12 Things You Need To Know About Overwatch

With Overwatch Strategy, the charming hero shooter from Blizzard, launching this week, we want to make sure that you’re as prepared as possible to help your team dominate. Overwatch’s main focus is clearly on the interplay between its dynamic characters, so in order to become competent, you’ll need to understand how every character works. Throughout the week, we’ll be publishing guides on each of the twenty-one launch heroes, three at a time, with the hopes that you’ll be able to recognize certain patterns on the battlefield.

Despite the fact that Reaper's core weaponry is extremely simple to use and understand, his abilities require far more planning and strategy. Shadow Step gives you the ability to teleport from your current position to one of your choice, which is extremely useful for sneaking behind opposing players or getting to an objective quickly. The twist is that teleporting using this method isn't instant like, say, Tracer's Blink. Because there's a one-to-two second delay where you're completely vulnerable at play here, Shadow Step is a terrible choice for escaping losing fights. Luckily, Reaper's other core ability, Wraith Form, gives him the ability to becime completely invisible and glide for a brief amount of time. While you cannot shoot while using Wraith Form, it's a wonderful ability for getting out of trouble, assuming you aren't just going to be followed after a one-on-one gunfight. Wraith Form is also outstanding for setting up Reaper's devastating ultimate, Death Blossom. A spinning 360-degree barrage of shotgun bullets, Death Blossom is great for clearing out an objective, assuming that distance-based heroes aren't able to pop a few bullets into him at range (Reaper is totally vulnerable during this attack).

There are certain characters in Overwatch that lose their effectiveness when solely used for killing, and Reinhardt is firmly in this camp. If you've spent any time watching or playing Overwatch, you'll recognize this massive sheild and hammer wieldimg knight from a mile away. Reinhardt is one of the lucky few characters that has two distinct weapons, one offensive and one defensive. His Rocket Hammer does massive amounts of damage to anyone who falls inside of a given swing, though it should be noted that these swings are exceptionally slow in the grand scheme of things. In addition to the Rocket Hammer, Reinhardt also utilizes the Barrier Field, his iconic light shield that can reflect up to 2000 hitpoints before retracting. Not only does this shield automatically retract when it runs out of HP, but it also recharges when it's not in use and Reinhardt is much slower when using it. For these reasons, it's best to save up your shield for when you're right on top of a payload as a member of the attacking team, as this is where the Barrier Field is easily the most effective.

If you're looking for a character that deals a massive amount of damage and has a relatively high skill ceiling, then you can do a whole lot worse then Genji. Hanzo's brother utilizes a combination of sword-based abilities and shurkiens not only makes him an awesome choice for kill-seekers, but also allow him to easily take out some of the most frustrating characters on the roster. Genji's primary fire allows him to throw ninja stars in three-round bursts in a straight line, making this the best option for doing large amounts of damage, though you have to be extremely accurate for any hope of success. His secondary fire allows him to throw three shurkiens in a fan, allowing you to do a smaller amount of damage, but increasing your potential for contact. Oh, and let's not forget that Genji can also climb up walls, so sneaking up on campers and snipers is an absolute breeze. Those who use a combination of his attacks, as opposed to simply sticking to one, will find themselves racking up kills at a staggering pace.

Zarya's weapon, the Particle Cannon, has two distinct firing modes that both gain additional attack power based off her use of her two defensive abilities. Her main firing mode is a short-range laser that maintains a straight line of fire and consistent output, which is outstanding for doing a great deal of damage to those who get within range. The bad news about this firing mode is that it's completely ineffective once an enemy gets too far, though Zarya's secondary allows her to fire an energy grenade in a fairly shallow arc. Both of her abilities allow her to create damage absorbing energy shields, which then directly increases the power of her Particle Cannon based on the amount of damage absorbed by said shields. The Particle Barrier allows Zarya to protect herself from oncoming fire, and it lasts significantly longer than her Projected Barrier, which can be placed on a nearby ally. Finally, her ultimate, the Gravitron Surge, pulls all nearby enemies into its aura and does a small amount of continuous damage to everyone trapped inside. The best Zarya players charge right into battle, activate their Particle Barrier and then stay behind one other ally, allowing for the simultaneous use of the Projected Barrier.