Overwatch is a hero based shooter and this means that you have several heroes you can play as. These heroes all have their own strengths and weakness and the best way to seize victory is by switching heroes throughout the game to meet your team’s situational needs. In this article, I will be covering some situations where you might need to hero switch, a couple of recommended heroes for that situation and when switching heroes would be a bad idea. This guide is just going to cover the basics.

When Not to Hero Switch

Firstly, a terrible time to switch hero in Overwatch is when your ultimate is almost up. This is because a good, well placed and timed ultimate could easily push the game into your favour and help your team push back the enemy. Ultimate’s are very powerful and game changing abilities, so don’t hero switch if you’re about to get your hero’s ultimate.

Secondly, a switch that breaks the team composition. This is a terrible time to change heroes because your switch will break the composition that your team is playing. An example of this would be when you’re the only support and then switching to an assault hero. Doing so would only break your team composition and potentially lose you the game.

When Should I Consider Switching?

- When one of the other team’s heroes is constantly killing your team.

One situation where you will be needing to switch heroes is if the enemy team has one hero or several heroes that are constantly pushing back and countering your team. A good example of this is if the other team has a Tracer harassing your back line and killing your supports. A good way to deal with this situation is to switch heroes, switching to a good counter. In the situation with Tracer, switching to McCree and using your stun/flashbang to kill her is a good idea.

- Is your team constantly dying?

Another situation that would call for a hero swap is if your team is constantly dying. in a situation where you and your team are constantly losing fights against your opponent, switching to a support hero might be an effective choice even if your team already has one support running, as double support can be very effective. For example, supports such as Zenyatta for can deal out decent healing with Orb of Harmony whilst still dishing out enhanced damage with your Orb of Discord. This mix of extra healing and damage could be what the team needs to stay alive that little bit longer to win the fight.

You can also switch to a tank in this situation. I would recommend Zarya, Reinhardt and Winston. These heroes are very good at negating the incoming damage. Both Reinhardt and Winston have shields your allies can use for cover, while Zarya has her Projected Barrier. This barrier can be put on your support to help them stay alive longer, and can also be applied to your offensive heroes, so they can get an aggressive push onto the objective.

- Are you struggling to get past a certain choke point on the map?

A very common situation in Overwatch is struggling to get through a tough choke point, like getting to the Payload on Hollywood. When you’re struggling to get through a choke point, a good thing to do is swap to a tank (depending on your team’s composition).

This is because tanks have shields that can deny a lot of the incoming damage and help you force your way through the choke point and onto the objective. A good choice here is using Reinhardt and Winston to force your way through. These heroes are good due to having large shields that the whole team can hide in or behind.

If your team already has a tank, another effective pick could be to swap to an assault like Reaper, Tracer or Genji. These assault heroes are very good at getting behind enemy lines to harass and kill the enemy supports and snipers. This is great, because when the enemy have no support healing them, it becomes a lot easier to take them down.

- What if you’re struggling to defend the objective?

Another time when you might be considering a hero switch is if your team are struggling to keep hold a certain objective. In these situations, swapping to a tank can be very handy. Tanks can stay alive for long periods of time as well as protect their allies from incoming damage. Another change that might help you protect an objective is swapping to Mei. Mei is extremely viable for defending the objective, as her utility helps slow the entire team down, and can even use her Ice Wall to completely block of a certain area of the map.

- Maybe you just need to fill out the missing role in your team!

Sometimes you will find your team missing a vital hero to complete the composition. This especially happens in public matches, because people just play what they enjoy the most, but don’t play to win. When you’re missing a vital role in your team, it’s a good idea to switch to help combat the imbalance in your team’s composition. This is especially useful when your team is missing tanks and/or supports.

I’ve only really covered the very basics of hero switching. Hero switching can get a lot more complicated and in-depth, and will change with the meta as time goes on. But switching heroes to meet the current situation is a vital part of Overwatch, even a key part of the game according to Blizzard, and being able to do this effectively with your team will massively increase your chance of winning. Learning all the hero counters can help you a lot when hero switching.

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