Overwatch Character Guide: Zarya Genji Reinhardt

With Overwatch, 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.

D.Va's first ability, her Boosters, allow her to rapidly fly in whichever direction the reticle is facing for a handful of seconds. Not only is this a wonderful method for getting to an objective or getting out of trouble, but it also allows her to cause a bit of damage whenever she comes in contact with an enemy. In addition to the Boosters, D.Va also has access to the Defense Matrix, which functions as a smaller version of Reinhardt's shield (essentially absorbing all incoming fire).

This is all really unfortunate, as there is no denying that the character design is good. I want to play a game featuring Tracer, Reaper, and friends. Even Junkrat's grenade launcher exudes artistic care. The maps are well done, too. They seem honeycombed with alternate paths that take advantage of each character's traversal abilities. (That is, when not being riddled by a turret's bullets.)

With all of that gushing out of the way, I'd like to pinpoint the exact moment where I realized that Overwatch was a special experience, at least for me. While the PC audience is far more knowledgeable about team composition than its console counterparts (as a result of sheer time played), I found myself on a team where the other five players thought it would be a good idea to choose three Tracers and two Reapers. If you don't know anything about Overwatch, you should know that a balanced team consisting of offense, defense, tanks and supports is going to succeed far more often than one where every player is in one category. Considering that Tracer is the squishiest offensive hero and Reaper is an offensive character that isn't going to be able to do damage at range, I found myself at a loss. Generally when I'm attacking a central control point, I enjoy picking someone like Junkrat, whose bouncing grenades can cause absolute chaos. Unfortunately, this hero was out of the question, as my more casual teammates would not be able to succeed without a healer. It's for that very reason that I chose Mercy, who can beam health into any allies that she aims her staff at.

At the time that I'm writing this, I've completed 101 matches in Overwatch's current beta. It's affected my normally rigorous workout schedule, my level of contact with friends and family and the number of hours of sleep that I've gotten. When I booted up Overwatch to pull that statistic from my Career Profile, I had to consciously force myself to exit the application in order to finish this article. Yes, I have a genuine Overwatch problem, and it's kind of the greatest thing ever.

It should be noted that it is possible to create custom matches, banning a specific character. After learning about this when trying to research online why this title has received the acclaim it has, I tried to jump back in to see if I can create a public game that anyone can join and no one plays Bastion. The servers were down.

Soldier: 76's abilities are both simple and incredibly useful. His main, low-cooldown ability, Sprint, is exactly what it sounds like: a dedicated button that allows him to run fast. Outside of heroes like Lucio and Tracer, who have dedicated techniques that allow them to move fast, Sprint allows Soldier: 76 to escape battle quicker than the vast majority of heroes out there. If you're someone who despises the fact that Overwatch doesn't have a dedicated sprint function, this might just be the character for you. In addition to this, his other main ability, Biotic Field, enables him to place a small healing area on the ground around him, giving him the chance to regain health and get back into a fight right away. Finally, Soldier: 76's ultimate ability, Tactical Visor, gives him a few seconds of automatic, 100% accuracy aiming (yes, this is a straight up aimbot), and is perfect for eliminating a host of defenders on a given objective. Needless to say, if you're looking for the most balanced hero of the entire roster, you should give Solder: 76 a hard look.

Everyone's favorite peanut butter-loving scientist gorilla also might be the greatest distraction in all of Overwatch. Winston is a great character for those looking to play objectives, but not due to high damage output from his main weapon or his abilities; simply click the up coming post put, the best Winston players will utilize his abilities to pull opponents off of the objective, freeing teammates to either attack or defend in peace. Despite his weapon, the Tesla Cannon, boasting fairly weak damage, it automatically and continuously connects with any foes who are in Winston's immediate area. For this reason, it's the single-greatest way to defeat Tracer, as her abilities can't get her out of the way of this weapon (unless she leaves battle). This is also a fantastic weapon for capturing objectives, as you'll be able to do damage to multiple enemies at one time.