pharah, Lucio, and Mercy. Used with good positioning and Tactical Visor can score you multiple kills on high priority targets.

Genji

Genji is a hero that is on the cusp of being overpowered. Able to deal damage at mid and close range, coupled with a reset mechanic means that Genji has the potential to get out of hand quickly. Genji also possess incredible mobility which allows him to slip behind enemy lines to give your team an opening to attack.

Genji gives Tracer a run for her money for the slipperiest hero in Overwatch with the ability to double jump, wall climb, and dash as fair distance. Aside from his mobility, Genji’s defensive ability, Deflect (E), is what adds to the difficulty of dealing with him. The only things that Genji cannot Deflect are streams of damage such as Mei’s primary fire, Winston’s Tesla Cannon, and Zary’s Particle Cannon primary fire. Genji can Deflect a great deal of damage and a wide range of attacks and thus when used correctly you can shut down big ultimates such as Pharah’s Rocket Barrage, Soldier 76’s Tactical Visor, Roadhog’s Whole Hog, and many others. Deflect is also a simple answer to that pesky Bastion as most Bastion players tend to shoot at whatever is in front of their cursor.

With Genji’s speedy Swift Strike (shift), Dragon Blade’s 120 damage per swing, and his Deflect (E), Genji can quickly start cutting down a team without an immediate answer to him.

Mercy

Some may brush off Mercy as a no-brainer to play, but all too often have I gotten caught in an ultimate as well as having seen my fair share of game changing ultimates from the enemy Mercy. Mercy is an excellent enabler for your team as she allows the team to deal more damage per attack, to stay on an objective, or to straight up tank a barrage of damage from the enemy that would have otherwise killed him.

Caedus Staff heals for 50 HP/sec, or with the alternate fire, can increase a target’s damage by 30%. Mercy can often be seen with a Pharah as when boosted her rockets deal over 150 damage per shot.

Playing defensively when Resurrect is available can be a huge game changer. Unlike Lucio, who usually wants to use his ultimate to counter other ultimates, Mercy can undo a devastating wombo-combo to your team. Picture a Graviton Surge from Zarya that pulls in 5 of your teammates followed by a Hanzo ultimate or Rocket Barrage. Lucio’s Sound Barrier would have been easily broken in the face of these high DPS ultimates, rendering it nearly useless. With the wisdom to take cover and fall further back with Resurrect can lead to a 5 person revive to win the game and that is where Mercy’s skillset outshines other supports.

Zarya

The most notable Zarya player, who recently stirred up a great deal of controversy, is Gegury, a 17 year old female player who performed so well on Zarya that some pros believed that she was hacking. After displaying her play live she was able to validate her skill in the face of her doubters as well as showing the world what high level Zarya play looks like.

Due to the chaotic nature of Overwatch you may find that you cannot help but get hit and when getting hit means dealing more damage, that’s a good thing. Zarya’s barriers have a value of 200 HP as well as possessing the ability to negate the effects of abilities such as Reinhardt’s Earth Shatter (Q) as well as Lucio’s Soundwave (Shift). Another barrier can allow your Tracer or Genji to make more aggressive moves or to simply enable them to run through a storm of damage. Blocking damage also means dealing more damage as your Particle Cannon’s energy gets charged.

Graviton Surge (Q) has one of the highest potentials for a big play as it pulls all nearby heroes together for a team to rip apart with their ultimates. Even without a teammates ultimate in conjunction with Zarya, she can deal large amounts of damage on her own.

Roadhog

When faced against a skilled Roadhog there can very little you can do. Once hit by his Chain Hook (Shift), his Scrap Gun and melee combo deals enough damage to kill any non-tank hero. Only heroes with barriers or shields such as Winston, Reingardt, and Zarya can block Chain Hook. Genji can also block Chain Hook but, due to Roadhog’s robust HP pool and Chain Hook’s lower cooldown in comparison to Deflect, Roadhog can still reliably deal with a Genji. In addition to his powerful offensive capabilities Roadhog is able heal himself with Take a Breather (E), which heals for 300HP. Roadhog’s Whole Hog (R) can be used to secure a capture on an objective by pushing enemies away or to corner them into a wall helplessly as he mows them down.

Learning to play Roadhog at a high level means that you will be able to deal with pesky threats like Tracer, Genji, and Bastion while also being able to remove high value targets like Mercy and Lucio.

Overwatch player Moon Moon has garnered quite the reputation for playing Roadhog at a high level. he demonstrates just how frustrating it can be to play against a skilled Roadhog. One of the cons to playing Roadhog is that due to his large size, HP pool, and ability to heal the enemy has a larger target to hit and to generate more ultimates with.

Get your own AKRacing Chair here and support our players, all profit goes towards the teams!