Half of the entire roster of Overwatch Heros are DPSes. DPS are the star of any team composition - the "carry" if you will. With so much of the cast being dedicated to one role, there has to be some that are better than others. Today I'd like to breakdown the two strongest DPS heroes to play on offense and the two strongest DPS heroes to play on defense (regardless of their role).

OFFENSE

Tracer - Tracer is a great DPS to play in the current meta. Tracer is close range, extremely mobile, and offers an extremely consistent amount of damage. She is perfect for the all out offense that makes up a dive composition.

Damage - A good Tracer is sly and slippery. By abusing her mobility, they are able to sneak into your backline unnoticed. With good aim they can kill your supports or carries in just one clip of their gun, and before you even get to retaliate they use their Recall and disappear without a trace. If you do manage to keep an enemy Tracer at bay, out and away from your backline, she still offers a noticeable amount of mid-range damage. Tracer can sit back on a flank and slowly chip away at the enemy Tanks, charging her Pulse Bomb in the process. If a Tracer player ever gets challenged or pushed while at mid-range they can use her speed to stay relatively safe. Once she fully charges her ultimate, whether you see her or not, she can fly in, land a stick, and potentially earn herself a P.O.T.G. 

Counters - Tracer finds herself in a great position when it comes to the pick rate of her counters. Mei, McCree and Zarya, the hardest heroes for Tracer to deal with, have all seen middling play in the most recent meta. This gives Tracer an extra inadvertent buff to her overall power level. Though this doesn't mean her counters still can't be picked and shut her down. McCree and Mei both can cut down Tracer's mobility with their Flashbang and Endothermic Blaster respectively. Zarya can not only negate Tacer's ultimate, she can use it to get max Energy for her Particle Cannon.

Genji - Much like Tracer, Genji is very powerful when run in a dive composition. His high burst and high mobility make him an incredible backline assassin and duelist.

Damage - Genji has some of the lowest DPS numbers of any offensive carry. Though using his shurikens can be an effective form of poke, Genji's strength is found in his ability to finish kills. Genji is strongest when entering a teamfight late. The Tanks dive in and deal damage allowing Genji to come in slightly delayed to clean up. Using his resettable dash, he is able to slice through a whole team cutting off each and every escape route. Genji also is very capable in a one on one situation. Since he is such a good duelist, good Genji players not only find kills for their team, they are also able to completely zone away a single defender from an objective. The pressure a Genji creates can secure dominance over space on the map for his team. The threat of a Dragon Blade team wipe by itself can keep teams from ever engaging.

Counters - Genji is in a very strange spot when it comes to his counters. Both Winston and Zenyatta, two of his biggest challenges, are extremely popular picks currently. Winston is able to outduel Genji, slowly but surely killing him. Zenyatta's Transcendence is able to negate all the damage and pressure of Genji's Dragon Blade. What allows Genji to succeed is his high skill ceiling and his ability to outplay his opponents (the same can be said about Tracer). Moreover, if the enemy Winston is putting 100% of his focus on killing the enemy Genji, it means that the Genji's Supports are that much more out of harm's way of an all out dive.

DEFENSE

Sombra - Overwatch Patch 1.20.0.3 has made Sombra an unstoppable killing machine.

Damage - Sombra sort of works as a Genji and Tracer homunculus. She has both good lateral and vertical movement, her gun plays a lot like Tracer's, but her overall character play more like Genji. She is an incredible assassin, an incredible duelist, an incredible teamfighter, and also super overpowered. If it weren't for her coming nerfs she probably would be the strongest DPS in the game. Sombra offers explosive close-range damage, she's able to gun down not just one Hero but potentially two or three in just a single clip. Moreover, strategic Sombra play can crush and zone away any offensive regardless of her damage output. Are you running dive? Well she can just hack your Tanks or Supports and they are now virtually useless. Are your running triple Tank with a Moira and a Lucio? Well Sombra will just hack your Tanks or Supports and you lose. Hack takes .65 seconds to channel and lasts for six. Every eight seconds Sombra can make it so you can't play the game, let alone help your team. This isn't even taking in to account all the utility she brings with Hacked health packs, or the fact that she can E.M.P. an entire team.

Counter - Sombra really doesn't have any counter play right now. The only counter is to, well- not get Hacked. This is obviously easier said than done. Sombra can struggle to kill Tanks alone, but the problem with her is that she doesn't have too. Sombra can always play to her strengths because her Hack is just so powerful. So what it takes her a while to burn through a Roadhog's HP, if the Hog is Hacked and can't heal she can take all the time in the world and still have some left over to finish him.

Junkrat- Even after his recent nerf, Junkrat mobility and damage potential cement him as a respected Defensive carry.

Damage- I hope that by now you've noticed the chain that links all these DPS heroes together. While pumping out damage is their primary objective, a DPS also needs to be able to effectively zone a team away from their goal. Junkrat is superb in this regard. So superb in fact, Junkrat is able to do both without ever even seeing an enemy. Junkrat is the only Hero in the game that can score an Elimination without ever being aware of who he killed! Junkrat is a brute force kind of Hero. Most Heroes employ a combination of strategy and positioning to make effective use of their kit. Junkrat however, he just... does things. See a barrier, burst it down. Place a Steel Trap in a random location and fire your Frag Launcher in another. If someone gets close, just knock 'em away with a Concussion Mine. If this seems rudimentary, it's because it is. Junkrat's simple playstyle just works and it works really well. When a Junkrat locks down a location it can sometimes seem as though it's an impenetrable fortress.

Counter - Junkrat's simple playstyle has an equally as simple counter. Just kill him (Though even in death his passive can still cause some serious mayhem). The less a Junkrat fires in a fight, the lower the odds are of you getting randomly hit. This counter play idea is also reflected in Junkrat's very straightforward ultimate. Although Riptire can be a formidable abilty, the "just kill it" mindset is a complete counter. If you keep an ear and eye out for it (and stay calm), theoretically, you can destroy is before it ever even hits you!

SO WHOSE THE STRONGEST?

Well to put it simply, the strongest DPS in the game is whomever the player wants it to be. Excluding Sombra (who is quite clearly and universally considered "way OP"), the DPS role in Overwatch is pretty balanced. Soilder 76, Widowmaker, McCree, and even someone like Bastion all have their useful qualities. Even if someone considers Doomfist the strongest DPS in the game I will, with all do respect, disagree and think that someone is a big dummy, but the case can be made that maybe Doomfist is better then people think. There is of course some discrepancy between Heroes. Some do better than others in a wider range of situations. At the end of it all though, the Damage role, a lot more so than other roles, comes down to the player.