Winston is a highly mobile diver and flanker who excels at creating pressure and establishing area control. Armed with his custom arsenal of high-tech equipment, he’s a distinctive hero who can create a huge impact when played strategically and thoughtfully.

Compared to other heroes, Winston is mechanically simple. At a fundamental level, his abilities aren’t very complex and his Tesla Cannon is easy to aim. However to make a meaningful impact in a match, you need to understand what Winston’s purpose is, and how these abilities should be used to maximize their effectiveness.

Essentially, Winston is all about creating pressure, whether it be by initiating a fight, diving on the enemy backlines or forcing foes away from an objective with Primal Rage. Performing well as Winston comes down to reading the situation correctly, identifying the correct moments to strike and knowing your limits. This guide will cover each of his abilities in detail, explain how he should be played and where he fits within a team composition.

Pros:

High mobility
Hard to kill
Backline pressure
Area denial

Cons:

Low DPS
Limited range
Coordination-dependent

- Ability Breakdown -

Tesla Cannon

Fires arcs of electricity in a cone
60 DPS (3 damage, 20 ammo/second)
Can strike up to 3 targets simultaneously
100 ammo
1.5 second reload
Cannot headshot

Tesla Cannon is Winston’s means of creating pressure and whittling down offense and support heroes. While its damage is weak compared to other primary weapons, its strengths come from the fact that it’s relatively easy to apply and maintain on a target, and can chip away at grouped enemies.

Despite the fact that the Tesla lightning effects fork out a lot, its actual range is shaped like a narrow cone, growing outwards. Therefore, you’ll have the most success by maintaining a small gap between yourself and your targets. This will give you an easier time tracking an enemy, and greater coverage when projecting arcs across multiple targets.

Due to Tesla Cannon’s relatively low DPS, you’ll often find yourself running out of ammo while your enemies are left on low health. Learn to anticipate these circumstances by pushing right up close to enemies when they are close to death and your ammo is depleting, so that you can be in range to finish off your enemy with a melee strike or two. A burst of 30 melee damage is equivalent to half a second of your Tesla Cannon, and in time-sensitive situations, it can be the deciding factor of whether an enemy escapes or dies.

Jump Pack

Long-range leap (20 metres)
6 second cooldown
Up to 50 damage on impact
Knocks enemies back

Jump Pack is primarily used to either engage, disengage or cover large distances. It gives you an edge against many heroes by offering extreme vertical mobility, enabling you to reach most locations with ease. As an engage tool, Jump Pack should be used to either dive to initiate a teamfight or leap near the enemy backline to try for a kill, forcing your opponents to respond.

Before jumping into a fight, it’s important to consider which heroes are present and who is backing you up, so that you can evaluate whether or not you’ll survive the 6 seconds until Jump Pack is available again. It’s a good idea to communicate with your teammates when you’re engaging so that they can push ahead with you, otherwise you may be collapsed upon by the enemy team too quickly.

When diving into a couple of enemies, you should aim your leap over them so that you’ll land slightly behind or even beside them. This way, you’ll be able to fire at them with Tesla Cannon mid-flight, while forcing them to turn around and split their aim from your teammates or the objective, disorienting them. Furthermore, this will give you a better chance of landing Jump Pack’s impact damage as opposed to just landing in front of them. While the impact damage you deal may seem low, it’s meaningful against offense and support heroes, and deals nearly as much damage as 1 second of Tesla Cannon.

During prolonged fights such as skirmishes for a capture point, it’s a good idea to use Jump Pack directly upwards to give yourself an opportunity to reevaluate and reposition. By launching yourself high up, your enemies will briefly drop their focus from you, and you’ll get a clear perspective overlooking the area. This is an ideal time to reload your Tesla Cannon. From here, you can direct your free fall downwards, land on a target and continue fighting.

When stalling by using your Jump Pack to achieve verticality, make use of angled rooftops and slopes to glide down them, which will help you stay airborne for a longer time while holding your impact damage for when you finally land. By the time you’ve touched the ground, Jump Pack’s cooldown will be up sooner. Sliding against rooftops like this can help you chase down mobile, airborne enemies like Pharah and Genji.

Using Jump Pack against a staircase will usually break your jump immediately, unless you’ve tilted your leap upwards. While typically disadvantageous, you can use this to your benefit to deal an easy 50-damage burst in a pinch, like this.

Due to Winston’s aggressive nature, it’ll be more difficult for allied supports to position in a way that they can keep your health topped up. Ensure that you’re familiar with large health pack locations, so that you can leap to them when needed.

On a technical level, using your leap with your crosshair placed perfectly horizontal (ie. crosshair aligned parallel with flat ground) or lower is the smallest jump you can make. Tilting your crosshair around 35°- 40° upwards will give you a leap with maximum distance coverage. Any further up, and you’ll lose distance but gain height.

Barrier Projector

600 health spherical barrier
5 second duration
13 second cooldown (starts once destroyed/expired)

Barrier Projector creates a Reinhardt-esque bubble shield around the location that you place the emitter, blocking all incoming and outgoing enemy damage. The shield is most commonly used following a leap into the enemy team. The projector will not carry Winston’s momentum, and will drop directly down from where Winston uses it.

With such a long cooldown, Barrier Projector shouldn’t be wasted needlessly. Too often, Barrier Projector is either used incorrectly or deployed too early. Even if your team composition doesn’t have a clear, distinct frontliner, don’t bother wasting your Barrier on a choke point to block miscellaneous poke/chip damage. It’s usually better to keep it readily available, and place it amidst the crossfires once either the enemy team has engaged or chosen to lay down heavy fire, or you’ve initiated with your leap.

Outside of the standard Jump Pack/Barrier combo, Barrier can be placed down as a wall, which will typically be done when on the defense. The best way to go about this is to linger behind a corner or wall to avoid unnecessary damage, and step forward and place your bubble once enemies start to push forward.

When diving in and initiating with Winston, Barrier Projector doesn’t need to be used immediately. You should place it once the enemy team begins firing at you to maximize its efficiency. Against a pack of 4+ enemies, this will typically be near impact (just before or in the moment that you land), while against fewer enemies you should hold it until they begin attacking you. In a 1-on-1 scenario, you should only drop your Barrier once they start laying down fire and using resources against you. It’s pointless to deploy if they’re going to turn and run away, so be sure to use your Barrier Projector only when needed.

To add to the 1-on-1 scenario, when facing off against close-quarters enemies that will push through your barrier to fight, you should linger around the edge of the bubble, weaving in and out as your opponent tries to land shots on you. This will minimize damage taken, and can often help you escape dangerous scenarios (like being isolated by a Reaper, etc).

During early phases in a match where enemy Ultimates are likely uncharged, or following mass usage of enemy Ultimates, you may use Barrier Projector more sparingly. When you’re anticipating an engage, you should hold onto it for longer, and opt to use it reactively against an enemy Ultimate. It’s an extremely powerful tool at shutting down specific team-wiping ultimate abilities, namely:

McCree’s High Noon
D.Va’s Self-Destruct
Reaper’s Death Blossom
Junkrat’s RIP-Tire

Placing a bubble over these abilities will completely negate their damage. While it’s harder to pull off, it’s also possible to use your Barrier to block an enemy Lucio’s Sound Barrier, which requires unobstructed line-of-sight with his allies. Being able to respond to these Ultimates with a Jump Pack > Barrier can decide fights, and having these cooldowns available in these circumstances will help you shut down your enemies.

It’s possible to drop Barrier Projector from a ledge to allies below. Move right up close to a ledge and use it, and you can drop it below without having to hop down or use Jump Pack.

Primal Rage (Ultimate)

Increases health to 1000
Melee strikes inflict knockback, 40 damage
Jump Pack cooldown lowered to 2 seconds
10 second duration
Disables Tesla Cannon & Barrier Projector

Primal Rage alters Winston’s combat style significantly and further raises your mobility, while making you nigh-unkillable for ten seconds. While your range is reduced and you lose access to Barrier Projector, you gain the strength to juggle, chase and push away anyone that gets in your way.

Winston’s ultimate is all about area denial and separating the enemy team. While your damage output remains low, you’ve got the means to remobilize and knock enemies away. Focus on displacing and disrupting whatever the enemy team is attempting to do with their assault. You can redirect a Reinhardt mid-charge, cut off a Mercy from their allies or keep an ulting Genji from getting resets. You can do a lot with a single ultimate, so make the most of your ten seconds of enhanced mobility and large knockbacks.

The standard pattern for juggling and pushing away a specific target is Melee > Jump Pack > Melee, which can be repeated multiple times to continuously push an enemy away. While you can just mash your melee strikes to flail against whoever’s nearest, it’s a good idea to put some thought into your attacks. Well-placed and angled strikes can enable you to either knock an enemy into position to be struck off a ledge, or pinned into a corner, where they can be repeatedly pushed and shoved until killed. Pinning a target like this should only really be done against key targets like offense heroes or supports, because you lack the damage to defeat a tank like this.

In the last moments of a round, use Primal Rage aggressively to push the enemy team away from the objective. The low Jump Pack cooldown will help you reach the enemy spawn quickly, enabling you to essentially block them off and prevent them from pushing a round into overtime.

Outside of the aforementioned circumstance, solo engages with Primal Rage should coordinate and cohere with your team’s behaviour and goals. While you may be buying your team some time, if you dive so far that your team won’t be able to back you up or benefit, you’re just giving away ult charge and being a mild disturbance. You’re best off creating chaos when it matters, like when your allies are contesting an objective.

Since Primal Rage not only empowers but changes the way Winston plays for a full ten seconds, it’s a good idea to make the most of your normal form before ulting. Since you can’t use Barrier Projector while Primal Rage is active, you may as well use it in the moments before ulting (if available). Since it has a 13 second cooldown, it’ll be usable in a couple of seconds after Primal Rage expires. Furthermore, feel free to use Jump Pack before using Primal Rage to reset Jump Pack’s cooldown altogether. Doing so, you can effectively perform a double jump with Jump > Ultimate > Jump. This also works in reverse, so you can disengage in the last moments of Primal Rage with a final jump, and jump again the moment you’ve reverted back to normal form.

Activating Primal Rage will set your health to 1000, no matter how much health you were at prior. This is why it’s a good idea to play aggressively in your normal form when you’re coming close to the point where you want to use Primal Rage. Have less regard for your health, push ahead with your Tesla Cannon, and use Primal Rage once they’ve whittled you down a bit. It’s hard to say how low you should be before using Primal Rage since it’s largely dependent on the enemy team composition, but the lowest you should use it is around 150-200 health. Just make sure you don’t get stunned or locked down before you have a chance to use it.

During Primal Rage, the enemy team will likely avoid wasting resources on you since you’re too mobile and hard to kill, and will instead try to reposition and recover from the disruptions that you cause. Since you’ve got a large health pool, you should body block and soak up as much damage as you can in place of your teammates. While 1000 health is a lot, you can still be killed if you play too dangerously, so be ready to disengage and back out once you’re running low, or too many enemies are able to focus fire on you. Keep mobile, and ensure that you’re sponging meaningful damage that would otherwise be directed at teammates.

Role & Playstyle

Winston has less overall frontline potential than other tanks, and instead fulfills more of a flanking and diving niche. While he can be compared to D.Va in terms of playstyle, she has a higher damage output and range, whereas Winston’s more of a disruptor. Although he’s a strong pick in Competitive matches for dive compositions, he’s weaker when solo queuing at lower ranks since his teammates need to coordinate and behave according to the pressure that he creates. If they can’t capitalize on the opportunities and pressure being applied, Winston’s overall game impact may be lacklustre.

Winston is less about flat-out fighting, and more about creating pressure and facilitating opportunities for your teammates to fight advantageously. You should be looking to redirect your opponent’s attention to yourself, by making your presence known with vicious dives and pressure on support and damage heroes. Your main priorities should generally be supports, followed by damage heroes and then tanks. Lucio is the highest impact support in the current meta-game, and one of the main priorities you should always be focusing on. His overall impact on the game is incredibly strong, and shutting him down is game-changing. Zenyatta, Ana and Mercy are also high priorities, as they’re mostly immobile and pose significant threats with Discord Orb and Sleep Dart. Following supports, the main damage heroes you should be focusing on are Widowmaker and Hanzo, who you can easily chase and prevent from establishing a sniping nest.

While escorting the payload is usually less of a responsibility for Winston, capturing and controlling points with your area denial abilities is one of his core strengths. In capture-point scenarios, you should be focused on initiating fights by collapsing and pressuring the side and backlines of the enemy team formation. Once you’ve captured a point, focus on diving in and out solo or with an ally while the enemy team attempts to coordinate a push, delaying and slowing their progress.

On standard payload maps and two-point captures, you should be looking to push ahead after securing a point to potentially set up a snowball. After or while your teammates are capturing the point following a wipe, dive ahead and try to create picks on enemies mistakenly pushing too far ahead or trying to pressure an overtime.

Compositions & Synergies

In Competitive and tournament play, Winston is predominantly played on offense, but is sometimes played on defense. He’s a somewhat standard pick on Control Maps, too. He’s a strong choice alongside heroes such as Tracer and Genji, who benefit with a mobile tank like Winston. While Reinhardt’s a popular pick, Winston is better for accompanying heroes who dive and push ahead.

A standard 2/2/2 (Damage/Tank/Support) dive-heavy composition with Winston could include Genji, Tracer, Winston, D.va, Ana and Lucio. Genji and Tracer are fast pushers, and combined with Winston and D.va, they have more safety when pushing ahead. Lucio and Ana are standard support picks, but Lucio’s speed aura and Ana’s long-range heals work particularly well with this aggressive setup. Compositions like this are common for teams looking to rush the first point of a Payload or Assault map.

While he’s far less common in defense scenarios, Winston’s often substituted over a Reinhardt in contexts where mobility is essential. A popular example is the first point of Numbani, where Winston is a staple defensive pick in tournament play.

This point is very multi-levelled and non-linear, with lots of high platforms overlooking a lower capture area, which can be accessed via multiple routes. Jump Pack enables Winston to reposition and respond accordingly to pushes, whereas a Reinhardt is too slow and cumbersome in this environment. Winston’s dynamic positioning and shielding capabilities fare well against the range of angles that the enemy team may take.

Counters

Winston is countered by short-range enemies that can punish his aggressive, close-range playstyle by responding with significant damage. The most notable counters include Reaper and Roadhog, who can burst down Winston easily and won’t be afraid to push through his Barrier. Furthermore, their shotguns land easy headshots on Winston, and can kill him in three or four shots. Bastion is another counter, since he’ll outrange and shred through your Barrier in mere moments, and Winston has neither the defenses nor damage to deal with him. Against Bastion, the best choice is swapping off Winston altogether, since you contribute very little against him.

When dealing with threatening heroes, you should be orienting your movement around them, as opposed to ignoring or bypassing them to tunnel a backline support. If you land yourself in a situation against a Reaper or Roadhog, you’re best off dropping a Barrier and playing around that until Jump Pack is available to retreat with.

During Primal Rage, your biggest counters are Ana’s Sleep Dart and Zarya’s Graviton Surge. These will keep you in place and prevent you from wreaking havoc, especially the former. Winston has a large hitbox and is easily struck by both, so keep aware of these two heroes in particular.

Winston himself fares best against snipers and support heroes, since he’s got the mobility to reach them. He’s best against heroes who struggle at close range, who are typically immobile and can be killed if left unattended or unprotected by their allies. Winston also fares well against mobile offense heroes, namely Genji and Tracer, since it’s easy for you to keep up with them and project your Tesla Cannon over them despite their blinks, jumps and dashes. You’re also one of the best counter-measures against a Symmetra, since your Tesla Cannon can instantly kill multiple Sentry Turrets at once.

Tips

Jump Pack's an effective way to recover from getting knocked down ledges. If it's not available, Primal Rage can be used to get the jump reset.

While Transcendence renders Zenyatta immune to damage, Winston can still knock him during Primal Rage.

Like other tanks, your headshot hitbox is large and easy to hit, especially from the front. Therefore, it can be good to turn around mid-Jump Pack to minimize damage against heroes like Widowmaker and McCree, or pivot yourself the moment before a Mei's freeze takes effect.

Further Resources

Lunatic Hai’s Miro is widely regarded as the best Winston player, and is a player to watch for in the Overwatch APEX League. His Winston performance was unmatched, from the Group Stage matches through to the Finals. Highlights: Link

The Overwatch World Cup finals, showcase Miro’s Winston dominance against Russia on a variety of game modes: Link

Competitive gameplay from EnVyUs’ Internethulk, on Dorado Defense: Link

In-depth analysis of Tesla Cannon’s damage output and behaviour: Link

Winston’s an agile hero, asserting dominance through flanking, diving and displacing the enemy. Play strategically and aggressively, and you’ll push the competition away!

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